January 22, 1861 – The Pensacola Forts
The Daily Exchange, Baltimore, MD
Popular interest in warlike movements now centres nearer at home than when Charleston was the only point from which radiated the war excitements of the day. The immediate interest of at least three States—Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, is now becoming alive to the importance of occupying the forts within the borders of the latter Commonwealth. We see repeated at Pensacola, the manoeuvre of Anderson at Moultrie. There are three forts at Pensacola, a Navy Yard and a redoubt. Commandant Armstrong has abandoned the Navy Yard and Fort Barancas, removing munitions and spiking guns, and transferring his forces, amounting in the aggregate to between two and three hundred men, from the main land to Santa Rosa Island, has prepared to make good his position within the-immensely strong fortifications of Fort Pickens. Whether he has abandoned Fort McCree, also, we are not advised, but we doubt if he has. This fortress is a powerful and castle-like masonry erection, built on a low sand-spit of the main land, and appearing to rise out of the water. It is further seaward than Fort Pickens, of which it is the vis-a vis across the channel, and a vessel entering must needs run the gauntlet of its guns before approaching the latter, which, however, of itself, effectually closes the harbor against the admission of an enemy of even very heavy force.