On the morning of August 5, 1864, a fleet of 18 Union warships under command of Admiral David Farragut entered Mobile Bay. Under heavy fire from Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines, the fleet maneuvered through a "torpedo field", what we would call a mine field today, to engage a Confederate fleet of four ships. As the US monitor Tecumseh maneuvered to engage the Confederate flagship, the CSS Tennessee, she struck a torpedo and sank rapidly, taking 94 of her crew with her to the bottom of the bay. Admiral Farragut, faced with the choice of braving the minefield or withdrawing was reported to have said, "Damn the torpedoes! Full Speed ahead!"
The port of Mobile was closed to blockade runners, leaving only Savannah, Georgia as a haven. Savannah would fall later that same year to Union forces commanded by William Tecumseh Sherman.
Admiral David Glasgow Farragut was the first American ever named to the ranks or Rear Admiral, Vice Admiral and Admiral in the United States Navy and had commanded his first captured prize ship safely to port at the age of 12. Iron men and wooden ships, indeed.
