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Editors Journal—On the morning of Feb. 4th we shook the dust of single tax lalhope from our sand ela and crossed the bay to Mobile, where we took the L and N. train for Pensacola, Florida. We arrived in due time and are now comfort ably housed in the St. Carlos hotel which looks out upon the public park just as the Leggett House does at Fairfield. Pensacola is a city of twenty-two thousand, situated on the west shore of the bay, twelve miles from the gulf and is, in many respects, a pretty city with many palatial resi dences surrounded by spacious and nicely kept lawns. It contains many good stores with rooms hav ing modern fronts It has the finest harbor on the southern coast with a depth that will carry the largest vessels afloat. We made a trip to the navy yard and to forts Barrancas, Pickens and McRea situated at the mouth of the bay. We were shown through the various forts by an obliging soldier detailed from the command sta tioned at Barrancas. He explained to us the construction and the his tory of the forts. The substructure of Fort Barran cas was built by the Spaniards in 1687 and is a brick structure with very thick walls reinforced outside with a hill of sand, the same as the forts recently built. The brick to this fort was brought from Bermuda and is as hard as granite. The superstructure was built by the rebels during the Viv war and fo massive. It is built of brick re inforced the same as the old fort. This fort is connected by an under ground tunnel with another fort called the Redoubt, a half mile back from the shore. These forts were occupied by the rebels during the Civil war but they were never al lowed to mount guns on them for the Union forces who held Fort Pickens, on the island just across the Day, shot their guns off as fast as they would mount them. Fort Barrancas is now abandoned and is left as the habitation of owls and as the Mecca to which the ever present tourist makes his pilgrimage. Fort Pickens is the only fort along the southern coast that was never occupied by the rebel forces but re mained in the hands of the Union, and like the star of Bethlehem in Judea, stood guard over the cradle of freedom wile the American re public underwent its new birth of regeneration. Pickens has been rebuilt and en larged and is mounted with new twelve inch rifled guns forty-four feet long that are concealed behind the fortifications and are operated by machinery which hoists the gun above the fortification, fires it and returns It to Its place of concealment for reloading. He who locates the object to be shot and directs the sighting and firing of the gun is located five miles from the fort and under his direc tions the object is located, the gun loaded, hoisted and fired in thirty seconds. The object is hit three times out of five and the men oper ting and sighting never see the bject. Fort McRea like Barrancas was in the hands of the rebels during the Civil war but was never able to mount its guns on account of the vigilance of Pickens. It was almost destroyed by the great storm of September 1006 and is just being rebuilt. The navy yards are two miles up the bay from the forts and the great steel dry dock captured from the Spanish at Havana is there. It is 580 feet long by 75 feet wide and was built in England for Spain at a cost of five million dollars. It is the second largest dock in the world. The gun boat, Isla de Luzon, captured from Spain during the war, was brought here and repaired and with eall the 25th of this month. We also visited the National cemetery connected with the forts and navy yard and as we stood with heads uncovered before the long rows of marble slabs that keep virgil over the sleepers there we dropped a tear in memory of the vator that once was theirs. ‘There is no soil on any of the country around Pensacola but it is vast stretch of sand as white as driven snow. Today we accept ed an invitation of Captain Hardiey for a free ride ten miles across the bay to Santa Rosa where the life
Newspaper Details
Fairfield Journal
Fairfield, Iowa, US
Wed, Feb 19, 1908
Page 1
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Anonymous
USA 27 May 2026
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