Spanish Fort

Spanish Fort. Gateway to the Delta. , Spanish Fort is the gateway to the second largest delta in the United States. The Mobile-Tensaw, River Delta is 30 miles long and 12 miles wide. It covers more than 200,000 acres of swamps, river bottomlands and marshes and is considered the best remaining delta ecosystem of its kind in the country. So ecologically diverse, it supports 126 species of fish: 40 species of mammals, including black bears, wild pigs and deer: 69 species of reptiles, such as alligators and the rare red-bellied turtle: 30 species of amphibians; 500 species of plants, including swamp lilies, cardinal flowers, butterfly weed, green-fly orchids and the tiny-leaved buckthorn, one of the rarest shrubs in the United States. The Mobile-Tensaw Delta also supports more than 300 species of birds, including eagles, ospreys, pelicans, herons, kites, owls, warblers, vireos, wrens, egrets and a variety of woodpeckers, including the Pileated woodpecker, which can grow as long as 19 inches and is the largest woodpecker in North America., Spanish Fort was founded on a hill overlooking Mobile Bay and the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta. Originally a French trading post, the Spanish built a fort at the site of modern-day Spanish Fort in 1780, shortly after the American Revolution when Spanish troops defending the City of Mobile engaged British troops attempting to recapture Mobile. Military action also occurred in the area during the Revolutionary War, the War of 18 12, and the Civil War. In 1865, three Confederate brigades stopped 20,000 Union Army troops at Spanish Fort. The Confederate forces, outnumbered 10 to 1, engaged the Union forces in the last battle of the War Between the States; March 26 - April 9, 1865.