BGuthrie Photos: FL -- Pensacola -- Fort Pickens

FL -- Pensacola -- Fort Pickens:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. FTPICK_170422_016.JPG: Step Back in History Fort Pickens played a critical role in an 1800s homeland-security program. Pickens was the largest of four forts the U.S. government built to protect Pensacola Bay and the Navy Yard. The fort succeeded, not against a foreign invasion, but against the Confederates during the Civil War. To learn more about the fascinating history of this defensive fortification, follow the sidewalk straight ahead and begin your self-guiding tour. The fort closes at sunset. "...as the means of preserving peace, and as obstacles to an invader, [the fort's] influence and power are immense." -- Lieutenant Henry W. Halleck, "Report on the Means of National Defense," 1843
2. FTPICK_170422_058.JPG: Protecting Pensacola Bay: In the 1800s the US Army built four fortifications to protect Pensacola Bay and the Navy Yard from attack. Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island and Fort McRee and Perdido Key guarded the channel. Fort Barrancas and its water battery, built on a bluff facing the harbor entrance, could support their crossfire and fire cannonballs at ships that entered the bay and harbor. Advanced Redoubt protected the Navy Yard from a land-based attack. During the Civil War the Confederates briefly held For Barrancas, Advanced Redoubt, and Fort McRee and exchanged gunfire with Union forces at Fort Pickens. Needing reinforcements in Tennessee, the Confederates abandoned Pensacola in 1862. Third System Forts: Americans built harbor forts during the Revolutionary War (first system) and another series between 1789 and 1812 (second system). Forts Barrancas, Pickens, and McRee and Advanced Redoubt were part of the Third System of coastal fortifications built between 1816 and 1870.
3. FTPICK_170422_061.JPG: Built by Slaves: Building a large fort on this remote sandy island in the 1800s was a huge undertaking. Because of the efforts of a US Army engineer, Capt. William H. Chase, and hundreds of enslaved workers, the job was completed in five years. Chase allowed the contractor to bring in New Orleans slaves skilled in masonry and carpentry and to use Pensacola slaves as day laborers. Wages for the enslaved workers went to their owners. Ever resourceful, Chase forced local brickyards to lower their prices, and he acquired lime from Maine, sheets of lead from Illinois, and granite from New York. The for changed dramatically over he years primarily due to the building of Battery Pensacola inside old Fort Pickens. Removing five feet from he top of the south walls of the old for in 1916 improved the field of fire for Battery Pensacola. Under the direction of Army engineers, enslaved workers of African descent framed arches over gun casemates and gunpowder magazines, mixed mortar, laid millions of bricks, covered roofs with lead sheets, and installed granite lintels and thresholds. Artwork is of Bastion D, which exploded on June 20, 1899.
4. FTPICK_170422_071.JPG: Converting a Cannon Feel the grooves inside this rare cannon barrel. This Rodman cannon was cast in 1861 as a 10-inch smoothbore, which fired round cannonballs. To keep up with modern technology, the U.S. Army in 1884 inserted an 8-inch rifled sleeve into the old cast-iron barrel, because rifled guns had longer ranges than smoothbores. Steel later replaced cast iron, and the old guns were sold for scrap. The piece on the right is a smoothbore. The piece on the left is part of a rifled bore.
5. FTPICK_170422_093.JPG: Fort within a Fort Fort Pickens was past its prime. New rifled artillery could penetrate its brick walls. The U.S. Army resuscitated the antiquated brick fort in 1898 with reinforced concrete Battery Pensacola. The fort within a fort had two 12-inch rifles on carriages that could disappear behind the walls after firing 1,070-pound shells at ships eight miles away. The Army built several other batteries on this end of Santa Rosa Island in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
6. FTPICK_170422_137.JPG: Massive Smoothbore: A 15-inch ROdman like this gun -- one of the largest smoothbore cannon ever developed -- was installed here in 1868 but never fired in combat. Though gradually replaced by rifled, breech-loading arillery, 8-, 10-, and 15-inch Rodmans remained the primary armament at For Pickets and other coastal forts until the late 1800s. The barrel of the 15-inch Rodman weighed 50,000 pounds. With a maximum effective range of three miles, it could fire a 15-inch diameter explosive shell weighing about 300 pounds or a solid 400-pound shot. The circular iron tracks allowed the cannon to be turned to fire in any direction. A gun crew at For Warren in Boston, Mass., loads a Rodman. The cannon, designed by Thomas Jefferson Rodman, was first cast in 1860.
