April, 1865. |
 |
| The defenses of Mobile on the eastern shore. |
This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
[511]
Fort proper and its inclosing works, with thirty heavy guns and a large quantity of munitions of war. These guns were now turned upon Forts Huger and Tracy, at the mouth of the Appalachee or Blakely River, which held out gallantly until the night of the 11th,
when the garrison spiked the twelve guns that armed the two forts, and fled.1
The key to Mobile was now in the hands of the Nationals.
Prisoners told the men of the navy where torpedoes were planted, when thirty-five of them were fished up, and the squadron moved in safety almost within shelling distance of the city.
The army turned its face toward Blakely, on the east bank of the Appalachee, an insignificant village, at an important point in the operations against Mobile.
Around this, on the arc of a circle, the Confederates had constructed a line of works, from a bluff on the river at the left, to high ground on the same stream at the right.
These works comprised nine redoubts or lunettes, and were nearly three miles in extent.
They were thoroughly built, and were armed with forty guns.
The garrison consisted of the militia brigade of General Thomas, known as the Alabama reserves, and a brigade of veterans from Missouri and Mississippi, of Hood's army, under General Cockerell.
The two brigades numbered about three thousand men, commanded K by General St. John Lidell.
Ever since Steele's arrival from Pensacola, his troops, and particularly Hawkins's negro division, had held Fort Blakely, as the works there were called, in a state of siege; and, for the first four days of the siege of Spanish Fort, it had been closely invested.
It was now determined to carry it by
assault, and then push on to Mobile.
By the fall of Spanish Fort, the water communications of Blakely, with the city, had been cut off, and its reduction had been made sure.
Yet it was capable of stout resistance.
In front of its line of works was a deep and broad ditch; also abatis, chevaux-de-frise and terra-torpedoes; and its forty cannon swept every avenue of approach.
In front of these Canby formed a strong line of battle, with additional cannon brought up from before Spanish Fort.
Hawkins's dusky
1 The defense of Spanish Fort was skillfully and gallantly conducted, under General Gibson. From the beginning of the siege, the garrison had looked for assistance from General Forrest, then between Mobile and Montgomery, but Wilson was keeping him too thoroughly occupied in the interior to allow him to leave. The garrison displayed great courage and resolution. It made at least a dozen sorties during the siege. One of them, made on the 30th of March, was a brilliant success. At sunset the bombardment had ceased, when a party of the garrison, under Captain Watson, concealed by the smoke. rushed out over their works and captured Captain Stearns, of the Seventh Vermont, with twenty men, who were on the front skirmish line.
Scanned printed text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.