506 PREPARATIONS TO ATTACK MOBILE. CHAPTER XIX. THE REPOSSESSION OF ALABAMA BY THE GOVERNMENT. • Aug., 1864. HE repossession of Alabama was an important part of General Grant's comprehensive plan of campaign for the winter and spring of 1865. The capture of the forts at the entrance to Mobile Bay" was a necessary preliminary movement. Had Farragut then known how weakly Mobile was defended, he and Granger might easily have captured it.' They closed the port, and its value to the Confederates as a commercial depot, or as a gate of communication with the outer world, was thereby effectually destroyed. ALABAMA For several months after the harbor of Mobile was sealed, there was comparative quiet in that region. The grand movements in Georgia and in Middle Tennessee occupied the attention of all. At length, when Sherman had finished his triumphal march through Georgia, to the sea-board, and Thomas had decimated Hood's army in Middle Tennessee, Grant and the Government determined to take active measures for the repossession of Alabama, by a movement against Mobile, aided by other operations in the interior. The conduct of the expedition against Mobile was assigned to General E. R. S. Canby, then commanding the West Mississippi Army, with headquarters at New Orleans; and the co-operating movement was intrusted to General J. H. Wilson, the eminent cavalry leader, under the direction of General Thomas. Mobile, at the beginning of 1865, was thoroughly fortified by three continuous lines of earth-works around the entire city. The first was constructed by Captain C. T. Lieurner, in 1862, at an average distance of three miles out from the business streets, and comprised fifteen redoubts. In 1863, after the fall of Vicksburg, when an attack upon Mobile was expected, General D. Leadbetter constructed a second line of works, which passed through the suburbs of the city, comprising sixteen inclosed and strong redoubts. It was then estimated that a garrison of ten thousand effective men might, with these fortifications, defend Mobile against a besieging army of forty thousand men. In 1864, a third line of earth-works was constructed by Lieutenant 1 At that time there were no troops in or immediately about the city. The artillery, also, had been called away to oppose A. J. Smith's troops, then approaching from Memphis (see page 248), and then they were sent to West Point, in Georgia, for the support of General Hood, where they erected a strong work, commanding the railway and the Chattahochee River. But a large re-enforcement of Granger's command would have been neces sary to have enabled the National forces to hold the post. * See page 174, volume I., and page 38, volume II. FORTIFICATIONS AROUND MOBILE. 507 Colonel V. Sheliha, about half-way between the other two, and included nineteen heavy bastioned forts and eight redoubts, making, in all the fortifi cations around the city, fifty-eight forts and redoubts, with connecting breast works. The parapets which the tide-water besides several which guarded the entrances to the rivers that flow into the head of Mobile Bay. General J. E. Johnston said Mobile was the best fortified place in the Confederacy. It 1 This shows the position of the defenses near the city, on land and in the harbor. The position of the more remote defenses, on the east side of the bay, are indicated on a subsequent page. 2 Along the shore, below the city, were Batteries Missouri, Mound and Buchanan. Just below the latter, and terminating the middle line of fortifications, was Fort Sidney Johnston. In the harbor were two floating batteries and four stationary ones, named, respectively, Tighlman, Gladden, Canal, and McIntosh. The channels were obstructed by piles in many rows. 3 This was the appearance of a portion of the inner line of works, in the suburbs of the city, near Dauphin Street, as it appeared when the writer sketched it in April, 1866. The picket fence indicates the line of Dauphin Street. 508 • 1965. GATHERING TROOPS AT NEW ORLEANS. The movable forces under Canby's command, had been organized into brigades, called the "Reserve Corps of the Military Division of the West Mississippi," and numbered about ten thousand effective men. Early in January, these were concentrated at Kenner, ten miles above New Orleans, and General F. Steele' was assigned to take command of them. A part of this force was soon afterward sent to Fort Barrancas, in Pensacola Bay, and the remainder followed directly. These, with the addition of seven regiments, and several light batteries, were organized as the Thirteenth Army Corps, comprising three divisions, and General Gordon Granger was assigned to its command. Meanwhile, the Sixteenth Army Corps (General A. J. Smith), which had assisted in driving Hood out of Tennessee, was ordered to join Canby. It was then cantoned at