[
513]
So ended, in triumph to the Nationals, the battle of Blakely.
By seven o'clock; or within the space of an hour and a half from the time the assault began, they had possession of all the works, with Generals Lidell, Cockerell, and Thomas, and other officers of high rank, and three thousand men, as prisoners of war. The spoils were nearly forty pieces of artillery, four thousand small-arms, sixteen battle-flags, and a vast quantity of ammunition.
The Confederates lost, in killed and wounded, about five hundred men. The National loss was about one thousand.
The Nationals were now in undisputed possession of the whole eastern shore of the bay. The army and navy spent all the next day
in careful reconnoitering, preparing for an advance on
Mobile.
Some of the gun-boats attempted to go up to
Blakely, but were checked by a heavy fire from Forts Huger and Tracy.
From these island batteries full two hundred shells were thrown at the navy during that and the next day, when, as we have seen, the garrisons of both spiked their guns, and fled in the shadows of night.
Meanwhile the Thirteenth Army Corps had been taken across the bay, for an attack on
Mobile, in connection with the gun-boats, which went from place to place, taking possession of abandoned batteries here and there.
But the army found no enemy to fight.
On the day after the fall of
Blakely,
Maury ordered the evacuation of
Mobile; and on the 11th, after sinking the powerful rams
Huntsville and
Tuscaloosa,
1 he fled up the
Alabama River, with nine thousand men, on gun-boats and transports.
General Veatch took
 |
|
Battery Gladden. |
possession of Batteries Gladden and McIntosh, in the harbor, and Battery Missouri, below the city; and on the evening of the 12th, after a summons to surrender, made by
General Granger and
Rear-Admiral Thatcher, the authorities formally gave the place into their hands at Battery Missouri, below the town.
On the following day
Veatch's division entered the city, and the
National flag was hoisted on the public buildings, thereby disgusting the rebellious inhabitants, who closed their stores, shut up their dwellings, and kept from the streets; and the publication of four of the newspapers was suspended.
General Granger followed the army into the city, and
General Canby and his staff entered soon afterward.
2 So
Mobile was “repossessed” a little more
