Fort Pickens

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Sketch of Fort Pickens, Florida, by Lt. Langdon, 1861.

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 currently part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, and as such, is administered by the National Park Service.

After the War of 1812, the United States decided to fortify all of its major ports, and as a result, French engineer Simon Bernard was appointed to design Fort Pickens. Construction on Fort Pickens lasted from 1829 to 1834, with 21.5 million bricks being used to build the fort. Much of the construction was done by slave labour.

Fort Pickens was the largest of a group of forts designed to fortify Pensacola Harbor. Constructed between 1829-1834, Pickens supplemented Fort Barrancas, Fort McRee, and the Navy Yard. Located at the western tip of Santa Rosa Island, just offshore from the mainland, Pickens guarded the island and the entrance to the harbor. Its construction was supervised by Colonel William H. Chase of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 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.

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, Slemmer destroyed over 20,000 pounds of gunpowder at Fort McRee, spiked the guns at Barrancas, and evacuated about eighty troops to Fort Pickens. Despite repeated Confederate military threats to it, Fort Pickens remained in Union hands throughout the Civil War.

From 1886 to May 1887, the famous Apache Indian chief Geronimo was imprisoned in Fort Pickens, along with several of his warriors. Their families were at Fort Marion.

Fort McRee, located across Pensacola Pass from Fort Pickens, was badly damaged by Union bombardment during the American Civil War. Its remains were washed into Pensacola Bay by a hurricane in 1906. Fort Barrancas, located across Pensacola Bay from Fort Pickens, is on the grounds of the Pensacola Naval Air Station.

[edit] Hurricane Ivan

In late 2004, Hurricane Ivan battered Fort Pickens and the Gulf Islands National Seashore, causing extensive flooding, the destruction of a number of buildings, and a large number of felled trees. Fort Pickens and the Santa Rosa Areas of Gulf Islands National Seashore are currently closed to vehicular traffic while efforts are underway to rebuild and repair damage. The beach is accessible by boat, from the ranger station east to the park boundary.