SPANISH FORT, Ala.—Historic Blakeley State Park welcomed its newest — and some say long-overdue — tribute recently to those who fought in the last battle of the U.S. Civil War.

The monument reads simply:

“In Memory of the

Alabama Confederate States

Of American Soldiers/Sailors

Who served at Fort Blakeley”

The monument was dedicated formally Nov. 14 by members of the Mobile Bay District of the United Daughters of the Confederacy with Barbara McCamish, president of the Charles S. Stewart chapter, serving as the master of ceremonies.

McCamish was joined in the ceremony by Nancy Burnett and Sue Steelreath of the Electra Semmes Colston chapter; Barbara Jenkins from Charles S. Stewart chapter; Ellen Williams from the Pvt. Gibeon Sullivan chapter; and Laura Davis of the Jefferson Davis Chapter. Commander Tommy Rhodes represented the Fort Blakeley Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp. The Bonnie Blue chapter is the district’s fifth member.

McCamish said the district was assisted by the Fort Blakeley and Fighting Joe Wheeler Camps of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, in raising some $4,000 in only six months to have the monument erected.

The ceremony included a key-note address by the Commander of the Fighting Joe Wheeler Sons of Confederate Veterans, Hank Arnold, which highlighted the events of the battle that occurred  on April 9, 1865.  Confederate re-enactors participated by posting the colors and firing the volley salutes to “honor the gallant men who fought and died in the Siege of Fort Blakeley,” McCamish said.

The honor of unveiling the monument fell upon Chase and Reed Joiner, the great-great-great-grandsons of Edmund Waller Henderson, a private who fought in the Battle of Blakeley with the 3rd Alabama Infantry.

Chase and Reed Joiner are members of the Julia Brown Stewart Chapter of the Children of the Confederacy, and McCamish is their grandmother.