FT. Morgan from the history books and again in 1991

[Niner]

Ft. Morgan is one of two masonry forts that were created to guard the mouth of Mobile Bay. During the Civil War Admiral Farragut had to pass the forts to get into the bay. Morgan was larger and closer to the channel and got most of the action. Morgan held out for three weeks after the Union ships were safely in the bay and the Yankees began a ground assault.

There are existing photos of the Fort right after the battle. They reside someplace in Washington DC. However a number of them were published over the years. A few were in an epic multi book series done of many samples of Civil war photos in 1911 called The Photographic History of the Civil War. There is also the National Historical Societies effort under Bell I. Wiley with a few slightly different photos a few decades later. The best collection of Morgan historic photos were published by Caldwell Delaney in his book Confederate Mobile and includes all the ones published before plus a few that were never published before.

Back in 1991 I took a notion to scan some of the photos from the collections mentioned and go on a photo adventure. I printed the scans and took my film camera at the time, a Pentax SLR, the exact one I can't remember, and took the hour road trip from my home to see if I could line up some NOW shots of the same book photos. I recently shared them with a Civil War page on facebook that is concerned with the Civil War in this area where I live. In some photos the later additions, around WWI, of concrete disappearing heavy gun batteries shorten the view. On the other hand, the octagon brick building in the center of the fort, which had been heavily damaged was torn down shortly after the hostilities ended in the Civil War. I could only aim across the now parade ground in the direction of where that structure was. Here are the photos I shared.

[Niner Delta]

Very interesting, I find Civil War photos fascinating. Good job recreating them.

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[Aughnanure]

Thanks for those photos, very interesting.

[Niner]

Here are a few more that I didn't take the later day photos to match.