U.S. Civil War · Medal of Honor
Engineer's Cook, USS Brooklyn, U.S. Navy
ACTION: AUGUST 5, 1864 — MOBILE BAY, ALABAMA
His Story
James Mifflin was born in Richmond in 1839. Of his life before the Navy the record preserves nothing certain. What it does preserve is that he enlisted in April 1864 and joined the steam sloop USS Brooklyn as an engineer's cook.
Four months later, on the morning of August 5, Admiral David Farragut took his fleet into Mobile Bay under the guns of Fort Morgan. The Brooklyn led the column of wooden warships. When the monitor Tecumseh struck a torpedo and went down in about ninety seconds, the Brooklyn backed off the mines under her own bow and stalled the line inside the fort's field of fire, until Farragut swung his flagship around her and ordered full speed ahead. The Brooklyn came through the passage badly cut up.
Mifflin's station was in the powder division, beside the shell whips that hoisted ammunition to the gun deck. Bursting shells cleared that station of men twice. Mifflin stayed, and kept the powder moving until the ram Tennessee surrendered and the batteries at Fort Morgan were wrecked.
Then he disappears. No death date, no grave. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society's record for James Mifflin ends in blank fields. Monumental Honor is working with historians to fill them.
On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats, and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Stationed in the immediate vicinity of the shell whips, which were twice cleared of men by bursting shells, Mifflin remained steadfast at his post and performed his duties in the powder division throughout the furious action which resulted in the surrender of the prize ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.
— Medal of Honor citation
His Legacy Today
The James Mifflin Allied Trades and Continuing Education Scholarship carries his name. Sponsored by F.H. Furr, it goes to someone training for a skilled trade in the greater Richmond area.
Mifflin is one of two Navy recipients among the nine. George L. Street III is the other.
Learn more:Official record at the Congressional Medal of Honor Society
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