A Bold Fight details the decisive battle of Mobile Bay fought on August 5th, 1864. Following the capture of New Orleans by the Union the port of Mobile Bay was the largest and most important for the Confederacy in the Gulf of Mexico. Blockade runners brought badly needed supplies for the rebel nation, and the city’s industry provided munitions, cannon, clothing and other essential war materials for the Confederacy’s armies. Admiral Farragut had wanted to capture the port. With the fall of Vicksburg in July, 1863 his attention again turned to this port.

The port’s defenses were based upon its fortifications, of which Fort Morgan was the key. Torpedoes, guarded the entrance that the defenders had narrowed by erecting numerous wooden pilings.To further strengthen the defensive works the Confederates had three wooden gunboats and the powerful ironclad, the C.S.S. Tennessee.

Farragut assembled a fleet of heavily armed steam gunboats, warships and four new turreted ironclads. All of these vessels were armed with some of the most powerful cannon ever produced, and manned by sailors that so far in the war had only known victory.