Fort Gadsden in the Civil War

Riverview at Fort Gadsden
A Union boat party coming
downriver in 1865 captured the
Confederate sentries at Fort
Gadsden.

Oak tree at Fort Gadsden
This tree on the earthworks at
Fort Gadsden has likely been
growing since before the Civil
War.

Fort Gadsden's reputation as an
unhealthy location prevented the
Confederates from using it to any
great degree during the Civil War.

The site was briefly considered as a
location for a battery of heavy artillery,
but upriver locations were selected
instead. The Confederates did keep
troops here for a time after they
abandoned Apalachicola during the
spring of 1862. A company of infantry
and battery of four field guns was
stationed at Fort Gadsden to provide
early warning should the Union navy
start up the Apalachicola River.

The troops were withdrawn in 1863 due to fever, however, and until the end of the war
only a few sentries were kept at Fort Gadsden to watch for enemy activity.

The pickets at the fort were captured in 1865 when a party of Union sailors came
across from St. Andrews Bay and sailed down the Apalachicola in a small boat after
capturing a similar outpost upstream at Ricco's Bluff. Not a shot was fired in the
incident. With the end of the war, the fort lapsed back into oblivion.