Earlier this year, Major General Braxton Bragg had led most of the Confederates stationed at Pensacola and Mobile west to reinforce General P.G.T. Beauregard’s Army of Mississippi. Colonel Thomas M. Jones of the 27th Mississippi began directing the withdrawal of the remaining forces. On May 7, Jones received word from Brigadier General John H. Forney, commanding the Confederate Department of Alabama and West Florida, that a Federal naval fleet was approaching to threaten Mobile.
Jones quickly prepared to lead his Confederates out of Pensacola to reinforce Mobile. Abandoning Pensacola included “the destruction of the beautiful place which I had labored so hard night and day for over two months to defend, and which I had fondly hoped could be held from the polluting grasp of our insatiate enemies.”
The Confederates in the area had held out for over a year against the Federal garrison at Fort Pickens, as well as various threats from the Gulf Blockading Squadron. The Federals had already destroyed the Pensacola Navy Yard’s dry dock as well as portions of Fort McRee protecting the town.
The evacuation began on the 9th. The Confederates burned the navy yard, destroying the unfinished ironclad C.S.S. Fulton and all other ships that had been under construction. In addition, the troops burned Fort McRee, the marine hospital and barracks, factories and mills, and warehouses filled with lumber and cotton.
That night, Federals stationed across Pensacola Bay saw the fires in the town and determined that the Confederates were evacuating. Brigadier General Lewis G. Arnold, commanding the Western District of the Federal Department of the South, sent his chief of staff across the bay to accept Pensacola’s surrender.
By dawn on May 10, about 1,000 Federals landed to occupy the town. Commander David D. Porter stated, “The Rebels have done their work well. The yard is a ruin.” However, the navy yard was soon rebuilt and used as an important supply base for the Federal blockading fleet in the Gulf of Mexico.
Bibliography
- Chaitin, Peter M., The Coastal War: Chesapeake Bay to Rio Grande. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1983.
- Long, E.B. with Long, Barbara, The Civil War Day by Day. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971.
- Longacre, Edward G. (Patricia L. Faust ed.), Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.
- Stanchak, John E. (Patricia L. Faust ed.), Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.