battle of mobile bay u s navy historical document of the civil war

The story of the battle of Carillon certainly qualifies, with deadly mistakes and blundering leading to the creation of a reputation of an “impregnable” fort that didn’t even see the fighting. Military history is filled with bitter irony. But to get a sense of this long-gone age, find any quiet spot on the Mystic River and imagine the land before industrialization scarred it, when cultures met and clashed in battles that would define the world that followed. The research produced a map of the key movements in 1936 overlaid on the modern landscape, as seen above. Where to Catch a Glimpse: There’s an active effort to survey and collect artifacts from the Pequots, and they are finding more evidence of the scope of the Native American participation in the campaign. One of the English leaders, John Underhill, wrote about the event: “The Fort blazed most terribly, and burnt all in the space of halfe an houre many couragious fellowes were unwilling to come out, and fought most desperately through the palisades, so as they were scorched and burnt…there were about foure hundred soules in this Fort, and not above five of them escaped out of our hands.” The flames spread quickly, trapping men, women and children inside. About 500 men surrounded the fort as 20 snuck inside and started fires on either end. The English invaded Block Island, while Pequots raided English villages.īy 1636 the English and their tribal allies readied a knockout blow - the destruction of a fortified village in what is now the town of Mystic. England's Massachusetts Bay Colony set about knocking out the Pequots, and the Mohegans were eager to participate. (Hat tip to the work of historian Katherine Grandjean for this insight.) The fatal looting of an English ship the next year sparked a larger conflict that would change the region forever. In August 1635 a hurricane blew through the region, putting extra stress on everyone living in Connecticut. The fur trade added an extra incentive to fight. By the time Dutch and English arrived and engaged both sides in trade, the feud had become a grudge. But linguists and historians agree that a schism occurred in the early 1600s, and it was a violent one. The Pequot and Mohegan tribes were not always sworn enemies.

Location: Along the Mystic River in Connecticut

Battle of mobile bay u s navy historical document of the civil war