Grant funds from the Save America’s Treasures federal program have been allocated to help restore the earthen fortifications at the Blakeley Civil War Battlefield and the foundations of Baldwin County’s first courthouse.

The $50,000 in grant funds must be matched by Historic Blakeley State Park by contributions of $50,000 in work and cash, according to the conditions of the $100,000 project, Jo Ann Flirt, Blakeley Park director said.

The Blakeley grant application has been approved and the contract awarded by the National Parks Service which administers the Save America’s Treasures program. Blakeley Park is in the final stage of completing formal paperwork detailing the work to be done and receiving final approval of plans by the National Parks Service and the Alabama Historic Commission.

Some three-fourths of the grant funds will be spent on saving the 1865 earthworks that are endangered by natural conditions and the passage of time, said Ms. Flirt. “We face a challenging situation to keep the breastworks and redoubts as they were originally built without losing them to the weather”, she said.

“Blakeley has miles of Civil War breastworks and trenches and although this may seem like a lot of money it will not cover all of the work needed,” she said. “We will concentrate efforts in the areas of Confederate Redoubts 4 and 5 and the Union Massachusetts Battery. We will meet in the next 30 days with an engineer specialist with history and battlefield credentials who will be assisting us in maintaining the integrity of the restoration” she said.

Jenifer Eggleston, National Park Service contract manager for the Blakeley grant, toured the project areas Wednesday (Aug. 11) with park staff to discuss challenges and options for completing the restoration work.

The last battle of the Civil War was fought on the Blakeley battlefield on April 9, 1865. For many years the land was covered with timber that both helped to preserve the earthworks and also endangered them. Efforts in the early 1900s to cut timber were thwarted when Mobile sawmills refused to accept the Blakeley trees because metal from the artillery and the rifle fire still embedded in them damaged their saws.

International Paper 20 years ago donated to Blakeley 1,000 acres of timberland, including the land on which he battlefield is located, to preserve for public use. The Blakeley Battlefield is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been rated as a high priority by the Department of the Interior’s American Battlefield Protection Program.

Blakeley will preserve and interpret the foundations of Baldwin County’s first courthouse and jail located in the center f the 1814 Town of Blakeley. The courthouse was approved shortly after the present location of Baldwin County was set when Alabama became a state in 1819. Prior to the completion of the courthouse building, court was conducted by a traveling “circuit” judge who stood in the forks of a huge Blakeley oak tree.

“Blakeley Park has been working with Congressman Jo Bonner and his staff for assistance at the federal level. We appreciate his interest in Blakeley and his ability to assist with grant funds under the economic conditions that have prevailed in Washington during the past several years.” Ms. Flirt said.