Fort Barrancas in Pensacola, Florida

While on Pensacola Bay, I stopped at Fort Barrancas, one of the many coastal forts along the northern Gulf Coast. The first part of this fort called the water battery was built by Spain around 1698. In the early 1800s General Andrew Jackson seized the fort for the American government and when Florida joined the United States in 1821 the Navy made improvements to the fort with a force of 60 slave laborers. During the Civil War the Alabama and Florida state militias occupied the fort while the Union forces occupied nearby Fort Pickens. This produced a tense stalemate which was broken on November 22-23, 1861, when the two sides exchanged cannon fire including over 6,000 cannon balls. The Confederates eventually abandoned the the fort in 1862. In 1971 Fort Barrancas became a part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. It was amazing to see something so old yet so beautifully made. It was another outstanding piece of history!