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Battle of Fort Blakeley

1865 siege during the American Civil War

Field	Value
conflict	Battle of Fort Blakeley
image	BattleofFortBlakely1.png
image_size	300
caption	Storming of Fort Blakeley
partof	the American Civil War
date	April 2–9, 1865
place	Baldwin County, Alabama
coordinates
result	Union victory
combatant1	USA United States (Union)
combatant2	CSA CSA (Confederacy)
commander1	Edward Canby
Frederick Steele
commander2	St. John R. Liddell
units1	Army of West Mississippi,
Union ships
units2	Fort Blakeley Garrison,
Confederate ships
strength1	45,000
strength2	4,000
casualties1	629 on April 9 (150 killed, 650 wounded total)
casualties2	2,900 (75 killed)

Fort Blakeley surrendered to the U.S. Frederick Steele Union ships Confederate ships

The Battle of Fort Blakeley took place from April 2 to April 9, 1865, in Baldwin County, Alabama, about 6 mi north of Spanish Fort, Alabama, as part of the Mobile Campaign of the American Civil War. At the time, Blakeley, Alabama, had been the county seat of Baldwin County.

The Battle of Blakeley was the final major battle of the Civil War, with surrender just hours after Grant had accepted the surrender of Lee at Appomattox in the afternoon of April 9, 1865. Mobile, Alabama, was the last major Confederate port to be captured by Union forces, on April 12, 1865. After the assassination of President Lincoln on April 15, 1865, other Confederate surrenders continued into June 1865.

Background

Position of 2nd Division, 13th Army Corps

Maj. Gen. Edward Canby's Union forces, the XVI and XIII Corps, moved along the eastern shore of Mobile Bay, forcing the Confederates back into their defenses. Union forces then concentrated on Spanish Fort, Alabama, and nearby Fort Blakeley. By April 1, Union forces had enveloped Spanish Fort, thereby releasing more troops to focus on Fort Blakeley. Union forces built three rings of earthworks reaching ever closer until nearly 1,000 yd from the Fort Blakeley front. Confederate Brig. Gen. St. John R. Liddell, with about 4,000 men, held out against the much larger Union force until Spanish Fort fell on April 8 in the Battle of Spanish Fort. This allowed Canby to concentrate 16,000 men for the attack on Fort Blakeley.

Battle

The final assault began on April 9, led by Brig. Gen. John P. Hawkins. Sheer numbers breached the Confederate earthworks, compelling the Confederates, including Liddell, to surrender within about 30 minutes in the final assault after 5:30 pm.

Aftermath

The casualty figures are approximate, but an estimated 75 Confederate soldiers were killed, with over 2,800 captured, and 150 Union troops were killed with 650 wounded during the siege and assault. with the exception of the Battle of Columbus, Georgia, fought a few days later. African-American forces played a major role in the successful Union attack, with 5,000 colored troops of the Union U.S.C.T. brought through Pensacola, FL.

Two days later, the two nearby island batteries in the Blakeley River were abandoned. After this battle, Union forces were finally able to occupy the city of Mobile, Alabama, on April 12, 1865.

Legacy

The site of the battle is now a historical park, Historic Blakeley State Park. The American Battlefield Trust and its partners, including the Historic Blakeley Foundation, have saved 126 acres of Fort Blakeley Battlefield through mid-2023.

Opposing forces

Union

Confederate

Notes

References

National Park Service CWSAC Battle Summary
Update to the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission Report on the Nation's Civil War Battlefields - State of Alabama
Silkenat, David. Raising the White Flag: How Surrender Defined the American Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019. .

References

"In tactical command of all troops in front of Fort Blakeley".
"Battle of Blakeley".
Mike Bunn, Historic Blakeley State Park. (May 2017). "Battle of Fort Blakeley".
(2017). "Battle of Fort Blakeley".
Anderson, Marc D.. (March 26, 2015). "Re-enactors to fire up Civil War battlefield Saturday, marking 150th anniversary of Battle of Fort Blakeley". AL.com.
"Fort Blakeley Battlefield".
[[#bodart1908. Bodart (1908)]], p. 542

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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