Fort Zachary Taylor - Misplaced Pages

"Fort Taylor" redirects here. For the army post in Washington Territory, see Fort Taylor (Washington). United States historic place

Significant dates

Fort Zachary Taylor
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark

Aerial view of Fort Zachary Taylor State Park
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Location	Monroe County, Florida, USA
Nearest city	Key West, Florida
Coordinates	24°32′48″N 81°48′38″W / 24.54667°N 81.81056°W / 24.54667; -81.81056
NRHP reference No.	71000244
Added to NRHP	March 11, 1971
Designated NHL	May 31, 1973

The Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park, also known simply as Fort Taylor, is a Florida State Park and National Historic Landmark centered on a Civil War-era fort located near the southern tip of Key West, Florida.

History

1845–1900

Construction of the fort began in 1845 as part of a mid-19th century plan to defend the southeast coast of the United States through a series of forts after the War of 1812. Thompson Island, at the southwest tip of Key West, was selected as the site for the fort in 1822 and plans drawn up by Simon Bernard and Joseph G. Totten were approved in 1836. Two supporting artillery batteries, Martello Towers, provided additional coverage, one of which exists today as the Martello Gallery-Key West Art and Historical Museum. The fort was named for United States President Zachary Taylor in November 1850, a few months after his sudden death in office.

The United States Army Corps of Engineers leased slaves from local slave-owners for construction of the fort and its neighbor Fort Jefferson. This resulted in an influx of enslaved peoples into the immediate area as, before the construction of the fort, there were no large agricultural ventures and thus not a high demand for slaves, marine salvage being the main industry. By some estimates, the number more than quadrupled from fewer than 90 enslaved people in Key West before construction to over 400 after.

History of Key West
Part of a series on the
The Seal of Key West represents the Conch Republic in the island's culture
Landmarks African Cemetery at Higgs Beach USS Amesbury Key West Aquarium The Armory (Key West) Audubon House and Tropical Gardens Captain Tony's Saloon Key West Cemetery U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, Key West Station Ernest Hemingway House Fogarty Mansion (Fogarty House) Eduardo H. Gato House Key West Heritage House Museum and Robert Frost Cottage Key West Historic District Key West Bight Key West Lighthouse Mallory Square Martello Gallery-Key West Art and Historical Museum U.S. Naval Station (Key West, Florida) Pan Am Dr. Joseph Y. Porter House Old Post Office and Customshouse (Key West, Florida) Sloppy Joe's Southernmost House Thompson Fish House, Turtle Cannery and Kraals Truman Annex Harry S. Truman Little White House Veterans of Foreign Wars Walter R. Mickens Post 6021 and William Weech American Legion Post 168 West Martello Tower Fort Zachary Taylor Notes that a majority of this list contains sites that have been added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places or as a U.S. National Historic Landmark
People Conch (people) Henry Flagler John Geddes (politician) Ernest Hemingway Winslow Homer Indigenous people of the Everglades region José Martí Vicente Martinez Ybor Matthew C. Perry Mel Fisher Carl Tanzler Harry S. Truman
Topics Sinking of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha Key West Street Car Company The Great Fire of Key West (1886) Isaac Allerton (shipwreck) Overseas Railroad Overseas Highway Wrecking in the Florida Keys 1935 Labor Day hurricane Cubana de Aviación Flight 493 Key West Agreement Mariel boatlift Conch Republic Hurricane Wilma
Timeline Pre-history, until 1513 Spanish Rule, 1513–1763 British Rule, 1763–1783: American Revolutionary War, 1775–1783 Spanish Rule, 1783–1821: War of 1812, 1811–1814 U.S. Territorial Period, 1822–1845: Florida Wrecking Act, 1823 Federal Wrecking Act, 1825 Statehood, 1845–present: Fort Zachary Taylor, 1845 Ordinance of Secession, 1861 Civil War, 1861–1865 East Gulf Blockade Squadron, 1861 States
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The fort's foundation consists of oolitic limestone and New England granite. Its 5-foot (1.5 m) thick walls rose 50 feet (15 m) above mean low water and included two tiers of casemates with a terreplein or barbette at the top. Three seaward curtains 495 feet (151 m) between bastions, each containing 42 guns on three levels, were augmented by a land-facing gorge. Troop barracks were built into this gorge with a capacity for 800 men. At either end of the barracks was a large gunpowder magazine while a sally port was located in the center, connected to land by a 1,200-foot (366 m) causeway. Rainwater was collected in underground cisterns along the perimeter of the fort. Yellow fever epidemics and material shortages slowed construction of the fort, which continued throughout the 1850s. The Pensacola, Florida, firm of Raiford and Abercrombie provided bricks for Fort Zachary Taylor and Fort Jefferson, which was under construction at the same time.

