I had a chance last year to visit the site of the Confederate post at Alum Bluff on the Confederate River. This was the site of important defenses constructed on the river after Southern troops abandoned Apalachicola. It was also an important training camp and the location where many Florida Confederates enlisted into the Southern army.

The site is now part of the Nature Conservancy's Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve just north of Bristol in Liberty County. A loooong trail leads to the bluff and site of the Confederate post. There is an informational kiosk and trailhead on Garden of Eden Road off Highway 12 just north of Bristol.

Most of the earthworks of the artillery emplacements have eroded away, but the bluff still provides a spectacular view of the Apalachicola. I could find only a few remnants of support trenches, otherwise the entire battery has fallen into the river. A number of Confederate soldiers died and are buried at the site, but there is no sign of the cemetery and evidently any wooden markers have long since rotted away.