Battle of Mobile Bay

By August 1864 Mobile is the Confederacy’s last big Gulf port, the blockade-runners’ surviving hub, guarded by two forts and a minefield.

Farragut (North) runs his fleet at the channel, monitors leading and wooden ships tied in pairs, straight under Fort Morgan’s guns.

Craven (North) steers Tecumseh into the mines and she sinks in seconds. Brooklyn stalls, and Farragut drives Hartford through anyway.

Buchanan (South) turns CSS Tennessee back into the entire Union fleet alone, and fights until she is battered into surrender.

The port is corked, the forts fall, and Lincoln’s re-election turns, while formerly enslaved men work the flagship’s guns.