Wednesday, 31 May 1865
Union Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Vasa Fox orders a reduction in the East Gulf Blockading Squadron to 10 steamers and four tug boats. The same order re-designates the Squadron as the East Gulf Squadron. The South Atlantic Blockading Squadron is compressed to 15 steamers and six tug boats and is re-designated the South Atlantic Squadron. The West Gulf Squadron is also reduced to 15 steamers, one monitor and one river ironclad, and six tugs.
The following are today appointed Union Brigadier Generals: Henry Alanson Barnum, Robert Francis Catterson, William Thomas Clark, Americus Vespucius Rice, William Burnham Woods.
A Federal expedition travels from Barrancas, Florida, aboard the transports, Peabody, N.P Banks, Clyde, Hussar, and Tampico, as well as with the steamer, Itasca, to Apalachicola.
The firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston's harbor traditionally marks the opening salvos of the War Between the States. But before this assault on April 12, 1861, there was another battle--the first shots of the War--hundreds of miles to the south in Florida.
On 8 January 1861, United States Army guards repelled a group of Southern partisans intending to take Fort Barrancas in Pensacola Harbor. Some historians maintain this event could be considered the first hostile volleys fired in the Civil War.
Fort Barrancas, located on a barrier island, was one of four fortified areas that marked the southern defenses. Fort Barrancas has been a site for harbor citadels since 1763, when the British built a fort. The Spanish captured Pensacola from the British in 1781 and constructed their own stronghold on the site, calling it San Carlos de Barranca. The Spanish word barranca means bluff, which fairly describes the location of the fort.
The United States began constructing fortifications at Pensacola in the 1820s, when Pensacola Bay was chosen as the site for a Navy Yard. Along with Fort Barrancas, which defended the Navy Yard, there were Fort Pickens and Fort McRee, both located on islands at the entrance to the bay. The Advance Redoubt, near Fort Barrancas, was an infantry fort, designed to stop overland movement of enemy troops toward the Navy Yard.
Fort Pickens was the largest installation that guarded Pensacola Harbor. Constructed between 1829-1834, Pickens was located at the western tip of Santa Rosa Island, just offshore the mainland. Construction was supervised by Colonel William H. Chase of the Corps of Army Engineers. Employing slave labor, the fort used over 22 million bricks and was designed to be impregnable. Ironically, Chase was later appointed by the State of Florida to command its troops and seize for the South the very fort he had built.
That the defensive positions were of critical importance was realized by both the Union and the Confederacy. On 5 January, Senator David Levy Yulee wrote from Washington, DC, to Joseph Finegan at Tallahassee, "The immediately important thing to be done is the occupation of the forts and arsenals in Florida." Union soldiers in Florida occupied the Apalachicola arsenal at Chattahoochee, containing a small number of arms, 5,000 pounds of powder and about 175,000 cartridges; Fort Barrancas, with 44 cannons and ammunition; Barrancas barracks, where there was a field battery; Fort Pickens, equipped with 201 cannons with ammunition; Fort McRee, 125 seacoast and garrison cannons; Fort Taylor in Key West, with 60 cannons; Key West barracks, 4 cannons; Fort Marion, with 6 field batteries and some small arms; and Fort Jefferson on the Tortugas.
Senator Yulee pointed out, "The naval station and forts at Pensacola were first in consequence." There was then on the mainland one company of Federal artillery, commanded by John H. Winder, later to be promoted to general in the Confederate service. On account of Winder's absence Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer was in charge.
At the time of the Secession, Fort Pickens had not been occupied since the Mexican War. Lieutenant Slemmer, responsible for the U.S. forces at Fort Barrancas, decided that in spite of its dilapidated condition, Pickens was more defensible than any of the other posts in the area. His decision was accelerated around midnight of 8 January when his troops repelled a group of men intending to take the station. In consolidating his position, Slemmer destroyed over 20,000 pounds of powder at Fort McRee, spiked the guns at Barrancas, and evacuated his 80 troops to Fort Pickens. Because of his tactical thinking, Fort Pickens remained in Union hands throughout the Civil War.
