Wilson’s Raid

Brierfield Ironworks: The Confederate Forge That Armed a War

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Ruins of the main brick furnace at Brierfield Ironworks

Alabama Road Trip #2 There’s something about ruins that pull you in—the way time folds itself around stone and iron, how silence can still hum with memory. We hadn’t planned on finding Brierfield. It was one of those “Murph detours” that started with a roadside sign for the Absalom Pratt House and ended with Dusty … Read more

Echoes in the Piney Dark: Sadler Plantation’s Civil War Secrets

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Sadler Plantation House in McCalla, Alabama

An Unplanned Stop Worth the U-Turn We weren’t even supposed to be here. Dusty and I were rolling toward Tannehill Historic State Park when a weathered wooden sign caught my eye: Sadler Plantation Home, Circa 1838. Before my brain caught up with my hands, I’d whipped the truck into an illegal U-turn. Murph laughed the … Read more