Dauphin Island by Ewingjr98
When I lived in Biloxi, MS, we made several trips to Dauphin Island where there are great beaches, bird sanctuaries, a lighthouse, a nice town with a fishing pier, and historic Fort Gaines. In the early 1700s, this tiny island village was the capital of all French Territory in North America, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the present Canadian border. Construction on Fort Gaines began here in the mid-1800s, after some hard lessons learned in the War of 1812, but it was to be completely redesigned before completion in 1853. Fort Gaines earned some fame due to its role on the Battle of Mobile Bay in August 1864, when Admiral Farragut spoke his famous words: "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" Fort Gaines along with Fort Morgan, had fallen into Confederate hands when the war began, and the entrance to the bay was mined with "torpedoes." Farragut led his fleet through the minefield, defeated the small Confederate fleet, and allowed the army to capture the forts, shutting down one of the Confederacy's last major ports.
