SPANISH FORT – The Battle of Blakeley is considered the last battle of the Civil War. The 2011 re-enactment could be the last for some time.

Cutbacks in state funding have forced Blakeley State Park director Jo Ann Flirt to cancel the bi-annual event, originally planned for early next month.

“Blakeley State Park will be unable to hold the Civil War reenactment and living history activities this spring because of lack of state appropriations to operate the state historic park,” said Flirt.

Traditionally, the reenactment and encampment is scheduled for every other year at the preserved battlefield on a weekend near the April 9, 1865 battle. The 2013 event had been tentative ever since the park entered the 2012-13 fiscal year without state funding, Flirt said.

“We kept hoping for a timely miracle but none has come,” Flirt said. “We actually waited longer than we should have, but it would be hard to get reenactors at this point.

“We would have had to started and made commitments much earlier.”

Civil War reenactors normally donate their time and travel expenses, but the park just north of Spanish Fort lacks the funds to cover other expenses of the event.

From time to time Blakeley Park offers other programs and living history events as in 2012 when it sponsored the first known symposium on the Mobile campaign that ended with the Blakeley battle and during the spring when reenactors camped out at the battlefield.

“We will begin working toward the 2015 observation of the ending of the Civil War in the hopes that Blakeley’s state funding by that time will be better.” she said. “The state has withheld all appropriations to Blakeley for the past two years. The miracle is that we are able to keep the park open at all.”

Flirt said the park made the announcement last week about the 2013 event in response to inquiries from the public.