William Blagheen

Shells Cleared the Deck—He Refused to Leave

William Blagheen, also recorded as William Blagden, was born in England in 1832. Only limited details of his early life have survived, but by the American Civil War he was serving in the United States Navy. His documented military story is centered on USS Brooklyn and one of the most dramatic naval engagements of the war—the Battle of Mobile Bay.

Blagheen served aboard Brooklyn as a Ship’s Cook. Although that rating suggests duties associated primarily with feeding a ship’s crew, sailors aboard Civil War warships could be assigned additional responsibilities when a vessel went into battle. During the action that defined Blagheen’s career, he served in Brooklyn’s powder division, part of the vital system that kept ammunition moving to the ship’s guns during combat.

By the summer of 1864, Mobile Bay remained strategically important to the Confederacy. Its approaches were protected by forts, naval mines—then commonly called torpedoes—and Confederate warships, including the powerful ironclad ram CSS Tennessee. Rear Admiral David G. Farragut assembled a large Union naval force to force its way into the bay and break those defenses.

On the morning of August 5, 1864, the Union fleet advanced toward Fort Morgan. USS Brooklyn formed part of the main column of wooden warships moving under the fort’s guns while Union monitors operated alongside them. The ships faced artillery fire from the Confederate defenses and the threat posed by the enemy vessels waiting inside the bay.

The battle quickly became chaotic. The Union monitor USS Tecumseh struck a mine and sank, creating a dangerous moment as the rest of the fleet continued its advance. Brooklyn pressed forward as part of the attacking force while shells from Fort Morgan and the Confederate vessels struck around the Union ships.

Blagheen’s station placed him close to the shell whips, equipment used to move ammunition for the ship’s guns. It was an extremely dangerous location during sustained enemy fire. Bursting shells twice cleared the area of the men working around him, yet Blagheen did not abandon his position.

He remained at his post.

Throughout the furious engagement, he continued performing his duties in the powder division while Brooklyn fought past Fort Morgan and engaged the Confederate naval force. His conduct was not remembered because he commanded a ship or fired a decisive gun. It was remembered because, amid explosions that repeatedly drove or struck down men around his station, he continued doing the work necessary to keep the warship fighting.

The Union fleet eventually succeeded in entering Mobile Bay. The Confederate gunboats were defeated or driven away, and CSS Tennessee continued the fight against the Union force before finally surrendering after being surrounded and heavily engaged. The battle became one of the most significant Union naval victories of the Civil War and severely reduced the Confederacy’s ability to use Mobile Bay as an effective naval outlet.

Blagheen’s steadfastness during the battle earned national recognition. Later in 1864, he was awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration of the United States, for his actions aboard USS Brooklyn on August 5.

His official recognition focused specifically on his refusal to leave his dangerous station. The shell whips near him had twice been cleared of men by bursting shells, but Blagheen remained in place and continued performing his duties throughout the action. The award therefore preserved an important reality of naval warfare: victory depended not only on admirals, captains, and gun crews, but also on sailors performing essential work throughout a ship while exposed to the same enemy fire.

Blagheen’s rating as Ship’s Cook makes his Medal of Honor story especially striking. His normal occupational title did not define the limits of his responsibility once Brooklyn entered combat. In battle he became part of the ammunition-handling organization that sustained the ship’s guns, and his courage was demonstrated through discipline rather than command.

The Medal of Honor itself was still a relatively new decoration when Blagheen received it. Created during the Civil War, it became the principal national award for exceptional military conduct. For sailors such as Blagheen, the decoration ensured that acts of courage performed deep within the working machinery of a warship were recorded alongside more visible acts of battlefield heroism.

Reliable surviving documentation of Blagheen’s life after the Civil War is limited. His later civilian career, death date, and burial location have not been preserved with the same clarity as his wartime service. What remains certain is the record of his conduct aboard USS Brooklyn and the Medal of Honor that followed it.

That surviving record captures a single moment with remarkable force. On August 5, 1864, enemy shells burst around his station. Men were cleared away from the shell whips twice. Blagheen stayed where he was needed and continued serving the guns of his ship.

In a battle remembered for Farragut, Fort Morgan, the sinking of Tecumseh, and the defeat of CSS Tennessee, William Blagheen’s story represents another side of naval courage—the sailor who held his position when remaining there could cost him his life. His steadfast service aboard USS Brooklyn made him a Medal of Honor recipient and secured his place among the Union Navy heroes of the Battle of Mobile Bay.