Alabama played a pivotal role in the very start of the Confederacy and the Civil War.
Alabama was the first capital of the Confederate States of America (CSA) and the place where the fledgling nation was organized. The bronze star where Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the first and only president of the CSA is enshrined in the marble floor at the front entrance of Alabama’s Capitol building in Montgomery
What is less known is that Alabama also played a pivotal role in the close of the Civil War in 1865, 160 years ago this year. A graduate student and staff member at the University of South Alabama (USA) has now written two books about that role.
You can hear the book’s author discuss his book about the culminating battles of the Civil War that took place in Alabama.
Alternatively, you could read his books, or both. Find the book here.
Civil War author Paul Brueske will be the presenter on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. at Confederate Memorial Park in Marbury. He will discuss his most recent book, “Digging All Night and Fighting All Day: The Civil War Siege of Spanish Fort and the Mobile Campaign, 1865."
Here is the official description of the book, all of which takes place in Alabama:
The bloody two-week siege of Spanish Fort, Alabama (March 26–April 8, 1865) was one of the final battles of the Civil War. Despite its importance and fascinating history, surprisingly little has been written about it. Many considered the fort as the key to holding the important seaport of Mobile, which surrendered to Maj. Gen. Edward R. S. Canby on April 12, 1865.
Paul Brueske’s “Digging All Night and Fighting All Day”: The Civil War Siege of Spanish Fort and the Mobile Campaign, 1865 is the first full-length study of this subject. General U. S. Grant had long set his eyes on capturing Mobile. Its fall would eliminate the vital logistical center and put one of the final nails in the coffin of the Confederacy. On January 18, 1865, Grant ordered General Canby to move against Mobile, Montgomery, and Selma and destroy anything useful to the enemy’s war effort. The reduction of Spanish Fort, along with Fort Blakeley—the primary obstacles to taking Mobile—was a prerequisite to capturing the city.
After the devastating Tennessee battles of Franklin and Nashville in late 1864, many Federals believed Mobile’s garrison—which included a few battered brigades and most of the artillery units from the Army of Tennessee—did not have much fight left and would evacuate the city rather than fight. They did not. Despite being outnumbered about 10 to 1, 33-year-old Brig. Gen. Randall Lee Gibson mounted a skillful and spirited defense that “considerably astonished” his Union opponents. The siege and battle that unfolded on the rough and uneven bluffs of Mobile Bay’s eastern shore, fought mainly by veterans of the principal battles of the Western Theater, witnessed every offensive and defensive art known to war.
The author Paul Brueske is a graduate student of history at the University of South Alabama. He marshaled scores of primary source materials, including letters, diaries, reports, and newspaper accounts, to produce an outstanding study of a little-known but astonishingly important event rife with acts of heroism that rivaled any battle of the war. It will proudly occupy a space on the bookshelf of any serious student of the war.
Brueske is a lifelong resident of the Gulf Coast. He has studied the Civil War history of northwest Florida and South Alabama for 20 years. He is the president and founder of the Mobile Area Civil War Round Table and the head track and field coach at the University of South Alabama.
Brueske is a regular speaker on Gulf Coast-related Civil War topics and a member of the Friends of Historic Blakeley State Park, the Historic Mobile Preservation Society, and Friends of the History Museum of Mobile. He is also the author of The Last Siege: The Mobile Campaign, Alabama 1865 (2018).
Some Confederate history buffs and preservationists do not refer to the war of 1861-1865 as “the Civil War.”
They may call it:
- The War Between the States
- The War for Southern Independence
- The War of Northern Aggression
- Mr. Lincoln’s War
In Paul Brueske’s presentation, it will be instructive to hear what name he calls the war.
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler’s beat is the colorful and positive about Alabama -- her people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at [email protected].
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