Please join us on Friday, March 14, as Dr. Craig L. Symonds, one of the nation’s preeminent naval historians, examines Rear Admiral David G. Farragut’s stunning and consequential victory in the epic Battle of Mobile Bay.
On August 5, 1864, a federal fleet commanded by Farragut, the first admiral in the U.S. Navy, attacked a smaller Confederate fleet led by Admiral Franklin Buchanan and three forts that guarded the entrance to Mobile Bay. Here Farragut is said to have uttered the immortal words, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” (or words to that effect). He accomplished what other naval officers had not been able to do at Charleston: run past the forts protecting the harbor and take command of the bay. In so doing, he cemented his name in American naval history, while denying the Confederacy its last important port on the Gulf of Mexico east of the Mississippi, completing the blockade of that region, and hastening the end of the Civil War.
Dr. Symonds is Professor Emeritus at the United States Naval Academy, where he taught naval history and Civil War history for thirty years. From 2017 to 2020 he was the Ernest J. King Distinguished Professor of Maritime History at the U.S. Naval War College. He is the author of 17 books, including Decision at Sea, Lincoln and His Admirals, World War II at Sea: A Global History, and most recently, Nimitz at War. His works have received numerous awards, including the Lincoln Prize, the Roosevelt Prize, and the Dudley Knox Medal for Lifetime Achievement. Now retired, he is much in demand around the country as a speaker on Civil War subjects. He has spoken at Civil War Round Tables in twenty-seven states and two foreign countries.
Those who are unable to attend this engagement in person are invited to tune in to the lecture and Q&A session via Zoom. Click on the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83037646202. No password in required. To dial in by phone, call 1-301-715-8592 or click on the following link:. https://us02web.zoom.us/u/keg2WiTHNe. The meeting ID # is 830 3764 6202.Zoom participants should join the meeting by 7:00 pm.
