Ship Island staging base
Supply base, Ship Island, Mississippi.
- Side
- Union
- Kind
- Supply base
- Where
- Ship Island, Mississippi
- Years
- 1861-1865
- Today
- Park
SHIP ISLAND
Confederates abandoned the island in September 1861, and Benjamin Butler's expedition made it the base for the move against the Gulf coast. More than 15,000 men assembled there in April 1862 for the assault on New Orleans. It later held Confederate prisoners.
Then
Confederates abandoned Ship Island in September 1861, and the vanguard of Benjamin Butler's New England expedition arrived aboard the SS Constitution on December 2, 1861, making the island the base for the move against the Gulf coast. Union troop strength there peaked in April 1862, when more than 15,000 men assembled for the assault on New Orleans. The unfinished fort was renamed Fort Massachusetts in 1862 for the Union warship that had seized it.
After New Orleans fell the garrison shrank to one regiment, and the island became a prison and detention center; 3,000 Confederate prisoners taken at Mobile arrived in April 1865. The garrison regiment, the former 2nd Louisiana Native Guards, mustered out on October 11, 1865.
Now
Park
Fort Massachusetts on West Ship Island is a historic attraction maintained by the National Park Service, reached by a Park Service concession ferry from Gulfport.
The nearest railroad in service today is a line owned by CPKC, about 12 miles away.
Nearby
- 55 miFarragut closes Mobile Bay to blockade runnersAugust 5, 1864, Mobile Bay, Alabama
- 61 miPort of MobileConfederate · Port, Mobile, Alabama
- 61 miMobile, the last major Confederate port, is capturedApril 12, 1865, Mobile, Alabama
- 67 miNew Orleans MintConfederate · Site, New Orleans, Louisiana
- 68 miFarragut's fleet takes New OrleansApril 25, 1862, New Orleans, Louisiana
- 68 miPort of New OrleansConfederate · Port, New Orleans, Louisiana