7. FTPICK_170422_146.JPG: Dueling with Confederates If you had been here on November 22 and 23, 1861, you would have been in the midst of a fierce Civil War battle. Union troops at Fort Pickens bombarded Confederates who, in January, had occupied Fort McRee straight ahead across the bay and Fort Barrancas and the Navy Yard on the mainland to your right. The Confederates fired back, but the Union, aided by cannon fire from two warships, heavily damaged the Navy Yard and nearly demolished Fort McRee. Needing troops elsewhere, the Confederates left the posts in the spring of 1862, and the Union moved most of its troops on Santa Rosa Island to the mainland. "For the number and caliber of guns and weight of metal brought into action it would rank with the heaviest bombardments in the world." -- Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg
8. FTPICK_170422_158.JPG: "Enemy ship approaching!" From atop Tower Bastion, coast arillerymen could sound the alarm if they spotted an enemy ship entering Pensacola Pass. This channel entrance to Pensacola Bay was one of the best natural deepwater ports on the northern Gulf Coast. For many years, Pensacola's defense rested on short-range, massed firepower from Fort Pickens, Fort McRee, and Fort Barrancas. Later the harbor's defense shifted to several dispersed, long-range batteries on Santa Rosa Island and Perdido Key. Soldiers in the spotting towers could take compass readings of approaching enemy ships and telephone the information to a plotting room. There, soldiers plotted and calculated the distance to the target and relayed their calculations to the gun crews for precision firing. Fort Pickens: In the 1860s the fort stood at the channel's edge, so enemy ships were hesitant to sail within range of the fort's guns. Since then longshore currents have carried sand westward and changed Santa Rosa Island's shape and position. Battery 234 and Spotting Tower: In 1942-43 the US Army built Fort Pickens' last battery. The tower was for directing the battery's guns. Battery 234 was never armed or formally named. Guns and shields for he battery were acquired by the National Park Service in 1976. Battery AMTB: In 1943, Battery AMTB (Anti-Motor Torpedo Boat) consisted of four 90-mm guns -- two of mobile mounts and two about 25 yards south of the seawall on concrete pedestals. Ammunition was stored in the magazine at Batteries Callum and Sevier. Battery 233: This battery, a twin of Battery 234, sits atop the east mount of Battery Slemmer at the end of Perdido Key. It had a firing range of 15 miles. The ruins of Fort McRee have crumbled into the Gulf of Mexico. Circles identify ship channel markers.
9. FTPICK_170422_219.JPG: Double Arch: Notice that this arch is really a double arch -- above and below the floor of this gun chamber. Since ancient times humans have used arches to support and distribute weight to vertical piers. Here the weight absorbed by the piers is transferred to the reverse arch in the foundation to minimize sinkage into the sand. Notice also the notch cut into the right side of the upper arch so a cannon could be swung in that direction. These notches were cut out in 1841, when the US Army adopted new gun carriage designs.
10. FTPICK_170422_266.JPG: Apache Prisoners In 1886 the U.S. Army exiled 400 Apaches from the Southwest to Florida and sent most of them to Fort Marion in St. Augustine. Several Pensacola citizens, however, petitioned the government to imprison Geronimo, a medicine man and warrior, and 15 other Apache men at Fort Pickens instead, separating them from their families. Prisoners worked seven-hour days, clearing overgrown weeds, planting grass, and stacking cannonballs. The families were reunited at Fort Pickens in 1887. One year later all of the imprisoned Apaches were moved to Mobile because of a yellow fever scare and later to Fort Sill in Oklahoma Territory. "I was born on the prairies where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no enclosures." -- Geronimo After being captured, Geronimo (above) never saw his homeland again. He died and was buried in 1909 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He remains a fascinating -- and controversial -- figure in American history.
11. FTPICK_170422_272.JPG: The U.S. Army transported Geronimo (foreground, third from right) and other Apaches by train to Florida from what is now New Mexico and Arizona.
12. FTPICK_170422_431.JPG: John Campbell
