METACOMET vs. SELMA

As RADM David Farragut forced Mobile Bay, the channel coursed only several hundred yards from the heavy Confederate guns of Fort Morgan.  To protect his wooden warships, Farragut ordered smaller gunboats lashed to the starboard side of each warship.  Leading his line ahead formation was USS BROOKLYN with OCTORARA lashed beside. Farragut’s flagship HARTFORD was in the second position with METACOMET lashed to her.  But the line ahead formation necessitated by the narrow channel created a vulnerability.  As Farragut’s ships concentrated on the powerful Fort Morgan and the vaunted ironclad CSS TENNESSEE just off their starboard, three small Confederate gunboats positioned themselves at the head of the channel, firing directly into the oncoming bows of the Federals.  These small gunboats probably inflicted greater damage than did the guns of Fort MORGAN, raking HARTFORD multiple times leaving her decks strewn with dead.

Farragut couldn’t risk venturing from the channel, but once past the fort, he cut the shallow draft OCTORARA and METACOMET loose to chase down the pesky gunboats.  CSS GAINES mounting six guns, was hit several times.  She fought her pursuers until two fatal shells struck in succession at her waterline and she beached against the shore 400 yards from Fort MORGAN.

LCDR James E. Jouett aboard METACOMET streaked after CSS MORGAN (6 guns) and SELMA (4 guns).  MORGAN could not keep pace with the running battle and fell off (eventually escaping up the Bay in a daring inshore run that night).  SELMA used her stern guns to great effect, holing her Yankee antagonist time and again.  Neither would Jouett give, and his gunners battered the fleeing Rebel in an hour-long, flank speed chase.  LT Patrick U. Murphey, CSN, a good friend and Annapolis classmate of Jouett, ran headlong into a squall to escape.  But the swifter Yankee steadily gained.  By 0900 Jouett had overtaken SELMA and was positioned across her bow with his 100# rifle and 9-inch smoothbores trained on Murphey.  SELMA stood defiant yet, answering the Federal shot for shot until a volley smashed through the gunboat killing XO, LT J.H. Comstock, and four others.  With eight of his crew dead and seven more wounded and his gunboat nearly sinking, Murphey struck.  It had been only 68 minutes since Jouett had been cut loose from HARTFORD.  Murphey himself was among the Confederate wounded, shrapnel from a Yankee shell had torn through his wrist.  Nevertheless, he came across, offering, “Captain Jouett, the fortunes of war compel me to tender you my sword.”  Jouett spied the bleeding arm of his good friend and returned, “Pat, don’t make a damned fool of yourself; I’ve had a bottle on ice for you for the last half hour.”

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”   12 AUG 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Coombe, Jack D.  Gunfire Around the Gulf:  The Last Major Naval Campaigns of the Civil War.  New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1999, pp. 182-84.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1961, pp. IV-95.

Jones, Virgil Carrington.   The Civil War at Sea, Vol 3  The Final Effort.  New York, NY: Holt Rinehart Winston, 1962, p. 251.

Lewis, Charles Lee.  David Glasgow Farragut:  Our First Admiral.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1943, pp. 270-72.

Luraghi, Raimondo.  A History of the Confederate Navy.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1996, p. 325.

Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the Civil War, Series I, Vol 21  Western Gulf Blockading Squadron (January 1, 1864-December 31, 1864).  Washington, DC: GPO, 1906, pp. .

Porter, David D.  The Naval History of the Civil War.  Mineola, NY: Dover Pub., 1886, p. 575.

Scharf, J. Thomas.  History of the Confederate States Navy.  New York, NY: Gramercy Books, 1996, pp. 564-66.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  CSS SELMA was an able gunboat, well-armed for her size.  She was repaired and drafted into Union Navy service, transferring to the Mississippi River where she patrolled until the end of the war.

This was only one of several distinguished actions on the part of James Jouett.  He continued in the Navy after the Civil War and eventually reached the rank of RADM on 19 February 1886, four years before his retirement.  The destroyers JOUETT (DD-41, DD-396) and the Belknap–class cruiser CG-29 all remember his service.

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