What are facts about the Mobile Confederate port during the US Civil War?

Mobile or Mobile Bay was one of the most important Confederate ports where the blockade runners could found shelter and a powerful naval base.

The entrance to Mobile bay was defended by three forts, a line of floating obstructions and a field of submarine mines (torpedoes) covering the ship-way which gave access to the bay near Fort Morgan located on Mobile Point.

On Aug. 3, 1864 a Union Army of 5,500 troops under Gen. Gordon Granger landed on the western side of Dauphin Island and, during the next 20 days succeeded in reducing the forts to surrender.

In the meanwhile, on Aug. 5, A Union fleet under Admiral Farragut managed to enter the Bay under the fire of Fort Morgan and CSS ironclad Tennessee.

After about two hours of hard fighting and the loss of the ironclad Tecumseh, sunk by a submarine torpedo, Farragut fleet succeeded in forcing the Tennessee to surrender, capturing or destroying 3 Confederate gunboats and gaining the control of the Bay, whose access was precluded to the blockade runners for the rest of the war.

The city of Mobile, however, defended by powerful fortifications did not fall until Apr. 12, 1865.