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506]
Chapter 19: the repossession of Alabama by the Government.
- Preparation of an expedition against Mobile, 506.
-- fortifications around Mobile, 507.
-- gathering of troops at New Orleans, 508.
-- advance of the National forces, 509.
-- attack on Spanish Fort, on Mobile Bay, 510.
-- fortifications at Blakely, 511.
-- battle of Blakely, 512.
-- evacuation of Mobile by the Confederates, 513.
-- an important cavalry expedition organized, 514.
-- its triumphant March through Alabama, 515.
-- it moves on Selma, 516.
-- capture of Selma, 517.
-- destruction of property in Selma, 518.
-- capture of Montgomery and Columbus, 519.
-- La Grange's expedition to West Point
-- capture of Fort Tyler, 520.
-- Croxton's destructive raid, 521.
-- the author's journey from Savannah to Montgomery, 522.
-- a day at Montgomery
-- the State capital, 523.
-- at Selma, Mobile, and New Orleans, 524.
-- departure for Port Hudson and Vicksburg, 525.
The 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.
1 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.
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. Leadbetter2 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-Colonel 
