John Harris

He Rowed Into Enemy Fire to Save Ten Sailors

John Harris was born in 1839 in Norway. By the time of the American Civil War, he was serving in the United States Navy aboard USS Metacomet, where he held the enlisted rating of Captain of the Forecastle. His name would become permanently associated with one of the most dangerous rescue missions of the Battle of Mobile Bay.

The title Captain of the Forecastle was not a commissioned officer's rank. It was an enlisted naval rating associated with experienced seamanship and responsibility for work in the forward part of the ship. Men in such positions were expected to understand the handling of lines, anchors, boats, and other essential seamanship duties. Harris's experience would become critically important on August 5, 1864.

Mobile Bay was one of the Confederacy's most important remaining ports on the Gulf Coast. Its entrance was protected by forts, naval vessels, heavy guns, and underwater explosive devices then commonly called torpedoes. Admiral David G. Farragut assembled a powerful Union fleet to force its way past those defenses and into the bay.

USS Metacomet was part of Farragut's attacking force.

The Union fleet entered Mobile Bay on the morning of August 5, 1864. Almost immediately, the operation demonstrated how dangerous the Confederate defenses could be.

The Union monitor USS Tecumseh moved toward the fortified entrance and struck a submerged Confederate torpedo. The explosion was catastrophic. Tecumseh began sinking with extraordinary speed, leaving sailors struggling in the water while the battle continued around them.

The disaster occurred close to the Confederate defenses.

Enemy batteries were still firing.

Any attempt to reach the survivors would require sailors to leave the relative protection of their own vessel, enter a small open boat, and row into an area exposed to Confederate fire.

A rescue boat was sent from USS Metacomet.

John Harris was among its crew.

The sailors pulled toward the wreck site while the battle around Mobile Bay continued. Unlike men fighting from behind the sides of a warship, the rescue party had little protection. Their small boat was vulnerable as they crossed the water toward men who might otherwise drown.

Harris and the other members of the boat crew continued their mission despite the danger.

They reached the survivors of USS Tecumseh and rescued ten sailors.

The achievement was remarkable not only because of the number of lives saved, but because of the conditions under which the rescue was carried out. The men were operating close to Fort Morgan and within range of enemy fire while a major naval engagement was still underway.

Their task was not to attack an enemy ship or capture a position. Their objective was to save fellow sailors who had suddenly been thrown into the water by the destruction of their vessel.

They chose to go toward the danger rather than away from it.

For John Harris, that decision became the defining act of his naval service.

The Battle of Mobile Bay continued after the loss of Tecumseh. Farragut's fleet pressed forward through the Confederate defenses, engaged opposing vessels, and ultimately established Union control inside the bay. The operation became one of the most celebrated naval victories of the Civil War.

Yet within that larger victory were individual acts of courage that had little to do with destroying an enemy.

Harris's was one of them.

His bravery was measured in lives brought back from the water.

After the war, the United States formally recognized his conduct. On January 15, 1866, General Order No. 71 recorded the Medal of Honor recognition associated with his actions at Mobile Bay.

John Harris received the Medal of Honor for his participation in the rescue of the USS Tecumseh survivors on August 5, 1864.

No additional clasp, bar, star, or other device accompanied his Medal of Honor.

The award preserved an important aspect of naval courage. The Medal of Honor was not limited to acts performed while directly attacking an enemy. It could also recognize extraordinary bravery shown while saving others in the face of hostile fire.

Harris's action demonstrated exactly that kind of courage.

He and the other rescuers had no guarantee that their boat would safely reach the survivors or return to USS Metacomet. They operated in an exposed position while Confederate guns remained active, yet the danger did not stop them from attempting the rescue.

Ten men survived because the boat reached them.

The surviving historical record preserves far less about Harris's later life than it does about those minutes at Mobile Bay. His precise date of death and burial location have not been securely established in the available authoritative record, and those details should not be reconstructed through assumption.

What is certain is the event that placed his name in American naval history.

On August 5, 1864, USS Tecumseh disappeared beneath the waters of Mobile Bay after striking a Confederate torpedo. Men were left fighting for survival within range of enemy guns.

A boat from USS Metacomet was sent toward them.

John Harris was in that boat.

He helped row into the danger, reach the stranded sailors, and bring ten men to safety.

That rescue, performed in the midst of one of the Civil War's most important naval battles, earned Captain of the Forecastle John Harris the Medal of Honor and ensured that his service would be remembered not for taking a life, but for risking his own to save others.