Apalachicola River, Part Twelve

Continuing our look at Civil War sites along Florida's Apalachicola River, this is another view of the river from Ocheesee Bluff in Calhoun County, Florida.

This photograph was taken looking upstream from Ocheesee. The bluffline in the distance is Rock Bluff at Torreya State Park, where the Confederates established a battery of six pieces of artillery during the war.

Just as it had been during the First Seminole War, the river bend at Ocheesee and Rock Bluffs was quickly recognized as a vital defensive points. Union warships coming up the river would have to slow to negotiate the turns, making the location an ideal point for Confederate defenses. Legend holds that, in addition to the batteries on the east bluffs, a chain was also stretched across the river here at times.

Since Ocheesee was a settlement at the time of the war and the center of the Jason Gregory plantation, it was often visited by Confederate officers from both the army and navy.

Our series will continue.