The capture of Fort Morgan.
The Mobile Tribune gets the following particulars concerning the capture of Fort Morgan from a citizen who was present at the time of the occurrence:From Monday at daylight to Tuesday morning at 8 o'clock the fire from the enemy's batteries on the shore was terrible. His batteries consisted of some fifty 30-pound Parrotts and mortars, and two 10-inch Dahlgren, most of which was within about two hundred and fifty yards of the fort, with a heavy line of sharpshooters between it and the fort. A perfect range was got on the citadel, which was to-tally destroyed. It burnt for several hours before it was extinguished. The fleet did not take as active a part in the bombardment as the army. The latter comprised from four to five thousand men, all Western troops. On Tuesday, the 23d, at about 8 o'clock, the white flag was raised, and General Page was given until 2 o'clock to surrender, during which time he destroyed all the commissary stores that he could, spiked the guns, and did other damage to the works. At 2 o'clock it was surrendered.
General Page, it is said, refused to surrender to General Granger, remarking that he would surrender to Farragut. Granger told him then to return to his quarters and he would again open on him. The surrender was finally made to Granger. The white troops then marched in and took possession, and our troops were formed in line, and marched to the tune of Yankee Doodle around the fort, and stacked their arms. They were then taken on board of transports and sent to New Orleans. The negro troops were not admitted into the fort.
The enemy's land force, all told, under Granger, is said to be at least eight to ten thousand--one thousand cavalry from Iowa; the remainder, infantry and artillery, including about one thousand negro troops.
It was reported that our officers broke their swords before the surrender.
Some ten or twelve pilots, who live at Navy Cove, had been forced on the enemy's vessels, and are now serving them. The casualties on our side were only three killed and from fifteen to seventeen wounded. Only one of the enemy, it is said, was killed.
The report that the enemy had a line of sharp-shooters and three howitzers on the glacis is not true.
The following is Admiral Farragut's report of the capitulation of Fort Morgan:
I had the honor, in my dispatch, No. 366, to report to the department that Fort Morgan surrendered on the 23d instant to the army and navy, though at the time that dispatch was written and mailed the ceremony of surrender had not actually taken place.
The correspondence preliminary to that event is herewith forwarded, (marked Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4,) and the department will perceive that the terms of capitulation were the same as in the case of Fort Gaines. General Page endeavored to obtain more favorable terms, but without success.
I regret to state that, after the assembling of the officers at the appointed hour (2 P. M.) for the surrender, outside the fort, it was discovered, on an examination of the interior, that most of the guns were spiked and many of the gun-carriages wantonly injured, and arms, ammunition, provisions, &c., destroyed, and that there was every reason to believe that this had been done after the white flag had been raised. It was also discovered that General Page and several of his officers had no swords to deliver up, and, further, that some of those which were surrendered had been broken.
The whole conduct of the officers of Fort Gaines and Fort Morgan presents such a striking contrast in moral principle that I cannot fail to remark upon it. Colonel Anderson, who commanded the former, finding himself in a position perfectly untenable, and encumbered with a superfluous number of conscripts, many of whom were mere boys, determined to surrender a fort which he could not defend, and in this determination was supported by all his officers save one; but from the moment he hoisted the white flag he scrupulously kept everything intact, and in that condition delivered it over; whilst General Page and his officers, with a childish spitefulness, destroyed the guns which they had said they would defend to the last, but which they never defended at all, and threw away or broke those weapons which they had not the manliness to use against their enemies; for Fort Morgan never fired a gun after the commencement of the bombardment, and the advanced pickets of our army were actually on the glacis.
As before stated, the ceremony of surrender took place at 2 P. M., and that same afternoon all the garrison were sent to New Orleans in the United States steamers Tennessee and Bienville, where they arrived safely.
Your obedient servant,
D. G. Farragut,
Rear Admiral Commanding W. G. B. Squadron. Hon. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, Washington.
