Southern troops demanded the surrender of the fort on January 12th which Lieutenant Slemmer refused. He was hurriedly preparing and repairing the fort with his small force. Pickens was designed to be manned by 1,000 troops and he would have less than 100. Picket fire took place on the night of the 13th. Additional demands to surrender the fort were made on the 15th and 18th. Both sides sent additional forces to the area. Over 1000 Southern troops were in Pensacola by February while a Federal artillery unit under Captain Israel Vodges sat offshore on the USS Brooklyn. An informal truce was established with the agreement that the Federals would not reinforce the fort as long as Southern troops agreed not to attack. On April 12th the Union ordered Vodges to land and reinforce the fort. Shortly thereafter several ships including the USS Powhatan arrived with additional reinforcements and by the end of the month 1000 men garrisoned the fort with an additional 1000 offshore. The Confederates had 5000 men in Pensacola with 2000 more on the way, who as of March 7th would be commanded by General Braxton Bragg.

Bragg initially focused on building additional shoreline artillery batteries aimed at Santa Rosa Island. On September 2nd a Union raid burned dry docks on the mainland and a supply ship. Eleven days later sailors from the USS Colorado attacked the CSS Judah anchored at the navy yard. They drove the Rebels from their ship and burned it. In the process three Union sailors were killed and twelve wounded. The Confederates would retaliate on October 8th in what would be known as the Battle of Santa Rosa Island covered in the next post.

History of Fort Pickens- designed to hold over 200 cannon was the largest of four forts built to defend Pensacola Bay and its navy yard. Major William Henry Chase from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers supervised the project. Construction was begun in 1829 and completed in 1834. Over 21.5 million bricks were used, most made locally and sent by barge to the island. It was built in the shape of a pentagon and could withstand attack on all five faces; landward on the east side and seaward on the other four. Its four-foot thick walls and symmetrical archways were built to endure heavy cannon fire. Due to the lack of skilled laborers in the area, the government allowed contractors to use slave labor. Underhill and Strong of New Orleans provided a work force of about 200 skilled African-American slave laborers to build the fort. Following the completion of Fort Pickens, many of these slaves went on to build Forts McRee and Barrancas. Construction of the fort was difficult with workers exposed to yellow fever and heat exhaustion. Major Chase was frustrated by delays in appropriations from Congress plus the sale of bootleg whiskey to soldiers.

Descriptions for each stop are from the brochure.

Stop 1- The Sally Port

Stop 2- Officer’s Living Quarters- An officer used a room like this for sleeping, an office, and sometimes as headquarters. Fort Pickens once had six officers’ quarters in the north wall and seven in the south wall. Most officers’ quarters no longer exist. In 1861, some of these rooms served as a hospital for Union troops. Those who died in defense of the United States were buried in a temporary cemetery outside the fort.

Stop 3- Casemates- The arched rooms are casemates. Casemates protected soldiers and cannon. They also supported the upper level, or barbette, of Fort Pickens. Each casemate in the fort had one or two windows, or embrasures. Soldiers fired cannon through these embrasures. This cannon is a 32-pounder. It sits on top of an oak carriage. The carriage is connected to the brick wall. Look under the embrasure and you will discover an opening. A metal plate, called a tongue, connects the carriage to a metal pin in the wall. This system locked the cannon to the wall and helped soldiers point their weapon. Look down at the floor and you will find granite blocks, or traverse stones. With iron rails bolted on top, traverse stones made rolling cannon from side to side easier. Today you can still see the remains of traverse stones and rails around the fort. Cannon like this 32-pounder made a lot of smoke. Vents above embrasures allowed the smoke to escape. When a cannon fired, fresh air entered a casemate through a chimney or a diamond-shaped opening in the ceiling.

Stop 4- Mine Battery Room- This doorway leads into the first mine casemate at Fort Pickens. Completed in 1894, this room became one of several onshore buildings used by soldiers to operate an underwater minefield. Long ago, the Army considered underwater mines one of the main weapons needed to defend a harbor. When engineers began updating Pensacola Bay’s defenses in the late 1800s, they made sure to include mines in their plans. A mine casemate was the heart of a controlled mine system. This area held batteries that powered the mines. It also housed the controls for setting off the mines. From the mine casemate, electrical cables ran underground, entered the bay, and extended to the minefield. When an officer gave the command, a soldier at the operating panel flipped a switch and detonated a mine. Because of high humidity, engineers built a new mine casemate outside the fort in 1907. This brick building still stands today. The Army eliminated Pensacola Bay’s mine defense system in 1926.

