Fort Pickens - The Civil War

The Civil War

By the time of the American Civil War, Fort Pickens had not been occupied since the Mexican-American War. Despite its dilapidated condition, Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer, in charge of United States forces at Fort Barrancas, determined that Pickens was more defensible than any of the other posts in the area. His decision to abandon Barrancas was hastened when, around midnight of January 8, 1861, his guards repelled a group of local men intending to take the fort. Some historians suggest that these were the first shots fired by United States forces in the Civil War.

Shortly after this incident, on January 10, 1861, the day Florida declared its secession from the Union, Slemmer destroyed over 20,000 pounds of gunpowder at Fort McRee, spiked the guns at Barrancas, and evacuated with 51 soldiers and 30 sailors to Fort Pickens. At Fort Pickens, on January 15, 1861 and January 18, 1861, Slemmer refused demands for surrender from Florida militia Colonel William Henry Chase, who had designed and constructed the fort as a captain in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and held the fort against Confederate threat of attack and until reinforced and relieved in April 1861. Despite repeated Confederate military threats to it, Fort Pickens was one of the few Southern forts to remain in Union hands throughout the Civil War.

The fort was also reinforced by troops and material sent by Montgomery C. Meigs. This Army engineer was tasked by President Lincoln and Secretary Seward to draw up a plan reinforcing Fort Pickens. Meigs was the Army engineer responsible for building the Washington aqueduct and getting the dome on the U.S. Capitol.