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North View of St. Louis Wharf, Mobile - Showing one of the principal wharves for the unlading of cotton and other articles; some of the stores and warehouses appear on the right and the shipping in the distance. '''
After New Orleans, Mobile was the most important port on the Gulf coast for the Confederacy. When New Orleans fell in the spring of 1862, Mobile became the most important port on the Gulf coast.
There were a number of reasons for this port’s value. Mobile Bay was an embayment running in a north-south direction, with a narrow mouth at the south end, guarded by Forts Morgan and Gaines (which were both under construction at the beginning of the Civil War). The City of Mobile lay at the northern end of the bay. Any naval assault on the city would have to pass through the mouth, run the gauntlet past the forts, and then up the bay to the city. Two major river systems, the Tombigbee and Alabama Rivers, converged at Mobile and provided river access to the interior. Mobile itself had a foundery and ship building facilities, and upriver the City of Selma had additional industrial capability.
In addition, several major railroad lines linked Mobile to other parts of the Confederacy, and provided the main link between the eastern and western portions of the CSA. Mobile’s rail connections proved to be of immense military value to the Confederacy, enabling the movement of troops to critical areas where and when they were needed. Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, when he was garrisoning Pensacola, Florida, considered the ability to easily move troops by rail between Mobile and Pensacola, “worth 3,000 men at each end.”
Mobile was among the last major southern cities to fall at the end of the war. Yet, this defeat had no influence on the ultimate outcome of the war, as by 1865 (when the city was taken), the war was already won by the North. If the city has been taken earlier in the war (say, in 1862), historians estimate that this would have ended the war much sooner than it ultimately did. Interestingly, it seems both northern and southern leadership acknowledged the importance of Mobile and Mobile Bay, but both sides did not allocate the military resources to take or defend the city.
Through much of the war, Mobile remained an important port for blockade running, bringing critically needed supplies into the Confederacy and distributing them to where they were needed.
Publisher: John Bachman
Excerpts from the Mobile Register for 1861.
MOBILE REGISTER AND
ADVERTISER, October 1, 1861, p. 2, c. 3
[From
the Southern Republic.]
Hay, Hay, Hay.
. . . Hay at the
present time in Mobile and New Orleans, is worth from forty to fifty dollars a
ton, and will be much higher, unless a large amount should be saved by planters
for shipment.
Now is the best time to save hay, while the grass is tender and
nutritious; and it should not be pulled up, as has been the custom here; but
mowed, and fully cured before being stacked or housed.
In corn fields the stalks should be cut down or pulled up and laid in
heaps, or removed from the ground; by so doing one hand with a good mowing
scythe could average a thousand pounds a day, which would pay better at twenty
dollars a ton than picking cotton. For
one I can assure planters that they need have no fears of saving too much, or of
glutting the market. During the
commercial year ending September, 1860, forty one thousand one hundred and
ninety-four bales (41,194) were shipped to Mobile alone, making over ten
thousand tons, and amounting at the lowest price at that market to something
over two hundred thousand dollars.
Again, aside from money, patriotism should influence our planters to save all the hay they
possibly can; because it will be needed by our armies, not only for horses, but
also as bedding for the soldiers during the approaching winter.
For this one purpose alone a large amount will be needed.
I know not how it is at all places where soldiers are stationed--at Fort
Morgan each soldier is allowed fifteen pounds of hay a month for bedding, and
this alone will amount to seven and a half tons per month for that post alone.
The planter then by saving hay will add greatly to the comfort of
soldiers, and probably be the means of saving the life of many during the
approaching winter. Let us then
carry out the indications of providence, and God will bless us.
W. Spillman.
Columbus, Miss., Sept. 14th, 1861.
MOBILE REGISTER AND
ADVERTISER, October 2, 1861, p. 1, c. 5
Fighting Population of the South.--The New York Herald of the 14th
compiles from the United States census of 1860 the number of men in the seceded
States between the ages of 18 and 45, which we presume is about correct:
Alabama................................106,000
Arkansas.................................65,000
Florida.....................................16,000
Georgia..................................119,000
Louisiana..................................74,000
Mississippi................................71,000
North Carolina........................132,000
Tennessee...............................167,000
Texas........................................84,000
Virginia....................................221,000
South Carolina...........................60,000
Total.....................1,116,000
MOBILE REGISTER AND
ADVERTISER, October 2, 1861, p. 2, c. 3
Noteworthy.--Mrs. Tazwell Tanner, of Charlotte, N. C., whose husband is a
worthy laboring man, being called on by a committee to receive any contributions
in blankets or clothing she might feel able to give for our soldiers, promptly
and cheerfully placed at the disposal of the committee every blanket in her
possession--six in number--and insisted that they be accepted.--When advised
that she was too liberal--that she had better keep a couple for her own use, she
replied that she could make comforts and get along well enough without
them--that the brave soldiers would need them and she was glad she enjoyed the
privilege to contribute that much to their comfort
MOBILE REGISTER AND
ADVERTISER, October 9, 1861, p. 2, c. 3
An Excellent Substitute for Coffee.--For a family of seven or eight
persons, take a pint of well toasted corn meal, and add to it as much water as
an ordinary sized coffee-pot will hold, and then boil it well.
