Fort Barrancas | military, place with historical importance, fortification, American Civil War 1861-1865

 military, place with historical importance, fortification, American Civil War 1861-1865

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3182 Taylor Road
Pensacola, FL 32508
(850) 455-5167
www.nps.gov/guis/learn/historyculture/fort-barrancas.ht...

This Third-System fort, begun in 1839, was completed between 1841 and 1844 on top of earlier Spanish and British fortifications, which took advantage of the site's position on a bluff ("barranca" in Spanish) overlooking the restrictive channel into Pensacola. In early 1861, the federal garrison abandoned the position to the Confederates in favor of Fort Pickens across the channel on Santa Rosa Island. The Confederates held Barrancas until the losses at Shiloh and New Orleans compelled their withdrawal to more vital theaters. After the war, the fort was used for decades as a training facility for the Coastal Artillery.

The white water battery retains its original Spanish influence in stuccoed facades, while the irregular brick fort itself (connected by tunnel) was designed to dominate the harbor and resist assault from the land (especially westward). Heavy guns were mounted in barbette in the water battery and southern parapet of the fort, while lighter guns were emplaced facing to the northwest. The landward sides of the fort were protected by a glacis and a ditch lined with scarp and counterscarp, the latter connected to the fort proper by a tunnel under the ditch. Rifle galleries run along the scarp and counterscarp, allowing point defense via scores of embrasures. Eight carronades were mounted in casemates in the counterscarp, from which they could sweep the ditch and the southern approaches to the fort with grape and canister.
As of 1851, it was intended to be armed with eleven 32-pounder seacoast guns, ten 24-pounder guns, five 18-pounder guns, three 12-pounder guns, three field pieces, four 8" heavy seacoast howitzers, two 10" heavy mortars, one 8" light mortar and two coehorn mortars, for a total of 49 guns.