Fort Morgan, named after Revolutionary War hero General Daniel Morgan, is located in Baldwin County at the mouth of the Mobile Bay. Fort Morgan—and its counterpart Fort Gaines, located on the opposite side of the Mobile Channel—were built by the federal government to protect the U.S. coastline. In 1861, at the beginning of the Civil War, the Alabama state militia seized Fort Morgan from the federal government, and it remained under Confederate control until Union forces retook it in the Battle of Mobile Bay in August 1864. During the World War I era, Fort Morgan was used as a training facility. The War Department declared Morgan obsolete in 1923 and sold it to the state of Alabama but activated it again briefly during World War II to counter the German U-boat threat in the Gulf of Mexico. Now a National Historical Landmark operated by the Alabama Historical Commission, Fort Morgan, offers several annual events and living-history programs.
