Fort Conde provides insight into Mobile's Spanish, French, English, and American influences on the US Gulf Coast

Fort Condé squats within the historic area of downtown Mobile, Alabama, which has not been kind to the colonial fortification.  But if you can ignore the tacky attempt of the city to create a rather sad amusement park out of it, you can glimpse at what it was like when French and British settlers nestled around the structure for safety.

Though much of it has been reconstructed, the ruins are the only remaining evidence from Mobile’s colonial era.  

Founded at the beginning of the 18th century by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, Mobile was first located east of the present site of the city, at 27-Mile Bluff on the shores of Mobile River.  There, the soldiers built Fort Louis de la Mobile. Flooding, though, damaged the first settlement and fort, and drove the early settlers to seek higher ground in 1711 south of the Mobile River where downtown Mobile is now. The brick and stone structure replaced an earlier wooden stockade fort in 1723, providing a safe haven for settlers beset by angry Native Americans and roving bands of Spanish, then British soldiers wanting to lay claim to the port on Mobile Bay. 

This new fort protecting the upper part of Mobile Bay was named in honor of Louis Henri de Bourbon, duc de Bourbon and prince de Conté.  (When the British captured the settlement in 1763, they renamed the fortification “Fort Charlotte,” a name that lasted throughout the British occupation of 1763 to 1780, Spanish control from 1780 to 1813, then American conquest from 1813 to 1820). Mobile incorporated in the new state of Alabama in 1819, and soon reclaimed the colonial name for the fort.

When you approach Fort Condé at the intersection of Church Street and Royal, you first notice its commanding turret, similar to turrets found on medieval castles and historic forts in Europe and South America. For example, a similar Turret appears on the old fort that guards Havana, Cuba. Its gray brick construction stands out from the red bricks of the fort’s walls.  From this vantage point, soldiers could scan the Mobile River and the upper Mobile Bay for approaching ships, or, if matters worsened, could shoot their muskets at attackers as they advanced on the city.

On the next block to the west sits the old city hall, which now houses the History Museum of Mobile.  To the east is a neighborhood of restored historic, two-story homes of the Church Street Historic District.   

​

You enter and exit on Church Street, through a small gift shop that is in one of the wooden structures that form the fort’s western wall. You will come out into the parade grounds that are at the center of the fort. Along the north brick wall are small rooms that are similar to those that served as sleeping quarters and offices for the colonial soldiers. A larger armory forms the northeast corner and the fort’s eastern wall stretches out to the south. Visitors can climb a stairway to get to the walkway along the fortification’s ramparts. There, cannon point toward the Mobile River. 

Fort Condé is one of several important fortifications built on Mobile Bay in the late 18th and early 19th centuries during the hostilities among the Native Americans, the British, the French, and the Americans over who would control the region.  Fort Mims is 35 miles north of Mobile on the Mobile River. It was the site of what is known as a massacre that occurred in the summer of 1813 when members of Creek Nation attacked the fort killing 250 soldiers and settlers in an attempt to drive the settlers out of their territory.  Fort Mims State Park now marks the location near Stockton, Alabama.

The American Fort Bowyer stood at the entrance to Mobile Bay and featured in the War of 1812 when the British tried to enter the Bay to capture Mobile. The British were repulsed and moved on to New Orleans, where they were defeated by troops led by General Andrew Jackson during what is known as the Battle of New Orleans (which actually took place days after the end of the War of 1812 because word had not reached the Southern port that the conflict had ended with the defeat of British forces in the east). 

Spanish Fort stood on the northeastern shore of Mobile Bay, Fort Blakeley sat a few miles south on the shore of the Bay (the site now of Historic Blakeley State Park), Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island south of Mobile, and Fort Morgan across from Mobile on the eastern shore of the Bay.  Forts Gaines and Morgan also have been partially restored and are open to the public.

​​

Fort Condé, though, is the oldest fort that has been reconstructed. Indeed, its impressive star shape was the centerpiece of Mobile from the beginning of the city as a plan of the city from 1725 clearly shows. Originally, the fort covered several blocks in downtown Mobile and was surrounded by a dry moat and earthen defenses, strategically located at the confluence of the Mobile River and Mobile Bay.  One of the original French cannon from the fort stands in the yard of the Condé-Charlotte House next to the fort.

​

In the fort’s interior are displays of replica colonial rifles and tools.  Also, you’ll find some of the items archeologists found among the ruins, including shards of clay pots, the bowls of clay pipes, and two pair of antique scissors. 

Unfortunately, the results of bad decisions by the city erode the ambiance of the colonial structure. During winter months, the parade grounds are taken over by a rink with fake ice for an ice skating concession.  Some of the small rooms inside the north wall contain an electronic shooting gallery, a sometimes photo booth, and an “escape room” with clues to a simple game for children. To the facility’s credit, a restaurant is under construction in the wooden structure along the fort’s western wall. 

​Watch for special events such as reenactments with colonial soldiers, craftsmen, pirates and Native Americans.

​