Don't Want to Lose Fort Gaines

From the June 10, 2011, Mobile (Ala) Press Register editorial "We Can't Lose Fort Gaines: Piece of the Past."

The fort is best-known for its role in the Battle of Mobile Bay "the last major naval engagement of the Civil War," as the editors called it.  That would be true if they were referring to a ship vs. ship fight, but not for ships versus fort, which would be Fort Fisher and Fort Anderson in North Carolina.

Fort Gaines is losing land to erosion at a startling rate due to fierce storms, rising water levels and dredging for the Mobile Ship Canal.

The fort made the National Trust for Historic Places' "Eleven Most-Endangered List."  In 2009 it was on the list of the Civil War Preservation Trust's Most Endangered Battlefields.

The original cannons and brickwork are "too precious to be washed into the Gulf of Mexico."  The site has already lost 400-feet of shoreline.  One possible solution is beach nourishment where clean sand from near Sand Island Lighthouse could be hauled in.

Let's Hope It Is Saved.  --Old B-Runner