'Fort Gaines' historical marker describes fort on Dauphin Island

This week’s featured historical marker is about “Fort Gaines” and can be found on Dauphin Island, Ala., about 40 miles south of Mobile.

The marker is located east end of Bienville Avenue, in the parking lot in front of historic Fort Gaines. The Alabama Society Daughters of the American Colonists erected the marker in 1957. What follows is the complete text from the marker:

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“FORT GAINES: Established in 1821 for defense of Mobile Bay and named in honor of General Edmund Pendleton Gaines, 1777-1849, who played an important part in early Alabama History and while Commandant of Fort Stoddard captured Aaron Burr near McIntosh in February 1807."

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Fort Gaines is probably best known for its role during the Civil War’s Battle of Mobile Bay in which Union Admiral David Farragut said “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! It served as a military installation until 1926 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. In 2011, it was named one of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 2009, it was listed on the Civil War Preservation Trust’s “History Under Siege” list due to the fact that it’s threatened by coastal erosion.

Congress named the fort after General Edmund Pendleton Gaines in 1853, four year’s after the general’s death. Gaines, a native of Virginia, is best known for being the man who arrested Aaron Burr at Wakefield, which is now a ghost town near McIntosh in Washington County, Alabama. Gaines died in New Orleans, but he’s buried in Mobile’s Church Street Graveyard if you ever get the urge to visit his grave.

The marker at Fort Gaines mentions that Gaines was the commander at Fort Stoddard (or Fort Stoddert) when Burr was captured. Stoddard was established in 1799 on the Mobile River and there’s a historic marker commemorating the fort on State Highway 43 near Mt. Vernon in northern Mobile County. The actual fort was three miles east of that marker on Mobile County Road 96.

Burr, who was vice president under Thomas Jefferson, is best known for killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804. In 1807, Burr was charged with treason by Jefferson and was arrested in present-day Alabama on Feb. 19, 1807, which was 206 years ago as of yesterday. Burr was acquitted at trial and died in September 1836.

If you decide to visit Fort Gaines today, be sure to check out the huge anchor that’s in the center of the fort’s central grounds. The anchor is from the USS Hartford, which was Farragut’s flagship during the Battle of Mobile Bay. Also while on Dauphin Island, you might want to take a trip on the Mobile Bay Ferry, which will take you from Fort Gaines, across Mobile Bay, to Fort Morgan, another historic fort located in Baldwin County, Ala.

In the end, visit this site next Wednesday to learn about another local historical marker. I’m also taking suggestions from the reading audience, so if you know of an interesting historical marker that you’d like me to feature, let me know in the comments section below.