For many, the forts that once protected Pensacola and the Naval station are not their main focus of a visit, as the sun, sand, and water provide most of the impetus for a day or week. You can visit the restored Pickens and Barrancas on self-guided tours or with a ranger guide. The three forts mentioned above, plus the Advanced Redoubt in the Fort Barrancas area, are included in the Gulf Islands National Seashore. So while you walk amongst the nature with the Gulf of Mexico never far from view, sidle beside bayous where gators roam, or camp in a setting primitive or developed, you'll never be far from the history and a time when brick and mortar protected us all. Forts, forts, and more forts, some within an active navy air station, have stories to tell from the times of Spanish conquistadors to the Civil War and then to protection during World War I and through the second World War when technology began to render them obsolete. But, as much as at any national seashore in the nation, Gulf Islands is not only all that, but it may have some of the best history around. Yes, we'll admit it, when we hear the designation National Seashore, and we're a history site, we tend to shy away from thinking about the history aspects of the park, because we have assumed, at least in the past, that the park is more about recreation, nature, and those beautiful beaches than what came man made before it. Below: Currier and Ives lithograph of Fort Pickens, in Pensacola Harbor, between 1860-1870. Image above: View of Confederate soldiers, Company B of the 9th Mississippi, in camp at Warrington Navy Yard, Pensacola Jay Dearborn Edwards, photographer, 1861. Union forces occupied it with 18,000 men and used the fort as a staging area for the Battle of New Orleans in 1862. Confederates abandoned the fort in September 1861. In July, the USS Union Massachusetts would engage in a brief gun battle with the cannons placed there with limited damage to either side. The fort was manned by Confederate militia just after secession in January 1861, abandoned, then remanned in June. The fort was not fully completed, but remained in use until 1903. Very little remains of Fort McRee today.įort Massachusetts - Fort built on the Mississippi side of Gulf Islands National Seashore on West Ship Island, twelve miles off the coast, from 1859 to 1866. When the Confederacy abandoned Pensacola in 1862, Fort McRee was burned. During the Civil War, Fort Barrancas was abandoned by Union forces in favor of Fort Pickens.įort McRee - Built on the east side of Perdido Key from 1834-1839, it was a three tiered fort also abandoned by the Union in favor of Fort Pickens. Yes, there were forts here even before the 1797 edition, reaching back to 1698. Yes, slaves were used in its construction.įort Barrancas - Originally the old Spanish fort named Fort San Carlos de Barrancas that was built in 1797, today's Fort Barrancas was rebuilt, with two other forts, to protect the Pensacola Navy Yard. One of only four southern forts never surrendered to the Confederates during the Civil War, despite attacks in 1861 to bring them under control. Largest of the Pensacola forts, and named for Major General Andrew Pickens of the South Carolina militia who fought in the Revolution at Cowpens and the Siege of Ninety-Six. Fort Pickens - Historic fort built from 1829-1834 on Santa Rosa Island.
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