Carronade
Captain
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2011
- Location
- Pennsylvania
Yes, being from Mobile, AL you are correct. Mobile was the best fortified city in the South. There were several rings of defense
about the city and its outlying area. Ft. Morgan, Gains and Powell from the Gulf. Ft. Blakeley and Spanish Ft. From the northern approach to the city. There were numerous forts around the city on every side. As a lad I use to play on the breastworks in the modern day residential areas. I use to hear a neighbor tell about sunken Civil War ships that would appear at low tide in the tributary rivers of the Mobile delta. One that was recovered in the last 35 years is on display in the park in Bay Minette, AL. It was a mortar barge, mortar intact. Several Gulf hurricanes have moved some of the wrecks but I believe relic hunters are still searching. Someone told not long ago about a large one in the Blakeley river. There were several large ammunition dumps found in last 50-75 years in areas around the city. My father had the contents of one ammo dump found.
When a wing of the Mobile infirmary was being built another large cache was found but kept from the public because of construction delay and the building erected over it. For a complete overlay of the fortifications, google, Mobile, Alabama in the Civil War and you will have copies of engineers' maps of the forts and batteries around the area.
Something I've wondered, when were all these defenses established? Forts Morgan and Gaines defending the entrance to Mobile Bay were prewar of course, but I would guess 'best fortified city in the South' would largely reflect wartime improvements? I've often thought that Mobile would have been a better objective for Farragut after New Orleans than pushing his ocean-going ships up the Mississippi, assuming that sufficient army troops could be made available. With the Union already controlling Pensacola and offshore islands, they would have had a mutually supporting chain of bases and been able to promptly shift ships or troops to any threatened point. Actually occupying the ports would be the best means of enforcing the blockade of course, and there would be a constant threat of raiding or advancing up any of the rivers. Presumably the defenses in mid-1862 were less formidable than they would be in 1864-65. Seems like it might have been advantageous.
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