Viewpoint: Mission Impossible, 1861: The reinforcement of Fort Pickens

As the country edged closer to civil war in April of 1861, Navy Lt. John Worden boarded a train in Washington, D.C., and headed toward Pensacola. Worden was on a secret and dangerous mission: to deliver an order from President Lincoln to reinforce Fort Pickens.

The force meant to accomplish this order was already on hand. In fact, 87 officers and men of Company A, 1st Artillery, had been sitting offshore from the fort on the sloop-of-war Brooklyn since February. They had not yet landed at Fort Pickens due to a truce at Pensacola and conflicting orders.

Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election in November 1860, but would not take office until March 1861. For four months everyone knew Lincoln was going to be the president, but he had no legal authority yet. The new administration had plenty of enemies, and they were not waiting for Lincoln.

South Carolina led the charge, passing an ordinance of secession on Dec. 20. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana followed in January. Texas seceded Feb. 1. On Feb. 4, Southern representatives met in Montgomery to adopt a constitution. Jefferson Davis was elected provisional president of the Confederate States of America.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, President James Buchanan was trying to avoid a civil war. Southern militias were seizing federal assets across the South, while the government was trying to hold on to as much as possible without fighting. By March that amounted to Fort Monroe in Virginia; Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C.; Fort Taylor at Key West; Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas; and Fort Pickens on Pensacola Bay.

Of these, only Forts Sumter and Pickens were threatened by state forces. The eyes of the nation were upon them.

Both forts were held by about one company of artillery, less than a hundred men. But while Fort Sumter sits inside the harbor, Fort Pickens sits at the mouth of the harbor. Sumter could not be reinforced without risking a clash with state troops; Pickens could be reinforced without a direct confrontation.

Thus, Company A, 1st Artillery was sent on its way.

Word of the departure reached Stephen Mallory, recently resigned senator from Florida and soon-to-be secretary of the Confederate Navy. Southern leaders had already sent a telegram to troops gathered at Pensacola advising that Fort Pickens "is not worth one drop of blood to us. ... Bloodshed may be fatal to our cause."

Mallory, still in Washington, went to President Buchanan. The two men agreed to an informal truce, with Mallory pledging that Southern forces would not attack Fort Pickens as long as the government did not reinforce it. Buchanan ordered the 1st Artillery not to land, and a special messenger got the word to Pensacola the day before the Brooklyn arrived.

When Lincoln took office, he decided to land the troops. Army orders were issued and sent to the Brooklyn. But landing required cooperation of the Navy, and Navy Capt. John Adams was not inclined to break the truce on orders from the Army.

So Lt. Worden was dispatched. He delivered the orders on April 12; that same day, Fort Sumter was bombarded and the war was on. Fort Pickens was reinforced early the next morning.

Although Worden was arrested on his way back to Washington, he was released in time to take command of the new ironclad Monitor, and fought it against the CSS Virginia — better known as the Merrimac — in 1862 in the first battle of armored ships in history.

David P. Ogden is a park ranger/librarian/historian for Gulf Islands National Seashore. He is a resident of Santa Rosa County.