Siege of Fort Gaines

Fort Gaines is a historic fort on Dauphin Island, Alabama, United States. It was named for Edmund Pendleton Gaines. Established in 1821, it is best known for its role in the Battle of Mobile Bay during the American Civil War. Exhibits include the huge anchor from USS Hartford, Admiral David Farragut's flagship on which he gave his world-famous command, "Damn the torpedoes – full speed ahead!" The fort also has the original cannons used in the battle, five pre-Civil War brick buildings in the interior courtyard, operational blacksmith shop and kitchens, tunnel systems to the fortified corner bastions, and similar features. A museum details the history of this period, as well as the French colonial presence beginning in the late 17th century. The fort was partially modernized for the Spanish–American War. It is a tourist destination with tours and historical reenactment events. The site is considered to be one of the nation's best-preserved Civil War era masonry forts and has been nominated for listing as a National Historic Landmark. Significant masonry damage had been sustained during hurricanes and tropical storms during its lifetime. Though this damage has been largely repaired, the fort continues to be under threat from erosion. The fort sits on the east end of Dauphin Island, only feet from the Gulf of Mexico. Ongoing erosional losses of sand dunes and beach total up to 10 feet per year. For these reasons, the Civil War Preservation Trust placed Fort Gaines on its History Under Siege listing on March 18, 2009. The listing identifies the ten most endangered Civil War battlefields in the United States. Additionally it was placed on the list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2011.

Dauphin Island Air Force Station is a closed United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station. It is located 1.9 miles (3.1 km) east of Dauphin Island, Alabama, near historic Fort Gaines (Alabama). It was closed in 1980. Beginning in September 1982, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) acquired part of the facility. Today the site is part of the Joint Surveillance System (JSS), designated by NORAD as Eastern Air Defense Sector (EADS) Ground Equipment Facility J-12 with an ARSR-2 radar.

The Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL) is Alabama's primary marine education and research center. DISL is the home site of the Marine Environmental Sciences Consortium and was founded by an act of the Alabama State Legislature in 1971. It also has a public aquarium specializing in estuarine organisms, the George F. Crozier Estuarium. The facilities are located on the East end of Dauphin Island, and occupy grounds formerly owned by the US Air Force for the 693rd Radar Squadron. It is located next to the historic Fort Gaines.

The Audubon Bird Sanctuary is a bird sanctuary on the eastern side of Dauphin Island, Alabama, measuring 164 acres (66 ha). The island is an important stop for many bird migrations, as it is often the first land birds encounter when crossing the Gulf of Mexico. The island was dedicated as an Important Bird Area due to this fact. The sanctuary itself, created in 1961, features a wide variety of landforms, including a freshwater lake, swamp, pine forest, and dunes. The trail system, spanning three miles, was designated as a National Recreation Trail in 2012.

The Battle of Mobile Bay of August 5, 1864, was a naval and land engagement of the American Civil War in which a Union fleet commanded by Rear Admiral David G. Farragut, assisted by a contingent of soldiers, attacked a smaller Confederate fleet led by Admiral Franklin Buchanan and three forts that guarded the entrance to Mobile Bay: Morgan, Gaines and Powell. Farragut's order of "Damn the torpedoes! Four bells. Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full speed!" became famous in paraphrase, as "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" The battle was marked by Farragut's seemingly-rash but successful run through a minefield that had just claimed one of his ironclad monitors, enabling his fleet to get beyond the range of the shore-based guns. This was followed by a reduction of the Confederate fleet to a single vessel, ironclad CSS Tennessee. Tennessee proceeded to engage the entire Northern fleet. Tennessee's armor enabled her to inflict more injury than she received, but she could not overcome the imbalance in numbers. She was eventually reduced to a motionless hulk and surrendered, ending the battle. With no Navy to support them, the three forts also surrendered within days. Complete control of lower Mobile Bay thus passed to the Union forces. Mobile had been the last important port on the Gulf of Mexico east of the Mississippi River remaining in Confederate possession, so its closure was the final step in completing the blockade in that region. This Union victory, together with the capture of Atlanta, was extensively covered by Union newspapers and was a significant boost for Abraham Lincoln's bid for re-election three months after the battle. This battle concluded as being the last naval engagement in the state of Alabama in the war. It would also be Admiral Farragut's last known engagement.

The Dauphin Island School (also known as the Little Red Schoolhouse) is a historic former school building on Dauphin Island, Alabama. The school was built in 1931 to replace a one-room schoolhouse that was built in 1898 and burned in 1929. Originally sited on the east end of the island, it was moved to the western side in 1956. The structure has a central hallway with two classrooms on either side (one of the classrooms was later repurposed into the principal's office and a conference room) and two restrooms at the rear. A 1991 addition included a library and cafeteria. The school remained in use until 2016. It was relocated closer to its original site the next year, and today serves as a welcome center, museum, and library. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.

