American Forts

One thing that took us by surprise is how many forts there are along the American coastline in the deep south, and how much history can be learned from those aging structures. It’s hard to imagine that right in between the Gulf Shores, Destin, and Pensacola beach resort areas on the Gulf Coast, there is a historic fort (Pickens) smack dab in the middle of all the sun bathers and beach combers. Fort Pickens sits pristinely on a sand bar island in Pensacola and was used in battles between Union and Confederate forces during the Civil War, it was home to one of the first and largest rifled-barrel cannons in history which could launch an 1100-lb cannonball up to 8 miles! What we couldn’t understand is how in the hell you can accurately aim a cannonball at a target 8 miles away without a telescope that could see that far?!

Then there’s the oldest masonry fort in all of America, which is Castillo de San Marcos. Beautifully situated on the beach in the oldest city in America, St. Augustine, FL. That’s right, just south of Jacksonville, Florida sits a city with buildings and cobblestone streets that still survive today (including the oldest wooden school house in America) which pre-dates Jamestown, Virginia by 42 years. “San Agustín was founded in September 1565 by Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, and subsequently served as the capital of Spanish Florida for two hundred years.”

That was only the beginning! We then traveled up to Charleston where Forts Moultrie and Sumter carry their own brand of American stories. Fort Moultrie on Sulivan Island in the Charleston Harbor was where the first battle of the American Revolutionary war was won for the Patriots. And of course Fort Sumter is where the first shots of the American Civil War were fired. The pictures of the devastated pile of bricks and cannon barrels (all the was left of Sumter) at the end of the Civil War gives a stark reminder of the lives that were lost in that war and a peak into what it must have felt like to be stuck in the middle of that island fort when all hell was raining down on you from all sides!

None of this even captures how the famous pirate Black Beard and some of his allies held the Charleston Harbor hostage for months by blocking the passage between Forts Moultrie and Sumter and demanding tolls to pass through! How fun it was for us to stand inside these historic structures and let them whisper their ancient memories to us. These are the moments that remind us that our American freedom was not free.