(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Photo Diary: Castillo de San Marcos, St Augustine FL [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2023-02-16  

Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest existing stone fort in North America.

For those who don't know, I live in a converted campervan and travel around the country, posting photo diaries of places that I visit. I am currently wintering in Florida.

In 1670, the British established a colony at nearby Charleston, South Carolina, and took a new interest in Florida. As a result, in 1672 the Spanish at St Augustine constructed a new stone fort, Castillo de San Marcos, to defend the town. Tensions grew as the English continued to build more plantation colonies in the Carolinas: the Spanish were a haven for escaped plantation slaves who, as long as they converted to Catholicism, were welcomed in Florida as free men. One group of former slaves founded the town of Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, just north of St Augustine—the first free African-American town in the US. Fort Mose was constructed there shortly later.

Twice, in 1702 and in 1740, the British launched an invasion of Florida from their colonies in Georgia, and unsuccessfully laid siege to Fort Mose and St Augustine’s Castillo. In response, the Spanish built a third fortress, Fort Matanzas, to protect the city.

By 1756, Spain and England were themselves at war. The British won, and as part of the 1763 peace treaty, Florida was turned over to British rule. The English government split the colony into two halves: East Florida, with its capitol in St Augustine, and West Florida, with Pensacola as its capitol. The British ruled Florida for the next 21 years.

During the Revolutionary War, the Castillo de San Marcos was converted into a prison for captured American rebels (three signers of the Declaration of Independence were imprisoned here). The Spanish King, meanwhile, gave financial and military aid to the American colonists, and when the United States won its independence from Britain in 1783, part of the peace treaty returned Florida back to Spain.

But as the Spanish Empire began to decline in power during the late 18th and early 19th century, the fledgling United States began to exercise more influence in Florida, and illegal settlements and armed incursions became more frequent. In March 1812, the US sent gunboats and troops to lay siege to St Augustine in an attempt to conquer the colony, but they were forced to withdraw when the War of 1812 broke out with England. In 1817, American troops under General Andrew Jackson once again invaded Florida in the First Seminole War, and briefly gained control over much of the peninsula.

In 1821, Spain began to view the isolated colony as no longer important, and formally sold the provinces of East and West Florida to the United States for $5 million. They were incorporated into the US as the State of Florida in 1845.

The Castillo de San Marcos, now renamed Fort Marion, became an important military base in the Second Seminole War in 1835. During that war the Seminole chief Osceola was invited to a peace negotiation at St Augustine, but was taken prisoner instead.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Florida joined the Confederacy, and a group of 25 militiamen seized Fort Marion. But the Union Navy targeted the port at St Augustine as part of its “Anaconda Strategy” to strangle the South with a blockade. In March 1862, the US warship Wabash landed at St Augustine and disembarked a group of Federal troops, who occupied the town without firing a shot. St Augustine remained in Union hands for the rest of the war.

In the 1870’s, Fort Marion was used as a military prison. A number of captives from the “Indian Wars” were held there at various times. In 1898, the fort was used as a prison camp for military deserters and disciplinary cases during the Spanish-American War.

In 1920, the fort was decommissioned, and in 1933 it was transferred to the National Park Service. Today it is designated the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument.

Some photos from a visit.

The park

A reconstructed portion of the outer wall and ditch

The dry moat

Entrance at the drawbridge

Outer walls

Cannons overlook the water

Outer cannon bastion

Inside the parade grounds

Park Ranger talk

Spanish Barracks

Spanish chapel

British-period barracks

Powder magazine

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/16/2150360/-Photo-Diary-Castillo-de-San-Marcos-St-Augustine-FL

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/