Flats, Steamers, and Ironclads: The Impassable Confederate Defense of Mobile Bay

Summary

SEARCH, in partnership with Alabama Port Authority and other local, state, and federal agencies, conducted a maritime archaeological assessment of Mobile Bay, Alabama, including archival research and a marine remote sensing survey. As a result of this investigation, archaeologists documented numerous navigational obstructions placed in upper Mobile Bay during the American Civil War. These obstructions consist of shipwrecks, bricks, and wood pilings. This Confederate obstruction provides a unique opportunity to examine multiple vessel types of the same era in one geographic location. Previous archaeological investigations conducted on the obstruction include work by Espey, Huston and Associates in the 1980s and additional research conducted by Florida State University under the direction of David Ball in the mid-1990s. Utilizing historical documents as well as updated and improved remote sensing data, this paper provides new insight into the obstruction and rich Civil War-era maritime history of Mobile Bay. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Papers in Naval Archaeology: Privateers; Civil War Harbor Defenses, Ships and Men; and the Rise of Submarines in the Last Century   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 317