Originally aired on August 02, 1996 - In part 101 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson profiles David Glasgow Farragut, the first man to be named a Rear Admiral in the US Navy. In popular culture, he is best remembered for his “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” command at the Battle of Mobile Bay.
#101 – Rear Admiral Farragut (A Famous Battle Cry)
Davis Glasgow Farragut was a jovial and youthful naval officer in his early sixties when civil war began. A native of Tennessee, he had gone to sea at the age of nine and worked himself up the naval ladder from powder monkey to flag officer. The passing years did nothing to curb his energy. Farragut had a habit of turning a handspring on every birthday to verify his vitality.
He entered the Civil War with a veteran’s understanding of the use of sea power and a young man’s willingness to risk everything on a sudden thrust. Following his capture of New Orleans and successful campaigns on the Mississippi River, Farragut became the first man ever named a rear admiral in the U. S. Navy. Then, in August, 1864, the venerable admiral went after a needed victory and gave the Union a new battle cry.
The place was Mobile, Alabama, the Confederacy’s last port for blockade-runners on the Gulf coast. If Farragut could shut down Mobile, one more Southern gateway to the outer world would be sealed off. Those gateways the Confederacy had to have to stay alive.
Shortly after dawn on a hot Friday, August 5, Farragut led a fleet of four monitors and fourteen wooden warships into Mobile Bay. Standing in his path was Fort Morgan, a few wooden Confederate vessels, and a clumsy ironclad, the CSS Tennessee. All along the channel the Confederates had planted “torpedoes” (as mines were then called). The Federal ships moved in double file, cleared for action, black plumes of smoke trailing sternward, sweating seamen standing dutifully at their guns.
When Fort Morgan and the Confederate ships opened a heavy fire, the Union fleet fell into confusion. The U. S. monitor Tecumseh was at the head of the line. It struck a torpedo, exploded, and sank within minutes. Union vessels behind the Tecumseh sheared off, or slowed down, or stopped dead in the water.
Farragut was on the flagship Hartford at the rear of his fleet. He scampered up the rigging and peered through the battle smoke to get some idea of the situation. His fleet, huddled in the middle of the harbor, was taking heavy fire and facing destruction. “Why are the ships not moving?” Farragut asked heatedly. “Torpedoes lie ahead”, came the reply.
The responding shout from Farragut echoed into history: “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!”
Union vessels surged forward. The fight became a spectacular duel between heavy guns. Farragut’s flagship took a severe pounding, but the Federal armada passed Fort Morgan and anchored in Mobile Bay. Then the Confederate ironclad Tennessee came steaming in to attack, and the naval battle broke out anew. For a while, the single, black ironclad created so much havoc that one of the Union warships crashed into the Hartford and almost sank the flagship.
Soon, however, Federal vessels surrounded the Tennessee and sent a hail of solid shot into its sides. The ironclad struck its colors. By 10am the battle of Mobile Bay had ended. Even though it had cost him 300 men, Farragut had won a complete victory. Mobile harbor was closed. Mobile itself remained in Southern hands; yet isolated from the sea, the city was of little use to the Confederacy.
Mobile Bay was the first Union victory that ended a summer of Northern discontent in 1864. Farragut’s success was a transfusion to Union morale. It was the most smashing naval success in the war’s third year.
Farragut would always be remembered for the call to battle he made that morning at Mobile. However, the admiral made a more poignant and sweeping statement when he said this in a letter to his wife: “He who dies in doing his duty to his country, and is at peace with his God, has played out the drama of life to the best advantage.”