Among the great treasures of this area, and a prime reason for the creation of Gulf Islands National Seashore, are our seacoast forts. Fort Massachusetts, Fort Pickens, Fort McRee, Fort Barrancas, and the Advanced Redoubt were part of our first unified system of national defense. From the War of 1812 through World War Two, forts like these protected our coasts from invasion.
A visit to Fort Pickens reveals the story of evolving technologies of offense and defense from 1829 to 1943. A visitor to Fort Massachusetts on West Ship Island, MS, or to Fort Barrancas and the Advanced Redoubt onboard NAS Pensacola, discovers the highest arts of fortification in the days of wooden ships. But a visit to Fort McRee is, well, a nice day at the beach. You see, Fort McRee is missing in action.
Now, it is not easy to lose 10.5 million bricks arranged as a three-story fort, unless you build it on a barrier island. And it doesn’t help if “Fort McRee” means different things at different times. “Fort Pickens,” for instance refers to the original fort, but by 1898 also includes a number of concrete gun batteries, and by 1917 refers to the western two miles of Santa Rosa Island. Similarly, the east end of Perdido Key is still called Fort McRee by locals, and there are Army remnants out there. So what happened to the old fort?
Fort McRee was built to withstand bombardment from wooden ships firing cannonballs. It was one of a system of forts that guarded American harbors to discourage invaders, and these forts could do that without even being manned in peacetime. Ironically, like many other such forts, McRee would only see action during our own Civil War. On November 22 and 23, 1861, Confederate troops came under intense bombardment from Federal forces at Fort Pickens and from the USS Niagara and USS Richmond. Repeated battering from 64- to 125-pound cannonballs damaged McRee so badly it had to be abandoned during the fight, and it was never repaired. Gradually the fort collapsed from wave action on the limestone mortar holding it together.
Part of McRee’s problem was that it was built on the easternmost point of Perdido Key. The barrier islands along our coast tend to erode on their eastern ends, while they build onto their western ends. This is a function of our prevailing SE winds, and therefore SE waves, and the absence of plants with roots to stabilize the sand on the beachfronts. A lot of sand moves along our coast daily, and some of it moved out from under Fort McRee. The National Park Service has spent thousands of dollars to protect Fort Massachusetts in the Mississippi District from a similar fate.
Contrary to popular belief, it now appears some of McRee survived the 1906 hurricane, and was visible as late as 1940. Recent research has also indicated that the US Army Corps of Engineers successfully stopped the erosion of the east end of Perdido Key in their efforts to protect the later fortifications. It is possible that future research may locate the last remains of the old fort, and Gulf Islands NS is making plans to conduct that research this fall. We may well solve this mystery yet.
#NPS#
