Fort Taylor History
Fort Taylor is one of the fortresses built as part of the Third System of fortifications. The First System of fort construction began shortly after the Revolutionary War in an effort to bolster the young nation's seacoast defenses. A war in Europe in 1793 caused Congress to take note of the lack of seacoast defense installations along America's eastern seaboard. A total of twenty-one areas were identified to fortify. European engineers were contracted to supervise the work. The Second System of fortification was set forth by President Jefferson in 1807. In the Second System, American engineers replaced their European counterparts. The Third System came about following the War of 1812 when the young United States found itself at war once again with Great Britain.
Once the British were defeated, President Monroe called for improved defenses from seacoast attacks. Numerous Army officers came together to work on this new segment including Colonel Joseph Totten of the Corps of Engineers. Brigadier General Simon Bernard was recruited from France to head the project. Bernard had been Napoleon Bonaparte's chief of engineers.
The Bernard Board was mired in political and petty jealousies. Officers were finding it increasingly difficult to work together -- the American officers felt slighted because the president had not asked one their own to head the study. Two officers resigned from the board. Totten stayed on and assisted Bernard. Eventually, Bernard resigned his position and returned to France. Totten then became known as the foremost expert on seacoast fortifications. The Third System called for existing fortresses to be remodeled and new construction of masonry fortresses along the eastern seaboard. Once the Florida territory became part of the U.S., the Third System was extended around the peninsula to cover areas along the Gulf coast.
Survey crews had visited Key West to determine the need for building a fort. The engineers saw it was a place with great potential for a fortress to guard against attack either from the Straits of Florida or the Gulf of Mexico. Key West was compared to Gibraltor which is at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. Congress was convinced to appropriate monies to begin construction of Fort Taylor. That was in 1836. But the appropriation didn't become a reality until 1844. In 1845 the building of Fort Taylor was underway.
The construction of this fort was not an easy task. Materials had to be shipped from the mainland as did the workforce. Lack of appropriations also suspended work from time to time. Work crews also had to deal with numerous outbreaks of Yellow Fever as well as the heat of the sub-tropical region. And, of course, there was the weather.
One year after the building of Fort Taylor had begun, the project was halted due to a violent hurricane striking Key West. Of the 601 buildings in the town, 594 had been greatly damaged or leveled. The fort's cisterns, smithy and stable were spared but four workmen drowned. They were among the 50 people who lost their lives in Key West. The lighthouses on Key West and at Sand Key-seven miles southwest of Key West-were toppled. Those who had taken refuge in the lighthouses drowned. The Naval Hospital near the fort works project was severely damaged. The winds were reported to be what is today considered Category Four or Category Five strength winds. However, it is important to note that there are no official surviving records of that storm, so the strength of the winds is speculation on the part of ship's reports. Damages were estimated to be $200,000 in 1846 dollars ($4 million today). Colonel Totten, in his report to the Secretary of War and Congress in 1846 wrote that a hurricane "of unparalleled violence arose, which overwhelmed not only our establishments, but the town of Key West, the vessels in the harbor, the neighboring lighthouse and, in short, everything near, in one common ruin." In 1851, a hurricane passed to the west of Key West with winds estimated at 90mph. In August 1852, a hurricane with winds estimated at Category Two strength passed just to the south of Key West. The area was spared from hurricanes until 1856 when a hurricane caused limited damage to the works. In 1861, Captain Hunt wrote to Colonel Totten about "a gale, blowing... violently... and strongly" damaging the fort. A hurricane in 1865 perhaps caused the most extensive damage to Fort Taylor. The eye of the October 23rd storm passed just to the west of the fort destroying the breakwaters and washing away the cover face fill. Sixty feet of seawall was destroyed. The land bridge from the fort to Key West was demolished. That storm has been analyzed as a Category Two when it reached the Florida Keys. Click on the tracking map from the AOML Hurricane Research Division to see the storm track. In the years beyond 1870 additional storms come close to Fort Taylor. But, damage reports specific to the fort are not available because the army had all but abandoned the building.
