by Jeffrey Schaffer

Created on: October 23, 2009

Fort Pickens, situated on Santa Rosa Island at the mouth of Pensacola Bay, was originally built in 1834 to defend Pensacola Florida. When the southern states began to secede in 1860, it remain with Fort Sumter, in South Carolina, as one of the few federal posts still held in Confederate territory. Lieutenant Adam Slemmer ordered the nearby forts Mcree and Barrencas evacuated and held out in Fort Pickens when the war started. Control of Fort Pickens meant that Pensacola, one of the best ports and shipyards in the south, would be denied to the Confederacy.

Command of Union forces was turned over to Colonel Harvey Brown in command of the fort and Colonel William Wilson in command of the infantry camped to the east. General Braxton Bragg assumed command over the Confederate in and around Pensacola. He became aware of the threat of the Union forces on the island when on September 14th 1861, the Confederate schooner Judah, moored in the Pensacola docks, was burned and destroyed by Union raiders. General Bragg decided to send 1,200 under Brigadier General Richard Anderson to raid the Union camps.

Landing east of the Union camps at about midnight, Anderson's men managed to move undetected until they came upon the Federal picket line. The battle was one of the rare night battles of the civil war; Anderson's men had to tie white bands around their arms to be able to distinguish friend from foe. Fixing bayonets, the men charged and routed the 6th New York regiment sending them fleeing towards Fort Pickens. Anderson had his men form a defensive line while they looted the Union camp and spike several nearby guns. Colonel Brown rallied his men and forced the Confederates to fight as they retreated to their boats. Despite the pursuit, the Confederate force managed to find their boats and withdrew back to Pensacola.

The raid was something of a success in that it disrupted the Union forces on the Island. General Bragg knew, however, that he did not have nearly enough men or support to take the fort itself. When New Orleans fell in April 1862, Bragg was ordered to withdraw his forces and join with General Albert Johnston in Tennessee. Though they destroyed the ship facilities, Pensacola was occupied by Federal forces and became a base of operations for the West Gulf Blockading Squadron. The South lost one of its best ports and the Union gain a enclave from which they could launch raids into the deep south.

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