Lester Moore
Private
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2021
I have found very little written on the "first" battle of Mobile Bay, February 1864. It involved Ft. Gaines and Ft. Powell. Any suggested reading anyone know of.
I was working on a thread on Ft Powell but have been tied up with family issues. I recently acquired 3 CS artillery rds fired from Ft Powell and recovered back in the 70's from the sand bars in front of the fort. Below is some of my research and the shells. More will be in the thread.I have found very little written on the "first" battle of Mobile Bay, February 1864. It involved Ft. Gaines and Ft. Powell. Any suggested reading anyone know of.
Great info UCV !I was working on a thread on Ft Powell but have been tied up with family issues. I recently acquired 3 CS artillery rds fired from Ft Powell and recovered back in the 70's from the sand bars in front of the fort. Below is some of my research and the shells. More will be in the thread.
When the Civil War began in April 1861, the Confederacy first attempted to fortify the pass with a battery of three 32-pounder cannon on Grant's Island. Parapets, or walls, of oyster shell and sand shielded the battery, which was later supplemented by an 8-inch Columbiad cannon.
Col. William Llewellyn Powell was in overall command of the lower bay defenses but fell ill and subsequently died on September 25, 1863. In October, Fort Grant was officially re-named Fort Powell in his honor.
Fort Powell was a sand fortification constructed by the Confederacy to guard the entrance into Mobile Bay from the Mississippi Sound. Located at Grant's Pass slightly northwest of Fort Morgan and north of Fort Gaines, the fort was constructed on a half-acre artificial island of oyster shells and sand.
The most significant engagement Fort Powell took part in was the Battle of Mobile Bay. Around 7:50 a.m. on August 5, 1864, Farragut and his fleet got past Fort Morgan and engaged the Confederate fleet. The naval battle between U.S. Navy and Confederate ships was finished by 10:30 a.m. At this point, federal forces focused on attacking and capturing Forts Powell, Gaines, and Morgan.
Fort Powell received several hits from federal artillery on August 5, but none of the men inside were harmed. One shell demonstrated the fort's vulnerability by entering one of the sally ports and passing through a bombproof shelter before burying itself in the opposite wall. Meanwhile, shells hitting the face of the fort drastically shifted the sand so quickly that Col. Williams feared he could not hold out long. Williams telegraphed Col. Charles D. Anderson at Fort Gaines that Fort Powell should be evacuated, or else he would be forced to surrender within two days at the most. Anderson advised Williams to save his men when the fort was no longer defensible. Believing that time was at hand, William waited until low tide and marched his approximately 140-man garrison to Cedar Point. The retreating Confederates blew up the fort at 10:30 p.m. on August 5. U.S. military reports show some ammunition and several guns were intact among the rubble, despite the Confederate effort to destroy the fort.
Fort Powell was the only fortification in Mobile Bay constructed by Confederate forces, as well as the only fortification in the lower bay defenses built using sand with wooden reinforcements instead of brick. The cypress plank that this pen is made from was recovered from the fort site in 1980 after a hurricane uncovered the island. Today there are no remains of the island showing.
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Wow !Farragut's reference was to Sherman's "Meridian Raid."
From what I have read in the book "Confederate Mobile," there were three different attacks on Ft.Powell by the Union Fleet in February of 1864. Naturally, the main battle of of Mobile Bay was August of that same year.
How I miss "Art" Bergeron.The Confederate Defense of Mobile, 1861-1865. (Volumes I-Ii).
Arthur William Bergeron Jr