Mobile's Fort Bowyer

On April 12th, I blogged about bicentennial events happening around Mobile, Alabama, including the surrender of that city to the United States as well as the September 2014 celebration for the First Battle of Fort Bowyer.  I'd never heard of this fort, so Wikipedia here I come.

Fort Bowyer was a short-lived earthwork and stockade fort erected by the U.S. Army in 1813 at Mobile Point, near the mouth of Mobile Bay. It was twive attacked by the British during the War of 1812, failing in the first attempt and then succeeding in its capture the second time which took place after the war was over in February 1815.

Mobile was technically under Spanish control when the war broke out, but Congress soon declared it was a part of the United States after war began.

Fort Bowyer was completed by Colonel John Bowyer and initially it mounted 14 guns.

The first attack on the fort, led by Royal Navy Captain William Percy and his four ships, took place in 1814.  British sailors and Marines were landed along with some Indians, but both the land and sea attacks failed.  Losing this changed the way the British conducted the New Orleans campaign.

The second attack involved a much larger British fleet and land attack against a much-strengthened Fort Bowyer, and this one succeeded, the last land engagement of the war.  The fort and Mobile were turned over to the U.S..

The fort, however, is no longer there, having been replaced by the much stronger Fort Morgan which made a name for itself during the Civil War.  I've visited this fort and don't remember hearing anything about the former Fort Bowyer.

Stuff I Didn't Know.  --Brock-Perry