Fort Gadsden in the Civil War

I've mentioned Fort Gadsden Historic Site in the Apalachicola National Forest on these pages from time to time, usually in relation to the destruction of the "Negro Fort" on the Apalachicola there in 1816 or the First Seminole War. The site also has a little known Civil War history.

In 1862-1863, following the evacuation of Apalachicola by Confederate forces, troops and a battery of field artillery were based in the old earthworks at the site and a guardhouse and possibly other structures were constructed there. Confederate engineers considered the old fort as a possible location for a battery of heavy artillery. While one engineer favored the location, others quickly recognized that the adjacent swamps made the site too high of a risk for sickness. The battery was never constructed and, likely, the earthworks of the original fort were preserved as a result.

In 1863, a Union boat expedition came up the river past the fort and captured the schooner Fashion which was being loaded with cotton for a blockade-running attempt in Owl Creek above the fort. The Confederate sentries at Fort Gadsden did not detect the passage of the Union sailors. The fort remained quiet as the boat party made its way back downstream with the captured blockade runner. The Union force lobbed a shell into the fort, but received no response.

Most of the troops were withdrawn from the fort in 1863 after a severe fever outbreak sickened a number of the men posted there. A small detachment of men from the 5th Florida Cavalry remained at the fort until the end of the war, however, assigned picket duty there to watch for any movement up the Apalachicola River by Union gunboats.

In January of 1865, a Union boat party that had come up Bear Creek into the Chipola River from St. Andrew Bay moved down into the Apalachicola and made a successful raid on the Confederate outpost upstream at Ricco's Bluff. Some of these men then made their way down the Apalachicola, capturing a few of the pickets at Fort Gadsden as well, but evidently without firing a shot. The incident was the last mention of Fort Gadsden in the military records of the Civil War.

To learn more about Fort Gadsden Historic Site, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/fortgadsden.

Memorial Day in Florida - Fort Gadsden Historic Site

This is part of a weekend long series dedicated to Floridians who gave their lives for freedom, liberty, their follow citizens, their state and their country.

Perhaps the deadliest cannon shot in American history was fired in Florida on July 27, 1816. The target was a powerful fort on the lower Apalachicola River and the resulting explosion left an estimated 270 men, women and children either dead or dying.

British forces had built the fort in 1814 as part of their expanding campaign along the Gulf Coast during the closing months of the War of 1812. Its purpose was to serve as a recruitment and training base for a large force of Native American and African American volunteers that had joined the British as they came ashore in what was then Spanish Florida.

At its height, the post provided security and housing for more than 2,000 men and their families. The War of 1812 came to an end, however, before this force could be put into the field for a campaign into Georgia. The British left the lower Apalachicola in May of 1815 and American authorities initially thought the fort had been abandoned. They soon learned otherwise.

When Colonel Edward Nicolls (sometimes misspelled Nichols) left the "British Post on the Apalachicola" with his force of Royal Marines, he left the fortress, its artillery and a massive supply of ammunition, small arms and other military goods in the hands of his former allies. Most of the Indians soon drifted back to their villages, but the African Americans - many of whom had escaped slavery in the United States - remained.

Commanded by their sergeant major, a former slave named Garcon, they continued to conduct artillery drills and flew the English Jack over the fort. When American officials learned of this, they began calling the establishment the "Negro Fort" on the Apalachicola and demanded that Spanish authorities eliminate it. The free colony and fort on the Apalachicola served as a natural beacon to slaves on the plantations of Georgia and the Carolinas.

Ultimately, Major General Edmund P. Gaines (although Andrew Jackson often gets the blame) sent a joint land and sea expedition to destroy the fort. A force of 116 men left Camp Crawford, Georgia, in July of 1816 and dropped down the Apalachicola River by boat. Joined by more than 200 allied Creek warriors en route, they landed and surrounded the land approaches to the fort.

