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[[Image:Fort-pickensPickens.jpgpng|thumb|right|Engraving 270px|Lithograph of wartime Fort Pickens, c. 1860s]]
'''Fort Pickens''' is a pentagonal historic United States military fort on [[Santa Rosa Island]], at the entrance to [[Pensacola Bay]]. It is named after [[Wikipedia:American Revolutionary War|American Revolutionary War]] hero [[Andrew Pickens]]. The fort was completed in [[1834]] and remained in use in some form until [[1947]]. Fort Pickens is currently part of the [[Gulf Islands National Seashore]], and as such, is administered by the [[Wikipedia:National Park Service|National Park Service]].
==Construction==
[[Image:Fort Pickens map 1861.png|thumb|right|1861 sketch of the fort]]
French engineer [[Wikipedia:Simon Bernard|Simon Bernard]] was appointed to design Fort Pickens. Construction on Fort Pickens lasted from [[1829]] to [[1834]], with 21.5 million bricks being used to build the fort. Much of the construction was done by slave labor.
==Civil War==
[[Image:Fort Pickens map 1861-pickens.pngjpg|thumb|right|1861 sketch Engraving of the fortwartime Fort Pickens]]
By the time of the Civil War, Fort Pickens had not been regularly occupied since the [[Wikipedia:Mexican–American War|Mexican–American War]]. However, Lieutenant [[Wikipedia:Adam J. Slemmer|Adam J. Slemmer]], in charge of United States forces at Fort Barrancas, determined that Fort Pickens was more defensible than any of the other posts in the area.