1) GLACIS: The cleared ground that slopes upward toward the fort. It screened the fort walls from enemy gunfire. The seven flags on the glacis represent the groups that have controlled this area. They are: France, Great Britain, Spain, the United States, the Alabama Militia (Montgomery Rifles), the Confederacy, and the State of Alabama. (top)

2) POSTERN: The connecting tunnel through the glacis. The tunnel originally had a sand floor. The concrete was added during the 20th century. (top)

3) DITCH: Also known as the dry moat, the ditch surrounds the fort. It was intended to prevent an enemy from easily reaching the walls of the fort. The ditch could be swept with a deadly cross-fire from guns mounted in the fort's bastions. The brick-lined drain in the center of the ditch carries rainwater out of the moat. (top)

4) SALLYPORT: The main entrance of the fort. The date "1833" is the year the fort was named, not the year it was completed. Named for General Daniel Morgan, a Revolutionary War hero, the fort was completed in 1834 and first occupied in March of that year. (top)  

5) CASEMATES: These arched rooms were designed as protected gun positions for the fort's cannon, but few cannon were ever mounted in them. The casemates were used for the storage of food and equipment and were occasionally used as living quarters for troops, providing shelter from enemy bombardment. (top)

6) POWDER MAGAZINE: Large amounts of black powder were needed to fire the fort's cannons. The powder was stored in small, well protected, rooms known as magazines. The fort was designed with two magazines, and a third was added in the 1870s. At the time of the siege of the fort in 1864 more than 60,000 pounds of powder was stored in the magazines. The small openings in the walls provided ventilation for the rooms. (top)

7) CISTERN: There are four in-ground brick cisterns in the fort. They were used to store rainwater for the use of the men in the garrison. (top)

8) CITADEL FOUNDATION: All that remains of the ten-sided barracks is the remnants of its foundations. The citadel was torn down after being badly damaged during the 1864 siege. (top)

9) BATTERY DUPORTAIL: This concrete gun emplacement was built across the fort in 1898-99. It mounted two 12-inch, breech-loading cannon known as disappearing rifles. Lead counterweights weighing 30 tons were dropped to raise the gun into firing position above the concrete wall. When the gun was fired, the recoil would return the gun to the loading position. The gun used 268 pounds of explosive to throw a 1046pound shell up to 8 1/2 miles. (top)  

10) PANAMA MOUNT: The original brick of this bastion was leveled when Battery Duportail was built. The circular concrete gun mount was constructed during World War 11 to facilitate the turning of a 155-millimeter gun so that a wider area could be fired on by the gun. Five of the 155-millimeter guns were brought to the fort during World War 11. (top)

11) BASTION: The projecting corners of the fort are bastions. The cannon in the bastion casemates would bring a deadly cross fire on any attackers in the ditch. On top of the bastion, guns were mounted to fire over the wall, "en barbette." The barbette guns on the bastions and along the wall were intended to create an overwhelming concentration of fire on any enemy ships attempting to enter Mobile Bay. (top)

12) LIGHTHOUSE BATTERY: So named because the old Mobile Point Lighthouse once stood in the middle of this battery, directly in front of the hotshot furnace. The furnace heated "solid shot" cannon balls until they were white hot. This "hotshot" was then fired at wooden ships to set their hulls afire. The use of hot shot ended in the Civil War era. (top)

13) BATTERY THOMAS: This concrete gun position was built in 1898 over the site of part of the old brick fort. In time of war, electrically detonated mines were laid across the entrance to Mobile Bay. This battery, mounting two 4.7-inch British-made, quick-fire guns, was designed to prevent the removal of the mines by minesweepers or other small craft. (top)

14) BATTERY SCHENCK: The two matching gun positions were completed in 1900. The third, raised position was begun in 1903 and finished in 1904. The battery mounted three 3inch, rapid-fire guns that fired 15-pound projectiles. This battery was to prevent hostile ships from removing the defensive mine field at the entrance to the bay. (top)

15) TORPEDO CASEMATE: This position was built in the 1870s and then modernized in the 1890s. During wartime, electrically detonated mines were placed across the entrance to the bay. The firing cables to the mines ran to this position, and the mines were detonated from here. (top)

16) ENGINEERS' WHARF: Because the fort was accessible primarily by water until after World War I, all supplies and building materials were brought to the site by ship and unloaded at this wharf. (top)