Mobile, Alabama, during the American Civil War was an important port city on the Gulf of Mexico for the Confederate States of America. Mobile fell to the Union Army late in the war following successful attacks on the defenses of Mobile Bay by the Union Navy.
Mobile had grown substantially in the period leading up to the Civil War when the Confederates heavily fortified it. The 1860 U.S. Census reported that Mobile had 29,258 residents, making it the 27th largest city in the country. When the Confederacy was formed after the secession of eleven Southern slave-holding states, Mobile became the 4th largest city in the breakaway nation. Statistically, Mobile in 1860 was 69 percent whites, 3 percent free blacks and 28 percent slaves. [1]
One observer described the city in 1861, "With a population of thirty thousand the city contains many pleasant residences, embowered in shade trees, and surrounded by generous grounds. It is rendered attractive by its tall pines, live oak, and Pride-of-China trees." [2]
As war erupted, military fervor in Mobile was high, and hundreds of able-bodied men responded to recruitment drives and signed up for service in the Confederate army. In addition, several antebellum militia companies formally volunteered their services and enrolled. The Creole Guard and the Southern Guard were among those new troops that manned Mobile's defenses, as did the Mobile Cadets (Co A of the 21st Alabama became part of the 3rd Alabama Infantry, while Co K, Mobile Cadets, remained with the 21st Alabama). [3] The Pelham Cadets (1st Battalion Alabama Cadets) served at Mobile and in various parts of Alabama in 1864 and 1865. [4]
With secession and the creation of the Confederate States Navy came the need for warships. Mobile's shipmakers responded by hastily constructing a series of vessels for naval usage, among them the CSS Gaines and the CSS Morgan, both partially armored wooden ships with 2-inch armor plating over unseasoned wood. [5]
Early in the war, Union naval forces established a blockade under the command of Admiral David Farragut. The Confederates countered the blockade by constructing "blockade runners;" fast, shallow-draft, low-slung ships that could either outrun or evade the blockaders, maintaining a trickle of trade in and out of Mobile.
The CSS Hunley , the first submarine to sink an enemy vessel in combat, was built and tested in Mobile before being shipped to Charleston, South Carolina. Hunley was ready for a demonstration by July 1863. Supervised by Confederate Admiral Franklin Buchanan, The innovative boat successfully attacked a coal flatboat in Mobile Bay, suggesting that the relatively new concept of submarine warfare might be viable. [6]
Mobile was the site of several Civil War hospitals for wounded and ill soldiers. Mobile City Hospital treated a significant number of civilians who became sick during the war from yellow fever and other diseases. The Marine Hospital cared for Confederate soldiers, and later in the war, for Union troops as well. [7]
Food and others shortages were common in Mobile as the blockade tightened and cut the city off from external sources of raw materials, cloth, and other sundries. In April 1863, a riot erupted as angry citizens demanded bread to feed their families. The outbreak was short-lived, but lingering discontent and anger simmered through the spring and summer, finally boiling over in September. More than 100 frustrated women gathered on Spring Hill Road, some carrying banners that read "Bread or Blood" on one side and "Bread and Peace" on the other. Several had brought brooms and even a few axes as weapons. They stormed up Dauphin Street, demanding satisfaction for their bread shortage. A local militia force was mobilized with orders to stop the mob, but they refused to march out of sympathy with the women's cause. The rioters reached the office of Mayor R. H. Slough and demanded relief from the food shortage. When Slough promised to get them food, the mob broke up and the ladies returned to their homes. [3]
In August 1864, Union Navy Admiral David Farragut's warships fought their way past the two forts (Gaines and Morgan) guarding the mouth of Mobile Bay and defeated a small force of Confederate gunboats and one ironclad, the CSS Tennessee, in the Battle of Mobile Bay. It is here that Farragut is alleged to have uttered his famous "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" quote. The Union action did not force the surrender of the city of Mobile, but it did effectively close off the city's access to Mobile Bay and eliminate the residual traffic of the local blockade runners. [8]
On April 12, 1865, three days after the surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Courthouse, the city of Mobile surrendered to the Union army to avoid destruction following the Union victories at the Battle of Spanish Fort and the Battle of Fort Blakeley. [9]
Ironically, on May 25, 1865, the city suffered loss when some three hundred people died as a result of an explosion at a federal ammunition depot on Beauregard Street. The explosion left a 30-foot (9 m) deep hole at the depot's location, sank ships docked on the Mobile River, and the resulting fires destroyed the northern portion of the city. [10]
Among the more notable Civil War personalities from Mobile were Rear Admiral Raphael Semmes (an antebellum attorney in Mobile following his U.S. Navy service) and Brig. Gen. Zachariah C. Deas (a Mobile merchant and cotton broker whose brigade fought at the Battle of Chickamauga, where they routed the Union division of Philip H. Sheridan and killed Brig. Gen. William H. Lytle). [11]
Mobile resident Augusta Jane Evans was a staunch states' rights activist who became a leading pro-Confederacy propagandist during the war. The novelist nursed sick and wounded Confederate soldiers at Fort Morgan on Mobile Bay. She also sowed sandbanks for the defense of the community, wrote patriotic addresses, and set up a hospital, Camp Beulah, near her residence. Augusta's propaganda masterpiece was Macaria, a novel that promoted national desire for an independent national culture and reflected Southern values as they were at that time. [12]
Robert H. Slough served as the mayor of Mobile throughout most of the Civil War, serving from 1862 until the war's end in 1865. His tenure was wrapped by that of former U.S. Minister to Mexico and Alabama state legislator John Forsyth Jr., who preceded Slough in 1861 and then succeeded him in 1865. [13]
Dr. Josiah C. Nott of Mobile was a leading researcher into the causes of yellow fever. During the war, he was a surgeon and staff officer in the Confederate Army, and in charge of inspecting the military hospitals in Mobile. Two of his sons died in the war while serving in Alabama regiments. [14]
USS Brooklyn was a sloop-of-war authorized by the U.S. Congress and commissioned in 1859. Brooklyn was active in Caribbean operations until the start of the American Civil War at which time she became an active participant in the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America.
