Citronelle
Arriving in Citronelle, after crossing the border into AL, no Welcome Center on that road, Ray started explaining the Civil War History of Citronelle. I remember every word exactly. He starts with Shiloh:

"The battle of Shiloh was fought as the Federals tried to gain control of the railroads that intersected in Tupelo, MS.  The place was a battleground throughout the war.  The area reeks of Nathan Bedford Forrest.  Forrest's most famous victory, Brice's Crossroads, is just up the road.  Corinth is just a bit farther north.  Shiloh is just north of the stateline in Tenn". 

"After Shiloh, the wounded Rebels were loaded onto train cars and carried south toward Mobile.  At every town along the way the train stopped and allotted the town as many wounded to care for as possible.  Makeshift hospitals were in every town.  The cemeteries are still there to show that the wounds were serious.  Visiting them is a stirring reminder that all is not glory in war".
Citronelle collected it's capacity of those wounded.
We rode into Citronelle.
First we did a little looking around. Neat old service station.
Ray was making it hurt as he knew what I wanted to see.
The Homes.
  Finally he took me out to where the surrender had been signed. He said that the historical marker should read "east of the Mississippi" after "last organized Confederate forces".
After hearing of Lee's surrender, carrying on was hopeless and would mean a needless loss of life. Read about General Liddell on Back Road Riding LA.&MS.
  I really wanted Doc to say that was the location of the signing. It is right behind the historical marker. No, It is BoyScout property..
Along the way we stopped at the old train station. Next is what happened at the Rail Station. Right place, right time.
Below from Citronelle's Website
     Citronelle is a small town nestled in the pines of Southern Alabama. Its history can  be dated back 300 years to the first settlement of Indians in the 1700's. It is an old Indian legend that the red man roamed throughout the Gulf Coast region in search of a land that yielded life giving vegetation and springs of curative powers. Guided by inherent instinct, the Indians trekked on until they arrived in the location of Citronelle. There they found natural healing herbs growing in abundance and clear springs stirred from the elevation of the land. At 366 feet above sea level, the water moved just enough to prevent stagnation and contamination. These springs now nourished the land and its inhabitants.

     In 1775, English botanist William Bartram, made a trip to Citronelle to secure the leaves of the Collinsonia Canadensis, which is a citronella plant used in tea that cures fever. This was the beginning of a undiscovered secret. In an effort to expand, English settlers came to Citronelle in 1811 and later flourished due to the arrival of the Ohio and Mobile Railroad in 1851. Today you can visit the Railroad Station, now cited as a historical landmark, and view the effects of transient access on small towns in the South.

Historic Ohio & Mobile Train Depot
You get to go inside on the next page.
   
   After the Mobile and Ohio Railroad was established, resort hotels became the vacationers need. In search of the healing springs, tourists flocked to the Citronelle resorts. The Pullman Hotel, The Hotel Citronelle, and The Drummer Hotel accommodated the tourist rush in the late 1800's. The Hygeia Hotel also served as a tuberculin hospital of sorts. Small cottages were built around the back perimeter of the hotel to give patients access to the healing springs. Several of the hotels became Alabama landmarks until they were destroyed. The Hotel Citronelle, the last remaining hotel, was torn down in the 1970's.

    Historic Hygeia Cottage
The tragic history of the Civil War also finds a place in the town of Citronelle. The last surrender of the Confederate Army, east of the Mississippi River, was made at "Surrender Oak" on May 4, 1865. Led by Commander General Richard Taylor forces laid down their guns to Union General E.R.S. Canby near Sydney Station. A memorial marker placed by the Preservation Society of Mobile marks where the original white oak (destroyed by the hurricane of 1906) once stood.

Marker at the site of the Historic
           "Surrender Oak"
   
   The Citronelle Chautauqua was established in 1905 for the purpose of entertainment. It was an auditorium that seated 2000 spectators for events such as plays, lectures, and concerts. The Chautauqua Association was composed of 141 members, which were responsible for the organization and promotion of all events. Season tickets could be purchased for $3.50. In the 1930's attempts were made to restore the Chautauqua, but despite the efforts the building was destroyed.
   
