The Place
The Civil War Battle of Mobile Bay involved 3 forts at the
mouth of Mobile Bay. Fort Gaines on
Dauphin Island (and next door to our campground) is one of them. Civil War buffs please add any information we’ve
left out….JPG)
In 1864, Mobile was one of the last ports where supplies were
being brought to Confederate troops by blockade runners. The Union navy assembled a strike force of
soldiers and ships to capture the forts guarding the entrance to Mobile Bay and
close the Bay. They landed troops on the
western end of Dauphin Island, and sailed ships and ironclads into the Bay. The Confederates had mined the passage into
the Bay with “torpedoes”, eliciting the now famous phrase from Admiral
Farragut, “Damn the torpedoes. Full
speed ahead.” To make a long story
short, Fort Gaines fell, and so did the other forts. The Union won the day.
The Adventure
We first approached Fort Gaines by kayak. However, winds and chop drove us back to land
and we walked over to the Fort for a tour.
The Fort is an impressive pentangular, brick structure with
cannons at some of the corners. It is
solely owned and operated by the Dauphin Island Park and Beach Board. The National Trust for Historic Preservation
has named it one of Americas 11 Most Endangered Historic Places because of the
significant shore erosion around the Fort. We enjoyed the self-guided tour. It leads you all over the Fort and the gun bastions.
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