What Made Fort Pickens Different?

[MikeyB]

FL and AL demanded Fort Pickens surrender but they managed to held on. as far as I can tell, the Fort was also within artillery range of mainland troops and batteries like at Sumter. If anything, USN resupply and reinforcement efforts more difficult than Sumter given the added distance.

So how come Pickens was able to hold out? Did FL and AL just physically not have enough heavy artillery to blow them out at that time? Perhaps Pensacola not as strategically important versus Charleston, but I can't imagine the governors of FL and AL would agree w/ that thinking?

 

[OpnCoronet]

Pickens was more defensible i.e. it was not effectively surrounded, it had more men to defend itself and reinforcements and supplies were present and readily available on ships in the harbor, when and if needed.



P.S. Some of the Naval support and the troops available to reinforce Ft. Pickens, were originally projected by Lincoln to be available to reinforce The Fox resupply mission for Sumter, if needed. But, through a mix up in orders(or interference by the Sec'y of State)were instead rerouted to Ft. Pickens.

 

[jackt62]

I would also add the psychological factor; the presence of a federal fort guarding the entrance to Charleston Harbor, and within direct sight of the mansions of the planter class along the Battery, was an affront to the hard-core secessionists of South Carolina. By contrast, Pickens was a less visible target and would not have inspired the same outrage among the much smaller and less outspoken residents of Pensacola.

 

[John S. Carter]

Could it be that it was not so much the fort as to the location of Sumter? Charleston ,South Carolina = the home of John C. Calhoun and Nullification. The leader of the succession movement. The history of this colony/state of threatening first the colonies movement towards independence with the threat of not signing the Declaration and then with the Constitution in regards to slavery on both. Surely there were the other Southern states that stood with S.C. ,but it was this state that was recognized by the North as being the Cubert/leader in these movements that threaten the Union. So this to the North was the end of the threats and the placation of this state. No one knew of Ft.Pickens ,but they knew of Charleston. Lincoln may have called for troops the quietish the rebellion but to the North it was South Carolina that had led its sister sates as always to this moment. Interesting, correct me but was there not a fire in Charleston within the year?

 

[Irishtom29]

Pickens was more defensible i.e. it was not effectively surrounded, it had more men to defend itself and reinforcements and supplies were present and readily available on ships in the harbor, when and if needed.



P.S. Some of the Naval support and the troops available to reinforce Ft. Pickens, were originally projected by Lincoln to be available to reinforce The Fox resupply mission for Sumter, if needed. But, through a mix up in orders(or interference by the Sec'y of State)were instead rerouted to Ft. Pickens.

Pickens was a very strong and well placed fort and dominated the other harbor forts, Barrancas and McRee. Indeed fire from Pickens (and some Federal gunboats) ruined McRee.