View source for Fort Gaines (Alabama)

{{PageHeader|Gaines (Alabama)}}
'''Fort Gaines''' (1821-1946) - Construction on this [[Third System]] masonry fort began in 1821 but construction and funding problems prevented completion and a redesigned fort was started in the 1850's. Designed by [[Joseph G. Totten]] and named after Gen. [[Edmund P. Gaines]] in 1853. The fort was still incomplete in 1861 when the U.S. Civil War began. The fort was occupied by Confederate forces in 1861 and they finished the fort in 1862. Abandoned after World War I and reactivated during World War II it was abandoned after the end of World War II.
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File:FortGaines.jpg|Fort Gaines
File:FortGainesKatrina.jpg|Fort Gaines Flooded after Hurricane Katrina
File:Fort Gaines - 75.jpg|Fort Gaines Facing the Gulf
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== History ==
[[File:Details inside NW Bastion.jpg|thumb|left|300px|An almost full view of the interior of the northwest civil war era bastion. The access was to the far left, the entrance to the magazine is the doorway to far right]]

{{HDMobile}} Established to defend the narrow entrance to Mobile Bay, Alabama along with [[Fort Morgan (Alabama)]].
Fort Gaines was designed as a regular pentagon with bastions at each corner and ten guns mounted on each of the five walls. Each bastion was to have four flank howitzers. A thirty-five-foot wide dry moat surrounded the twenty-two foot high walls with a drawbridge for access.
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== [[U.S. Civil War]] (1861-1865) ==
[[File:MobileHarborMap 1862.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Mobile Harbor, 1862]]
[[File:Cannon.jpg|thumb|right|300px|One of the two rifled parrot guns that flank the entrance to Fort Gaines]]
At the beginning of the [[U.S. Civil War]] in 1861, the Alabama State Militia seized both Fort Gaines and [[Fort Morgan (Alabama)]] from Federal troops. Fort Gaines remained in Confederate hands until 8 Aug 1864 when it was surrendered after the Battle of Mobile Bay to a Union fleet commanded by Adm. [[David Farragut]]. The Battle of Mobile Bay was the occasion for Adm. Farragut's famous order, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!", referring to torpedoes (mines) strung across the channel into Mobile Bay.
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== [[Endicott Period]] (1890-1910) ==
In March of 1898 the fort was reactivated and garrisoned in anticipation of the [[Spanish American War]] and as a result of the explosion that sunk the Battleship Maine in Havana Harbor 15 Feb 1898. Construction began on the first [[Endicott Period]] battery in 1898. Three [[Endicott Period]] batteries were built between 1898 and 1901. The [[Spanish American War]] was quickly over but the strengthening of coastal defenses continued.
{{FortGainesEndicott}}

== [[World War I]] (1917-1918) ==
A Coastal Artillery unit manned the disappearing guns during [[World War I]]. An anti-aircraft gunnery school operated from Fort Gains during and following the war.
== [[World War II]] (1941-1945) ==
The fort was used by the Alabama National Guard and the U.S. Coast Guard during [[World War II]].

== Current Status ==
The United States sold Fort Gaines to the City of Mobile in 1926. The city in turn gave the property to the Alabama Department of Conservation, which deeded it to the Dauphin Island Park and Beach Board.

==Context==

{{Location|Eastern tip of Dauphin Island, Mobile County, Alabama.|30.248465|-88.075569|7}}
<!-- {{#display_map:
30.248465,-88.075569~ Fort Gaines ;
30.248493,-88.075102~ Battery Stanton ;
30.249573,-88.075472~ Battery Terrett }} -->
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'''See Also:'''
* [[:Category:Civil War Defenses of Mobile|Civil War Defenses of Mobile]]
* [[Spanish Fort (Alabama 1)]]
* [[Fort Blakely]]
* [[Fort Huger (Alabama)]]
* [[Fort Tracy (Alabama)]]
* [[Fort Powell (Alabama)]]
* [[Fort Morgan (Alabama)]]
* [[Spanish American War Emergency 8-Inch Seacoast Batteries]]

'''Sources:''' 
* {{Weaver}}, page 175-177
* {{Roberts}}, page 5
* {{GNIS2|ID=1984569}}

'''Links: '''
* [http://www.dauphinisland.org/fort.htm Fort Gaines]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Gaines_(Alabama) Wikipedia - Fort Gaines]
* [http://andy_bennett.home.mindspring.com/gaines.html Andy Bennett - Gulf Coast Forts]
* {{CDSGBatteryLink}}

<gallery>
File:Fort Gaines SE (w).jpg‎|Fort Gaines
File:Fort Gaines SW(w).jpg|View of parade grounds in Fort Gaines Alabama from the southwest side of Battery Staton
File:Fort Gaines SE (w).jpg|View of the parade grounds at Fort Gaines Alabama from the southeast side of Battery Staton
File:Fort Gaines Ext (w).jpg|View of the Exterior of Fort Gaines Alabama from the northwest
File:Fort Gaines.jpg|View of Parade grounds taken at Fort Gaines Al 5 Sep 2009
File:Latrine.jpg|The 10 seat latrine at Fort Gaines, looking north. The doorway is access to the Chemin de Ronde
File:Chemin.jpg‎|Looking up toward the Chemin de Ronde from the covered access to the gallery
File:Fort Gaines 1(w).jpg|The covered access from the gallery to the northwest bastion, taken from the Chemin de Ronde
File:NWBastion.jpg|Inside the Northwest bastion, looking back thru the gallery to the parade grounds
File:Fort Gaines CRF2w).jpg|A view of the CRF from outside Fort Gaines Alabama, the northwest bastion.
File:QM Qtrs.jpg|The quartermaster's Offices from the parade grounds with Battery Stanton in the background.
File:Fort Gaines looking East.jpg|Looking across the north end of the parade grounds from beside Officer quarters, to the left is the old Commandants quarters and the Guardhouse. on the far side is the old bakery and blacksmith shops
</gallery>

[[Category:Alabama Forts]]
[[Category:Third System Forts]]
[[Category:Endicott Period Forts]]
[[Category:Coastal Sites]]
[[Category:CDSG Conference 2013]]
[[Category:Civil War Defenses of Mobile]]
[[Category:World War I]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:U.S. Civil War]]
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