FORT BARRANCAS

FORT BARRANCAS

The Defense of Pensacola Bay
Fort Barrancas overlooks the entrance to
Florida’s Pensacola Bay. Part of Gulf Islands
National Seashore, the old fort is a unique
relic of America’s past.

This site has served military purposes at
least since the Spanish built a fort nearby in
1698. Named for the barrancas or red clay
bluffs of Pensacola Bay, there have been a
series of forts on the site.

The French occupied the bluffs briefly in
1719, but soon returned possession to the
Spanish. After taking possession of Florida
following the French and Indian War, the
British built a fort here. The Royal Navy
Redoubt engaged Spanish ships during the
early stages of the Battle of Pensacola, a key
encounter of the American Revolution. The
British lost the 1781 battle and Florida once
again became a Spanish colony.

Spain constructed Fort San Carlos de
Barrancas at the site and during the 1790s
added a masonry water battery, the Bateria
de San Antonio, which still stands today. The
forts were seized by U.S. troops under
General Andrew Jackson in both 1814 and
1818 and then occupied permanently by the
United States after Florida became a U.S.
Territory in 1821.

To better protect the nearby U.S. Navy Yard,
the Bateria de San Antonio was improved for
use as a water battery and a new work, Fort
Barrancas, was constructed in 1839-1844. A
large military installation, Barrancas Post,
grew adjacent to the fort. The post provided
barracks, offices, hospitals and other
necessary support structures for the fort.

The new fort functioned with Fort Pickens and
Fort McRee across the bay to create a
crossfire of artillery through which any
attacking fleet would have to sail in order to
reach Pensacola.

The first shots of the Civil War were actually
fired on the drawbridge of Fort Barrancas on
January 6, 1861, when sentries fired on men
seen in the darkness.

On November 22, 1861, and again the
following January, Confederate gunners in
the fort exchanged fire with Union troops
across the bay at Fort Pickens.

The Confederates abandoned Pensacola in
May of 1862 and Fort Barrancas was once
again occupied by Union troops. It remained
in Federal hands for the rest of the war and
was the base for several important Civil War
expeditions.

Now part of Gulf Islands National Seashore,
the fort can be visited daily at the Pensacola
Naval Air Station.

This is one of the hall ways in the Fort with the natural light forming the arched shadows.
Nikon D80 18MM Lens F/3.5 1/10s ISO 400 UV Filter

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