Saturday, June 21, 2014

Farragut Reflects On the Upcoming Mobile Operation

JUNE 21ST, 1864:  To Rear Admiral Farragut, his operation to take Mobile Bay, Alabama was both a tactical and strategic event and an encounter which was going to pit the new against the old in naval warfare.

Reflecting on the relative strengths of his and Confederate Admiral Buchanan's fleet, he wrote:  "The question has to be settled: iron versus wood; and there never was a better chance to settle the question of the sea-going qualities of iron-clad ships."

Come on, Admiral, the question of iron vs. wood had been pretty well settled at Hampton Roads back in 1862.

--Old B-R'er

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