Blakeley State Park presents triple dip of Civil War history

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Posted 9/1/17

A triple dip of Civil War narrative will be served history buffs Sept. 9 as Historic Blakeley State Park cruises guests through rivers of the lower Mobile-Tensaw Delta to sites of naval engagements, …

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Blakeley State Park presents triple dip of Civil War history

Posted

A triple dip of Civil War narrative will be served history buffs Sept. 9 as Historic Blakeley State Park cruises guests through rivers of the lower Mobile-Tensaw Delta to sites of naval engagements, summarizes the historic April 9, 1865 Blakeley land battle, and welcomes noted author John S. Sledge to discuss his new book about the Civil War in Alabama.

Blakeley Park's Delta Explorer cruises areas of the Tensaw, Apalachee and Blakeley Rivers from the northern redoubts of the Blakeley Battlefield south to the Spanish Fort site of Fort McDermott while Mike Bunn, Blakeley Park operations director and historian, narrates with power point presentation.

Points of interest include sites of Confederate batteries Tracy and Huger, areas of some of the naval engagements that resulted in the loss of eight Union ships in the lower Delta, and the route of the marshy footbridge traversed by Confederates as they evacuated Spanish Fort April 8, 1865 prior to the last major land battle of the War at Blakeley the following day.

Author Sledge, who will accompany the cruise, will lecture on the Civil War activities throughout Alabama drawing from his new book, These Rugged Days: Alabama in the Civil War, to be released in early September 2017. Sledge's highly acclaimed book The Mobile River was published in 2015.

The narrated boat tour leaves the Blakeley Park Tensaw River Dock at 9 a.m. returning at 10:30 a.m. Tickets are limited to the boat's licensed capacity of 49 passengers. Tickets cost $27 for adults, $15 children 6-12 and include the Sledge lecture. Tickets are available on a first come-first serve basis or can be reserved by calling 251-626-0798 and paying in advance using major credit cards. The Sledge lecture is 11 a.m.-12 noon at the Blakeley Park Wehle Center. The lecture is free with general admission of $4 adults, $3 children. Visitors are invited to bring their lunches and eat at one of the park's picnic areas.

Blakeley Park is located on State Hwy. 225 about five miles north of its intersection with U.S. 31 at Spanish Fort. For more information go to www.blakeleypark.com.