The economy of Citronelle flourished once again in 1955 when oil was accidentally discovered. In the next nine years over 400 oil wells were established. Citronelle was and still is declared the Oil Capital of Alabama.
   
Citronelle is a small town that has made its place in history, and continues to make its place in the 21st century. Throughout the 300 years of its existence it has remained a quiet secret to most, but to some it has become a home where heritage is built generation after generation. We invite you to come and see a part of the past left in this small town
WAR COMES TO BALDWIN COUNTY!   [Blakely Park Site]
The Mobile Campaign
Battle of Fort Blakely and Spanish Fort
by Norman A. Nicolson

Map of Troop Movement (on the site).
Several factors in the late summer and fall of 1864 affected the decline of the Confederate States of America. The losses of the Confederacy grew with time from that point. Grant’s siege of Richmond and Petersburg in Virginia; Sherman’s capture of Atlanta and his march through Georgia; Admiral Farragut’s victory in Mobile Bay; and, the defeat of the army of Tennessee under Hood led to the downfall of the Confederacy in 1865.

Admiral Farragut’s success in the Battle of Mobile Bay in August of 1864 led to the capture of Forts Morgan and Gaines at the entrance to the bay. Mobile was considered one of the major targets of the Civil War but fear of its strong fortifications around the City and a need for troop strength elsewhere delayed advancing on Mobile.

It was not until the spring of 1865 that Gen. Ulysses S. Grant made troops available to Gen. E. R. S. Canby to commence the Mobile Campaign. Their strategy was to attack Mobile from the eastern shore of Mobile Bay, defusing the protective forts of Spanish Fort and Blakely*, four miles north, on the east side of the Tensaw River. The next steps toward Mobile were to knock down the marshland batteries of Forts Huger and Tracy, then move across the Tensaw and Mobile Rivers into the City. General William Tecumseh Sherman suggested this easterly route in a letter to Canby.

On its western side Mobile was surrounded by three lines of fortifications mounting three hundred heavy artillery pieces. Water approaches to Mobile were defended by a series of underwater obstructions and island and shore batteries on the east. It was said to be the most heavily fortified city in the Confederacy.


After the disastrous defeat of the Confederate Army of Tennessee in the fall of 1864, a remnant of that army was sent to strengthen the Mobile defenses increasing its garrison to almost 10,000 troops. Commanding the Confederate District of the Gulf from Mobile was Gen. Dabney H. Maury, like Canby, a West Point graduate.

Both the Union and the Confederate soldiers who fought at Spanish Fort and Blakely were veterans of almost every major battle which took place in the lower Mississippi River Valley.

Canby’s movement against Mobile was a two-pronged attack. One column was to advance from the lower part of Mobile Bay to invest Spanish Fort. The second column was to progress from Pensacola and center their efforts on Blakely.

Union troops of the first column were assembled by General Canby at Dauphin Island to the west and to Mobile Point on the east of the entrance to Mobile bay. These forces moved in a 32,000-man column from Fort Gaines by steamboats and over land from Fort Morgan to Fish River in lower Baldwin County; and, on March 17th moved up the eastern shore of Mobile Bay in a joint movement of land and water. A force of light draft iron-clad monitors stood off shore accompanying Canby’s column as it moved northwards towards the head of Mobile Bay. Both the land and naval columns arrived at the vicinity of Spanish Fort on March 27.

Spanish Fort occupied the area north of present day U. S. Hwy 31 and west of State Hwy. 225. It had two major artillery fortifications that overlooked the river. On the land side these two forts were protected by an infantry and light artillery earthwork two miles in length that was incomplete on its northern end. Spanish Fort was garrisoned by 3500 veteran infantry and artillery troops. The area is now a real estate and commercial development.

On arrival at Spanish fort, Canby’s troops began a thirteen day siege. By April 8 the incomplete Confederate line was breached and the garrison withdrawn, with the Confederates escaping by river boats to Mobile. Loss is estimated to be 250 soldiers.