Eastport. Early in February, it went in transports, accompanied by Knipe's division of cavalry, five thousand strong, by the waters of the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers, to New Orleans, where it arrived on the 21st," after a travel of over thirteen hundred miles in the space of eleven days. There the corps remained awhile, waiting for the perfection of the arrangements for the expedition under Wilson, which was to sweep down from the north, through Alabama, simultaneously with Canby's attack on Mobile. The corps finally moved again, and arrived at Fort Gaines, on Dauphin Island, on the 7th of March, where a siege train was organized, consisting of seven batteries of the First Indiana Artillery, two of the Sixth Michigan, and one of Mack's Eighteenth New York. The cavalry marched overland from New Orleans. At the middle of March, every thing was in readiness for an attack on Mobile, with from twenty-five thousand to thirty thousand troops, composed of the Thirteenth and Sixteenth Corps, Knipe's cavalry division, and a brigade of cavalry, a division of infantry, and another of negro troops, under General Steele, at Barrancas. The West Gulf Squadron, commanded by Rear-Admiral Thatcher, was there, to co-operate. • February. 2 Mobile was so strongly fortified, that a direct attack upon it on the western side of the bay, was deemed too hazardous, and involved a protracted siege; it was therefore determined to flank the post by a movement of the main army up the eastern shore, and in concert with the navy, seize the fortifications on the islands and main land at the head of the bay, and then approach Mobile by way of Tensas River, or one of the channels above the city. For this purpose, a point on Fish River, that empties into Bon Secour Bay, north of Mobile Point, was chosen as the place of rendezvous for the troops, and a base of operations, at a distance of not more than twenty miles from Spanish Fort, the heaviest of the fortifications to be attacked.3 That movement was begun on the 17th, when the March. Thirteenth Corps marched from Fort Morgan, on Mobile Point, and made its way slowly over a swampy region in heavy rains, consuming 1 See page 252. The Twenty-ninth and Thirty-third Iowa, Fiftieth Indiana, Twenty-seventh, Twenty-eighth and Thirtyfifth Wisconsin, and Seventy-seventh Ohio. 3 The old Spanish Fort, erected when the Spaniards had possession of Mobile, was a rectangular bastioned work on a bluff commanding Blakely River and its vicinity The works known as Spanish Fort, erected by the Confederates, extended along the bluff nearly two miles, and included two other works, known, respectively. as Red Fort and Fort Alexis, or Dermett. These works were calculated for 36 guns, and a garrison of 2,500 men ADVANCE OF THE NATIONAL FORCES. 509 five or six days in the tedious and perilous journey. The Sixteenth Corps was already at the appointed rendezvous; having crossed the bay in transports from Fort Gaines to Danley's Ferry. Meanwhile, a feint on Mobile was made to attract attention while the main body was concentrating at Fish River. This was done by Moore's brigade of the Sixteenth Corps, which landed, with artillery, on Cedar Point, on the west side of the bay, under fire of the squadron. They drove away the Confederate occupants of the Point, and followed them to Fowle River, where the pursuers were ordered to cross the bay and rejoin the corps, which they did on the 23d. The movement had created much uneasiness in Mobile, for Moore's force was reported there to be from four thousand to six thousand strong. March, 1865. While these movements were in progress on the borders of the bay, General Steele, with Hawkins's division of negro troops, and Lucas's cavalry, had been marching from Pensacola to Blakely, ten miles north of Mobile, destroying, on the way, the railroad at Pollard, and inducing the belief that Canby's real objective was Montgomery, and not Mobile. He encountered very little opposition, excepting from squads of Confederate cavalry. These fell back before him, until he reached Pringle's Creek, where he had a sharp fight with about eight hundred Alabama cavalry, under General Clanton. These were routed by a charge, with a loss of about two hundred of their number killed and wounded, and two hundred and seventy-five made prisoners. Among the latter was their leader. Steele found very little opposition after that until he reached the front of Blakely," where he received supplies from General Canby, sent in seventyfive wagons in charge of General J. C. Veatch. 