Located on Mobile Point, at the end of Scenic Fort Morgan Peninsula, is Fort Morgan State Park, a big managed complex with all the history details you never wanted to know.
The first stop lets you dive in the times of slavery and civil war, dark chapters of American history.Mobile Point Lighthouse 4th Order Fresnel Lens 1873-1966.“Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” (The Battle of Mobile Bay of August 5, 1864, was an engagement of the American Civil War in which a Union fleet commanded by Rear Admiral David G. Farragut, assisted by a contingent of soldiers, attacked a smaller Confederate fleet led by Admiral Franklin Buchanan and three forts that guarded the entrance to Mobile Bay. Farragut’s order of “Damn the torpedoes! Four bells. Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full speed!” became famous in paraphrase)Military Artillery Shells in a dungeon.This 40 cm metal ring is not a door knocker. Probably held a cannon in place.Stairs, a whole lot of them, up down the huge walls, into shelters, barracks, cannon touch holes. To the right – Gun Mount of Battery Duportail.Casemates are the arched rooms inside the fort designed as protected gun positions for the cannons but were often used for storage and living quarters.Main patio of the fort.Two flights of (steep-ish) stairs.The grassy area seen in the above picture between the tunnel and the sallyport is the dry moat – it is known as the “ditch” between the fort entrance and the glacis.On the other side of the tunnel, you arrive at the sallyport, the fort’s main entrance. Years ago I learned a design phrase that has stuck with me since. I use it in design whenever possible and love to notice it in the built environment. “At the end of every vista, there should be a reward.” As you near the end of the tunnel, the reward begins to reveal itself, the sallyport!Tunnelviews.Battery Schenck, named for First Lieutenant William Schenck who was killed in action during the Philippine Insurrection, was the second rapid fire battery constructed at Fort Morgan.
