Heading Home - Fort Blakely Battlefield

We had another foggy morning but it cleared up by about 8 AM. This was check-out day so we were packed and on our way out of Panama City Beach by 9:30. Our plan was to just go to Mobile and spend about a day there before going home. We got to Daphne, Alabama, where our motel is, by about noon but we couldn't find the place. It took several tries before we found it.  Daphne is directly across Mobile Bay from the city of Mobile.

We had lunch at a local O'Charley's restaurant and headed out looking for Ft. Blakely, site of one of the last large-scale battles of the Civil War. The battle was fought about four hours after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia but there was no way to know here in Alabama. Mobile held out for a couple days before it surrendered and was occupied by Union troops.

Massachusetts battery

It's a long and involved story of why I'm interested in the Ft. Blakely battle and I won't go into it in any detail here. The battle included African-American Union soldiers as well as Missouri Confederate troops.

The battlefield is a state park but is only partially preserved. Not much of it has been reconstructed and most of it is overgrown and exists only as ruins or remnants of the trench lines and artillery batteries. That is a huge contrast from the famous battles of Gettysburg or even The Wilderness, where trench lines are still visible the forest. There are only a couple stone monuments at Ft. Blakely and these are recent additions.

Union trenches

Union forces laid siege of about three days and then attacked from trenches after an artillery bombardment.

Union troops were reinforced prior to the final assault and outnumbered the Confederates four to one.

The chaos of the battle is clearly recognized by looking at how the lines were laid out  and how close the lines were to each other. There were only about 1,500 ft. between the strongest defenses and there were various rifle pits and zig-zag trenches in the area in between.

Redoubt #4

 Confederate forces were well dug in in trenches and occupied fortified redoubts equipped with cannons and mortars.  Their positions were also protected by ravines and "torpedoes", an early version of land mines.

Redoubt #4 was the site of the final assault and the surrender of most of the remaining Confederate troops. Redoubt #4 is a substantial ruin but it is difficult to tell how it was laid out.

reconstructed cannon
ports - Redoubt #4

The state, the Civil War Trust and various reenactor groups are trying to preserve the battlefield. There was a town of Blakely located near the fort but nothing is left other than a cemetery.

Union trench line

Angle - Redoubt #4

Dinner was sandwiches from a local take-out deli.

Tomorrow we are going to see the USS Alabama, a battleship docked in Mobile Bay that is open for tours.