He was then assigned to take command of the outer defenses of the C.S. Army held location at Mobile Bay, Alabama and would set up his headquarters at Fort Morgan. Brigadier General Page was in command of the Confederate garrison that controlled Fort Morgan, Alabama during the Union's attacks on Mobile Bay. Fort Morgan withstood the Union attack on April 5, 1864, but was besieged on April 9. Then on August 8, 1864, a 10,000-man and 200-cannon Union task force arrived to challenge Page's 400-man and 26-cannon Confederate force. Union task force staff summoned Page and told him to surrender; he replied that he would defend the fort to the end. Federal troops then moved their works closer to the outdated fort for the next two weeks. Then on August 22, 1864, heavy Union cannon fire replaced the lighter cannon fire of the previous two weeks. For the next 12 hours, 3,000 Union cannon shells were thrown at the fort. This Union cannon fire started some fires in the fort and threatened to ignite the Confederate powder magazine, and so the defenders put the powder kegs in the cisterns. On August 23 Brigadier General Richard Lucian Page unconditionally surrendered the fort, because his troops had little usable gunpowder. Indignant, he broke his sword over his knee instead of surrendering his sword to the Federals. Page's situation was further worsened when he was suspected of destroying munitions and works within the fort after he had agreed to surrender. He was arrested by the Federal authorities and imprisoned at Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island until September 1865. Page returned to Norfolk after the war, eventually becoming superintendent of public schools from 1875 to 1883. He died in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, on August 9, 1901 and is buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery, Norfolk, Virginia. In "Confederate Military History: Volume 3" Clement A. Evans, himself a former C.S. Army Brigadier General, was moved to write the following on the defense of Fort Morgan in August 22–23 of 1864, "The defense of Fort Morgan, under the command of (Brigadier) General Page, is one of the most celebrated instances of heroism in the history of the war." , a built for the United States Navy in 1965, was named in his honor.