13. FTPICK_170422_472.JPG: Fort McRee: To the west of Fort Pickens, across the mouth of Pensacola Bay, once stood Fort McRee. The US Army built the fort at the end of Perdido Key in the early 1800s to help protect Pensacola Bay and ended up almost destroying the for during the Civil War. In January 1861 -- three months before the war started at Fort Sumter in South Carolina -- the US Army abandoned Fort McRee, Fort Barrancas, and Advanced Redoubt and consolidated its troops here at Fort Pickens. The governors of Alabama and Florida quickly dispatched militias to occupy the forts. In November, during a massive artillery exchange with Confederates, cannon fire from two Union ships and Fort Pickens nearly demolished Fort McRee. Considered obsolete by the end of the Civil War, Fort McRee was never repaired. The ruins gradually crumbled into the Gulf of Mexico.
14. FTPICK_170422_481.JPG: Thundering Blast: Cover your ears and imagine the thundering noise and tremendous shock waves bouncing off the walls after firing this US Seacoast 32-pounder cannon. This smoothbore cannon, cast in 1823, could fire a 32-pound solid shot just over a mile through the embrasure, or opening, in the outer wall.
15. FTPICK_170422_497.JPG: Deadly Explosion On the night of June 20, 1899, a fire broke out near a gunpowder magazine on the fort's northwest side. A bucket brigade fought the flames, but the blaze grew in intensity, forced the soldiers away from the cistern, and at 5:20 a.m. ignited 8,000 pounds of gunpowder. The explosion demolished the bastion and showered debris across Pensacola Bay. Flying brick fragments killed Pvt. Earle Welles and injured Pvt. Henry Hopgood, who had sought shelter behind a woodpile.
16. FTPICK_170422_541.JPG: Swatting Mosquitoes Isolation and boredom, snakes and biting flies -- many of the soldiers stationed at Fort Pickens in the 1800s and 1900s felt they had been sent to the end of the Earth and forgotten. They spent hours on end in the sweltering sun standing watch, conducting artillery drills, maintaining equipment, and swatting mosquitoes. In their leisure time they played cards, read letters and newspapers sent from home, swam in the gulf, fished, and played ball games. Some of them even hunted alligators despite official prohibitions.
17. FTPICK_170422_544.JPG: Dueling with Confederates: If you had been here on November 22 and 23, 1861, you would have been in the midst of a fierce Civil War battle. Union troops at Fort Pickens bombarded Confederates who, in January, had occupied Fort McRee straight ahead across the bay and Fort Barrancas and the Navy Yard on the mainland to your right. The Confederates fired back, but the Union, aided by cannon fire from two warships, heavily damaged the Navy Yard and nearly demolished For McRee. Needing troops elsewhere, the Confederates left the posts in the spring of 1862, and the Union moved most of its troops on Santa Rosa Island to the mainland. "For the number and caliber of guns and weight of metal brought into action it would rank with the heaviest bombardments in the world." -- Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg
18. FTPICK_170422_547.JPG: Union forces at Fort Pickens (foreground) outshot the Confederates at Fors McRee and Barrancas, which the Union had vacated in January 1861, "Harper's Weekly."
19. FTPICK_170422_551.JPG: Beeﬁng Up Defenses On the brink of war with Spain after the USS "Maine" battleship was sunk in Havana Harbor, Cuba, in February 1898, the U.S. Army installed a minefield in the Pensacola Harbor entrance. Leaving a 1000-foot opening, the Corps of Engineers placed two booms -- across the channel from Santa Rosa Island and Period Key. Buoyant and underwater mines were laid behind the booms. A searchlight swept the minefield. The system remained in force until a major hurricane damaged facilities in 1926, and the U.S. Navy took over Pensacola's underwater defenses.
20. FTPICK_170422_566.JPG: From the For to these Wooden Buildings Coastal Defense Over Time The US military used this end of Santa Rosa Island for over 100 years. Fort Pickens, the first of four forts built to protect Pensacola Bay, has an unusual history. Union forces still held the fort during the Civil War in the 1860s even though Florida was a Confederate state. Because artillery technology changed, the US Army later made big changes to Fort Pickens and built reinforced concrete batteries on the island starting in 1894. This building was new when this photo was taken around 1900. These wooden buildings were built around 1900 and 1910 to support the Coast Artillery Corps whose job was coastal defense. This building was used at different times as a guardhouse with quarters for three sergeants, a mess and kitchen, and lastly as an administration building for he 13th Coast Artillery in 1945.
Wikipedia Description: Fort Pickens
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fort Pickens is a pentagonal historic United States military fort on Santa Rosa Island in the Pensacola, Florida, area. It is named after American Revolutionary War hero Andrew Pickens. The fort was completed in 1834 and remained in use until 1947. Fort Pickens is included within the Gulf Islands National Seashore, and as such, is administered by the National Park Service.