Union Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Vasa Fox orders a reduction in the East Gulf Blockading Squadron to 10 steamers and four tug boats. The same order re-designates the Squadron as the East Gulf Squadron. The South Atlantic Blockading Squadron is compressed to 15 steamers and six tug boats and is re-designated the South Atlantic Squadron. The West Gulf Squadron is also reduced to 15 steamers, one monitor and one river ironclad, and six tugs.
The following are today appointed Union Brigadier Generals: Henry Alanson Barnum, Robert Francis Catterson, William Thomas Clark, Americus Vespucius Rice, William Burnham Woods.
A Federal expedition travels from Barrancas, Florida, aboard the transports, Peabody, N.P Banks, Clyde, Hussar, and Tampico, as well as with the steamer, Itasca, to Apalachicola.
The firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston's harbor traditionally marks the opening salvos of the War Between the States. But before this assault on April 12, 1861, there was another battle--the first shots of the War--hundreds of miles to the south in Florida.
On 8 January 1861, United States Army guards repelled a group of Southern partisans intending to take Fort Barrancas in Pensacola Harbor. Some historians maintain this event could be considered the first hostile volleys fired in the Civil War.
Fort Barrancas, located on a barrier island, was one of four fortified areas that marked the southern defenses. Fort Barrancas has been a site for harbor citadels since 1763, when the British built a fort. The Spanish captured Pensacola from the British in 1781 and constructed their own stronghold on the site, calling it San Carlos de Barranca. The Spanish word barranca means bluff, which fairly describes the location of the fort.
The United States began constructing fortifications at Pensacola in the 1820s, when Pensacola Bay was chosen as the site for a Navy Yard. Along with Fort Barrancas, which defended the Navy Yard, there were Fort Pickens and Fort McRee, both located on islands at the entrance to the bay. The Advance Redoubt, near Fort Barrancas, was an infantry fort, designed to stop overland movement of enemy troops toward the Navy Yard.
Fort Pickens was the largest installation that guarded Pensacola Harbor. Constructed between 1829-1834, Pickens was located at the western tip of Santa Rosa Island, just offshore the mainland. Construction was supervised by Colonel William H. Chase of the Corps of Army Engineers. Employing slave labor, the fort used over 22 million bricks and was designed to be impregnable. Ironically, Chase was later appointed by the State of Florida to command its troops and seize for the South the very fort he had built.
That the defensive positions were of critical importance was realized by both the Union and the Confederacy. On 5 January, Senator David Levy Yulee wrote from Washington, DC, to Joseph Finegan at Tallahassee, "The immediately important thing to be done is the occupation of the forts and arsenals in Florida." Union soldiers in Florida occupied the Apalachicola arsenal at Chattahoochee, containing a small number of arms, 5,000 pounds of powder and about 175,000 cartridges; Fort Barrancas, with 44 cannons and ammunition; Barrancas barracks, where there was a field battery; Fort Pickens, equipped with 201 cannons with ammunition; Fort McRee, 125 seacoast and garrison cannons; Fort Taylor in Key West, with 60 cannons; Key West barracks, 4 cannons; Fort Marion, with 6 field batteries and some small arms; and Fort Jefferson on the Tortugas.
Senator Yulee pointed out, "The naval station and forts at Pensacola were first in consequence." There was then on the mainland one company of Federal artillery, commanded by John H. Winder, later to be promoted to general in the Confederate service. On account of Winder's absence Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer was in charge.
At the time of the Secession, Fort Pickens had not been occupied since the Mexican War. Lieutenant Slemmer, responsible for the U.S. forces at Fort Barrancas, decided that in spite of its dilapidated condition, Pickens was more defensible than any of the other posts in the area. His decision was accelerated around midnight of 8 January when his troops repelled a group of men intending to take the station. In consolidating his position, Slemmer destroyed over 20,000 pounds of powder at Fort McRee, spiked the guns at Barrancas, and evacuated his 80 troops to Fort Pickens. Because of his tactical thinking, Fort Pickens remained in Union hands throughout the Civil War.
