In Pensacola Bay, U.S. Army Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer consolidates his forces in Fort Pickens

With the secession of Florida underway, the senior army officer present at Pensacola, First Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer, sought to secure the forts that controlled the harbor.  With a limited resources, he opted to concentrate his forces on Fort Pickens, an island installation in the harbor that effectively controlled the approaches to Pensacola Bay.  Moving from Fort Barracas, spiking the guns there, he held the vital fort with eighty-one men till he was reinforced when hostilities broke out in April.  (By John Osborne)