Photos from Fort Pickens
I recently had the chance to visit Fort Pickens in Pensacola, Florida, for the first time. I honestly didn’t know much about the site other than it was almost the place where the Civil War started. (For more on that story, tune in to this week’s Emerging Civil War Podcast!)
Completed in 1834, Fort Pickens sits at the tip of Santa Rosa Island at the mouth of Pensacola Bay. It never fell to Confederate forces, effectively cutting off the valuable deep-water port to Confederate use for the entire war. The area thus served as an important keystone in the overall Gulf Blockade effort.
The fort remained in service until 1947. Fort Pickens today is part of Gulf Islands National Seashore.
In advance of this week’s podcast, which will feature a conversation with Neil Chatelain about Fort Pickens in the Civil War, I thought I’d share some of the pictures I took while walking around. It was a fantastic old site that definitely felt more like ruins than, say, Fort Sumter or Fort Morgan. The sand along the Gulf of Mexico was the whitest I’d ever seen, and several ecological zones offered a lot to look at. Be warned, the price tag is a little steep because you can’t get a pass to just go out to the fort for a couple hours; rather, you can only buy a pass to the whole park for a full week (no good to me since I only had a couple hours).
Neat photos.
Thanks!
These photos are amazing. I hope you will have the opportunity someday to visit Fort Massachusetts on Ship Island which is a largely intact Civil War fort that did not see major renovations for the Spanish-American War or any other wars. http://www.nps.gov/guis
Thanks for the great photos! I hope you will visit Fort Massachusetts on Ship Island because it was not modernized after the Civil War so it largely maintains the appearance of the Civil War era. https://www.nps.gov/guis/learn/historyculture/fort-massachusetts.htm Union General Ben Butler used the island as a staging point for the capture of New Orleans which did not give the Union Army control of the Mississippi River, but closed the Mississippi to the Confederates.
Great photos! I wonder what is the strategy for maintaining and repairing Pickens and other such forts? It looks in fine shape, though one feels the brickwork could use a power washing – though would that damage the old mortar, etc.? Just how does the National Park Service go about caring for these treasures?
That’s a great question, Eric. That might make a good podcast interview down the road, actually. I’ll add it to my list!
The NPS has a very complex system of historic experts that all chip in on work like that. Some work at that park, others work at regional offices. A project like that might call for conservators, hands-on preservationists, and a historic architect or two. Probably even a historic landscape architect and historian to chip in! It’s likely that powerwashing would be avoided, as historic brick and especially mortar tend not to hold up very well to it. I don’t know the exact methods used there. I’d recommend taking a look for a relevant “historic structure report” or “cultural landscape report”. These are fundamental NPS documents and in addition to historic context often lay out the approved treatment methods.
Cool to see pictures from Ft. Pickens! Thanks for sharing them.
–Chris Barry
You’re welcome!
Great article. Great photos. Thank you. Mysteries of the Abandoned on the Science Channel had a great episode about this Fort.
Thanks! Tune in to the podcast episode for more on the fort’s history!
Well Done, Chris, on making the “endless drive” west down Santa Rosa Island… with destination Fort Pickens. Your drive also took you across the Battle of Santa Rosa sandpit/ battlefield; and the Camp of the 6th New York Infantry that was burned as result of that Confederate raid (one of the first Night Actions of the Civil War) …with potential implications for the Battle of Shiloh initiated by General A.S. Johnston only six months later.
All the best
Mike Maxwell
Thank you for sharing these, definitely looking forward to this week’s podcast.
Thank you for sharing these photos, Chris. It’s been many years since I visited Fort Pickens.
Growing up in Pensacola in the 50’s we roamed all over the fort inside and the grounds. Was a completely open area
We never vandalized just explored.
Seeing the pictures returned fun memories
a wholly new fact for me — never knew of the Fort, its strategic location, or its history. Thanks for the ECW podcast with Neil.