Mobile Bay

150 years ago, several artists and writers followed the action of the Civil War. In the days before instant live feeds of war action, these reporters sent their stories back to home office so within a few weeks, newspapers could carry the story to the American people. Harper's Weekly came out every Saturday with the latest Civil War news, and the activity at Mobile Bay was often within its pages. The weekly reported from a Northern point of view of the "Enemy" and "Pirates" of the Confederacy. There were few papers in the south that could afford such artists to provide expensive engravings for illustrations. We attempted to gather as many of the illustrations directly from the pages of Harper's Weekly that dealt with Mobile Bay. The articles are reprinted also, with some additional reports and notes compiled by the editor of this 150th Anniversary Edition. The editor, Randy DeCuir, has family connections to both Confederate and Union at Mobile Bay. He is a great-grandson of Confederate private, Wiley Downs, who served and was captured at Spanish Fort. The editor also has a family connection to Union Admiral David Farragut through his maternal grandmother, Marie Michot DeCuir.