The Battle of Mobile Bay of August 5, 1864, was a naval and land engagement of the American Civil War in which a Union fleet commanded by Rear Admiral David G. Farragut, assisted by a contingent of soldiers, attacked a smaller Confederate fleet led by Admiral Franklin Buchanan and three forts that guarded the entrance to Mobile Bay: Morgan, Gaines and Powell. Farragut's perhaps apocryphal order of "Damn the torpedoes! Four bells. Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full speed!" became famous in paraphrase, as "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"
CSS Tennessee was a casemate ironclad ram built for the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. She served as the flagship of Admiral Franklin Buchanan, commander of the Mobile Squadron, after her commissioning. She was captured in 1864 by the Union Navy during the Battle of Mobile Bay and then participated in the Union's subsequent Siege of Fort Morgan. Tennessee was decommissioned after the war and sold in 1867 for scrap.
The second USS Metacomet was a wooden sidewheel steamer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. The ship was named for Metacomet, a war chief of the Wampanoag Indians.
The first USS Miami was a side-wheel steamer, double-ender gunboat in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
CSSSelma was a steamship in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. She served in the Confederate Navy first as Florida, and later as Selma. She was captured by the Union Navy steamer USS Metacomet during the Battle of Mobile Bay. She served as USS Selma until the end of the war, when she was decommissioned and sold for use as a merchant ship.
CSSMorgan was a partially armored gunboat of the Confederate States Navy in the American Civil War.
The first USS Lackawanna was a screw-propelled sloop-of-war in the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was named after the Lackawanna River in Pennsylvania.
The Union blockade in the American Civil War was a naval strategy by the United States to prevent the Confederacy from trading.
USS Winnebago was a double-turret Milwaukee-class river monitor, named for the Winnebago tribe of Siouan Indians, built for the Union Navy during the American Civil War. The ship participated in the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864, during which she was lightly damaged, and the bombardments of Forts Gaines and Morgan as Union troops besieged the fortifications defending the bay. In early 1865, Winnebago again supported Union forces during the Mobile Campaign as they attacked Confederate fortifications defending the city of Mobile, Alabama. She was placed in reserve after the end of the war and sold in 1874.
The siege of Fort Morgan occurred during the American Civil War, as part of the battle for Mobile Bay, in the Confederate state of Alabama during August 1864. Union ground forces led by General Gordon Granger conducted a short siege of the Confederate garrison at the mouth of Mobile Bay under the command of General Richard L. Page. The Confederate surrender helped shut down Mobile, Alabama, as an effective Confederate port city.
USS John P. Jackson was a sidewheel steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the beginning of the American Civil War. Built in 1860, John P. Jackson was used as a ferry by the New Jersey Rail Road and Transportation Company. In February 1861, she ferried President-elect Abraham Lincoln on his way to his inauguration. She was purchased for use in the American Civil War on 6 November. Commissioned for military service on 14 February 1862, she was sent to Ship Island. On 4 April, she was part of a battle with Confederate vessels near Pass Christian, Mississippi. That same day, she captured the blockade runner P. C. Wallis. In April, she bombarded Confederate-held Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip. Next month, John P. Jackson participated in a scout of Lake Pontchartrain.
Alabama was central to the Civil War, with the secession convention at Montgomery, the birthplace of the Confederacy, inviting other slaveholding states to form a southern republic, during January–March 1861, and to develop new state constitutions. The 1861 Alabaman constitution granted citizenship to current U.S. residents, but prohibited import duties (tariffs) on foreign goods, limited a standing military, and as a final issue, opposed emancipation by any nation, but urged protection of African-American slaves with trials by jury, and reserved the power to regulate or prohibit the African slave trade. The secession convention invited all slaveholding states to secede, but only 7 Cotton States of the Lower South formed the Confederacy with Alabama, while the majority of slave states were in the Union. Congress had voted to protect the institution of slavery by passing the Corwin Amendment on March 4, 1861, but it was never ratified.
The second United States Navy vessel to bear the name, USS Sachem was a screw steamer built in 1844 at New York City, where the U.S. Navy purchased her on 20 September 1861.
USS Itasca was a Unadilla-class gunboat built for the U.S. Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries.
USS Octorara was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the Confederates from trading with other countries.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the American Civil War:
The Milwaukee-class monitors were a class of four riverine ironclad monitors built during the American Civil War. Several supported Union forces along the Mississippi River in mid-1864 before participating in the Battle of Mobile Bay in August. Chickasaw and Winnebago bombarded Confederate coastal fortifications during the battle and during subsequent operations as well as engaging the ironclad Tennessee II. The other two ships arrived at Mobile Bay after the battle and all four supported the land attacks on Mobile in March–April 1865. Milwaukee struck a torpedo during this time and sank. The surviving three ships were sold in 1874; Chickasaw was converted into a ferry and survived until 1944 when she was scuttled. Her wreck was discovered in 2004.
The Mobile campaign was a military campaign of the American Civil War in the western theatre in the Spring of 1865 to take the city of Mobile, Alabama. Opposing forces included the Union Army, and the Confederate Army. Important battles were fought at Spanish Fort and Fort Blakeley.
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