Even before the onset of the American Civil War in April 1861, the United States government recognized the importance of holding Fort Taylor if the Southern states seceded. An official report to the United States Secretary of War on December 28, 1860, stated that: "Lieutenant-General Scott will further ask the attention of the Secretary to Forts Jefferson and Taylor, which are wholly national, being of far greater value even to the most distant points of the Atlantic coast ... than to the State of Florida. There is only a feeble company at Key West for the defense of Fort Taylor." At midnight on January 13, 1861, Union Captain John Milton Brannan moved his 44 men of the 1st U.S. Artillery Regiment from Key West Barracks to Fort Taylor. Despite having no orders to do so, Captain Brannan took the initiative in manning the fort to prevent it from falling into Confederate hands. It became a key outpost for threatening blockade runners during the Union blockade. Major William H. French arrived in April 1861 with his artillery unit.

In 1898, the fort was reduced to two stories and Battery Osceola was added to the south casemate. The battery consisted of two 12-inch M1895 guns. The Civil War-era guns were used as fill, being buried within the new battery to save on materials. Battery Adair was added to the west casemate and included four 3-inch M1898 15-pounder rapid-fire rifles.

The fort was heavily used again during the Spanish–American War (1898), World War I (1917–1918), World War II (1941–1945), and the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962).

1947–present

No longer of use to the U.S. Army, the fort was turned over to the United States Navy in 1947 for maintenance. In 1968, volunteers led by Howard S. England excavated Civil War guns and ammunition buried in long-abandoned parts of the fort to form what would be considered the nation's largest collection of Civil War cannons. Fort Taylor was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973. Due to the filling in of land around the fort, including the creation of an attractive stretch of beach, the park now occupies 87 acres (35 ha).

Truman Annex

The fort's land closer to downtown Key West became part of the Truman Annex to Naval Air Station Key West. It was originally a separate major installation known as Naval Station Key West and, until it closed in 1974, included a submarine base.

President Harry S. Truman used Naval Station Key West as his Winter White House for a total of 175 days over 11 visits. The United States Secret Service had a private beach (eventually named after Truman) built on the land for Truman's security, but he reportedly only visited it once, preferring the public beaches.

Naval Station Key West was decommissioned in 1974 as part of post-Vietnam War force reductions because the U.S. Navy had decommissioned nearly all of its diesel-electric submarines and nuclear-powered submarines were too large for the naval station's port. Most of the former naval station became an annex (the Truman Annex) to Naval Air Station (NAS) Key West and served as the landing point for many Cubans during the 1980 Mariel boatlift of Cuban refugees. Those buildings in the Truman Annex and associated real estate not retained by the Navy as part of NAS Key West were sold to private developers. A museum for the Truman White House was built and the Navy continues to own and maintain the piers and that portion of the former Naval Station Key West property to the North of Fort Taylor, which it uses primarily to support of Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF-S). The site also supported Naval Security Group Activity Key West (NAVSECGRUACT KEY WEST) until NAVSECGRUACT's decommissioning in 1996.

Current uses

In addition to the role of the fort and its adjacent beach as tourist attractions, Fort Taylor is also the location of a number of annual events, including week-long Civil War reenactments.

