America's Fortress

America's Fortress PDF Author: THOMAS REID
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813072719
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 148

Get Book Here

Book Description
A little-known Civil War outpost that was the most heavily armed coastal defense fort in United States history Known as the “American Gibraltar,” Fort Jefferson, located in the Dry Tortugas, Florida, was the most heavily armed coastal defense fort in United States history. Perceived as the nation’s leading maximum-security prison, the fort also held several of the accused conspirators in the Lincoln assassination. America’s Fortress is the first book-length, architectural, military, environmental, and political history of this strange and significant Florida landmark. This volume also fills a significant gap in Civil War history with regard to coastal defense strategy, support of the Confederacy blockade, the use of convicted Union soldiers as forced labor, and the treatment of civilian prisoners sentenced by military tribunals. Reid argues that Fort Jefferson’s troops faced very different threats and challenges than soldiers who served elsewhere during the war. He chronicles threats of epidemic tropical disease, hurricanes, shipwrecks, prisoner escapes, and Confederate attack. Reid also reports on white northerners’ perceptions of enslaved people, slavery, and the emerging free black soldiers of the latter years of the war. Drawing on the writings of Emily Holder, wife of Fort Jefferson’s resident surgeon, Reid is the first to offer a female perspective on life at the fort between 1859 and 1865. For history buffs and tourists, America's Fortress offers a fascinating account of this little-known outpost which has stood for over 160 years off the tip of the Florida Keys.

Defending America's Coasts, 1775-1950

Defending America's Coasts, 1775-1950 PDF Author: Dale E. Floyd
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Coast defenses
Languages : en
Pages : 196

Get Book Here

Book Description


Dry Tortugas National Park, Garden Key, Cultural Landscape Report

Dry Tortugas National Park, Garden Key, Cultural Landscape Report PDF Author: Susan L. Hitchcock
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dry Tortugas National Park (Fla.)
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Get Book Here

Book Description


Freedom Soldiers

Freedom Soldiers PDF Author: Assistant Professor of History Jonathan Lande
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019753175X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 329

Get Book Here

Book Description
Freedom Soldiers examines the lives of formerly enslaved men who deserted the US Army during the Civil War and their experiences in army camps, courts, and prisons. It explores their reasons for leaving, often through their own voices from courts-martial testimony.

Storm Over Key West

Storm Over Key West PDF Author: Mike Pride
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1683340949
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 317

Get Book Here

Book Description
A few weeks after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect, James Montgomery sailed into Key West Harbor looking for black men to draft into the Union army. Eager to oblige him, the military commander in town ordered every black man from fifteen to fifty to report to the courthouse, “there to undergo a medical examination, preparatory to embarking for Hilton Head, S.C.” Montgomery swept away 126 men. Storm over Key West is a little-known story woven of many threads, but its main theme is the denial to black people of the equality central to the American ideal. After the island’s slaves flocked to freedom during the summer of 1862, the white majority began a century-long campaign to deny black residents civil rights, education, literacy, respect, and the vote. Key West’s harbor and two major federal forts were often referred to as “America’s Gibraltar.” This Gibraltar guarded the Florida Straits between Key West and Cuba and thus access to the Gulf of Mexico. When Union forces seized it before the war, the southernmost point of the Confederacy slipped out of Confederate hands. This led to a naval blockade based in Key West that devastated commerce in Florida and beyond.This book is the widest-ranging narrative history to date of the military bastion in the Florida Keys.

Dry Tortugas National Park (N.P.), General Management Plan Amendment

Dry Tortugas National Park (N.P.), General Management Plan Amendment PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Get Book Here

Book Description


A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers

A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers PDF Author: Lewis G. Schmidt
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Pennsylvania
Languages : en
Pages : 1164

Get Book Here

Book Description


South Florida and Caribbean Parks Exotic Plant Management Plan

South Florida and Caribbean Parks Exotic Plant Management Plan PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 756

Get Book Here

Book Description


How to Write a Historic Structure Report

How to Write a Historic Structure Report PDF Author: David Arbogast
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393733602
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 158

Get Book Here

Book Description
A one-of-a-kind, step-by-step guide to compiling an HSR—a document crucial to every professional working on a historic property. Any architect, engineer, or preservation professional renovating a historic property must be familiar with the historic structure report (HSR)—a document that evaluates all aspects of a property to minimize damage during restoration. The only book of its kind, this practical guide walks readers through the process of compiling an HSR. From gathering historical and archival data about the property to analyzing its structural, mechanical, and electrical components to assessing the state of its interior finish, including wood, masonry, and metals, this book covers all the nuts and bolts of an expertly written, informative HSR. Explaining what information should be included in each section and how investigators can work together effectively as a team to produce a comprehensive, coherent report, this handbook is one no professional should be without.

Engineering Security

Engineering Security PDF Author: Mark A. Smith
Publisher: University Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817359907
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 279

Get Book Here

Book Description
Thorough examination of the antebellum fortifications that formed the backbone of U.S. military defense during the National Period The system of coastal defenses built by the federal government after the War of 1812 was more than a series of forts standing guard over a watery frontier. It was an integrated and comprehensive plan of national defense developed by the US Army Corps of Engineers, and it represented the nation’s first peacetime defense policy. Known as the Third System since it replaced two earlier attempts, it included coastal fortifications but also denoted the values of the society that created it. The governing defense policy was one that combined permanent fortifications to defend seaports, a national militia system, and a small regular army. The Third System remained the defense paradigm in the United States from 1816 to 1861, when the onset of the Civil War changed the standard. In addition to providing the country with military security, the system also provided the context for the ongoing discussion in Congress over national defense through annual congressional debates on military funding.