History

After the War of 1812, the United States decided to fortify all of its major ports. French engineer Simon Bernard was appointed to design Fort Pickens. Construction lasted from 1829 to 1834, with 21.5 million bricks being used to build it. Much of the construction was done by black slaves. Its construction was supervised by Colonel William H. Chase of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. During the American Civil War, he sided with the Confederacy and was appointed to command Florida's troops.

Fort Pickens was the largest of a group of fortifications designed to defend Pensacola Harbor. It supplemented Fort Barrancas, Fort McRee, and the Navy Yard. Located at the western tip of Santa Rosa Island, just offshore from the mainland, Fort Pickens guarded the island and the entrance to the harbor.

1858 fire

On the night of 20 January 1858, the USCS Robert J. Walker was at Pensacola when a major fire broke out at Fort Pickens. The cutter's men and boats, joined by the hydrographic party of the U.S. Coast Survey steamboat USCS Varina, rallied to fight the fire. The next day, the captain of the Robert J. Walker received a communication from Captain John Newton of the Army Corps of Engineers, who commanded the harbor of Pensacola, acknowledging the important service rendered by the Robert J. Walker.

Civil War

By the time of the American Civil War, Fort Pickens had not been occupied since shortly after the Mexican–American War. Despite its dilapidated condition, Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer, in charge of United States forces at Fort Barrancas, decided the fort was the most defensible post in the area. He decided to abandon Barrancas when, around midnight of January 8, 1861, his guards repelled a group of local civilians who intended to occupy the fort. Some historians claim that these were the first shots fired in the Civil War.

On January 10, 1861, the day Florida declared its secession from the Union, Slemmer destroyed over 20,000 pounds of gunpowder at Fort McRee. He then spiked the guns at Fort Barrancas, and moved his 51 soldiers and 30 sailors to Fort Pickens. On January 15, 1861 and January 18, 1861, Slemmer refused surrender demands from Colonel William Henry Chase of the Florida militia. Ironically, Chase had designed and constructed the fort as captain in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Slemmer defended the fort against threat of attack until he was reinforced and relieved in April 1861 by Colonel Harvey Brown. Despite repeated Confederate threats, Fort Pickens was one of only three Southern forts to remain in Union hands throughout the war,

Montgomery C. Meigs, an Army engineer, was ordered by President Lincoln and Secretary of War Seward to Fort Pickens. During the war, Meigs would also construct the Washington Aqueduct and the dome on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC.

Indian wars

Captives from Indian Wars in the West were transported to the East Coast to be held as prisoners. From October 1886 to May 1887, Geronimo, a noted Apache war chief, was imprisoned in Fort Pickens, along with several of his warriors. Their families were held at Fort Marion in St. Augustine.

Endicott era

During the late 1890s and early 20th century, the Army had new gun batteries constructed at Fort Pickens. These batteries were part of a program initiated by the Endicott Board, a group headed by a mid-1880s Secretary of War, William C. Endicott. Instead of many guns concentrated in a traditional thick-walled masonry structure, the Endicott batteries are spread out over a wide area, concealed behind concrete parapets flush with the surrounding terrain. The use of the accurate, long-range weapons eliminated the need for the concentration of guns that was common in the Third System fortifications. Battery Pensacola was constructed physically within the walls of Fort Pickens, while other similar concrete batteries were constructed to the east and west as separate facilities. The ruins of these later facilities are also included in the Gulf Islands National Seashore complex. As at many posts, obsolete weapons were repurposed during WWI; Battery Cooper's 6-inch M1905 guns on disappearing carriages were removed in 1917, but a piece located at West Point was moved to Battery Cooper in 1976.

On June 20, 1899, a fire in Fort Pickens' Bastion D reached the bastion's magazine, which contained 8,000 pounds (3,600 kg) of powder. The resulting explosion killed one soldier and obliterated Bastion D. The force of the explosion was so great that bricks from Bastion D's walls landed across the bay at Fort Barrancas, more than 1.5 miles (2.4 km) away.

Post WW I

As with many other forts, Panama mounts were planned for in the interwar era, beginning in 1937. Four 155mm GPF guns were placed around Battery Cooper, two forward, and one to each side, in 1942. The 155 battery used Cooper's magazines, communications, and other support facilities
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