By Alabama NewsCenter Staff
August 23, 1864
The Battle of Mobile Bay ended with the Confederate surrender of Fort Morgan. Alabama had seized the fort from federal control in January 1861 and then turned it over to Confederate forces, which, until August 1864, used it to keep the U.S. Navy out of Mobile Bay while letting blockade runners in. Mobile had risen to prominence as a major Confederate port on the Gulf of Mexico after the fall of New Orleans. The fall of Mobile Bay was a major blow to the Confederacy, and the victory was the first in a series of Yankee successes that helped secure the re-election of President Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) later that year.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.
Please visit Alabama News Center for the Full Article
