This view looks across the fields of the old Nixon Plantation toward the trees growing on Ricco's Bluff, the site of an important Confederate post on the Apalachicola River during the War Between the States.
Following the evacuation of Apalachicola by Southern troops in March of 1862, the Confederates relocated ten pieces of artillery upstream to Ricco's Bluff, a strategic point on the river in southern Libery County. They established a battery here to oppose any attempt by the Union navy to come up the river, but due to the unhealthy nature of the bluff itself, the main encampment for the troops garrisoning the bluff was established back from the river in the open fields of the Nixon plantation.
The installation at Ricco's was maintained as a major post for less than a year and the guns were eventually removed and placed at new locations along the river (primarily at the "Narrows" downstream and Alum Bluff, upstream).
A small picket post, however, was maintained here to watch for any enemy movement on the river and to intercept Confederate deserters and Southern Unionists trying to make their way downstream to the Union blockade vessels at Apalachicola Bay.
In our next post, we'll take a closer look at a bizarre attack on the Ricco's Bluff post carried out by the Union Navy in January of 1865.
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