In the summer of 1864, the fighting once again came to Alabama. Since the early years of the war, Alabamians had been preoccupied with protecting the port of Mobile. After New Orleans fell, the Alabama Legislature determined that “the City of Mobile shall never be surrendered; that it should be defended from street to street, from house to house, and inch by inch, until if taken, the victors’ spoils shall be alone a heap of ashes.” Attempting to protect the city and its port against Union attack, the Confederate military had braced the existing Forts—Morgan and Gaines—while building an additional stronghold, Fort Powell.
On February 17, 1864, the H. L. Hunley, a Confederate submarine, sank the USS Housatonic in the Charleston Harbor. It was a mixed victory for the Confederate navy. The Mobile Daily Tribune reported that an “object, just on the edge of the water, was discovered astern of the ship. In an instant the cable was slipped, the alarm sounded, and all hands sent…to quarters, but before the ship had made any headway the torpedo exploded under her starboard quarter.”
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Becoming Alabama:
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