Fort Clinch, Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA

Dec 16, 2022 | Historical Building, USA: Florida

A row of cannons pointing across the St. Mary’s River into Georgia are silent testimony to the strategic importance of Fort Clinch during the Civil War.

Fort Clinch: 2601 Atlantic Av, Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA

2601 Atlantic Av, Fernandina Beach, Florida 32034, United StatesFort Clinch is a 19th-century masonry coastal fortification, built as part of the Third System of seacoast defense conceived by the United States.

Confederate forces seized the fort in early 1861. It was used as a safe haven for Confederate blockade runners during the first year of the Civil War. However, changes in technology, specifically the development of rifled cannon, had improved weaponry to the point that the fort’s brick walls were vulnerable to attacks and thus obsolete. In March 1862 General Robert E. Lee ordered abandonment of the fort in order to use scarce troops in other areas. Afterwards Federal troops re-occupied the fort, taking control of the adjacent Georgia and Florida coasts. They used the fort as the base of Union operations in the area throughout the Civil War.

On the way to the fort, there was many grass marshland. Spanning view

Another glass marshland. Spanning view

Zoomed onto the lighthouse

Another glass marshland spanning view

The road was covered with trees with Spanish Moss – the gray stuff that hung on the trees. It is not a moss but a plant.

I found this on the web: Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) is an epiphytic flowering plant that often grows upon large trees in tropical and subtropical climates. It is native to much of Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Central America, South America, the Southern United States, and the West Indies.