Reply #6: Fort Barrancas [View All]

... On January 6, 1861, sentries at Fort Barrancas, an important post protecting Pensacola Bay and the Pensacola Navy Yard, observed shadowy figures approaching the main gate of the fort through the darkness. Barrancas was then the only one of the harbor fortifications at Pensacola occupied by the U.S. Army in any strength at all. The nearby posts of Fort Pickens and Fort McRee were held only by caretakers and the Advanced Redoubt, a subsidiary work to Fort Barrancas, was not occupied at all ...

As they saw the unknown men walking onto the drawbridge on January 6th, they reacted quickly. After the mysterious figures did not respond to their calls, the sentries opened fire. The figures disappeared, but the first hostile shots of the Civil War had been fired. Deciding to move his command to the more secure Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island, Lieutenant Slemmer began preparing to evacuate Fort Barrancas the next day.

It was later disclosed that the figures on the drawbridge had been volunteer soldiers from Alabama who approached the fort after hearing a rumor that it had been evacuated by the Federals ...

http://southernhistory.blogspot.com/2010/04/fort-barrancas-florida-first-hostile.html