Page 593
Page 593
565
299
If the map of this coast attached to the "Index" be examined, or even an ordinary map, it will be seen that conditions more or less resembling that above described extend all the way from Appalchicola Bay to the Rio Grande, and the completed projects of the Engineers will ultimately make an uninterrupted internal communication along the whole line.
We have already referred to this internal line in the remarks on communications, and to alter- native channels, in speaking of Charleston and Savannah; and along the whole Mexico Gulf coast there results this state of affairs, that where places may be approached perpendicularly by a more or less suitable ship-channel, they may often be by more than one-New Orleans by several—and also laterally, on both east and west, by various boat-channels; all questions of blockade, attack and defence, thus becoming most complicated.
We may here say a word on alternative communications, which will be the more emphatic as the South is supposed to be comparatively deficient in them.
Between Pensacola, Mobile, and New Orleans, there are—
1. The communication by sea.
2. The more or less perfect internal communication through the Mississipi Sound.
3. The shore railway.
4. The railway further back through Montgomery, Jackson, &c., besides other alternative
lines.
5. The Upper Alabama is being rapidly improved, and will no doubt ultimately be connected
by canals with the Tennessee, and so with the Mississippi.
Pensacola is the only navy yard in the Gulf of Mexico.
Value of stores, 2,879,000 dollars.
Pensacola Bay has rare properties as a harbour; the bar is near the coast, and the channel through it is straight and easily hit; the harbour is perfectly land-locked, and the roadstead very capacious, &c.
Actual forts :—
Fort Pickens is a casemated work; with Fort Barrancas and the proposed new batteries near the site of Fort McRee, it constitutes the defences of the town and harbour of Pensacola and the navy yard at Warrington; partly modified for modern requirements, but incom- plete; later plans for heavy guns and earthen batteries awaiting funds.
Fort Barrancas and redoubt on the north bank of the entrance, commanding the ship-channel;
modifications for modern guns incomplete.
Plans for construction of exterior battery for heavy guns on the bluff west of the fort pre-
pared, but no funds.
Fort McRee, on the west side of the main ship-channel; a ruin since the late war; plans for
construction of batteries for heaviest modern guns on old site, but no funds.
Perdido Bay, near Pensacola, is undefended.
State of Alabama.
This is a very short coast, and only three positions have been proposed for it.
The harbour expenditure from public funds has been considerable, 1,100,000 dollars on Mobile Harbour and the Alabama River; large expenditure continues for deepening the channels to 17 feet.
The coast of Alabama is classed in 1870 Census as thinly populated and poor.
Sailors, 484; fishermen, 174; raftsmen, 784; shipwrights, 81.
Old census, 996,000; new, 1,300,000.
Organized militia, no returns; unorganized, 170,000.
Actual forts:-
Defences of Mobile, one of the greatest cotton depôts :-
Fort Morgan, eastern entrance of Mobile Bay; casemated fort, situated at Mobile Point on the east side of the ship-channel to Mobile Bay; it commands this channel from the outer bar to the lower anchorage, and forms, with Fort Gaines on the west side of the channel, the outer line of defences to the harbour and port; its site is of importance; of little value in its present condition; sea-walls suffering from sea- wash; plans for new earthen batteries for heavy guns unfinished; awaiting funds.
Fort Gaines, Dauphin Island, co-operates with Fort Morgan opposite; needs complete modi-
fication to adapt it for heavy modern guns; suffering from sea-wash,
State of Mississipi.
The coast of Mississipi is short, and the Engineer plans have only designed one fort on it, on Ship Island.
The expenditure on harbours is small-200,000 dollars-the rivers of Mississipi proper being insignificant, the mouth of the great river being in Louisiana.
The coast of Mississipi was classed in 1870 as very thinly populated and very poor.
Appendix No. 9.
UNITED STATES.
Sailors, 316; fishermen, 55; raftsmen, 343; shipwrights, 10.
Organized militia, 910: unorganized, 135,000.
The one fort will be better considered with Louisiana.
[1103]
Page 593
7 E
Page 593
Page 593