Dauphin Island is an island town in Mobile County, Alabama, United States, on a barrier island of the same name, in the Gulf of Mexico. It incorporated in 1988. The population was 1,778 at the 2020 census, up from 1,238 at the 2010 census. The town is part of the Mobile metropolitan area. The island (originally named Massacre Island) was renamed for Louis XIV of France's great-grandson and heir, the dauphin, the future Louis XV of France. The name of the island is often mistaken as Dolphin Island; the word dauphin is French for dolphin, but historically, the term was used as the title of the heir apparent to the French monarch.The island is one of the Mississippi–Alabama barrier islands, with the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and the Mississippi Sound and Mobile Bay to the north. The island's eastern end helps define the mouth of Mobile Bay. The eastern, wider portion of the island is shaded by thick stands of pine trees and saw palmettos, but the narrow, western part of the island features scrub growth and few trees. Dauphin Island is home to Fort Gaines, Dauphin Island Sea Lab, the Estuarium public aquarium, the Dauphin Island Airport, boat ramps, a large public pier that sits on dry land, historic sites, several restaurants, new condominium developments, and numerous private homes. Beaches attract tourism, and fishing is a popular activity in the waters around the island. The island is connected to the mainland by the Gordon Persons Bridge. Although the island has several bird sanctuaries, the main one is the 164-acre (66 ha) Audubon Bird Sanctuary. Because Dauphin Island is the first land encountered by many birds as they migrate north from South America, many species can be found resting there before continuing their journey. In May 2012, the central public beach began charging for access. This marked the second beach on the island to charge the public following the creation of the privately owned West End Beach.

USS Tecumseh was a Canonicus-class monitor built for the United States Navy during the American Civil War. Although intended for forthcoming operations against Confederate fortifications guarding Mobile Bay with Rear Admiral David Farragut's West Gulf Blockading Squadron, Tecumseh was temporarily assigned to the James River Flotilla in April 1864. The ship helped to plant obstacles in the river and engaged Confederate artillery batteries in June. Tecumseh was sunk on 5 August during the Battle of Mobile Bay when she struck a mine. The ship capsized and rests upside down northwest of Fort Morgan. The Smithsonian Institution surveyed her wreck in 1967 with the intent of raising it, but ultimately decided against the project when proffered funding was withdrawn. Several other plans to raise the wreck have been made, but all have fallen through.

Mobile Point is the apex of a long, low, narrow, sandy peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico on the south and Bon Secour Bay and Navy Cove on the north. The point is the eastern limit of the entrance into Mobile Bay, which it partially encloses. It is located in Baldwin County, Alabama. At its western tip is Fort Morgan, which faces Fort Gaines sitting across the inlet to the Mobile Bay, on Dauphin Island. Along the point is the unincorporated community of Fort Morgan, Alabama.

The Mobile Point Range Lights were a series of lighthouses at the entrance to Mobile Bay, at Mobile Point on the tip of the Fort Morgan peninsula, near Mobile, Alabama, United States. The first lighthouse was built as a landfall light by June 1822 at a cost of $9,995. The lighthouse was a conical brick masonry tower, 40 feet (12 m) tall. It was first lit on 29 September 1822. Fort Morgan was built adjacent to the lighthouse in 1833. The lighthouse was joined by the 200-foot (61 m) Sand Island Light across the mouth of the bay, about 3 miles (4.8 km) away in 1858. This resulted in the Mobile Point Lighthouse being downgraded to a harbor light, at the same time a fourth order Fresnel lens was installed. A period photograph (see infobox), taken prior to the American Civil War, shows two shorter masonry towers standing on the beach below the main tower, they served as range lights. The lighthouse was subsequently destroyed by cannonball fire in the Battle of Mobile Bay during the Civil War.After the war, a temporary wooden tower was built and the Fresnel lens, having survived the destruction of the old tower, was transferred to this structure. A 30-foot (9.1 m) iron lattice-work tower was built, along with a new light keepers house, in 1872 as a replacement and the Fresnel lens was transferred to it. It was lit on 15 February 1872. The lighthouse was deactivated in 1966 and the lens was put on display in the Fort Morgan Museum. A radio style skeletal tower was built to replace the original structure. The new tower stands 120 feet (37 m) tall. The 1873 tower was dismantled in 1979 and later partially restored near the entrance to the Fort Morgan museum. In 2003 the Alabama Historical Commission had the lighthouse dismantled, transported and stored under contract with Robinson Iron Works, a company located in Alabama that specializes in cast iron restoration. As of August 2007, no restoration had been undertaken or funded by the Alabama Historical Commission or any state body. It is currently in storage at Robinson Iron Works awaiting restoration funding.

Fort Morgan, also known as Fort Bowyer, is an unincorporated community in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States. It is west of Gulf Shores on Mobile Point. Mobile Point extends from Gulf Shores to the west, towards historic Fort Morgan at the tip of the peninsula.

The siege of Fort Morgan occurred during the American Civil War, as part of the battle for Mobile Bay, in the Confederate state of Alabama during August 1864. Union ground forces led by General Gordon Granger conducted a short siege of the Confederate garrison at the mouth of Mobile Bay under the command of General Richard L. Page. The Confederate surrender helped shut down Mobile, Alabama, as an effective Confederate port city.