The talk on the last battle of the Civil War: Mobile Alabama 1864-65

Last night we were treated to a wonderful talk by Paul Brueske, an expert on Civil War history in Alabama and author of two important books on the battles of March-April 1865. My own takeaways:

Why the push for a new campaign so late in the war? Grant was afraid of resistance lingering on. “Let’s finish it”.

Why didn’t the Union and Confederate leaders stop fighting when Richmond was already burning and Lee had already surrendered? Because the communications were so slow, the combatants in Alabama didn’t know.

Mobile Alabama was important to the South for its port facilities not only due to the location on the Coast but also its strategic position linking 5 different river systems running through Alabama. The industrial heartland of the South’s armaments and food supplying the Confederacy, were Selma Alabama and the surrounding inland areas of Alabama.

The battles for the Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely were unique in the history of modern warfare by virtue of the new weapons being perfected there: torpedos, hand grenades, and “gumtree mortars”.