William Doolen

Wounded at Mobile Bay, He Refused to Leave His Post

William Doolen, also historically recorded as William Dolan, was born in County Kildare, Ireland. He later emigrated to the United States and entered the United States Navy during the American Civil War. His naval career would carry him through some of the most important Union operations on the Gulf Coast before one extraordinary act of endurance at Mobile Bay earned him the Medal of Honor.

Doolen’s wartime experience began well before the battle for which he became famous. His naval service included duty connected with the bombardment of Fort Pickens in Florida, one of the important early Union positions on the Gulf Coast. He later served aboard USS Brooklyn during the campaign against New Orleans, participating in operations involving Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the defenses at Chalmette, Confederate gunboats and an ironclad below New Orleans, and the batteries below Vicksburg. He was also present during the operations that resulted in the surrender of New Orleans.

These assignments placed Doolen within the Union Navy’s sustained effort to break Confederate control of the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast. By 1864, he was serving aboard USS Richmond with the rating of Coal Heaver. The work was physically demanding and essential to a steam warship, helping sustain the machinery that kept the vessel moving and fighting.

The defining moment of Doolen’s service came on August 5, 1864, during the Battle of Mobile Bay in Alabama. Mobile remained one of the Confederacy’s most important Gulf ports, and the entrance to the bay was protected by powerful shore defenses, naval mines then known as torpedoes, Confederate gunboats, and the armored ram CSS Tennessee.

Rear Admiral David G. Farragut led a Union fleet of wooden warships and ironclad monitors into the bay. USS Richmond was one of the major wooden vessels in the attacking column. As the fleet approached Fort Morgan, Confederate artillery opened fire, while the Union ships continued toward the narrow entrance.

The battle became dangerous almost immediately. The monitor USS Tecumseh struck a torpedo and sank, demonstrating the threat posed by the minefield. The remaining Union ships pressed forward under fire and eventually passed the Confederate defenses before turning their attention to the enemy naval force inside the bay.

Doolen remained at his station aboard Richmond as shot and shell struck around the ship. During the engagement, he was knocked down and badly wounded in the head by splinters. His injury was serious enough that leaving his position would have been understandable. Instead, he refused to withdraw.

When the crew went to quarters again, Doolen was found back at his station, continuing to perform his duty. His conduct during the prolonged battle was later specifically praised for its coolness, courage, and determination. The recognition did not rest on a dramatic command or a single offensive strike. It rested on his refusal to abandon his responsibility after being injured in the middle of sustained enemy fire.

The battle continued as Union forces confronted CSS Tennessee, the powerful Confederate ironclad commanded by Admiral Franklin Buchanan. The Union fleet surrounded and repeatedly attacked the ram until Tennessee was forced to surrender. The successful penetration of Mobile Bay and the defeat of the Confederate naval force sharply weakened the defenses of one of the South’s last major Gulf ports.

Fort Morgan continued resisting after the naval engagement, but Union operations eventually forced its surrender later that month. The victory at Mobile Bay was one of the most important naval successes of the Civil War and strengthened the Union blockade along the Gulf Coast.

For his conduct aboard USS Richmond on August 5, William Doolen was awarded the Medal of Honor. His recognition was recorded under General Order No. 45 on December 31, 1864. The award honored his courage after being knocked down and seriously wounded and his determination to continue serving at his station throughout the action.

The Medal of Honor was still a relatively new decoration during the Civil War. The Navy version had been authorized only a few years earlier, and it became the principal national decoration for enlisted sailors and Marines whose conduct distinguished them in combat or other exceptionally dangerous circumstances. Doolen became part of that earliest generation of Medal of Honor recipients.

His decoration carried no additional clasp, star, or other device. The award stood entirely on the strength of his service during the fighting at Mobile Bay.

Doolen survived the war and later made his life in the American West. He became associated with Wyoming, where he was also known by the surname Dolan. His postwar years placed him among the Civil War veterans who moved west during the period of railroad development and settlement that transformed the region in the decades following the conflict.

He died on September 14, 1895, in Laramie County, Wyoming. He was buried at Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Cheyenne, where he rests under the name William Dolan.

William Doolen’s military legacy reaches beyond a single battle. Before Mobile Bay, he had already participated in major naval operations from Florida to New Orleans and the Mississippi River. He had experienced bombardments, Confederate defenses, river warfare, and the campaigns that helped open the lower Mississippi to Union control.

Yet it was aboard USS Richmond on August 5, 1864, that his character was most clearly recorded. Knocked down, seriously wounded in the head, and surrounded by the violence of one of the Civil War’s greatest naval battles, he refused to leave his station.

That decision earned him the Medal of Honor and ensured that the Irish-born coal heaver who fought through the Union Navy’s Gulf campaigns would be remembered for extraordinary courage and devotion to duty.