Combat· War of 1812
Capture of Mobile
Mobile was the one piece of territory the United States permanently gained in the War of 1812, and it changed hands without a fight.
In April 1813, an American force under General James Wilkinson moved against the Spanish-held port in West Florida. Marines served aboard the gunboats that supported the operation, and a storming detachment under Major Daniel Carmick was in position and ready to assault Fort Charlotte when the Spanish commandant chose to surrender rather than resist. The bloodless capture brought Mobile Bay under American control, securing the Gulf coast approach and the eastern flank of the lower Mississippi. The acquisition stuck: unlike most of the war's campaigns, which ended with the prewar boundaries restored, Mobile remained American, anticipating by six years the formal cession of the rest of West Florida under the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819.
Podcast episodes on War of 1812
Record no. 221