How to Use
the Map

Table of
Contents

Map 1: 1861 map of harbor defenses for
Pensacola, Florida.

The channel entrance to Pensacola Bay on the west end of Santa Rosa Island was fortified since the east end is too shallow for larger ships to pass through. Fort Pickens was sited both to protect Santa Rosa Island and to prevent enemy ships from entering the bay and anchoring within range of the navy yard.

Questions for Map 1

1. On a map of the United States, find the panhandle of Florida and the far western location of Pensacola.

2. Examine the map and suggest reasons why the four forts and the navy yard were built in their specific locations (consider the role of existing military technology).

3. Draw circles about the size of a dime with each fort as the center of its circle. These circles represent the approximate area that could be protected by the cannon that were emplaced at these forts in the 19th century. How could the forts have assisted each other in defending the bay entrance from an attacking ship?

4. Why might an invader choose a landward assault? Identify which of the installations might have been designed to protect the navy yard against a land attack.

* The map on this screen has a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi), and therefore will print poorly. You can obtain a high quality version of Map 1, but be aware that the file may take as much as 25 seconds to load with a 28.8K modem.