Today in History:

658 Series I Volume VI- Serial 6 - Fort Pulaski - New Orleans

Page 658 OPERATIONS IN W. FLA., S. ALA., S. MISS., AND LA. Chapter XVI.

leans and secured her, and have sent her to the city. They have taken with them sixteen citizens, four of whom they threaten to hang, declaring they are not prisoners of war, but persons taken in rebellion since the authority of the Union has been restored.

The fort at Grand Caillou had been evacuated on April 27 by order of General Lovell, the guns spiked, and the powder thrown into the bayou. Eleven days after the enemy made their first appearance there. This is the manner in which all our forts (of course I do not include Jackson and Saint Philip) were evacuated. There was not a Yankee near one of them until more than a week after the powder was all destroyed and the interior of the fort burned. Ample time was had to save the guns as well as powder, &c. If for these acts some of the officers are not cashiered or shot, we need not expect either a brave or a disciplined Army. The Navy emulated this conduct of the Army, the fleet in Pontchartrain being run up the bayous and scuttled or burned.*

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I am, very respectfully, &c.

[The above from Governor Moore. In copy furnished General Lovell his name was omitted.]

MAY 9-12, 1862.-Pensacola, Fla., abandoned by the Confederates and occupied by the Union forces.

REPORTS.

Numbers 1- Brigadier General Lewis G. Arnold, U. S. Army.

Numbers 2- Colonel Thomas M. Jones, Twenty-seventh Mississippi Infantry.


Numbers 1. Reports of Brigadier General Lewis G. Arnold, U. S. Army.


HDQRS. WESTERN DISTRICT, DEPT. OF THE SOUTH,
Pensacola, Fla., May 10, 1862.

MAJOR: I have the honor to reports that about 12 o'clock last night it was reported to me that Fort McRee, the navy-yard, Marine Hospital and Barracks, and several other buildings, and two rebel steamboats were on fire, which being simultaneously ignited, indicated that they had been abandoned by the rebels and purposely fired by them. To prevent the spread of these fires and to disperse these wicked destroyers of property, I opened my batteries with a very happy effect. I directed my aide-de-camp and acting assistant adjutant-general, Lieutenant Jackson, to go on board a small naval schooner lying off the harbor, to run in, and summon the city of Pensacola to surrender, which the mayor did to the extent of his authority, which has been very limited.

Commodore Porter arrived here this morning on board the gunboat Harriet Lane. With his kind assistance in transporting my men across the bay I have been enabled to take military possession of Forts Barrancas and McRee, Barrancas Barracks, and the navy-yard, over which the flag of the Union now waves, Fort Barrancas is very little injured by the fire and Barrancas Barracks not at all. Fort McRee is seriously

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* The portions of Governor Moore's letter here omitted relate to events in Louisiana subsequent to My 12, 1862, and will appear in another chapter.

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Page 658 OPERATIONS IN W. FLA., S. ALA., S. MISS., AND LA. Chapter XVI.