THE BAY FIGHT AT MOBILE
In the meanwhile another important blow had been struck in pursuance of
Grant's comprehensive plan of destroying the Confederate capacity of
resistance.
The reader will doubtless remember that when Farragut captured New
Orleans in April, 1862, he desired at once to move against Mobile
in the hope and confident expectation of capturing and closing all
those Confederate ports upon which, as blockade running centers, the
Southerners relied for the export of their cotton, and the import
of arms, ammunition and clothing. From this purpose Farragut was
diverted by the peremptory orders of civilians in the navy department
at Washington, and it was not until more than two years later that he
was permitted to act upon a plan which common sense had dictated from
the beginning. In the meanwhile the Confederates, with that energy and
ceaseless determination which characterized all their activities, had
been daily and hourly rendering the capture of their ports more and
more difficult. At Mobile they had strengthened the fortifications and
mounted destructively heavy guns in their casemates and upon their
parapets. They had strewn the harbor thick with torpedoes of every
kind then known to the military science of destruction. When at last
in August, 1864, Farragut was permitted to undertake that enterprise
against Mobile which would have been easy and nearly bloodless, if he
had been allowed to undertake it two years and three months earlier,
he had before him one of the most difficult tasks that was set for any
naval commander in this war to accomplish.
Early on the morning of August fifth, Farragut put his fleet in motion
to enter Mobile bay. The entrance is a narrow one and was obstructed
by every device that engineering ingenuity could place in the pathway
of an invading fleet. The only passageway into the harbor lay between
Fort Morgan on Mobile Point, and Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island, three
miles away. Two miles of this narrow passageway had been completely
obstructed by the driving of innumerable piles into the sands, thus
forming a fence through which the stoutest ship could not force its
way. From the end of this pile fence eastward toward Fort Morgan there
extended a quadruple line of destructive torpedoes. The only open way
into the harbor was a narrow passage left for the use of blockade
runners, directly under the guns of Fort Morgan.
Inside the bay there was a Confederate fleet of considerable strength,
including one ironclad ram, and many heavily armed wooden gunboats.
The bay was also thickly strewn with mines and torpedoes, the exact
location of which was known of course to the Confederate officers, but
entirely unknown to Farragut and his captains.
On the fourth of August a strong land force under General Gordon
Granger succeeded in making a landing on Dauphin Island. This gave to
Farragut the support he had desired from the land side. His time had at
last come, and with four ironclad monitors, seven wooden vessels, all
heavily armed, and a fleet of gunboats he advanced toward the mouth of
the bay, a little after daylight on the morning of August 5, 1864.
During almost half an hour before Farragut's ships were in a position
from which they could render their own fire effective, the fire from
the Confederate forts and still more from the Confederate fleet that
lay just inside the entrance line, played havoc with the wooden
ships of Farragut's squadron. His flagship, the _Hartford_, had her
mainmast shot away and many of her crew destroyed. Still Farragut
pushed onward without a moment's hesitation at any point until he
brought his ships into a position from which they could effectively
return the Confederate fire. The heavier metal of his guns quickly and
disastrously told upon the Confederate defenses. But these continued to
belch out destruction in spite of any crippling that had been done to
them, and for a time the fleet suffered terribly.
In order that he might see everything that occurred and direct the
conflict with full knowledge of all its details, Farragut mounted to
the rigging of his flagship, and a quartermaster lashed him to the
spars in order that he might not fall to the deck, in the event of his
receiving a wound.
One of Farragut's monitors, the _Tecumseh_, was quickly destroyed
in an attempt to pass over the line of torpedoes in order to engage
the Confederate ram, _Tennessee_, at close quarters. The _Monitor_
encountered one of the torpedoes, and its explosion sent her to the
bottom so suddenly that her commander and most of her crew perished
with her.
The _Brooklyn_ had been set to lead the advance with Farragut's
flagship following immediately in her wake. The _Brooklyn_ was provided
with an apparatus for removing torpedoes in advance of her, but the
apparatus was by no means a perfect one, and when the commander of that
ship discovered the presence of torpedoes almost immediately under his
bows, he stopped his vessel and began to back her. The whole fleet was
now under a terrific fire, and the maintenance of its order was of the
most vital importance. Farragut saw in a moment that the backing of
the _Brooklyn_ must result not only in halting the entire line under a
destructive fire, but in throwing it into hopeless confusion. It was
then that he gave his celebrated order, "Go on, damn the torpedo!" But
as the _Brooklyn_ still hesitated, Farragut immediately pushed the
_Hartford_ past that vessel, and himself took the lead of the line with
his flagship, "damning the torpedoes."
Having crippled the forts and forced his way past the entrance into the
harbor, Farragut ordered all his gunboats which had been lashed to the
wooden vessels to cut loose, and assail the enemy's fleet. This they
did with vigor and promptitude, capturing or destroying nearly all of
the Confederate vessels.
There still remained, however, the Confederate ram, _Tennessee_, a
powerful ironclad ship, commanded by a gallant captain, and manned by a
desperately determined crew. Seeing what had happened, the commander
of the _Tennessee_ instantly tripped his anchors, and steamed at full
speed into the midst of the Federal fleet, firing as he went, and with
the great steel nose of his ship ramming every vessel that came in his
way. Farragut's fleet in the meanwhile poured all the fire possible
upon the ironclad monster to no effect, and many of them stove in their
bows in a futile effort to sink her by collision. Then the monitors
assailed her and so far crippled her, after a brief struggle, that she
surrendered.
The story of this great battle at the mouth of Mobile Bay has been
splendidly told in verse by Henry Howard Brownell in his poem entitled,
"The Bay Fight." Mr. Brownell had written a poem called "The River
Fight" in celebration of Farragut's struggle for the defenses of New
Orleans two years before. Farragut had written to the poet, expressing
his appreciation of his tribute, and at Brownell's request that he
might accompany the great sea fighter in his next battle, Farragut had
taken him with him on the _Hartford_ as a witness to the struggle at
the mouth of Mobile Bay.
The battle there had been a desperate one, costly in life and in ships,
but it had accomplished its purpose. Farragut had passed the forts
after crippling them so badly that they surrendered a few days later.
He had destroyed the Confederate fleet and was now completely master of
the entrance to a harbor which he had permanently sealed against the
world. By reason of shoal water in the bay, he found it impossible to
steam up to the city and take possession of it. But at any rate he had
destroyed it for all useful purposes as a Confederate port. Its capture
from the land side was now certain, whenever any one of the Federal
generals in the field should see fit to move against it in adequate
force. In the meanwhile its nominal defense served henceforth only
to occupy troops whose presence was badly needed by Lee in his great
contest with Grant in Virginia.