Fort McRee
was a bent elliptical fort built on a barrier island. At its widest points the fort was 450 feet by
150 feet wide. The wall that faced the
channel was 366 feet long and about 35 feet above the water line during low
tide. McRee held 128 cannons, including
twenty-four 32 pounders. The fort was
built before 1839 by William Henry Chase who oversaw the construction of all
the Pensacola area forts.
In early
January 1861 Union troops located at Fort McRee destroyed about 20,000 pound of
gunpowder and evacuated to Fort Pickens.
On January 12th 1861 Confederate troops from Alabama and
Florida occupied McRee.
On the
morning of November 22nd 1861 Union batteries located at Fort
Pickens opened on some Confederate steamers docked at the Navy Yard. The ships escaped with very little damage,
while the Confederate guns located at Forts Barrancas and McRee returned fire
on Fort Pickens. The USS Richmond and
USS Niagara moved in firing on Fort McRee, shooting the Fort’s flagstaffs off. The Confederate fire was able to do some damage
to the USS Richmond. Confederate General
Braxton Bragg said of that day's battle, that "the houses in Pensacola, ten
miles off, trembled from the effect; and immense quantities of dead fish
floated on the surface of the lagoon, stunned by the concussion." At about 5 pm with the tide going out the two
Union ships had to withdraw and the guns of McRee fell silent.
The Battle
took up again on November 23rd 1861 where it had left off. The Union side firing around 5,000 rounds of
ammo into Fort McRee did extensive damage.
Fort McRee’s Confederate commander Colonel John B Villepique sent word
to Bragg that the fort was exposed, half his guns had been dismounted and the
powder was in danger. The Confederate
only returned about 1,000 shots, killing 2 and wounding 13 Union men. Fort McRee would survive the bombardment, but
large chunks of wall were blown away or collapsed, and one powder magazine
caved in. Six Confederate soldiers died
in the action.
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