"Digging All Night and Fighting All Day"

The Civil War Siege of Spanish Fort and the Mobile Campaign, 1865

Paul Brueske

• Publisher: Savas Beatie
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781611217117
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

The bloody two-week siege of Spanish Fort, Alabama (March 26–April 8, 1865) was one of the final battles of the Civil War. Despite its importance and fascinating history, surprisingly little has been written about it. Many considered the fort as the key to holding the important seaport of Mobile, which surrendered to Maj. Gen. Edward R. S. Canby on April 12, 1865. Paul Brueske's "Digging All Night and Fighting All Day" The Civil War Siege of Spanish Fort and the Mobile Campaign, 1865 is the first full-length study of this subject. General U. S. Grant had long set his eyes on capturing Mobile. Its fall would eliminate the vital logistical center and put one of the final nails in the coffin of the Confederacy. On January 18, 1865, Grant ordered General Canby to move against Mobile, Montgomery, and Selma and destroy anything useful to the enemy's war effort. The reduction of Spanish Fort, along with Fort Blakeley—the primary obstacles to taking Mobile—was a prerequisite to capturing the city. After the devastating Tennessee battles of Franklin and Nashville in late 1864, many Federals believed Mobile's garrison—which included a few battered brigades and most of the artillery units from the Army of Tennessee—did not have much fight left and would evacuate the city rather than fight. They did not. Despite being outnumbered about 10 to 1, 33-year-old Brig. Gen. Randall Lee Gibson mounted a skillful and spirited defense that "considerably astonished" his Union opponents. The siege and battle that unfolded on the rough and uneven bluffs of Mobile Bay's eastern shore, fought mainly by veterans of the principal battles of the Western Theater, witnessed every offensive and defensive art known to war. Paul Brueske, a graduate student of history at the University of South Alabama, marshaled scores of primary source materials, including letters, diaries, reports, and newspaper accounts to produce an outstanding study of a little known but astonishingly important event rife with acts of heroism that rivaled any battle of the war. It will proudly occupy a space on the bookshelf of any serious student of the war.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Book Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Maps
• Preface
• Key Commanders Referenced
• Prologue
• Chapter 1: “Time Is Everything to Us Now”
• Chapter 2: “The Longer Mobile Can Be Held the Better”
• Chapter 3: “Take Mobile and Hold It”
• Chapter 4: “The Bottomless Pit of Alabama”
• Chapter 5: “Devastating Columns of Yankees”
• Chapter 6: “They Are Unlike Northern Woods”
• Chapter 7: “War Should Be Waged by Demons and Savages”
• Chapter 8: “Take the Bull by the Horns”
• Chapter 9: “A Perfect Roar”
• Chapter 10: “A Hard Nut to Crack”
• Chapter 11: “The Rebels Do Not Seem Willing to Retreat”
• Chapter 12: “Inch by Inch”
• Chapter 13: “It Beat Anything I Ever Heard or Saw”
• Chapter 14: “Until the Rebels Are Whipped”
• Epilogue
• Appendix 1: Confederate Order of Battle: Siege of Spanish Fort, March 27–April 8, 1865
• Appendix 2: Federal Order of Battle: Siege of Spanish Fort, March 27–April 8, 1865
• Appendix 3: Spanish Fort: Known Confederate Soldiers Killed in Action or Mortally Wounded
• Appendix 4: Spanish Fort: Known Federal Soldiers Killed in Action or Mortally Wounded
• Appendix 5: Confederate Vessels Operating in Upper Mobile Bay from March 15–April 12, 1865
• Appendix 6: U.S. Navy Vessels Operating in Mobile Bay from March 15–April 15, 1865
• Appendix 7: U.S. Navy Vessels Sunk by Confederate Torpedoes in Mobile Bay
• Appendix 8: Known U.S. Naval Personnel Killed in Action or Mortally Wounded
• Appendix 9: Ordnance and Principal Ordnance Stores Captured at Spanish Fort
• Appendix 10: Confederates Captured at Spanish Fort and Imprisoned at Ship Island
• Appendix 11: The Lady Slocomb
• Appendix 12: Origins of Spanish Fort
• Appendix 13: Spanish Fort Battlefield Postbellum
• Appendix 14: Summary of Events of the Siege of Spanish Fort
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author