Gallery

The fort as seen from the Gulf of Mexico
Outside view of the fort showing the moat
Sign overlooking the picnic area and beach
Shoreline and the Gulf
Inside the barracks
Cannons inside the fort
Iguana perched atop the outer wall of the fort
Cannons excavated from abandoned parts of the fort

References

^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
Fort Zachary Taylor Archived 2009-05-02 at the Wayback Machine at National Historic Landmarks Program Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
Smith, Mark A. (Spring 2008). "Engineering Slavery: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Slavery at Key West". The Florida Historical Quarterly. 86 (4): 60–63. Retrieved 31 August 2022.
^ England, Howard (2015). Fort Zachary Taylor. England Historical Enterprises LLC. pp. 5–9, 14. ISBN 9780991386536.
United States War Department (1894). The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Govt. Print. Off. p. 112. hdl:2027/coo.31924077725913. Retrieved 6 September 2022.
Burnett, Gene M. (1988). Florida's Past: People and Events that Shaped the State. Volume 2. Sarasota, FL: Pineapple Press. p. 122. ISBN 9780910923590.
Reid, Thomas (2006). America's Fortress. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. p. 34,42. ISBN 9780813030197.
"21 Years Ago Today NSGA Key West was Disestablished". Station HYPO. 31 August 2017. Retrieved July 10, 2018.

External links

Fort Zachary Taylor at Florida State Parks
Florida Department of State: State Archives of Florida Online Catalog Architectural and technical drawings of Fort Zachary Taylor 1969-1980
Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) No. FL-283, "Fort Taylor, Whitehead Spit Vicinity, Key West, Monroe County, FL", 22 photos, 5 data pages, 2 photo caption pages, supplemental material

Protected areas of Florida

Federal level

National parks	Biscayne Dry Tortugas Everglades
National memorials	De Soto Fort Caroline
National monuments	Castillo de San Marcos Fort Matanzas
National seashores	Canaveral Gulf Islands
National forests	Apalachicola Choctawhatchee Ocala Osceola
National wildlife refuges	Archie Carr Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee Caloosahatchee Cedar Keys Chassahowitzka Crocodile Lake Crystal River Egmont Key Florida Panther Great White Heron Hobe Sound Island Bay J.N. 'Ding' Darling Key West Lake Wales Ridge Lake Woodruff Lower Suwannee Matlacha Pass Merritt Island National Key Deer Okefenokee Passage Key Pelican Island Pine Island Pinellas St. Johns St. Marks St. Vincent Ten Thousand Islands
Other national protected areas	Big Cypress National Preserve Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve
National Marine Sanctuaries	Florida Keys Key Largo (1975–1990) Looe Key (1981–1990)
National Estuarine Research Reserves	Apalachicola NERR Guana Tolomato Matanzas NERR Rookery Bay NERR
National Wild and Scenic Rivers	Loxahatchee River Wekiva River

