What: Want to purchase a print of “The Last Stand for Mobile”
Where: Visit Blakeley State Park guard shack
Cost: Poster prints are $12 and 24 x 36 wrapped canvas prints are $100 each
By Allison Marlow
Officially the painting is known as “The Last Stand for Mobile.” But it could easily instead be titled, “The many faces of Brian.”
The painting depicts a very busy behind-the-scenes view of Confederate troops hustling in their fight against approaching Yankees during the Battle of Fort Blakeley in 1865. In the front is a tall man with a long, ruddy, red beard. He looks calm but worried.
That man is Brian DesRochers, interpretive ranger at Historic Blakeley State Park, home of the battlefield in Spanish Fort. Look right, there is his again, mid-painting, hollering as the cannon blows.