February 5, 1861 - Evacuees from Pensacola reach New York Harbor

Pensacola Navy Yard, 1861, by an Officer.

February 5, 1861

Having left Pensacola Bay in January with the noncombatants, paroled prisoners and families of soldiers from the U.S. military installations there, the U.S.S. Supply reached New York. 

The men, women and children had been forced to evacuate the bay after Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer moved his small garrison of fewer than 100 U.S. soldiers and sailors across the bay to Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island from Fort Barrancas and the Pensacola Navy Yard on the mainland. State troops had occupied the mainland positions and an undeclared state of war held over the bay as secessionist and Unionist forces eyed each other across the sparkling water.

The following account of the arrival of the evacuees appeared in Northern newspapers:

Fort Barrancas & Pensacola Bay

Return of Officers, Men and Women from Pensacola.

The U.S. storeship Supply, Henry Walke, commander, at New York from Pensacola, brings as passengers the officers and marines lately stationed at the Warrington navy-yard and the Marine Barracks at Penscaola, but who were expelled by the Florida troops when those posts were seized. The families of these men accompanied them to New York on board the Supply. The following is a list of the passengers:

Mrs. Lieut. Slimmer, U.S.A., servant and child, Mrs. J.H. Gilman, U.S.A., servant and child; John Irwin, Lieut. U.S.A., lady and two children; Mrs. Saint, Robert Dixon, U.S.N., lady and two children; James Cooper, U.S.N., lady and four children; Miss Cooper; Robert Hunter; Lewis Holmes, U.S.N.; John Milan, lady and child; Wm. C. Knowles; John Tyler; Spencer Clarge. Also, John Flarety, Daniel E. Jameson, John Gallagher, Wm. J. Lodge, J.W. Barker, T. Massey, employees at Warrington navy-yard; also 9 invalids from the naval hospital, Warrington; 27 ordinary men from do., and 31 marines from the Marine Barracks.

The hospital quarters and barracks were taken possession of and occupied by the State troops of Florida and Alabama. The persons above named were released on parole, and were brought off under a flag of truce.

The following is a list of officers attached to the United States storeship Supply: - Henry Walke, commander; Joseph A. Domees, Henry Erban, Wm. L. Bradford, lieutenants; W.N. Allen, master; E.W. Dunn, paymaster; Wm. W. Ring, assistant surgeon; John Van Dyke, com. Clerk; E.W. Bowie, paymaster’s clerk. - Pittsfield Sun, February 6, 1861, p. 1.

January 10, 1861 - Florida Secedes from the Union & Fort Caswell is seized in North Carolina

Florida's Old Capitol

January 10, 1861

150 years ago today, as a large crowd gathered outside the historic Old Capitol building in Tallahassee, the delegates to Florida's Secession Convention voted by a margin of 62 to 7 to secede from the Union.

Governor-elect John Milton, an ardent secessionist, read the state's ordinance of secession from the east portico of the capitol:

We, the people of the State of Florida in Convention assembled, do solemnly ordain, publish and declare: That the State of Florida hereby withdraws herself from the Confederacy of States existing under the name of the United States of America, and from the existing Government of said States: and that all political connection between her and the Government of said States ought to be and the same is hereby totally annulled, and said union of States dissolved: and the State of Florida is hereby declared a Sovereign and Independent Nation: and that all ordinances heretofore adopted in so far as they create or recognize said Union, are rescinded: and all laws or parts of laws in force in this State, in so far as they recognize or assent to said Union be and they are hereby repealed.

Florida became the third state to leave the Union and the announcement ignited celebrations not only in Tallahassee, but in communities across the state as well as in South Carolina and Mississippi. If you would like to learn more about the state's historic Old Capitol, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/oldcapitol.

Meanwhile, military movements continued across the South. At Charleston Harbor, Union troops in Fort Sumter worked to mount guns and improve their defenses while state troops continued to mount guns and build batteries in Fort Moultrie, Fort Johnson and at other points bearing on Sumter. In Louisiana, the Baton Rouge Arsenal and Barracks were seized. In Florida, a small force of around 80 U.S. soldiers and sailors moved across Pensacola Bay from Fort Barrancas and occupied a more defensible position at Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island. In North Carolina, citizens took matters into their own hands at captured Fort Caswell.  

Historical Marker for Fort Caswell

Located at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, Fort Caswell was a strongly built masonry fort that had been completed in 1836. Designed to mount 61 cannon, it looked out over the channel that led from the Atlantic Ocean up the Cape Fear River to the key port city of Wilmington.

Believing that war was inevitable, a local military company called the Cape Fear Minutemen moved on the fort and seized it from its lone caretaker. The move was done without authorization from the governor or anyone else and a potential crisis loomed. Since North Carolina had not yet decided whether it would secede from the Union, Governor John Ellis ordered Fort Caswell returned to the U.S. government. His orders were followed.

You can learn more about Fort Caswell at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/fortcaswell.

January 8, 1861 - The First Shots of the Civil War

Drawbridge of Fort Barrancas

January 8, 1861

It is a little known fact that the first hostile shots of the Civil War were actually fired on the drawbridge of a Florida fort on the night of January 8, 1861.

The incident at Fort Barrancas near Pensacola took place three months before Confederate troops opened fire on Fort Sumter and one day before cadets from The Citadel fired their cannon at the relief ship Star of the West at the entrance to Charleston Harbor. It is also interesting to note that the gunfire came from U.S. troops, not Southern forces.

Fort Barrancas (right) and Water Battery

Fort Barrancas was one of four strong U.S. forts built during the antebellum era to defend Pensacola Bay and in particular the Pensacola Navy Yard. A brick fortification, it was located on the mainland across the bay from Fort Pickens and Fort McRee. On the eve of the Civil War, the only U.S. troops at Pensacola were quartered in Barrancas Barracks, which stood near the fort. Commanded by Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer, they were from Company G, First U.S. Artillery.

Slemmer was devoted to the Union cause and, having heard that troops from Florida and Alabama were moving to seize the fort, he took steps on January 8, 1861 - 150 years ago today - to prepare Fort Barrancas for defense. The gunpowder from the fort's Water Battery was moved into the main citadel, the cannon were prepared for action and a sergeant's guard was placed in the fort that night. Slemmer also took the additional precaution of having the drawbridge raised.

Cannon at Fort Barrancas

The move came just in time, as in the night the guard saw mysterious intruders appear on the opposite side of the drawbridge:

...The corporal of the guard caused the alarm to be given, upon which the assailants retreated precipitately. The guard was immediately strengthened by half the company, but nothing further occurred that night. - Lt. Adam J. Slemmer, U.S. Army

The "alarm" reported by Slemmer was actually given by opening fire on the intruders. The musket shots were the first hostile shots of the Civil War and were fired 150 years ago tonight.

One of the men against whom the fire was directed was R.L. Sweetman of Mobile, Alabama. He later described how he and a friend had heard that the fort had been evacuated by U.S. troops and went to investigate. They had just come up on the platform leading to the raised drawbridge when soldiers in the fort opened fire on them. They quickly retreated and according to his account no one was injured. Slemmer reported that there were 20 men in the party.

If you would like to read more about this incident, please visit http://civilwarflorida.blogspot.com. You can learn more about Fort Barrancas by visiting http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/fortbarrancas1.