Combat· American Civil War
Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely Attack
The last major engagement of the Confederate States Marine Corps.
As the Union closed in on Mobile in the spring of 1865, the city's chief defenses, Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely on the eastern shore, came under a joint army and navy assault. Confederate Marine guards served the ships of the Mobile squadron supporting the defense, the Nashville, Morgan, and Baltic, under the senior Confederate Marine officer, Lieutenant David Raney; Sergeant Martin Moore led thirty Marines aboard the Baltic. The Union navy pressed the attack at heavy cost, losing vessels to mines, and Spanish Fort fell on 8 April, Blakely the next day, just as Lee was surrendering at Appomattox far to the northeast. The references give no Confederate Marine casualty figure for the action. It was the corps' final stand in conventional combat, a last fight for a cause already collapsing.
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Record no. 440