about midnight the place was evacuated
and blown up.
On Dauphin Island, the Federal army
had not lagged. After a fierce exchange,
Union batteries had silenced Fort Gaines
and prevented the employment of its guns
on the fleet. The fleet then joined Granger’s
forces in the investment of the fort and, sur-
rounded on three sides by the navy plus a
fourth by the army, unfurled the white flag
on August 7. General Page and his officers
at Fort Morgan spat in the direction of Fort
Gaines and cursed its commander, Charles
DeWitt Anderson, for his half-hearted
attempt to defend his position. General
Page was not so easily dismayed. Workers,reservists, militia, two Louisiana artillery
regiments, six companies of cavalry, and a
battalion of convicts, 4,000 in all, girded
themselves for the final assault.
The Confederate Army in Atlanta, fight-
ing for its life against Sherman, ignored
Mobile’s pleas. Only a handful of recruits
responded to the call at Montgomery. The
governor of Mississippi also was silent.
Granger’s forces were transported to
Mobile Point, and a siege train was brought
from New Orleans. Farragut then stationed
his ships, which now included the prize
Tennessee, so that Fort Morgan was sur-
rounded on land and sea. Determined to
defend his post to the last extremity, the
fiery 57-year-old Page responded to a
request for surrender, “I am prepared to
sacrifice life, and will only surrender when
I have no means of defense.”
At daylight on August 22, a hundred
Army and monitor guns opened a blister-
ing, well-coordinated bombardment
around the clock. The fort shook. The
walls were breached in many places, its
casemates crumbled, wooden buildings
were set on fire, and all but two of its guns
were knocked out. When a fire threatened
the powder magazine around midnight,
General Page had his entire powder sup-
ply wetted down. By daylight on August
23 he had taken enough, and he raised the
white flag.
“We landed at Fort Morgan and went
over the place,” reported journalist
FitzGerald Ross. “I confess I did not like
it at all. It is built in the old style.... When
bricks fly about violently by tons’ weight
at a time, which is the case when they
come in contact with 15-inch shells, theymake themselves very unpleasant to those
who have trusted them for protection.”
Mobile was out of business. But the cap-
ture of the lower bay, and the complete
closing of the port to blockade-runners,
together with the absence of a major mil-
itary movement in the hinterland that
hinged upon the capture of Mobile, con-
vinced Farragut that there was no point
of immediately pressing up the bay and
conducting a campaign against the city. In
fact, he appears to have become a little
cynical toward the whole war. “It [the city
of Mobile] would be an elephant and take
an army to hold it. And besides, all trai-
tors and rascally speculators would flock
to that city, and pour into the Confeder-
acy the wealth of New York.”
As autumn wore on, Farragut’s subor-
dinates began to worry about his health.
He fainted while talking to Captain
Perkins of the Chickasaw. Perkins attrib-
uted this to exhaustion, and the fact that
“his health is not very good anyway.”
Likewise, Captain Drayton of the Hart-
fordbegan to become concerned over the
admiral’s failing strength. In one of his let-
ters home, Farragut himself seems to have
concluded his days as a sea fighter were
over. “This is the last of my work and I
expect a little respite.” He sailed home
from Pensacola at the end of November.
If adequate troops had accompanied
Farragut’s naval force, the Union could
have taken the city of Mobile after the sur-
render of the forts guarding the bay’s
entrance, but the army felt it could not
commit the necessary troops until early- Eventually, a combined army and
navy effort finally attacked and besieged
the city in March and April of that year.
Mobile surrendered on April 12th, three
days after Appomattox, and four years to
the day after the firing on Fort Sumter.
Pedro Garcia graduated with a B.A. in his-
tory from California State University
Northridge. He currently works for the San
Diego City schools. He is a member of the
San Diego and Orange County Civil War
Round Tables and is an associate member
of Sons of Union Veterans.“I am prepared to
sacrifice life, and
will only surrender
when I have no
means of defense.”
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