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At Last the Ram was Conquered – The Battle of Mobile Bay
August 5, 1864 (Friday) Lashed to the shrouds–Farragut passing the forts at Mobile, in his flagship Hartford “The calmness of the scene was sublime. No impatience, no irritation, no anxiety, except for...
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The Evacuation and Burning of Fort Powell
August 6, 1864 (Saturday) “I must evacuate tonight or surrender in forty-eight hours,” came the message from Lt. Col. JM Williams, the Confederate commander at Fort Powell on an island in Mobile Bay....
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The Painfully Humiliating Surrender of Fort Gaines
August 8, 1864 (Monday) Entrance of Fort Gaines, 1934. Col. Charles Anderson held little hope of being able to resist the obviously-coming Federal siege of Fort Gaines in Mobile Bay, which he...
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The Childish Surrender of Fort Morgan
August 23, 1864 (Tuesday) “We are now tightening the cords around Fort Morgan,” wrote Admiral David Farragut on August 12, a week after the Battle of Mobile Bay. “Page is as surly as a bull-dog, and...
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‘In the Midst of Disasters All Around’ Wilmington and Fort Fisher to be...
December 23, 1864 (Friday) Since the blockade began with the start of the war, Cape Fear, along the North Carolina shore, had been more or less continually open. Contraband flowed freely into...
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‘Driving them All to their Bombproofs’– The Bombardment of Fort Fisher
December 24, 1864 (Saturday – Christmas Eve) The idea to destroy a fort via a nearby explosion was hardly something new in the annals of warfare. When trying to convince the Lincoln administration to...
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‘Nothing Further That Can Be Done’– Butler, Porter, and the (Almost) Battle...
December 25, 1864 (Sunday – Christmas Day) The assault upon Fort Fisher was to be grand. True, it was not the first plan – that had been little more than a fizzle when a barge loaded with gunpowder was...
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‘We Could Walk Right Into the Fort’– Porter Unloads about Butler
December 27, 1864 (Tuesday) Admiral David Porter was not over-happy with General Benjamin Butler’s performance two days prior. Rather than stewing silently in his own anger, on this date, he vented to...
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‘A Gross and Culpable Failure’– Washington Reacts to the Fort Fisher Fiasco
December 28, 1864 (Wednesday) Fort Fisher, N.C. Part of land face of fort. When General Grant had approved Benjamin Butler’s plan to take Fort Fisher, along Cape Fear, North Carolina, he was specific...
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‘By Secrecy the Enemy May Be Lulled’– Grant Plans Once More
December 30, 1864 (Friday) Welles: Grant’s probably to blame, right? Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, found himself in a quandary. Though the army wasn’t his branch, his navy had been drawn into...
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