📅 On This Day in Military History

August 5

1 event across history

⚔️📍 Mobile Bay, Alabama1864

Battle of Mobile Bay — 'Damn the Torpedoes!'

Union Admiral David Farragut led his fleet past Confederate forts and through a minefield into Mobile Bay, shouting his famous order when a leading ship struck a mine. His fleet destroyed or captured the Confederate squadron including the ironclad CSS Tennessee.

Closing Mobile Bay — the Confederacy's last major Gulf port — further strangled Confederate trade and supply lines.

Outcome

Union victory; last Gulf Confederate port closed