The site on which Fort Ward stands was originally a camp site of Spanish explorer Pánfilo de Narváez, in 1528, when he ventured north from Tampa. Narváez saw that the area was advantageous in a geographic sense. In 1539, Hernando de Soto followed with his men.
By 1679, the Spanish governor of Florida started construction on the first fort (named Fort San Marcos de Apalache)[1] using logs coated with lime to give the look of stone. The fort stood, until 1681, then was burned and looted by pirates. In 1719, Spanish Captain Jose Primo de Ribera arrived to construct a second wooden fort. The fort was called San Marcos de Apalache. The wood for construction was cut at Mission San Luis de Apalachee to the north.
As a stone fort, its construction began in 1739.
The old moat at Fort Ward.
The fort was turned over to the English in 1763, half complete, as a result of the Seven Years' War. Spain regained control and ownership, by 1787, reoccupying it for 13 more years.
In 1800, a former British officer named William Augustus Bowles attempted to unify and lead 400 Creek Indians against the Spanish, eventually capturing San Marcos. A Spanish flotilla arrived some five weeks later and re-assumed control of the fort.
In 1821, Florida became the property of the United States and the fort was occupied by U.S. troops. In 1824, the fort was abandoned by the U.S. and turned over to the Territory of Florida. By 1839, the fort was returned to the U.S. and a federal marine hospital was built there 18 years later, using stones from the Spanish fort. The hospital provided care for victims of yellow fever.
In 1861, the final conflict took place at San Marcos when the Confederates took the fort and renamed it Fort Ward. From 1861 to 1865, a Union squadron blockaded the mouth of the St. Marks River. The Battle of Natural Bridge eventually stopped the Union force that intended to take Fort Ward.
Wakulla County is a county located in the Big Bend region in the northern portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2010 census, the population was 30,776. Its county seat is Crawfordville.
St. Marks is a city in Wakulla County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Tallahassee metropolitan area. The population was 293 at the 2010 census. As of 2018, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau is 319.
The Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States; it is located on the western shore of Matanzas Bay in the city of St. Augustine, Florida.
San Marcos de Apalache Historic State Park is a Florida State Park in Wakulla County, Florida organized around the historic site of a Spanish colonial fort, which was used by succeeding nations that controlled the area. The Spanish first built wooden buildings and a stockade in the late 17th and early 18th centuries here, which were destroyed by a hurricane.
Spanish Florida was the first major European land claim and attempted settlement in North America during the European Age of Discovery. La Florida formed part of the Captaincy General of Cuba, the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and the Spanish Empire during Spanish colonization of the Americas. While its boundaries were never clearly or formally defined, the territory was initially much larger than the present-day state of Florida, extending over much of what is now the southeastern United States, including all of present-day Florida plus portions of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Louisiana. Spain's claim to this vast area was based on several wide-ranging expeditions mounted during the 16th century. A number of missions, settlements, and small forts existed in the 16th and to a lesser extent in the 17th century; they were eventually abandoned due to pressure from the expanding English and French colonial settlements, the collapse of the native populations, and the general difficulty in becoming agriculturally or economically self-sufficient. By the 18th century, Spain's control over La Florida did not extend much beyond a handful of forts near St. Augustine, St. Marks, and Pensacola, all within the boundaries of present-day Florida.
Tallahassee-St. Marks Historic Railroad State Trail is a rail trail and Florida State Park located on 16 miles (26 km) of the historic railbed of the Tallahassee Railroad, which ran between Tallahassee and St. Marks, Florida. The trail ends near the confluence of the St. Marks and Wakulla Rivers. The portion of the trail south of US 98 is designated as a portion of the Florida National Scenic Trail. A paved extension of the trail extends north for approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) into the City of Tallahassee.
The Tallahassee Railroad, headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida, was one of the first two railroads in Florida, starting operations in 1836 or 1837. It did not successfully use steam locomotives until 1855, with trains being pulled by mules for more than 20 years. The principal source of traffic on the railroad for many years was carrying cotton bales from Tallahassee to seaports on the St. Marks River.
The St. Marks River is a river in the Big Bend region of Florida. It has been classified by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection as an Outstanding Florida Water, and is the easternmost river within the Northwest Florida Water Management District.
Florida's Forgotten Coast is a registered trademark coined in the early 1990s by the Apalachicola Bay Chamber of Commerce. The name is most commonly used to refer to a relatively quiet, undeveloped and largely uninhabited section of coastline stretching from Mexico Beach on the Gulf of Mexico to St. Marks on Apalachee Bay in the U.S. state of Florida. The nearest major cities are Tallahassee, about 90 miles (145 km) northeast of Apalachicola, and Panama City, home of Tyndall Air Force Base, about 60 miles (95 km) to the northwest.
Anhaica was the principal town of the Apalachee people, located in what is now Tallahassee, Florida. In the early period of Spanish colonization, it was the capital of the Apalachee Province. The site, now known as Martin Archaeological Site, was rediscovered in 1988.
The History of Leon County, Florida is a varied history of human habitation extending from 12,000 years ago to present. This includes Paleoindians, the Apalachee, the Seminole Indians, the British, Spanish, colonial Americans, and slaves.
Mission San Luis de Apalachee was a Spanish Franciscan mission built in 1656 in the Florida Panhandle, two miles west of the present-day Florida Capitol Building in Tallahassee, Florida. It was located in the descendent settlement of Anhaica capital of Apalachee Province. The mission was part of Spain's effort to colonize the Florida Peninsula and to convert the Timucuan and Apalachee Indians to Christianity. The mission lasted until 1704 when it was evacuated and destroyed to prevent its use by an approaching militia of Creek Indians and South Carolinians.
Florida participated in the American Civil War as a member of the Confederate States of America. It had been admitted to the United States as a slave state in 1845. In January 1861, Florida became the third Southern state to secede from the Union after the November 1860 presidential election victory of Abraham Lincoln. It was admitted to the breakaway Confederate States of America in April 1861 in advance of the American Civil War.
The history of Pensacola, Florida, begins long before the Spanish claimed founding of the modern city in 1698. The area around present-day Pensacola was inhabited by Native American peoples thousands of years before the historical era.
George Taliaferro Ward was a major cotton planter and politician from Leon County, Florida. He served in the Confederate Army as a colonel during the American Civil War, dying near Williamsburg, Virginia.
St. Francis Barracks is a historic structure constructed of coquina stone located on Marine Street in St. Augustine, Florida, named in honor of St. Francis of Assisi. The barracks were constructed between 1724 and 1755 by friars of the Order of St. Francis, to replace a series of wooden buildings which had been destroyed by the ravages of the tropical climate in La Florida and by fire, both accidental fires and occasional intentional ones, such as when the city was razed by the English in 1702.
Lucas Fernando Palacios y Valenzuela was a military official who served as governor of Spanish Florida from 21 April 1758 to 6 December 1761.
Manuel de Cendoya was a Spanish soldier who served as governor of Spanish Florida from mid-1671 to mid-1673. His administration is remembered primarily for initiating construction of the Castillo de San Marcos, a masonry fortress whose building had first been ordered by Cendoya's predecessor, Governor Francisco de la Guerra y de la Vega, after the destructive raid of the English privateer Robert Searle in 1668. Work proceeded in 1671, although the first stone was not laid until 1672.
The history of slavery in Florida predates the period of European colonization and was practiced by various indigenous peoples. Florida had some of the first African slaves in what is now the United States in 1526-1565, as well as the first emancipation of escaping slaves in 1687 and the first settlement of free blacks in 1735.
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