On the morning of August 5, 1864, Admiral David Farragut had himself lashed to the rigging of his flagship USS Hartford, 60 feet above the water, so he could see over the gun smoke. What he saw nearly stopped the entire operation.

The monitor USS Tecumseh, leading the Union fleet into Mobile Bay, had struck a Confederate torpedo — a waterproof explosive device moored below the surface — and was sinking. Within two minutes, she would go down bow-first with her turret, taking 93 of her 114-man crew. The Union fleet, blocked by the sinking ship, had stopped under the guns of Fort Morgan.

Farragut gave the order that would become the most famous naval command in American history: damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.

Why Mobile Bay Mattered

By August 1864, Mobile was the last major Confederate port east of the Mississippi still operating. Wilmington, North Carolina, and Charleston, South Carolina, were still technically open, but Mobile's commerce was significant and its symbolic value larger still.

More immediately, the fall of Mobile Bay was one of three military victories in August–September 1864 — alongside Atlanta and Sheridan's Shenandoah campaign — that transformed Union political fortunes and reelected Lincoln.

The Confederacy had spent years defending Mobile Bay with Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines on either side of the channel, a line of submerged torpedoes across the main channel, and the ironclad CSS Tennessee — the most powerful Confederate warship afloat, commanded by the capable Admiral Franklin Buchanan, who had led the Virginia into Hampton Roads two years earlier.

The Fleet

Farragut assembled 18 vessels — 14 wooden ships lashed in pairs, and four monitors. The monitors would lead the column and draw fire from Fort Morgan's guns while the wooden vessels followed in line. The Tecumseh, newest and most powerful of the monitors, would lead.

The fleet entered the channel at dawn on August 5. Fort Morgan opened fire. The monitors returned fire. The Tecumseh swung to engage the Tennessee and crossed into the torpedo field.

The explosion was catastrophic. The Tecumseh rolled and went down in 30 seconds.

Damn the Torpedoes

The fleet was hesitating. Brooklyn, the next ship in line, was backing her engines. Farragut, watching from the Hartford's rigging, made the decision that defined his career: he ordered the Hartford to swing out of line and take the lead through the torpedo field, trusting that the torpedoes — having been underwater for months — might be unreliable.

They were. The Hartford passed through, triggering torpedoes that failed to detonate. The fleet followed. Fort Morgan could not stop them. By 8:00 a.m., the Union fleet was inside Mobile Bay.

The CSS Tennessee attacked alone. Buchanan drove her into the Union fleet — one ironclad against 18 ships — in an attempt to cause maximum damage before the end. It was a magnificent and futile gesture. Within an hour, the Tennessee's smokestack was shot away, her rudder chains cut, her crew unable to open her gun ports under the pounding. Buchanan, his leg broken by a shell fragment, surrendered.

The Aftermath

Fort Morgan fell to Union forces on August 23. Fort Gaines had surrendered on August 8. Mobile Bay was closed to Confederate commerce. The city of Mobile itself — never directly attacked — fell in April 1865.

The battle's casualties were light by Civil War standards: 322 Union killed or wounded (including the Tecumseh's 93), 312 Confederate. But the strategic and political effects were outsized. Mobile Bay's fall was reported in Northern newspapers alongside Atlanta's capture as evidence that the Union was winning.

Farragut's quote, in its full form, was: "Damn the torpedoes! Four bells, Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full speed!" The last two clauses are usually omitted. The first became synonymous with aggressive decisiveness in American military culture.

He had been lashed to the rigging because he was nearly 63 years old and had cataracts that made it difficult to see at water level. He could see the situation more clearly from sixty feet up.