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.
Director of Blakeley pens blow by blow narrative of Civil War’s last battle Posted Want to go?
Where: Historic Blakeley State Park
When: Saturday, April 10
Schedule: Park staff will host a day-long living history and educational program beginning at 11 a.m. The battle begins at 3 p.m.
Cost: Ages 13 and up $10; Ages 6 – 12 $5, Ages 5 and under free
THIS EVENT WILL BE HELD RAIN OR SHINE
By Allison Marlow
It can be argued that the men who died at the Battle of Blakeley in 1865, estimated at more than 200 from both sides of the lines, died in vain.
General Robert E. Lee had surrendered in Virginia hours earlier. As twilight settled on the American Civil War, this meeting of armies at Blakeley – 16,000 Union troops versus 3,500 Confederates – is considered the last major battle of the conflict.
5:35
When the 13 colonies rose up against Great Britain in the Revolutionary War, Florida wasn t in that group. In fact, at the time, Florida wasn’t even a single colony. Here s a look at the history of West Florida, the forgotten 14th colony.
“The name of the colony is West Florida, said Mike Bunn, a member of the board of directors of the Alabama Historical Association and is Director of Historic Blakeley State Park in Spanish Fort, Alabama. A lot of people get that geographic reference stuck in their head and they think we’re talking specifically about the Pensacola area. But in truth it was a large swath of the Gulf Coast.”