Page 59 - NS-2 Textbook

52 MARITIME HISTORY

half a mile apart seeking to rake each other. Soon the THE BATILE OF MOBILE BAY
Kearsarge took control of the situation. The Alabama did
not have the speed, and much of her ammunition ,vas in- Following their victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg,
effective. After an hour of battle, the Alabama was sink- the Union armies shifted their attention to central Ten-
ing, while the Kearsarge was only slightly damaged. nessee. ill several fierce battles around Chattanooga,
Semmes tried to beach his ship, but Winslow cut in Grant opened the northwestern door to Georgia. Pro-
front and raked the Alabama again. Water rushing into the moted by Lincoln to become supreme commander of all
Confederate ship extinguished her boilers, and Semmes Union forces, Grant now ,vent to Vil'ginia to cOlnmand
struck his colors. As the Alabama began to sink, the Deer- the Army of the Potomac. He left General Sherman in
hOllnd came in to pick up survivors. Semmes and forty of command of the ·western arnlY, with orders to march on
his crew were taken to England, escaping capture. Atlanta, Georgia.
TI,e Alabama had caphtred more than sixty Union The impending Atlanta campaign pushed ahead Ad-
ships during her commerce raiding, destroying most at miral Farragut's plans to close off the last of the Confed-
sea. The Northern steamship lines suffered huge losses. Be- eracy's Gulf ports, Mobile, Alabama. Sherman figured
cause the raider was built in Britain, the British govern- that a naval assault on Mobile would cause the Confed-
ment later had to pay $15.5 million in claims as the result erates to move muts defending Atlanta to the Gulf. ill
of an international court ruling in Geneva} Switzerland. July 1864, therefore, Farragut was given additional mon-
Other Confederate raiders also enjoyed much success itors and an amphibious troop contingent to besiege and
against Northern shipping. One, the CSS Shel1al1doah, capture the forts guarding the entrance to Mobile Bay.
commanded by Captain James Waddell, wreaked such Mobile was a strategic port for the South. It had been
havoc among Union whaling ships in the Aleutian Islands the leading cotton-shipping port of the Uluted States be-
near Alaska that she all but destroyed the American whal- fore the Wat, Accordingly, the Confederates had prepared
ing industry. Altogether the raiders sank about 5 percent defenses for the harbor stronger thatl any other on their
of all Union merchant ships that sailed during the war. coast. Three strong forts guarded the outer entrallce to
Costly as this was, these losses did not have much effect the bay. Fort Gaines on Dauphine Island and Fort Mor-
on the outcome of the war, mainly because more and gan protected the main entrance. Slups had to pass di-
lnore cargo ,vas carried by neutral ships safe fronl Con- rectly under the glms of Fort Morgan to enter Mobile
federate attack. However, American merchant shipping Bay. Pilings formed a submerged obsh·uction 2 miles
was dealt a blow from which it never recovered. long from Fort Gaines toward the main channel. A triple

Battle of Mobile Bay-the crucial moment. Admiral Farragut orders his fleet to bypass the sinking monitor Tecumseh and go through the Con-
federate minefield into Mobile Bay, past Fort Morgan.