David G. Farragut Initialed General Order No. 10 Before Battle of Mobile Bay

1p printed document containing U.S. Navy General Order No. 10, inscribed and initialed “Carry low steam (?) / D.G.F.” by Rear Admiral David G. Farragut in lower left corner. Also signed in type as “D.G. Farragut, Rear Admiral, Comd’g W.G.B. Squadron”. A few pencil sketches found verso, possibly depicting Mobile Bay. Expected paper folds including 4” tear at right of lowest horizontal fold. Minor fading to text at left, and light soiling verso. In very good to near fine condition, measuring 7.625” x 9.625”. Accompanied by an April 4, 1924 ALS on “Henry Metcalfe, 147 Fourth Avenue, Room 229” letterhead addressed to a collector inscribed: “My dear Mr Jessup, I am happy to be able to redeem my promise – for I have had a limit for this paper that I want to give your nice boy. I am abdicating from all responsibilities that I can escape – and I trust that his interest may long associate me with this relic of a heroic age”. Initialed “H.M.” by Henry Metcalfe (1847-1927), army officer and firearms innovator.

Shortly after war was declared in 1861, 16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln implemented a blockade of Southern port cities. Winfield Scott’s “Anaconda Plan”, as it was called, attempted to interrupt Southern trade by bottling up approximately 3,500 miles of coastline. The West Gulf Blockading Squadron, charged with containing shoreline west of the Mississippi and east of the Rio Grande, witnessed a great deal of Confederate blockade running activity through Mobile Bay. In 1864, Mobile was the last significant Confederate controlled port as New Orleans had been captured in 1862 and Vicksburg seized in 1863.

Rear Admiral and West Gulf Blockading Squadron commander David G. Farragut (1801-1870) issued General Order No. 10 from the flagship U.S. Hartford on July 12, 1864, two weeks before the August 5, 1864 Battle of Mobile Bay. The order instructed naval vessels to prepare for battle, and gave explicit instructions regarding everything from ballistics to battle formation: “Strip your vessels and prepare for the conflict … ” the order begins dramatically. The barricaded, netted, and chained Union Navy vessels would then “run past the Forts in couples, lashed side by side, as hereinafter designated. The Flag Ship will lead and steer from Sand Island N. by E. by compass, until abreast of Fort Morgan; then N.W. half N. until past the Middle Ground, then N. by W. and the others, as designated in the drawing, will follow in due order, until ordered to anchor; but the bow and quarter line must be preserved, to give the chase guns a fair range; and each vessel must be kept astern of the broadside of the next ahead; each vessel will keep a very little on the starboard quarter of his next ahead, and, when abreast of the Fort, will keep directly astern, and as we pass the Fort, will take the same distance on the post-quarter of the next ahead, to enable the stern guns to fire clear of the next vessel astern”.

The Confederate fleet and forts would be pummeled by rounds of Howitzer shells, shrapnel, and grape shot as further directed by the order. Mobile was protected by a small Confederate fleet commanded by Admiral Franklin Buchanan (1800-1874). Three heavily armed forts named Morgan, Powell, and Gaines encircled the Bay, also planted with sixty-seven submerged “torpedoes” or naval mines. Farragut daringly led his squadron through the mine field, bombarding Confederate forts that the Union Army later besieged and captured. The Battle of Mobile Bay has contributed two colorful anecdotes to the Civil War canon. First, that Farragut was lashed to U.S. Hartford rigging so that he could survey the battlefield; and second, that he scorned the danger of the mine fields by declaring: “Damn the torpedoes!”

A copy of General Order No. 10, personally inscribed and initialed by Farragut just days before he crushed the Confederate Navy at the Battle of Mobile Bay!

Provenance: Ex-Paul DeHaan Collection. Sold at RR Auctions in February 2015 for over $5,500!

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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