Battle of the Beaches

Pensacola Lighthouse, view from Pensacola Bay. Note: During the Civil War, the lighthouse was all white.

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By Marilyn Turk

Pensacola, Florida, has been the site of several battles between countries vying over its deep-water harbor that's protected from the Gulf of Mexico by a barrier island known as Santa Rosa Island. In the late 1700’s, Spanish forces defeated British forces for control of the area. However, in the War of 1812, American forces led by Andrew Jackson fought both British, Spanish and their allies for possession of the Florida territories, ultimately winning in 1814. And in the Civil War, the battle was between the northern states and the southern states of America.

On January 10, 1861, the state of Florida seceded from the United States, making it one of the first southern states to do so. Subsequently, Confederate troops attempted to take over the army garrison stationed at Fort Barrancas, just to the west of the city of Pensacola. The Union forces managed to repel the Confederates, then sneaked out during the night by ship to Fort Pickens, a fort on Santa Rosa Island just across the Pensacola Bay.

Over the next few months, the opposing forces exchanged cannon fire sporadically. By the end of the year, over 7000 Confederate troops under the command of General Braxton Bragg were positioned on the mainland at Fort Barrancas across from 2,000 troops under Colonel Harvey Brown at Fort Pickens. In October, Bragg ordered an attack on Fort Pickens that was unsuccessful. Brown decided to retaliate and in early November, attacked Fort McRae, a Union-held fort on an exposed peninsula at the mouth of the entrance to the bay.

Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island today

For two days, cannons at Fort Pickens and two Union ships in the Gulf of Mexico heavily bombarded the fort, partially destroying the fortification and killing several Confederates. Fort McRee was virtually useless after the attack, but neither side conceded defeat, and Confederates remained in control of the mainland.

Confederate troops on top of Fort Barrancas.
Note lighthouse is background.

However, in May of 1862, after New Orleans fell into Union hands, the Confederate forces at Fort Barrancas and the surrounding area of Pensacola were called away to fight elsewhere, burning buildings, lumber mills and docks in their wake to prevent the Union forces from using them. 

Pensacola came under control of the Union forces where it would remain throughout the Civil War.

Looking from the top of the lighthouse today to the
peninsula where Fort McRee used to be.

Today, Fort Barrancas and the Pensacola Lighthouse are on the grounds of the Naval Air Station in Pensacola. Both are open to tourists. Fort Pickens, on Santa Rosa Island, is also open to tourists and is managed by the federal parks system. 

My newest book, Rekindled Light, is set in 1869 Pensacola when the town rebuilds after the Civil War.

The war destroyed their engagement. Misunderstandings keep them apart. Will a mysterious arsonist be the only one fanning a flame or can their love be rekindled?

https://www.amazon.com/Rekindled-Light-Coastal-Lights-Legacy-ebook/dp/B07NZWMD5V/

Marilyn Turk 

Historical fiction flavored with suspense and romance

Marilyn Turk’s roots are in the coastal South. Calling herself a “literary archaeologist,” she loves to discover stories hidden in history. She is the author of two World War II novels, and the Coastal Lights Legacy series set in 1800s Florida—Rebel Light, Revealing Light, Redeeming Light, and Rekindled Light—featuring lighthouse settings. Marilyn’s novella, The Wrong Survivor, is in the Great Lakes Lighthouse Brides collection. She also writes for the Daily Guideposts Devotions book.

Website: @http://pathwayheart.com

Email: marilynturkwriter@yahoo.com

The Only Woman To Earn The Medal of Honor

History is full of interesting people. I recently stumbled across one fascinating character—Mary Edwards Walker, the only woman in United States history to earn the Medal of Honor.

As you may know, the Medal of Honor is the United States’ highest military honor, awarded by the U.S. President in the name of Congress for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty.” The award was first started during the Civil War and has been awarded over 3500 times since its inception.

As I said above, Mary Walker was the only woman in United States history to receive the award. So what did she do to deserve our military’s highest honor? Let me tell you!

Dr. Mary E Walker
wearing her Medal of Honor

In 1855, Mary Walker graduated from Syracuse Medical College with a medical degree. As a full-fledged doctor, she married and began her own medical practice. At the outbreak of the Civil War, she volunteered with the Union Army, where she asked to be a surgeon. However, the Union Army didn’t believe women were fit to be surgeons, so instead, she became a battlefield nurse. As such, she served at the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) on July 21, 1861, and in the Patent Office Hospital in Washington, D.C. She also worked as an unpaid field surgeon at the battles of Fredericksburg and Chickamauga.

In addition to these efforts, in 1862, she requested to work for the Union as a spy. Her request was denied, however, so she continued her practice of medicine. By September of 1863, she was named the “Contract Acting Assistant Surgeon” for the Army of the Cumberland—the first female surgeon employed by the army. Even later, she became the assistant surgeon for the 52^nd Ohio Infantry.

What I find so interesting about Dr. Mary Walker was that she not only held her own as a surgeon during one of the bloodiest periods in our nation’s history—a time when only men were thought to be fit for such duties—but she would often slip behind enemy lines to treat the wounded. It was during one such foray behind enemy lines that she was captured. On April 10, 1864, she’d slipped across the boundary, seeking who she might treat, and came across a Confederate doctor in the midst of performing an amputation. She immediately went to work, assisting with the removal of the limb, and just as they were finishing the procedure, Dr. Walker was captured by Confederates and accused of being a spy. She was taken to Castle Thunder in Richmond Virginia. She was imprisoned there for four months and two days until she swapped for a Confederate doctor in a prisoner exchange.

On November 11, 1865, President Andrew Johnson took the recommendations of both General William Tecumseh Sherman and General George Henry Thomas and signed the bill awarding Dr. Walker with the Medal of Honor. She wore the medal proudly until the day she died. Dr. Walker always thought the Medal of Honor was awarded to her because she boldly slipped behind enemy lines to treat the wounded when the male surgeons wouldn’t go, for fear of being captured.

Dr. Mary E Walker
circa 1911

However…there’s a little twist to the story of Mary Walker’s Medal of Honor. In 1917, Congress created a pension for Medal of Honor recipients, and along with the new pension, Congress also created the Medal of Honor Rolls, which meant that the Army stepped in to review the eligibility of all names on the list. In one swoop, they cut 911 names, including that of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker. She was ordered to immediately return her medal to the government, although she flatly refused and continued to wear it proudly. In addition, she picketed the Capitol building to protest the decision, but they still rescinded her award.

And in yet another twist, President Jimmy Carter re-awarded Dr. Walker with the medal posthumously in 1977, sixty years after it was taken from her.

There are more interesting things I’d love to tell you about Dr. Mary Walker, so be on the lookout next month for the next installment.

It’s Your Turn: What aspect of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker’s military service do you find most interesting/inspiring?

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has won and finaled in numerous writing competitions. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. She currently writes historical novellas of the American West for Barbour Publishing and works as a Content Editor for Firefly Southern Fiction. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers and lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, college-aged son, and four fur children.

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Journey along in nine historical romances with those whose lives are transformed by the opulence, growth, and great changes taking place in America’s Gilded Age. Nine couples meet during these exhilarating times and work to build a future together through fighting for social reform, celebrating new opportunities for leisure activities, taking advantage of economic growth and new inventions, and more. Watch as these romances develop and legacies of faith and love are formed.