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Confederate Pensacola

2,475 bytes added, 04:23, 17 June 2009
New page: The '''Confederate''' presence in Pensacola during the Civil War began in January 1861 and ended in May 1862. ==During the war== {{main|Civil War}} On January 10, Florida ...
The '''Confederate''' presence in Pensacola during the [[Civil War]] began in January [[1861]] and ended in May [[1862]].

==During the war==
{{main|Civil War}}
On [[January 10]], Florida became the third state to secede from the Union. On [[January 12]], state troops seized the [[Navy Yard]] and Forts [[Fort Barrancas|Barrancas]] and [[Fort McRee|McRee]]. ([[Fort Pickens]] would remain under Union control for the duration of the war.)

Confederate General [[Braxton Bragg]] arrived in Pensacola on [[March 11]], 1861, and took command of the troops there. He declared martial law in the city on [[April 19]].

On [[October 8]], Confederate forces launched [[Battle of Santa Rosa Island|an unsuccessful offensive]] to capture Fort Pickens. Bragg's "[[Army of Pensacola]]" was organized on [[October 22]]. They would trade artillery exchanges with the Union-held Pickens several times in late 1861 and early 1862.

By March [[1862]], most of the Army of Pensacola's troops were absorbed into the Army of the Mississippi or transferred elsewhere. The last Confederate forces left on [[May 9]], and Mayor [[John Brosnaham]] surrendered Pensacola to Union troops on [[May 10]].

==Confederate veterans==
A number of Confederate soldiers and leaders returned to Pensacola after the war, including a number of prominent citizens:
*[[Stephen Russell Mallory]], Confederate Secretary of the Navy
*[[Augustus Emmet Maxwell]], Confederate Senator
*[[Jackson Morton]], Confederate Representative
*[[Edward Aylesworth Perry]], Confederate Brigadier General and postwar Florida Governor
*[[Chandler Cox Yonge]]
*[[Nathan Burrell Cook]]
*[[William Franklin Lee]]
*[[Daniel Gonzalez Brent]]
*[[Henry Baars]]
*[[Robert Bell Smith Hargis]]
*[[John Ely Spoon]], Pensacola's last surviving Confederate veteran

==Confederate memorial==
{{main|Lee Square}}
Confederate sympathies remained strong in Pensacola following the war. Beginning in [[1881]], Pensacolian [[Edward Aylesworth Perry]] led a campaign to erect a state Confederate memorial in Tallahassee and began seeking donations. After his death, [[William Dudley Chipley]] moved the location of the memorial to Pensacola, where most of the donations had originated. It was built in [[Lee Square]] atop [[Gage Hill]], opening in [[1891]], and was for many decades thereafter the site of annual [[Decoration Day]] celebrations.

The [[Confederate flag]] remains a part of Pensacola's "[[five flags]]" displays.

[[Category:Civil War]]