When Fort Taylor was planned, the Corps of Engineers decided that the best place to put the fort would be off shore on the southwestern side of the island. A little more than 60 acres of land was purchased to build piers and supply areas. Engineers constructed a dam and pumped out ten feet of water. They then established the foundation of granite. The three-tier fort would be connected to Key West by a wooden causeway spanning 1,000 feet. There would also be a drawbridge constructed between the fort and the cover face so the fort could be secured in the event of a land attack. By 1851, the walls had risen 10 feet.
By 1859 crews had much of the trapezoid-shaped fortress completed. They installed the drawbridge and tidal flush latrines. Cannon had been shipped down and mounted in casemates on two levels and on barbette mountings on the very top of the fort. Toward the end of 1860 the fort was basically ready for occupancy.
While this fort was being built, the political situation in the U.S. was deteriorating at a rapid rate. There was a call from southern political leaders to leave the union. Previously occupied federal forts along the eastern seaboard were being abandoned. While Florida delegates were meeting to decide their course of action, U.S. Corps of Engineers Captain E.B. Hunt--the latest commander of the construction project at Fort Taylor--met with U.S. Artillery Captain John Brannan to discuss the "taking" of Fort Taylor by Brannan's forces. Hunt reasoned that this project was too important to be let go. He also argued that the strategic importance of Fort Taylor would be in the Union's favor if war were to break out. Brannan concurred. On 11 December 1860 he wrote his superior officers in Washington, D.C. for instructions. None were forthcoming and the possibility Florida leaving the Union was rapidly becoming a reality.
Brannan received a letter from Capt. Hunt on 12 January 1861 requesting that Brannan assume military command of Fort Taylor. On the night of 15 January 1861, Brannon marched the 44 troops under his command and 16 civilian laborers from the Key West Barracks on the northern side of the island to Fort Taylor and secured the fort for the Union. 60 cannon had already been sent down and mounted and there were enough stores for four months. In a letter to his superiors dated 15 January 1861, Brannan requested more soldiers and supplies. On 26 January 1861 Brannan received a reply from his superiors who ordered him to secure the fort. That letter was dated 4 January 1861. Mail services had been cut off, which is why Brannan didn't receive a reply to his initial letter of 11 December 1860. All communications were now being routed through the American Consul in Havana. In the months to come, the fort received additional cannon, black powder, ammunition and supplies.
Fort Taylor was one three forts in Florida to be held by Union forces throughout the Civil War. Fort Jefferson remained in Union hands as did Fort Pickens in Pensacola. The main role of Fort Taylor during the war was to serve as headquarters for the Union Navy East Gulf Coast Blockading Squadron. Close to 300 vessels were captured by the squadron and forced to anchor in front of Fort Taylor.
Fort Taylor never saw hostile action. But once the federal troops moved in, they discovered that while the fort had formidable defenses seaward, a land attack from Key West could cause problems. The engineers hastily worked on the cover face between the island and the fort and mounted ten 8-inch Columbiad. The attack from Key West never came.
The fort was "modernized" during the Endicott Period. The top two levels were removed and newer coastal artillery was emplaced, which remained through mid-World War II. Anti-aircraft guns replaced the coastal artillery pieces. Fort Taylor's military role came to an end in 1947. The property was transferred to the Navy and it was then used a storage yard for scrap metal. Later, the Department of the Interior took over the property until it was deeded to the State of Florida in 1976. The fort now is part of a state park.
Fort Taylor Features
Fort Taylor had some rather innovative features for its time. Among them are the Desalination Plant, the tidal flush latrine system and cover face.
When Fort Taylor was constructed, provisions were made for 40 cistern water wells to be placed throughout the trapezoid-shaped foundation. One item that the Corps of Engineers did not calculate correctly was the wear and tear on the granite foundation by the constant wave action against it. As a result, the engineers discovered that the cistern wells had cracked due to the settling foundation and were taking on sea water. It was important to find another source for potable water. The U.S. Army purchased a desalination plant from England. The unit was sent by ship from England to New York City. From there it was brought to Fort Taylor and installed in Casemate #14 in 1862. It produced a daily water supply of 7,000 gallons. During excavations of that casemate in the late 1960s, the unit was found suffering from decay. A model of the unit is on display at Fort Taylor in the sally port.
