Navy Cove
The Mobile Bay shoreline just inside Mobile Point, close to Fort
Morgan, is known as Navy Cove. This was the site of Native
American villages for over two thousand years. The name
came after the British Navy anchored here when Fort Bowyer
(now Fort Morgan) fell in 1815. This was the site of boat docks,
wharfs, and warehouses before and after the Civil War.
Federal General E.R.S. Canby landed the 16th U. S. Army
Corps here to lay siege to Fort Morgan on August 9, 1864.
After the Battle of Mobile Bay and the fort was taken by Federal
Troops on August 23, 1864, the Union soldiers moved northward
to camp at Fish River before marching on to capture Mobile.
Pilot Town
On the western shore of Andrews Bay (north of here),
bar pilots established a community in the 1830s known
as 'Pilot Town'. The pilots monitored the mouth of Mobile
Bay while working on a large sand dune they named
'Workbench Hill'. They would rush out to sell their
services to arriving ships Fort Morgan officers housed
their families in the settlement and large socials were
held, often entertaining international guests. The town
grew into a Utopian community with a short railroad to
Fort Morgan, a cemetery, and many homes but no
property lines. The
September 24, 1906 hurricane swept
the community and all their homes into Mobile Bay and
the town vanished. The only survivors were tied to oak
trees on top of Workbench Hill. Property lines had not
been established so homes were never rebuilt. In the 1960s, most of the cemetery stones were removed and subsequently lost when a boat launch was built here.
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