Stop 5- Countermine Chamber- Soldiers had many options to defend Fort Pickens. You are outside one of those options called a countermine. Fort Pickens has two countermines. The countermines are on the fort’s landward side and next to powder magazines. Both have three narrow chambers that extend into the wall. During a battle, soldiers in the fort could move kegs of gun powder from a powder magazine to a chamber. Each chamber could hold 1,027 pounds of gun powder. When an attacker charged the fort, the defenders would ignite the gun powder and explode a chamber. The explosion would wreck the fort but stop an attack.

Stop 6- Powder Magazine- Engineers designed Fort Pickens to hold 205 cannon. To fire cannon, soldiers needed gun powder. This small doorway opens into the only remaining powder magazine. Fort Pickens originally had three powder magazines. The magazines were lined with wood to help keep gun powder dry. Anyone who entered a magazine had to remove their shoes or put socks over them to prevent sparks. This is because the soles of shoes were sometimes attached with nails. Fort Pickens’ three magazines could hold more than 272,000 pounds of powder. This large quantity allowed soldiers to defend the fort during a long siege.  

Stop 7- Gallery and Shelf Supports- This covered walkway is a gallery. A gallery protected soldiers and supplies while moving around a fort in a battle. The Army added concrete stalls to the gallery in the late 1800s. The original use remains unclear. Soldiers may have used these stalls as shelf supports to store equipment. They could have kept equipment here for the underwater minefield. Or they could have used the supports for a fort inside Fort Pickens named Battery Pensacola.

Stop 8- Central Power Station- a central power station was created in 1903 using three casements.

Stop 9- Counterscarp, Scarp and Dry Ditch- The outer wall was called a counterscarp. The counterscarp supports a man-made hill called a glacis. Like a shield, the counterscarp protected Fort Pickens’ main wall, called the scarp. In the 1800s, the counterscarp and scarp measured about 40 feet tall. Wrapping around Fort Pickens, a dry ditch separated these towering walls. Attackers who reached the dry ditch would be caught in a deadly crossfire. By the summer of 1915, Army engineers filled the dry ditch to better protect the area from hurricanes. They also spread compost and planted grass to hold and fix the sand and to reduce the glare from the sun.

Stop 10- Bastion A- You are entering a bastion through a side door called a postern. A bastion is a projection from the main wall of a fort. It allowed defenders to fire along a fort’s wall. Soldiers called this bastion Bastion A. Like Bastion E, which you passed through earlier in this self-guided tour, Bastion A has casemates and embrasures for cannon. It also has a countermine with three tunnels and a powder magazine. The interior of this bastion looks much as it did in the 1800s.

Stop 11- Battery Pensacola Tunnel- A post-Civil War Structure

Stop 12- Cisterns- Two cisterns provided the water supply for the fort. Rainwater from the arches was channeled to the cisterns.

Stop 13- Reverse Arch- To support the weight of the fort on sand, engineers resorted to an old design, the arch. The reverse arch of the foundation spread the weight of the structure to minimize settling.

Stop 14- The Tower Bastion- This is the Tower Bastion. From the barbette above, soldiers fired cannon over the fort’s wall. Inside the casemates below, defenders fired cannon along the fort’s wall. From the barbette you can see the Gulf, Pensacola Pass, and Pensacola Bay. Here a 15-inch Rodman gun, capable of firing a 450-pound solid shot up to five miles away, stands guard over the Emerald Coast. Looking south toward the Gulf, you can see damaged walls with exposed arches. Engineers demolished these walls between 1915–1916. Upon completion, soldiers at Battery Pensacola had better views of targets. Today, the exposed arches help us understand how the fort was built.

Stops 15 and 16- The Parade Ground and Damaged Bastion D- The damaged pier and arch are the result of an accidental explosion in the late 1800s. The explosion destroyed Bastion D and created this large gap. In the early morning hours of June 20, 1899, soldiers discovered a fire near the sally port. Here, casemates housed large wooden blocks for moving guns and artillery supplies. The officer in charge, Second Lieutenant Robert H. C. Kelton, 1st US Artillery, led his 60 men in fighting the fire. As the fire spread toward Bastion D, it moved closer to a powder magazine holding 8,000 pounds of explosives. Unable to control the fire, Kelton withdrew his men before the magazine exploded. The explosion wounded Private Henry Hopgood and killed another, Private Earle F. Welles. Today Private Welles rests across the bay at Barrancas National Cemetery. The fire’s cause remains unknown to this day. Eleven soldiers, including Kelton, were recognized for their heroic and energetic efforts.

Images from the top of the walls

Images from the parade ground