Qualla: Fort Pickens

Fort Pickens: Introduction

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Light, CC BY-SA 4.0. Around midnight on January 8, 1861, guards at Fort Barrancas on the Pensacola mainland repelled a group of local civilians trying to seize the fort. Lieutenant Adam Slemmer made a quick decision: abandon the mainland, spike the guns, and move his tiny force of 51 soldiers and 30 sailors across the water to Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island. It was a gamble. The pentagonal brick fortress had been vacant since the Mexican-American War and sat in disrepair. But Slemmer judged it the most defensible position in the area, and he was right. Some historians argue that the shots his guards fired that night were the first of the entire Civil War - two months before Fort Sumter.

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Image: Chris Light | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fort Pickens: Twenty-One Million Bricks

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ashleydiann, CC BY-SA 3.0. After the War of 1812 exposed America's coastal vulnerabilities, the government commissioned a massive program of harbor fortifications. French engineer Simon Bernard designed Fort Pickens as part of this Third System of Fortifications, a generation of masonry forts that would ri...

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Image: Ashleydiann | CC BY-SA 3.0

Fort Pickens: The Fort That Never Fell

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Slemmer's refusal to surrender made Fort Pickens a Union stronghold throughout the entire Civil War. On January 15 and again on January 18, 1861, Colonel Chase - the fort's own builder - demanded Slemmer hand it over to the Florida militia. Slemmer refused both times. Reinforceme...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Fort Pickens: Geronimo Behind Bars

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gilman. Printed in Harper's Weekly, Public domain. Fort Pickens' role shifted dramatically after the Civil War. In October 1886, the Apache war leader Geronimo arrived at the fort as a prisoner of war, along with several of his warriors. Their families were held separately at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, hundreds of miles away a...

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Image: Gilman. Printed in Harper's Weekly | Public domain

Fort Pickens: Concrete Over Brick

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Notneb82, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Endicott Board reforms of the 1890s brought a new generation of weapons to Fort Pickens, and the old brick fortress paid the price. Battery Pensacola, mounting 12-inch guns, was built within the fort's walls, requiring the demolition of the south wall parapet and the officers...

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Image: Notneb82 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Fort Pickens: Barrier Island Time Capsule

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Richard A. Weaver, CC BY-SA 4.0. Fort Pickens was deactivated in 1947 and now stands as part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, administered by the National Park Service. The ruins tell the story of American coastal defense in layers: Third System brickwork from the 1830s, Endicott-era concrete batteries fro...

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Image: Richard A. Weaver | CC BY-SA 4.0