For the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Mobile Bay, the Fort Morgan Museum assembled a special collection of artifacts, several of them never before shown to the public, and put them on display throughout the anniversary weekend in August 2014.
Objects with a story to tell
The collection brought together a model of the USS Tecumseh, swords and replica torpedoes, and objects recovered from sunken ships. Among them were links of chain from the Tecumseh, an aneroid barometer from the USS Philippi, and a fork and spoon also from the Philippi. Some of those items, including the pieces from the Philippi, had never been displayed publicly before.
“The most exciting thing to me is, these are new things that have never been seen by the public,” said Fort Morgan Site Director Mike Bailey. “It shows a different side of the fort — the human story.”
One object Bailey pointed to as capturing that personal history was a “housewife” that had belonged to Confederate Major James T. Gee of Fort Morgan. The housewife was a decorated string of pouches in which soldiers kept needles and other sewing equipment needed to maintain their gear while on the march.
A uniform from a Mobile officer
Another item drawing attention was a Confederate naval lieutenant’s uniform originally worn by Sardine Graham Stone, an officer from Mobile. The uniform was on loan to the Fort Morgan Museum from the Alabama Department of Archives and History Museum.
“This is probably the most complete Confederate naval lieutenant’s uniform in existence,” said Dr. Bob England, a history professor at Northwest-Shoals Community College. “It demonstrates how slightly this guy was built — it also gives a real good example of somebody who was really proud of the way he looked in combat.”
Local historian John Gurner said the uniform stood out for its origins. “It was made in England, like some of the uniforms were for a lot of Confederate troops,” he said. “This one is different because it’s very much a British-made uniform, and it’s got some features that were not common for a Confederate uniform or even a United States naval uniform.”
The personal side of the war
Gurner said one aim of the display was to show a more personal side of what the Civil War was like. “We try to put in some things that are very much interesting, but also some of the stuff you don’t really see a whole lot,” he said. “People see swords and guns and so forth, and some of the small stuff is a little bit more interesting, a little bit more personal.”
Another goal was to emphasize the role that the Union and Confederate navies played in the war. To reinforce that theme, curators placed a spyglass, or telescope, in the same case as the naval uniform. “It sort of completes the whole naval theme,” Gurner said.
What stays and what goes
The items borrowed from other institutions were to remain at Fort Morgan only for a short time after the anniversary ended. The rest of the collection, however, would become part of the museum’s permanent displays, according to Bailey.
For visitors who made the trip to the tip of the peninsula that weekend, the exhibit offered a rare chance to see objects that had spent years in storage or underwater, and to connect the sweeping story of the Battle of Mobile Bay to the individual soldiers and sailors who lived through it. In highlighting the small and the personal alongside the swords and torpedoes, the museum sought to turn a 150-year-old battle into something close and human.