At the same time, a flotilla of U.S. gunboats and supply vessels arrived in Apalachicola Bay. To the outrage of the sailors, several members of a party sent into the mouth of the river to obtain fresh water were ambushed and killed by men from the "Negro Fort." One of the survivors was taken back to the fort were he was tortured and burned to death.

A demand from Lt. Col. Duncan L. Clinch for the surrender of the fort was answered with a cannon shot and on the morning of July 27, 1816, the American forces began their main attack.

Two U.S. gunboats moved to within range of the fort and were greated by artillery fire from its garrison. The sailors responded with their own cannon and to the shock of all involved, fired a heated cannonball directly through the doors of one of the fort's magazines on only their fifth shot. The entire structure disappeared in a massive explosion.

Of the estimated 320 men, women and children in the fort at the time of the blast, 270 died instantly. Most of the rest were wounded. Colonel Clinch, the commander of the American forces, remarked that he shed a tear over the fate of the unfortunate beings and described how he and his men rushed to help the few survivors that remained.

The site of the "Negro Fort" on the Apalachicola is now a historic site within the Apalachicola National Forest. Maintained by the forest service, the park is open daily and also includes the earthwork remains of Fort Gadsden, a U.S. fort built at the site in 1818 by Andrew Jackson.

To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/fortgadsden.

Fort Gadsden - A Black History Landmark in Florida

February is observed as Black History Month in the United States and one of the most significant American black history landmarks can be found in North Florida's Apalachicola National Forest.

Fort Gadsden Historic Site near the small community of Sumatra preserves the site of the "Negro Fort" on the Apalachicola. Also called the British Post and, for unclear reasons, Fort Blunt (this name appears in no official documents), this was the location of a major colony established by both free African Americans and refugee slaves from the United States and Spanish Florida in 1815. (Note: Fort Gadsden was the name of an American fort built on the same site in 1818).

The fort itself was originally built by British forces during the summer of 1814 as a base for operations during the War of 1812. Colonel Edward Nicolls (sometimes mispelled Nicholls) and Captain George Woodbine assembled a large force of Seminole and Creek warriors and African American soldiers here for planned attacks on Georgia. The war ended before the attacks could take place.

In May of 1814, Colonel Nicolls withdrew from Florida, but left his fort, its artillery and a massive stockpile of arms and ammunition in the hands of his former allies. Most of the Native American warriors soon drifted away, but a colony of several hundred African Americans remained. Farms were established along the riverbanks near the fort and the occupants continued to fly the British flag over their settlement.

The colony naturally became a beacon for slaves living on the plantations of the Southeast and numbers slipped away from bondage to seek freedom at the black settlement on the Apalachicola. U.S. officials began calling the establishment the "Negro Fort" in their reports and demanded that the Spanish take action to destroy it and return its occupants to slavery.

Before the Spanish could act, however, the United States launched a combined land and sea operation against the fort. Reinforced by several hundred friendly Creek warriors, Lt. Col. Duncan L. Clinch and 112 men from the 4th United States Infantry surrounded the fort in July of 1816 and demanded its surrender. The commander of the fort, a former slave named Garcon who had served as a sergeant major in the British forces, replied with a cannon shot.

U.S. forces launched their main attack at 5 a.m. on July 27, 1816, when Gunboats #149 and #154 moved upstream to within range of the fort. The cannon of the fort opened fire, but the shots went wide and did no damage. The sailors, meanwhile, fired four rounds at the fort to test the range and then loaded their guns with cannonballs they had heated until they were red hot.

They hoped to set the wooden parts of the fort on fire, but instead the first "hot shot" fired sailed directly through the open door of a gunpowder magazine and blew the massive fort to bits. The explosion killed 270 of the 320 men, women and children in the fort and injured most of the survivors.

Garcon was captured and executed, as was a Choctaw chief in the fort. The other survivors of the blast were carried to Georgia where they were claimed by plantation owners.

Click here to learn more about this dramatic episode of Florida history and to see photographs of the site of the deadly explosion.