Installation of the tidal flush latrine system was completed in late 1859. The concept of the system is that the tides will take care of flushing the waste out of the fort. Unfortunately, the system at Fort Taylor was found to be defective due to the Key West tidal flow. Despite the fact that Key West Harbor had four tidal changes daily, the tidal action occurred in inches as opposed to feet. There simply was not enough tidal action to properly flush the latrines. As a result, the latrine on the northwest side of the fort was inoperable. The lack of proper tidal flushing allowed waste to collect and caused the breeding of mosquitoes and outbreaks of Yellow Fever. The 1862 Yellow Fever outbreak was the worst to date: More than 300 soldiers contracted the disease. The death rate ran at 15 men a day. All told, 71 men died from that outbreak.
When the fort was originally constructed there were plans to build a cover face which would face the landward side of the fort. Those plans more or less took a back seat to the overall project until Capt. Brannan seized the fort in January 1861. There was a fear that Confederate sympathizers in Key West would organize and attempt to take the fort. Orders were issued to quickly construct a cover face and convert a portion of the causeway from the island to the fort into a drawbridge. The project was completed and 10 Columbiad cannon were mounted. The attack from Key West never happened. During the course of the war, the cover face was improved with the construction of warehouses and blacksmith shops. A narrow gauge rail system was built from the Martello Towers on the eastern side of the island to Fort Taylor. The rail ran across the main causeway. A 30-foot drawbridge was set up between the cover face and sally port. Much of the cover face was destroyed in a hurricane that struck Key West in 1867. It was never rebuilt and in 1875 another hurricane further damaged it. Today all that remains as evidence of the cover face is a concrete foundation that is barely visible above the dredge spoil that was placed on the property in 1968.
Fort Taylor Today
Fort Taylor was transferred to the Navy in 1947 following the abolishment of the Coastal Artillery Corps. While under Navy control, the property was utilized as a scrap metal yard. The Navy transferred the property to the Department of the Interior in 1970. Fort Taylor was nominated to the Federal National Historic Places Registry in 1971 and in 1973 was declared to be a National Historic Landmark. The Florida Park Service acquired Fort Taylor from the Department of the Interior in 1976. The fort opened as a Florida State Park in 1985 and is still managed by the Florida Park Service.
Excavations for Civil War artifacts began in 1968 largely through the efforts of Mr. Howard England of Key West. A letter writer to the Miami Herald newspaper wondered why Fort Jefferson had been awarded National Landmark status when Fort Taylor had played just as significant a role in the Civil War. The local naval brass did not have an answer. England, who was working for the Navy in the Public Works Department suggested excavations begin to see what artifacts the fort might hold that could move the fort toward National Landmark status. The Navy said it didn't have the manpower nor the budget for such an undertaking. But the brass told England he could volunteer his time, if he wished, and examine the fort. England gathered a group of volunteers and they went to work. During a ten year period, England and his "sandhogs" uncovered hundreds of cannon ball of varied sizes, rifled shells, gun carriages and cannon. These artifacts were found in casemates that had been filled when Batteries Adair and Osceola were constructed during the Endicott Period. Many of the cannon and rounds are on display now at Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park. There are still numerous cannon and rounds buried in the casemates on the south and west facings. Plans for further excavations are on hold at this time. Because of a lack of budget and manpower for such an undertaking, it's been determined to leave the artifacts buried.
The main issue concerning the fort now is its condition. Concrete added to the barracks building in 1898 when the top two floors were removed are causing cracks in the remaining masonry. Without intervention, the structure will eventually collapse. Grant monies are being sought to stabilize the walls, remove the old roof and replace it with a new roof. A rehabilitation project is slated to begin in Summer 2007 to stabilize the barracks building.
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