Battle of Mobile Bay I - The Ships and Fleets

Confederate ironclad CSS Tennessee. Naval History and Heritage Command.

This week we observe the 150th Anniversary of the epic Battle of Mobile Bay, one of the largest naval battles of the Civil War. On the Union side, Admiral David G. Farragut commanded the naval forces and Major Gen. Gordon Granger was in command of army troops. On the Confederate side, Admiral Franklin Buchanan commanded the grey navy warships and General Richard L. Page commanded CS Army forces from his headquarters in Fort Morgan.

Farragut’s flagship was the steam sloop-of-war USS Hartford. At a length of 225 feet and displacing 2,900 tons, she was one of the U.S. Navy’s newer and most powerful warships. Powered by square-rigged sail plan and steam engines, she was launched in November 1858. She packed a battery of twenty IX(9)-in Dahlgren smoothbore guns mounted in broadside, two 20-pdr Parrott Rifles, and two 12-pdr Dahlgren boat howitzers. Earlier in the war, Farragut had steamed the Harford up the Mississippi to run by Forts St. Philip and Jackson, capture New Orleans, and eventually help Gen. Grant conquer Vicksburg. She was a seasoned combat veteran. Farragut’s squadron included the gunboats USS Brooklyn, Richmond (both sister ships to Hartford), Lackawanna, Monongahela, Ossipee, Oneida, Octorara, Metacomet, Port Royal, Seminole, Kennebec, Itasca, and Galena. This squadron of wooden gunboats was supported by four “monitor” type ironclads, two of which were the newer Canonicus-Class, USS Manhattan and Tecumseh, and two double-turreted Milwaukee-Class river monitors, USS Chickasaw and Winnebago.

On the Confederate side, Farragut was opposed by salty old Franklin “Old Buck” Buchanan. Buchanan’s flagship was the casemated ironclad CSS Tennessee. With a length of 209 feet, and displacing 1,273 tons, Tennessee was armored with three layers of iron plating. On the flanks were two 2” thick layers of plates and one 1” thick layer. The bow section was encased with three layers of 2” plates. Tennessee was armed with two 7” Brooke rifles mounted “in pivot” (on tracks so they could fire in multiple directions) and four 6.4” Brooke rifles mounted in broadside. Some considered the Brooke rifle the finest naval heavy gun of its day, and with this battery, the Tennessee was perhaps one of the most formidable warships yet built by the Confederacy. Supporting Franklin in the Tennessee were the wooden gunboats CSS Morgan, Selma, and Gaines. The Selma was initially named the CSS Florida and participated (against the USS Huntsville) in the first naval combat engagement of gunboats in Mobile Bay on Christmas Eve, 1861. Supporting the CSN fleet was Fort Morgan, on the east side of the entrance to Mobile Bay, Fort Gaines, on the west side of the entrance, and Fort Powell, on the inside of the Bay guarding the entrance to the Mississippi Sounds.

The stage was set, and the actors assembled. Now it was only a tense waiting game before the drama began.

USS Hartford. Library of Congress, Civil War Photographs Collection.

Setting Up a Navy Yard in Charlotte, 1862



1877 map of Charlotte, "Carolina Central R.R.,"
"R.M. Oates," and Hutchison were the location 
of the Charlotte Navy Yard from 1862-1865

If you happen to be in Charlotte, North Carolina, be sure to stop by and read North Carolina's Historical Marker "L-56/Confederate Navy Yard."  The sign is near the Charlotte Transportation Center/Arena Station on Front Street.   Other than the sign, there is nothing left to indicate that one of the more important pieces of Confederate Navy infrastructure used to stand there.  At first glance, one would think that Charlotte would be an odd place to set up a navy yard.  After all, navy yards are supposed to be linked to water.  Ideally, yes.  But, as with many aspects of the Confederate States Navy, a combination of necessity and shortages birthed innovation. 


The idea to set up shop in southwest North Carolina  came from H. Ashton Ramsey, chief engineer of the late CSS Virginia.  With Union ground and naval forces moving in on Gosport Navy Yard, Ramsey had his men pack up as many industrial tools and machines they could carry and load them onto rail cars.  Working with ordnance expert John Brooke, the two men identified an abandoned machine shop located on the main line of the North Carolina Central railroad.  Most important to Ramsey, it was safe from interference of both Union ground and naval forces.

 After convincing the property owner to sell on a promise to pay when the war ended, workers from Gosport immediately started unloading several pieces of heavy industrial equipment.  The workers’ families arrived a short time later.  Many of the families settled down permanently in Charlotte after the war. 

For the rest of the war, Ramsey’s men manufactured and assembled several shafts, propellers, ordnance, and torpedoes for use by the Confederate Navy.   Most of the parts were used in building mid to late war ironclads such as CSS Virginia II, CSS Albemarle, CSS Georgia, and CSS Tennessee.  Read more about the operations of the yard here.

CSS Albemarle, one of several ironclads whose parts were assembled by the Charlotte Navy Yard