January 14, 1861, The New York Herald
The city of Mobile contains nearly 30,000 inhabitants, and is situated on the west side of the river of the same name, on a beautiful and extended plain, elevated fifteen feet above the highest tides; open to refreshing breezes from the bay, and commanding a beautiful prospect. The city, neatly built, is lighted with gas, and supplied with pure water, brought through iron pipes from a spring eight miles distant. Mobile is, next to New Orleans, the great cotton mart of the South; its exports amount to from sixteen to twenty millions of dollars annually.
MOBILE BAY.
Mobile Bay is thirty miles long, measuring from its mouth to the city. Its average width is twelve miles. It connects on the north by two straits, one on each side of Dauphin Island. On the bar, near the mouth of the bay, there are twenty-two feet of water at high tide. The course of the ship channel in entering the bay is close up to Mobile point, and directly under the guns of
FORT MORGAN.
The principal fortification guarding the mouth of Mobile bay is Fort Morgan. It is located on Mobile Point, on the site of old Fort Boyer, of 1814 memory–a long, low, sandy peninsula, between the Gulf of Mexico on the south, and Bonsecours bay and Navy Cove on the north. The Point is the eastern limit of the entrance to Mobile bay. As the sit of Fort Morgan is in historic, we subjoin the following brief sketch of its importance in the war of 1812.
On September 14, 1814, a British fleet of four vessels, carrying ninety-two guns, attached Fort Boyer, a small redoubt. This redoubt was garrisoned by only one hundred and twenty Americans–officers included–under the command of Major Lawrence, and its armament was but twenty small pieces of cannon, some of which were almost entirely useless, and most of them poorly mounted, in batteries hastily thrown up, and leaving the guns uncovered from the knee upward, while the enemy’s land force, acting in concert with the ships, consisted of twenty artillerists with a battery of two guns, and seven hundred and thirty marines, Indians and negroes. His ships carried five hundred and ninety men in all. This immense disparity of numbers and strength did not allow to the British military and naval commanders the slightest apprehension that four British ships, carrying ninety-two guns and a land force somewhat exceeding seven hundred combatants, could fail in reducing a small work mounting only twenty short cannonades and defended by a little more than one hundred men, unprovided alike with furnaces for heating shot, or casemates to cover themselves from rockets and shells. Nevertheless the enemy was completely repulsed; the British commodore’s ship was entirely destroyed. The enemy’s loss in killed and wounded was two hundred and thirty-two men, while the American loss was only eight or nine.
The present fortification is of a star form, built of Northern granite, and is, we believe, embrasured for one tier of guns, in casemated bombproof roofs, and another tier of guns open air or en barbette. On the exterior of the fort is a ditch and glacis extending entirely around it. There are other advanced works on the counter approaches to the fort. It is not wholly accessible by land, and it therefore affords little advantage ground to an enemy.
ITS ARMAMENT.
Guns.
Iron forty-two-pounders 14
Iron twenty-four-pounders 52
Eighteen-pounders 3
Twelve-pounders 4
Brass field pieces for flanking defences 6
Brass flanking howitzers 26
Eight inch howitzers, heavy 10
Thirteen inch mortars 2
Ten inch mortars, heavy 4
Ten inch mortars, light 2
Eight inch mortars, light 2
Sixteen inch stone mortars 2
Coehorn mortars 5
Total armament 132
We believe all or nearly all the guns required for the armament of the work are within its walls, but were recently, with the exception of a few guns en barbelle, dismounted. The Alabama State Troops, however, are busy in mounting the guns, and by this time have forty or fifty of them commanding the entrance to Mobile bay. There are about five thousand shot and shells in the fort, and additions have been made to this within the past week. It will require the sum of $50,000 for making changes for the new and heavy armament on the exterior batteries and for extensive repairs required for the preservation of the work.
The fort has ample quarters for officers, soldiers’ barracks, storehouses and magazines, and furnaces for heating hot shot. The entire work cost the federal government one and a quarter million of dollars.
ITS PRESENT GARRISON.
The present garrison consists of four companies of Mobile troops under Col. John B. Todd, namely:
Men.
Cadets, Capt. Sands 49
Fusileers, Capt. Stanbury 51
Independent Rifles, Capt. Stikes 47
Artillery Company, Capt. Ketchum 53
–
Total in garrison 200
A tug propeller serves as an errand boat between the fort and Mobile, and keeps the garrison daily supplied with fresh food and other necessaries or comforts.
FORT GAINES.
This work is the other defence to Mobile bay. It is situated on Dauphin Island Point, three miles and one-fourth from and nearly opposite Fort Morgan. This fort is now under construction, and when finished will mount eighty-nine guns. The chief engineer of the Corps of Engineers, in his report to the Secretary of War in 1860, says of the work: ‘Operations were resumed in January, 1860. The west bastion has been raised five minutes and six seconds, the magazine arch turned, four flank howitzer embrasures built, and the main arch commenced. The main arches of the north, south and northeast bastions built up ready for the arches of the flanking guns. The side walls of the north and west posterns have been built, the arch of the west postern turned. and four iron gates for posterns made and hung. The gorge curtain has been raised three minutes six seconds; the brick facing of the southwest curtain has been raised four minutes three seconds, and backed with concrete for one foot in height, and the brick facing of the north had of north curtain has been raised three minutes six seconds. The parade has been thoroughly graded, the earth being embanked in ramparts, and the wharf has been repaired so as to allow of the receipt of materials. With the funds at present available it is expected that the scarp wall will be completed and embanked to a sufficient height to allow of the channel-bearing guns being mounted on temporary platforms in case of necessity. To complete the work, with the exception to further accommodate the garrison, the officer in charge estimates that the sum of $65,000 will be required.