Fort Gaines was named after Gen. Edmund Pendleton Gaines, a hero of the War of 1812. The fort is located on the eastern tip of Dauphin Island, at the western approach to Mobile Bay. Originally designed in 1818 as the identical twin to Fort Morgan, work on the Dauphin Island fort was suspended in 1821 when Congress cancelled funding. Although Congress again authorized funding for the fort in 1846, construction did not begin until 1857. Army chief engineer Joseph Totten then scrapped the original 1819 plans and designed the pentagonal Fort Gaines using the latest French fortification theory of the 1850s to guard the seaward approaches to Mobile Bay and the eastern entrance of the Mississippi Sound.