Place Information
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Spanish Fort is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States. The 2000 census lists the population of the city as 5,423. History
Originally a French trading post, the Spanish built a fort at the site of modern-day Spanish Fort in 1780, soon after taking the area from the British during the American Revolutionary War. The British attacked and destroyed the fort in 1781, but the Spanish rebuilt it in 1799. Spanish Fort was taken by the United States in 1814. During the American Civil War, Spanish Fort was heavily fortified as an eastern defense to the city of Mobile. Fort Huger, Fort (Battery) Tracey, Fort (Battery) McDermott, Fort Alexis, Red Fort, and Old Spanish Fort were all part of the Mobile defenses in what is now Spanish Fort. After the Union victory in the Battle of Mobile Bay, Mobile nevertheless remained in Confederate hands. Union forces embarked on a land campaign in early 1865 to take Mobile from the east. Spanish Fort was the site of the Battle of Spanish Fort in the Mobile Campaign of the American Civil War. Its fall allowed Union forces to concentrate on Fort Blakeley to the north, and hence destroy the last organized resistance to northern occupation east of the Mississippi River. The falls of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakeley permitted Union troops to subsequently enter Mobile unopposed after the conclusion of the Civil War. Research Tips
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