Alabama Sites

Fort Gaines Historic Site -Historical background: As Admiral Farragut's fleet of 14 frigates and four iron-clad monitors prepared to engage Forts Gaines and Morgan on August 5, 1864, Colonel Charles Anderson and his 800 Confederate troops were ordered to hold Fort Gaines at any cost. The Union monitor Tecumseh struck a torpedo and sank immediately. Seeing the screw propellers of the sinking Tecumseh turning in the air, Admiral Farragut bellowed, "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" Immediately after gaining safety in Mobile Bay, Farragut's attention turned upon Fort Gaines. On August 8, Fort Gaines surrendered.

Latest information: We have no specific damage report from this site, however the fort sits on Dauphin Island which is almost underwater completely. Latest reports show an oil rig loose in the waters off of the island.

Update 10:45 a.m. CDT 8-31-05: AP is reporting the oil platform is now beached on the "sparsely populated west end of Dauphin Island." Fort Gaines is on the east end of the island so should not be directly affected. Please comment if you have any information.


Fort Morgan: Historical background: Located across the narrow entrance to Mobile Bay from Fort Gaines. The twin facilities protected Confederate forces in Mobile for much of the length of the war, until Admiral David "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" Farragut arrived on the scene. While Gaines is on Dauphin Island, Morgan is on a narrow spit connected to land. A small community also named Fort Morgan is nearby. Fort Morgan is operated as a State Historic Site.

Latest information: Damage to the surrounding area is said by officials to be relatively light in the Orange Beach-Gulf Shores region, due in part to a beach renourishment project which built up the sand dunes.

"Right now the info we're getting is we're going to be open for business, particularly in Orange Beach, for Labor Day weekend," Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau President Herb Malone said. "We'll have limited things open in Gulf Shores and Fort Morgan, but to what extent we don't know yet."

According to the Mobile Register:

Though there is free movement across the Alabama 59 bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway and most areas have restored power, there is a roadblock at Alabama 59's intersection with Fort Morgan Road that prevents access to the beach area and another at the 6-mile marker on Fort Morgan Road because of continued impassability near the tip of the peninsula.

Mobile Area: POINT CLEAR, AL -- The Grand Hotel, built in 1847, used as a military hospital during the Civil War. Information from Mobile AL Register indicates the hotel was damaged by the hurricane but survived. The hotel will reopen when utilities and other services are restored.

Update 9-1-05: Per the Associated Press, the Grand Hotel will be closed indefinitely.

Water flooded the Marriott Grand Hotel Monday morning, bursting through the windows of the hotel's ballroom, some dining rooms and first-floor bedrooms.

General manager David Clark said off-duty state troopers are guarding the entrance to the hotel and keeping everyone off the property.