We have tried this toasted meal coffee,
and prefer it to Java or Rio, inasmuch as genuine coffee does not suit our
digestive organs, and we have not used it for years.
Many persons cannot drink coffee with impunity, and we advise all such to
try our receipt. They will find it
more nutritious than coffee and quite as palatable.--[Raleigh Register.
MOBILE REGISTER AND
ADVERTISER, October 22, 1861, p. 1, c. 7
The willow bark, the bark of the root of the wild plum, and the piperine
can be advantageously used as substitutes for quinine.
A Mr. Dance, of Texas, has made quinine from a tree common to our
Southern forest. The Houston
(Texas) Telegraph thinks it is made from the prickly ash.
In its taste it has the same long, lingering, bitter sensations that
quinine leaves.
MOBILE REGISTER AND
ADVERTISER, October 22, 1861, p. 3, c. 4
The
Style!
[great illustration]
Mrs. S. Burton
Respectfully informs the Ladies that she has on hand a good assortment of
Fall and Winter Ribbons, Feathers and Flowers.
--also--
One case very fine French Straw Bonnets, all of which will be sold at
very low prices.
As it is the intention of Mrs. B. to retire from business as soon as she
can sell out her stock, in the meantime she will pay particular attention to the
Cleaning, Dyeing and Trimming of Old Bonnets.
Punctuality and economy is the established rule of
Mrs. S. Burton, 142 Dauphin st.
North side, three doors east of Jackson, Mobile.
Confederate Bonds and Treasury Notes taken in payments of accounts due.
MOBILE REGISTER AND
ADVERTISER, October 22, 1861, p. 2, c. 3
The Clarksville (Tenn.) Chronicle says that quite a rage for closely
cropped hair has seized the young ladies of that city.
It was suggested that as the war may last, and the boys be gone a long
time, the girls want to be able to say when they come back and find them a
little antiquated: "Why, when
you went away I was a little bit of a thing with short hair!"
A pretty good dodge.
MOBILE REGISTER AND
ADVERTISER, October 31, 1861, p. 2, c. 2
Lint
for the Army.
I made a short communication to one of our newspapers last spring on this
subject, in which I gave my reasons for saying that good clean cotton wool would
answer all the purposes of lint for surgical dressings; and as there is much
valuable time wasted by our ladies in the preparation of lint, I beg leave to
allude to the matter again.
In the first place, what has been used by our Surgeons for the last ten
years under the name of patent lint, though a Yankee imposition manufactured of Cotton,
has been found to answer perfectly well.
I stated that many of the best Surgeons of Europe and this country use
cotton in preference to lint for the dressing of wounds, burns, &c., and
that I have used them indiscriminately for many years.
Dr. Chisolm, Professor of Surgery of the Charleston Medical School, has
recently published a valuable work on military surgery, in which he fully
sustains the ground I have taken.
Dr. Burggrave, the distinguished Professor of Surgery in the University
of Ghent, Belgium, has recently published a volume on the superiority of cotton
as a dressing for wounds, fractures, &c.
I see that some physician has recently recommended baling rope to be
manufactured into lint, but a moment's reflection should satisfy any one, that
the fine soft fibre of cotton must be greatly superior to this, and quite equal
to anything that can be made from flax or hemp.
The ladies of the Confederate States are laboring with such hearty good
will in our cause, and have done so much towards the relief of our brave
soldiers, that I feel a strong desire to save them as much trouble as possible,
and direct their efforts in more useful channels than that of picking lint.
J. C. Nott, M. D.
Medical Director.
Sources:
Newspaper abstracts compiled by Vicki Betts (www.uttyler.edu/vbetts/newspaper_titles.htm)
Wood Cut engraving from John Warner Barber & Henry Howe,Our Whole Country or the Past and Present of the United States....Volume II (New York: Tuttle & McCauley, 1861), 807.