BSA TOUR #1 - WHERE EAGLES FLY Traditional Cache
GeoCrater: I am regretfully archiving this cache since there's been no response from nor action by the cache owner within the time frame requested in the last reviewer note.
GeoCrater
Geocaching.com Community Volunteer Reviewer
BSA TOUR #1 - WHERE EAGLES FLY
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A micro-cache containing only a log. Bring your own pen.
The bustling seaport of Mobile was considered to be the most heavily fortified city in the Confederacy, and a major target for Union troops during the Civil War. On August 5, 1864, Admiral David Glascow Farragut led a fleet of eighteen Union ships into Mobile Bay, under devastating fire from Fort Morgan, Fort Gaines and other points along the coastline. The Confederate naval forces, commanded by Admiral Franklin Buchanan, were forced to surrender and the port was effectively shut down. The city, however, remained uncaptured.
It was not until spring of 1865 that General Ulysses S. Grant made troops available to General Edward R. S. Canby to begin the Mobile Campaign. Canby's movement against Mobile was a two-pronged attack. One column was to advance from the lower part of Mobile Bay to storm Spanish Fort. The second column was to progress from Pensacola and center their efforts on Fort Blakely. Upon arrival at Spanish Fort, Canby's troops began a thirteen day siege. The Confederate line was breached and the garrison withdrew, with the Confederates escaping by river boats to Mobile. After Spanish Fort fell, the Union troops attacked the three miles of breastworks surrounding Fort Blakely. The strength of the 16,000 Union soldiers overpowered Blakely's contingent of 4,000 men. Nearly 3,400 Confederate soldiers were taken as prisoners, 250 died in the battle, and some 200 escaped via the waterways to join with the troops encamped in Mobile.
The fall of Fort Blakely led to the evacuation of the remaining Confederate troops in Mobile. They retreated toward North Carolina, with the intention of joining the remains of the Army of Tennessee. However, the surrender of the Army of Tennessee to General William Tecumseh Sherman prevented that option. The Mobile garrison, under the command of General Richard Taylor, surrendered to the Union forces led by General Edward R. S Canby on May 5, 1865, in Citronelle, Alabama. This small force out of Mobile was the last Confederate army to surrender east of the Mississippi River - a testament to their steadfastness and loyalty to duty.
This cache is placed at the site of this surrender, near the grounds of a Boy Scout camp where many "Eagles" have first tried out their wings. As tigers, bears, wolves, webelos, scouts and eventually eagles, boys learn to live by the twelve points of the Scout Law. Like those Confederate soldiers who faithfully performed their task until the final surrender, A Scout is Loyal.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gur bayl uvag vf va gur anzr.