State level

Parks	Amelia Island Anastasia Avalon Bahia Honda Bald Point Big Lagoon Big Shoals Big Talbot Island Bill Baggs Cape Florida Bulow Creek Caladesi Island Camp Helen Cayo Costa Collier–Seminole Colt Creek Curry Hammock Delnor-Wiggins Pass Devil's Millhopper Don Pedro Island Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson Eden Gardens Egmont Key Falling Waters Faver-Dykes Florida Caverns Fort Clinch Fort Cooper Fort George Island Fort Pierce Inlet Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou Gasparilla Island George Crady Bridge Fishing Pier Grayton Beach Henderson Beach Highlands Hammock Honeymoon Island Hontoon Island Hugh Taylor Birch John D. MacArthur Beach John Pennekamp Coral Reef Jonathan Dickinson Little Talbot Island Long Key Lovers Key Mike Roess Gold Head Branch North Peninsula O'Leno Oscar Scherer Perdido Key Price's Scrub Sebastian Inlet Skyway Fishing Pier St. Andrews St. George Island St. Marks River St. Joseph Peninsula Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center Stump Pass Beach Tomoka Torreya Windley Key Fossil Reef
Botanical garden parks	Alfred B. Maclay Gardens Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Lignumvitae Key Ravine Gardens Washington Oaks
Lakes, rivers and springs parks	Deer Lake Lake Griffin Lake June in Winter Scrub Lake Kissimmee Lake Louisa Lake Manatee Lake Talquin Alafia River Blackwater River Dunns Creek Econfina River Hillsborough River Little Manatee River Myakka River Ochlockonee River Oleta River Suwannee River Three Rivers Blue Spring De Leon Springs Edward Ball Wakulla Springs Fanning Springs Homosassa Springs Wildlife Ichetucknee Springs Lafayette Blue Springs Madison Blue Spring Manatee Springs Ponce de Leon Springs Rainbow Springs Silver Springs Troy Spring Weeki Wachee Springs Wekiwa Springs Werner-Boyce Salt Springs Wes Skiles Peacock Springs
Recreation areas	Dead Lakes Gamble Rogers Memorial
Museums, historic sites, and archaeological sites	Addison Blockhouse Cedar Key Museum Constitution Convention Museum Forest Capital Museum John Gorrie Museum Ybor City Museum The Barnacle Bulow Plantation Ruins Dade Battlefield DeSoto Site Dudley Farm Fort Foster Fort Mose Fort Zachary Taylor Gamble Plantation Indian Key Koreshan Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Homestead Natural Bridge Battlefield Olustee Battlefield Orman House Paynes Creek San Marcos de Apalache Yellow Bluff Fort Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins Crystal River Lake Jackson Mounds Letchworth-Love Mounds Madira Bickel Mound Mound Key San Pedro Underwater
Preserves and reserves	Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek Anclote Key Cedar Key Scrub Charlotte Harbor Crystal River Disney Wilderness Estero Bay Green Cay Wetlands Fakahatchee Strand Hal Scott Kissimmee Prairie Lower Wekiva River Paynes Prairie Pumpkin Hill Creek River Rise Rock Springs Run San Felasco Hammock Savannas Seabranch St. Lucie Inlet St. Sebastian River Tarkiln Bayou Topsail Hill Tosohatchee Waccasassa Bay Yellow River Marsh
State trails	Blackwater Heritage Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Gainesville-Hawthorne General James A. Van Fleet Jacksonville-Baldwin Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway Nature Coast Palatka-Lake Butler Palatka-to-St. Augustine Tallahassee-St. Marks Historic Railroad Withlacoochee
State forests	Belmore Big Shoals Blackwater River Carl Duval Moore Cary Charles H. Bronson Cottage Hill Deep Creek Etoniah Creek Four Creeks Goethe Holopaw Indian Lake Jennings John M. Bethea Lake George Lake Talquin Lake Wales Ridge Little Big Econ Matanzas Myakka Okaloacoochee Slough Picayune Strand Pine Log Point Washington Ralph E. Simmons Memorial Ross Prairie Seminole Tate's Hell Tiger Bay Twin Rivers Wakulla Watson Island Welaka Withlacoochee

Local level

Preserves and reserves	Boyd Hill Gumbo Limbo Moccasin Lake

v t e Zachary Taylor
12th President of the United States (1849–1850)
Life	Hare Forest Farm 7th Infantry Regiment Cypress Grove Plantation Forts of Vincennes, Indiana Fort Harrison, Indiana Battle of Wild Cat Creek Credit Island Fort Johnson Fort Howard Fort Jesup Fort Snelling Fort Crawford 1st Infantry Regiment Fort Gardiner Fort Basinger Battle of Lake Okeechobee Army of Occupation Battle of Palo Alto Battle of Resaca de la Palma Battle of Monterrey Battle of Buena Vista Congressional Gold Medal 1848 United States presidential election 1848 Whig National Convention Zachary Taylor and slavery
Presidency	Inauguration of Zachary Taylor Mexican Cession State of Deseret Compromise of 1850 Washington Monument
Public image	Zachary Taylor National Cemetery Camp Taylor, Louisville Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park SS Zachary Taylor Taylor County, Georgia Taylor County, Iowa Taylor County, Kentucky Rough and Ready, California Taylor, Michigan Taylor Street
Family	Margaret Taylor (wife) Sarah Knox Taylor (daughter) Mary Elizabeth Bliss (daughter) Richard Taylor (son) John Taylor Wood (grandson) Zachary Taylor Wood (great-grandson) Charles Carroll Wood (great-grandson) Stuart Wood (great-great-grandson) Richard Taylor (father) Joseph Pannell Taylor (brother) Isaac Allerton Jr. (great-great-grandfather) Old Whitey (pet)
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