FORT MORGAN, Alabama — Ahead of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Mobile Bay, local historians have been revisiting one of the most dramatic moments of the Civil War fight that unfolded just off Fort Morgan’s shoreline: the Confederate ironclad Tennessee’s decision to abandon the safety of the fort’s guns and charge directly into the heart of the Union fleet.
A calculated gamble under the fort’s guns
The Tennessee had positioned itself only a few miles from the approaching Union ships, sheltered by the heavy artillery at Fort Morgan. Rather than wait, the ship’s commander, Admiral Franklin Buchanan, chose to push forward and confront the fleet directly. According to accounts drawn from historical works on the Mobile campaign, Buchanan later explained that he wanted to avoid the fate of another famous Confederate ironclad that had been destroyed by its own crew rather than face capture, and instead hoped a bold, unexpected strike into the Union line might inflict real damage before the numerically superior fleet could respond.
An attack that lost the element of surprise
Buchanan had hoped to catch the Union fleet off guard by steering the Tennessee toward the USS Hartford, the flagship of Admiral David Farragut. Union lookouts, however, had already spotted the Confederate squadron’s movements and repositioned before the ironclad could close the distance. Historical accounts describe Buchanan’s small squadron, which included the gunboats Morgan, Gaines and Selma alongside the ram Tennessee, forming a line and advancing together toward the approaching Union warships, together fielding roughly twenty guns and several hundred sailors against a much larger opposing force.
Collisions in the channel
As Buchanan pressed his attack toward the Hartford, the Union warship Monongahela struck the Tennessee directly, part of a Union tactic of ramming the heavily armored Confederate vessel rather than relying solely on gunfire. The Tennessee had gotten off shots at the approaching ship’s bow just before the collision. After the Monongahela pulled back to assess damage from the impact, a second Union ship, the Lackawanna, moved in and struck the ironclad as well. Union officers aboard the Lackawanna later noted that the ship’s rigging had fortunately already been lowered before the collision, sparing it from further damage during the impact and causing both vessels to rebound from the force of the strike.
Why the story still resonates locally
The clash at Mobile Bay remains one of the defining Civil War moments tied directly to the Alabama Gulf Coast, and Fort Morgan continues to draw visitors interested in the battle’s history. As the 150th anniversary of the engagement approached in the summer of 2014, area historians and museum staff used the milestone to spotlight lesser-known details of the fight, including the tactical decisions that led the Tennessee into one of the most lopsided ship engagements of the war. The fort itself remains open to the public today as a state historic site, preserving the ground from which Confederate gunners once watched the ironclad steam toward its fate.