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 General Granger landed at Navy Cove with an overwhelming force, and after approaches, run gradually closer from day to day, by the 22d Fort Morgan was completely invested by army and navy. The discipline of the garrison continued perfect, standing the test of an unbroken bombardment, whose thunders were heard at Mobile, thirty miles away. Many shells were thrown into the fort, the citadel fired, and at last the walls were breached in several places. Further defence was impossible, and after spending a night in destroying everything capable of destruction General Page surrendered.

General J. E. Johnston is said to have pronounced Mobile the best fortified city in the Confederacy. If the fortifications on or near the Tensaw River could be taken, however, transports, if not vessels of the fleet, could be sent behind the torpedoes and obstructions to the city wharves.

Therefore Canby, with forty-five thousand troops, including a column under Steele from Pensacola, undertook to overcome about five thousand Confederates in Spanish Fort, which was named from the bastion built by Galvez almost a century before. Randall L. Gibson,