“If he [C.S. Gen. Richard Page] understands military science, he ought now to surrender at once.” – NY Times, Aug 24, 1864
By August of 1864, the Federal blockade had managed to shutter all but two major Confederate ports, Wilmington, N.C. and Mobile Bay, Ala. To close Mobile Bay, U.S. Adm. David Farragut and U.S. Gen Gordon Granger headed a joint land sea campaign. The Army was tasked with capturing the twin masonry fortifications positioned at the mouth of the Bay, Ft. Morgan on a spit of land known as Mobile Point, designed to guard the shipping channel and Ft. Gaines on Dauphin Island, offering sheltered anchorage.
Commanding Ft. Morgan and all Mobile Bay’s defenses was C.S. Brig. Gen. Richard Page, cousin of C.S. Gen. Robert E. Lee and former Farragut friend. On August 7th, C.S. Col. Charles Anderson, arranged for the surrender of Ft. Gaines. Page spotting the truce boat was livid. He repeatedly sent messages to Anderson via boat and telegraph: “Hold the Fort. …. Stop communicating with the enemy; all terms or stipulations made by you are annulled.” Page called the surrender, “… a deed of dishonor and disgrace to its commander and garrison.” C.S.A. President Jefferson Davis vowed to put Anderson on trial if exchanged.
“I am prepared to sacrifice life, and will only surrender when I have no means of defense,” Page messaged Farragut. During the Battle of Mobile Bay, the guns on both sides blazed as the fleet passed. “The roar of cannon was like one continuous peal of thunder, deafening to the extreme.” Page placed his hopes on Morgan’s 46 guns that were deadly at close quarters, not to the ironclads, but to the wooded-hull ships. He ignored Chief Engineer Lt. Col. Victor von Scheliha’s assessment that Morgan, “… cannot withstand a vigorous bombardment.”
To capture Mobile, Morgan had to be taken. Over the next 12 days, Morgan was shelled sporadically. The Confederates worked frantically to strengthen the crumbling walls while Granger steadily moved 16 siege guns and 14 siege mortars 200 yards from the Fort. Bricks flew as projectiles landed. The Confederate skirmishers and batteries returning fire, "appeared to be terrible full of fight."
On the 22nd, the Federals from both land and sea began to bombard Morgan “from almost every point of the compass.” On the north side, Cpt. Mark Thomson of the 20th Iowa estimated that Battery Lincoln, “with the mortars they had charge of they throwed 40 shells in an hour & 15 minutes that is about as fast as they could use four pieces."
Page reported that the barrage made it, “useless to attempt to fire my guns, as the sharp-shooters could pick off my men as fast as they would appear at the guns. This bombardment disabled all my guns, save two, partly breached the walls in several places, cutting up the fort to such an extent as to make the whole work a mere mass of débris.”
About 9:00 p.m., the pine beams of the Citadel’s roof, a large ten-sided brick and wood structure that could house 400 soldiers, caught on fire. Asked if he wished to surrender, Page replied, “Never! We will burn first, with our fort!” The fire and disintegrating walls endangered the powder magazines. Into the drinking water 60,000 pounds of cannon powder were dumped.
"This was a terrible job. The powder was in kegs, These we had to roll under the flames of the citadel and knock the heads in, then pour the contents in the cisterns. All this time the enemy kept up a continual fire from land and sea. The shells were bursting all around us. By one o'clock we had all the powder under water. There was not enough dry powder to shoot a musket," wrote Robert B. Tarpley, 1st Tenn. Heavy Artillery.
At daybreak Page with his engineer inspected the Fort. The good news, the fire had been put out. On the other hand, the guns, powder, bomb-proof, Citadel and more had been destroyed. Page was forced to acknowledge that “I had no means left of defense.” He broke his sword over his knee and had the white flag raised.