1 * March 25. April 1. On the 25th of March, the Thirteenth and Sixteenth Corps advanced from Fish River, on Mobile, up the east side of the bay, along the Belle Rose and Blakely roads, which were made perilous by torpedoes, that killed several men and horses. They met with skirmishers only, and on the next day were in the neighborhood of Spanish Fort, seven miles due east from Mobile. Canby perceived the necessity of reducing this work before passing on to Blakely; and, on the following morning," before 4 March 27. ten o'clock, it was completely invested, on the land side. The divisions of Carr and McArthur, of the Sixteenth Corps, were, at first, on the right, the extreme of the former resting on Bayou Minette, and Benton's division of the Thirteenth Corps, was on the left, its extreme touching at Belle Rose. The remainder of the Sixteenth Corps seriously. threatened Blakeley. Steele came up a few days afterward and joined that corps, and his troops then formed the extreme right in front of Blakely. Thatcher's squadron had moved up the bay parallel with the army, as far as the shallow water would allow, to assist in reducing the fort and cutting it off from communication with Mobile. Spanish Fort was garrisoned by nearly three thousand men of Hood's late army, under General R. L. Gibson. It was soon found that Spanish Fort proper, with its near neighbors and dependents, Red Fort and Fort Alexis, were stout adversaries to contend with, and were ready and willing to give blow for blow. As the day advanced, collisions became warmer and warmer; and, before sunset, there 510 • March 28, 1865. ATTACK ON SPANISH FORT. a was a tremendous cannonade from besiegers and besieged, and the gunboats of both parties, which was kept up all night, and afforded a magnificent spectacle for the citizens of Mobile. Then a siege was formally begun. Canby had established his lines at distances of three hundred and four hundred yards from the fort, and at that short range, pounded it unmercifully. The siege continued a fortnight, during which time the greatest gallantry and fortitude were displayed on both sides. Every day the Nationals mounted new pieces of heavy caliber, until, at length, no less than sixteen mortars, twenty heavy guns, and six field-pieces were brought to bear upon the fort. The gun-boat Cherokee got within range of the works at the beginning, and, at intervals throughout the siege, hurled a 100-pound shell into the fort. The squadron did good service, not only in shelling the works, but in driving the Confederate vessels so far toward the city, that their fire failed to reach the besiegers. The National vessels kept up a steady fire all day, and retired at night to anchorage at Great Point Clear. In these operations of the squadron, two of the gunboats (Milwaukee and Osage) were destroyed by torpedoes. When, on the 3d of April, the Nationals had built an earth-work and mounted large guns upon it within two hundred yards of the fort, the latter was completely and closely invested, and its doom was sealed. Yet the garrison fought bravely on, and the besiegers suffered greatly from the shells, for the lines were at short range from the fort. At length Canby determined to make a grand assault by a concentric fire from all his heavy guns, his field-pieces, and the gun-boats, and, if necessary, by the troops. This was begun toward sunset on the 8th of April, and soon afterward, two companies of the Eighth Iowa, Colonel Bell, of Gedde's brigade of Carr's division, were sent as pickets and sharp-shooters, to gain a crest near the fort, intrench, and pick off the Confederate artillerists. This was done gallantly, in the face of a brisk fire, for General Gibson had doubled his line of sharp-shooters. They were Texans, brave and skillful, and stoutly disputed the advance of the Iowa men. But the latter pressed on, gained the prescribed point, but had to fight instead of digging. Bell saw this, and first sent one company to their aid. Then, seeing his brave men in great peril, he led the remainder of his regiment to their assistance. He found the place they were holding too hot to be comfortable. To retreat would be fatal; so he gallantly charged over their works, fought the Texans desperately, and finally, after a severe struggle in the dark, overpowered them. Then the victors swept along the rear, capturing men and portions of the works, until about three hundred yards of the intrenchments was in their possession, with three stands of colors and three hundred and fifty prisoners. This gallant exploit determined Gibson to evacuate the fort, for it was evidently no longer tenable. Its fire, in response to the continued bombardment, became more and more feeble, and, before midnight, ceased altogether. Other troops pressed into the works, and by a little past two o'clock in the morning, Bertram's brigade entered it without opposition, and was ordered to garrison it. So ended THE SIEGE OF SPANISH FORT. A greater portion of the garrison had escaped. About six hundred of them were made prisoners; and the spoils of victory were Spanish . ⚫ April 9. |