In the fall of 1864, Mobile Bay was in in Union hands. The Mobile Bay Campaign in August was successful in securing the bay and waterways for the Union. This cut off the last of the ports for the Confederacy. Though the bay area was no longer a Confederate port, the city of Mobile had not been taken over. The garrisons of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely protected the city. This would be true until early spring of 1865.
While Farragut's operation closed Mobile Bay to blockade-runners, the city of Mobile itself, an important railrad center, remained defiant throughout the rest of 1864. The city was protected by 2 strong fortifications just to the northeast known as Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely. Finally, in March of 1865, the Union could spare a force sufficient to take on the Mobile forts. Maj. Gen. Edward R.S. Canby led 45,000 troops against the city and successfully captured Spanish Fort on April 8th and Fort Blakely the following day. Occuring on the same day as Lee's surrender at Appomattox, the storming of Fort Blakely was the last major combat of the war.