The second Column of 13,000 Union soldiers commanded by General Frederick Steele moved out from Pensacola on March 20th with instructions to take Fort Blakely from the rear. It moved northward, deceptively, to appear as if heading towards Montgomery Alabama. At the railroad track at Pollard, Alabama, fifty miles north of Pensacola, it turned west towards the Tensaw River and then moved south to invest Blakely. A Union cavalry brigade from the Pensacola column overran an outpost of Confederate infantry at Blakeley on the afternoon of April 1. The next day, April 2, heavy skirmishing commenced as the Union infantry and light artillery moved into position opposite the Blakely fortifications.

Fort Blakely was a formidable entrenchment built of nine connected earthen artillery redoubts mounting forty-one artillery pieces. It was protected by several iron clad vessels of the Confederate Navy.

After Spanish Fort fell on April 8 the Union troops attacked simultaneously the three miles of Blakely breastworks at 5:30 in the afternoon of April 9, 1865. The strength of the 16,000 Union soldiers overpowered Blakely’s near 4,000 contingent.

From Blakely, overall some 3,400 soldiers were taken as prisoners of war to Ship Island; 250 died in battle; and, some 200 escaped via the waterways.

The fall of Fort Blakeley signaled to Maury in Mobile to begin evacuation of the remaining Confederate Troops in the City. On April 12 Mobile was declared an open city and the remaining Confederate garrison retreated with the intention of joining the remains of the Army of Tennessee, then in North Carolina. The surrender of the Army of Tennessee to Sherman on April 26 prevented that option and surrender of the Mobile garrison took place on May 5, 1865, in Citronelle, AL.

This small force out of Mobile was the last Confederate army to surrender east of the Mississippi River. The surrender of the Confederate forces in Texas took place later in June of 1865. Harper’s Weekly of May 27, 1865, reporting on the Battle of Blakely stated, “Probably the last charge of this war, it was as gallant as any on record.”

* * * *
It has long been accepted by the news media and general public that the American Civil War ended on April 9, 1865, with the surrender of general Robert E. Lee’s army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant. Civil War research has shown that the Battle of Blakely was the last major battle of the Civil War occurring six hours after Lee surrendered at Appomattox.

*Note: Blakeley is the correct spelling of the town where Fort Blakely was situated. It was only spelled without the additional “e” during the Civil War.
Phone (251) 626-0798 or e-mail: BlakeleyPark@aol.com
Historic Blakeley State Park/ 34745 State Hwy. 225/ P.O. Box 7279/ Spanish Fort, Al. 36577
Blakeyly State Park  HOME PAGE
  Understand what led to Citronelle's importance in history. Read below, please.
It is copied from the Blakely State Park Site. I do this so you won't be lazy and skip important stuff.
When you are finished, check out this link to understand a soldiers involvement and what broght him here.  Don't forget to see the station by hitting the "Next" button.
More, Below, from Here
Three days after Sayler's Creek, with the surrender ceremonies at Appomattox having been completed, fierce fighting was under way near Mobile, Alabama. Forces under Edward R. S. Canby, a major general of U.S. Volunteers, attacked Fort Blakely at 5:30 p.m. on April 9th.

Ranks of defenders included a brigade of boy reserves charged with holding the Confederate right flank. When attacked by sixteen thousand men in blue, they withered under fire and surrendered after twenty minutes of fighting. Federal casualties were about six hundred, but Canby considered that a small price to pay for thirty-four hundred prisoners and more than forty captured guns.

Confederate Maj. Gen. Richard Taylor commanded the Department of East Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama at the time of the capitulation at Blakely. Five days earlier he had decided to accept the surrender terms offered by Canby. Hence he met the Federal commander at Citronelle, Alabama, on May 4, to make the agreement official.

It wasn't until May 8th that paroles offered to his men were accepted, so Taylor insisted that the surrender occurred on that day. He consistently described it as "the surrender of the last major Confederate force east of the Mississippi River."
  Next Page of Article
At his point I was getting anxious.
No where do I see my newest favorite general, Liddell, mentioned?
Was he the whipping boy and still is?  Learn more HERE.