Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/706

 688 MOBILE POINT MOCKING BIRD the remainder of the fleet. They at once en- countered the confederate fleet, which after a sharp conflict was destroyed or captured ; the most formidable vessel, the ram Tennessee, did not surrender until a 15-inch shot had pene- trated her armor, her steering apparatus had been disabled, and the commander of the fleet, Admiral Buchanan, seriously wounded. The Union loss in this engagement was 52 killed, 170 wounded, and 113 drowned. The confed- erate loss in the fleet was 10 killed and 19 wounded; in the two forts, 8 killed and 21 wounded. Fort Gaines, with 800 men, sur- rendered on the 8th. Fort Morgan was at once besieged; it was bombarded and almost entirely destroyed on the 22d, and surrendered on the morning of the 23d. Late in March, 1865, Spanish Fort and Blakely, fortified places on the eastern shore of the bay and Tensas river, were invested by a force of 45,000 men, under -Gens. Granger, Steele, and A. J. Smith. These forts were carried by assault on the 8th and 9th of April, 4,000 prisoners being cap- tured, while heavy losses were sustained by the besiegers. Mobile being thus exposed to at- tack from the river, it was evacuated by the confederates on the llth, and occupied by the Union troops next day. MOBILE POINT, the apex of a long, low, narrow, sandy peninsula between the gulf of Mexico on the south and Bon Secours bay and' Navy cove on the north. The point is the eastern limit of the entrance into Mobile bay. It is the site of Fort Morgan, built in the place of Fort Bowyer, famous for the repulse of an attack by the British, Sept. 14, 1814. The fort, which was very imperfectly constructed, was commanded by Major Lawrence, with a garrison of only 130, including men and offi- cers, and 20 pieces of artillery. It was at- tacked by a squadron of two sloops of war and two brigs, assisted by 600 Indians on land, with whom were associated 130 marines from the ships. The attack continued for three hours, when the enemy were repulsed, with the loss of the Hermes, Commodore Percy's flag ship, which ran aground and was burned, and 232 men killed and wounded. Eight of the garrison were killed. After the battle of New Orleans, Fort Bowyer was again invested by the whole British force, and Lawrence sur- rendered, Feb. 12, 1815. (See MOBILE.) MO Blis. I. August Ferdinand, a German mathe- matician, born at Schulpforta, near Naumburg, Nov. 17, 1790, died in Leipsic, Sept. 26, 1868. He graduated at the university of Leipsic in 1815, and was a professor there for 50 years. He remodelled the observatory, and in his Der larycentrische Calcul, ein neues Hulfsmittel eur analytischen Behandlung der Geometric (Leipsic, 1827), established the new principle of the affinities of figures. His Lehrbuch der Statik (2 vols., 1837) gives a comprehensive account of the intimate connection between statics and geometry. His most celebrated astronomical works' are Die Elemente der Mechanik des Himmels (1843), and Die Haupt- sdtze der Astronomie (4th ed., 1860). II. Theodor, a German philologist, son of the pre- ceding, born in Leipsic, June 22, 1821. He graduated at Leipsic in 1852, and in 1859 be- came professor of Scandinavian languages and literature there. In 1865 he accepted a sim- ilar position at Kiel. He has edited many old Norse works. III. Paul Heinrieh August, a Ger- man author, brother of the preceding, born in Leipsic, May 31, 1825. He studied theology and philosophy, and became a teacher in Leip- sic and a preacher at the church of the univer- sity. From 1853 to 1865 he was director of an educational institution for booksellers, and subsequently of one of the principal schools in Leipsic. His miscellaneous writings include stories, poetry, and a tragedy, and Katechis- mus der deutscJien Liter aturgeschichte (Leip- sic, 1857 ; 4th ed., 1871). MOCANNA, or Mokanna. See ATHA BEN HAKEM. MOCHA, or Mokha, a seaport of Arabia, for- merly the capital of the province of Yemen, on the Red sea, at the head of a little bay near the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, 130 m. N. W. of Aden; pop. about 7,000. The roadstead is protected only by two narrow spits of sand, on one of which is a castellated fort and on the other an insignificant battery. Vessels draw- ing 12 ft. of water can enter it. The houses are generally of coral rock or sun-baked brick whitewashed, but in the suburbs they are circu- lar huts built of date-tree matting, with conical roofs. There are three suburbs, one occupied by Abyssinian mariners and Mohammedan tra- ders, one by Arab laborers, and one by Jews. The chief public edifices are the mosques, one of which is very large. Mocha is celebrated for its coffee, the annual export of which, though much less than in former times, was recently still about 10,000 tons. Other articles of trade are dates, gums, balm, ivory, and senna. The growth of Hodeida and Aden has injured the prosperity of Mocha, and its commerce has de- creased greatly in late years. MOCHt ANA. See BECHUANA. MOCKING BIRD, an American passerine bird, of the subfamily mimin, and genus mimus (Boie). The subfamily includes the catbird, brown thrush, and nearly 20 other mockers, arranged by Gray under the single genus mi- mus, but subdivided by Cabanis and others into nearly as many genera as species. The re- stricted genus mimus has the bill shorter than the head, slightly curved from the base, and notched at the tip ; the gape furnished with bristles ; lower jaw with no longitudinal ridges ; wings moderate and rounded, with the first quill very short, the second longer, and from the third to the seventh nearly equal and long- est ; tail long and graduated ; tarsi longer than the middle toe, robust, and covered in front with broad scales ; toes long, with sharp curved claws. The size is large, and the general ap- pearance thrush-like. The species of this genus