The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-21
FINE MILITARY RUIN
"REMINISCENCES OF FORT JEFFER-
SON, OUR ONLY PENAL COLONY.
Now Devoted to Detection and Exter-
mination of Yellow Fever-The
Cell Once Occupied by DIR. Mudds
w. B. s., in St. Louis Globe-Democrat.
Fort JsffarsOni

w. B. S., in st. Louis Globe-Democrat.
| Fort Jefferson
| Who can locate it?
To-day il stands the most magnificent
| military ruin on the continent perhaps in
! the world Within a mile of circumference
the enormous sum of So, 900 was expend-
! ed. And now the wild ducks swim in the
moat; the classmates know only the roar of
| the surf on the reef; the great PARROTS on
! the barbette. careened by the rotting of the
/ gun carriages beneath. point their muzzles
skyward at all angles. The time was when
| Fort jefferson, with 400 cannon at the port
| holes, frowned defiance to the world. That
time was within the memory of many liv-
| ing No longer ago than thirty years Fort
Jefferson was the crowning work in mill
| tary engineering of this country. Now it is
obsolete, forgotten by the veterans, I'M
| known to this generation. The flag flies
| above the ruin, and garrison of one man
is there to haul it up and let it down.
Where is Fort Jefferson? If the present
secretary Of war was asked the question it
| is doubtful if he could tell. Yet predeces-
sor in the office fondly hoped, when the mil
lions of dollars were being spent, that Fort
Jefferson would be the monument to remind
generations then ur born that he had lived.
| Fort Jefferson was to be the Gibraltar of
| this continent. 1t was to be the key to the
| Gulf of Mexico.
DRY Tortugas," some one guesses. That
is right. Out of the waters of the gulf rise
| four bits of islands. They appear only on
large maps as specks. They are as far from
the mainland of Florida as is Cuba. They
are the very last of the Florida Keys, with
a gap of nearly sixty miles of open sea be-
tween them and the nearest inhabited keys
to the eastward. One of the four is Logger
head Key, and on its the government has a
| lighthouse that looks like a monument.
These little islands mark the locations of
dangerous reefs in the route of steamship
travel between the Atlantic and the gulf.
Another of the group is Bird Key, with it's
cluster of mangroves and just enough of a
sandy aste for modest hospital site and
the tents necessary to accommodate a few
yellow fever patients. The third of the keys
is a mere sand spit, too narrow to justify
name more distinctive than East Key. In
the midst of the three bits Of islands looms
Fort Jefferson occupying the whole of Gar
den Keys ten or twelve acres. The massive
| structure of brick rises out of the water on
| three sides, to a height of sixty feet end
| ing in d parapet so elaborate of appearance
! as to give castlelike effect. Sixty feet
| out from the base tt ere is a low wall in
| closing a moat. This outer wall was in
tended to stop an attack by means of small
boats. In these earlier fOrtihcatlOnS the
4 military engineers always had in view at
| tempts to scale the walls. The moat ana
the exterior wall were to keep small boats
| at such distance that the occupants might
| be picked off by rif1emen inside the fort
| These walls were we'll built. A quarter OF
a century has passed SINCE any atte , 10 d
| gone by since the construction began. Inc
masonry is in perfect preservation. but but
| visitor realizes that this Fort Jefferson is
| only magnificent ruin.
The officers quarters at the ume puilt
| ranked as the finest of all the posts In the
| country A splendid brick block three sto-
| ries high and several hundred feet long
| fronts on one side of the parade. Across
| another side extends what at the time or
| construction was considered the model bar
| racks for soldiers. The officers quarters
| faced the sally-port. The barracks row
| right angled with one end OF the quarters
! while the cottage of the commandant and
some of the other smaller buildings of the
| post fronted upon the third side of the pa
| rade Room for these imposing structures
| and for the parade was found without
| crowding inside of the fort. The chapel, the
| hospital, the Storehouses were all on the
| same thorough and Liberal plan or conStruc-
| ton Round towers, with enormously thick
! walls of masonry at the corners, still in eX-
| cellent condition, furnish the means of COM
munication between the lower and upper
| classmates and the barbette. The stairwayS
| in the towers are of granite. Through the
| open ports the storms of many seasons have
been beating, but the masonry everywhere
| is in perfect preservation. Not one of the
| hundreds of massive arches has collapsed.
| Scarcely one Of the millions of bricks has
| crumbled. A circuit of the interior of one
| of the classmates is a walk of full half
| mile through a succession of chambers.
| Work on the great fortress began in 1S47.
| 1t continued a quarter of a century. Then
| it stopped so suddenly that the storehouSeS
| were left full of barrels of cement and other
materials.
PART OF THE FLORIDA PURCHASE.
The United States bought the Tortugas
| at the s2me time that Florida was acquired.
| Spain GJld the peninsula for $500 900, and
| threw in this bunch of keys for good meas
| ure. If the scope of the purchase had ex-
| tended as far south as it did west of the
mainland the Pearl of the Antilles" would
| have passed into the possession of this
| country, and there would be now no Cuban
question. Tortugas means turtles. AT dis
| lance, before their improvement was under
| taken, these little islands looked not unlike
so many turtles backs above the surface Or
| the gulf. They were called Dry Tortugas,
in distinction from the mounds of coral and
sand which were just below the water level
and were Wet Tortugas. At least such is
local tradition among the keys Before the
investment of the United States and for
some time after the turtles divided time
with the buccaneers in occasional occupan-
cy of these little. mounds. The name may
nave a double 1n6 pirates went 10
the Tortugas to divide plumber and to rest
| between forays. When the government took
actual possession there were found half
buried in the sand several Of the 'long
toms" of iron and brass which had done
service on the long, low, rakiSh crafts OF
the piratical period. One of these guns is
still to be seen within the walls of Fort JEFF
ferson In the early days the officers and
soldiers of the United States occasionally
| found queer coins of gold and silver where
| they had been buried or lost by the outlaws
| who sailed under the black flag. One of the
| commanders of the post when the fortifica-
| ton and the garrison had reached that dis
| tinction unearthed buried treasure of
| ST. 900 on Sand Key. But of later years the
| discoveries have been restricted to beautiful
| shells of infinite variety Every storm
| which sweeps over the sunl1en reefs leaves
| on the strips of sandy beach the evidences
| of the wealth of marine life in these waters.
The Mexican war period brought the fru-
| ition of the plans to build on the TortugaS
| the Gibraltar of the western hemisphere.
! In 1S47 the beginning was made First as
senator from Mississippi and later as secre-
| tarv of war under Pierce, and still later as
| senator again, Jefferson Davis promoted
| the work Largely through his instrument
| tality the appropriations were obtained. AS
| secretary, Mr.. Davis was in position to
| hasten construction. He was more inter-
| ested in the building of Fort Jefferson than
| In any other fertilization He had in mind
| a defense against foreign foes. Probably
| the coming civil war was not foreshadowed
| to him. Certainly he did not foresee the
| course of it, And so he went ahead vigor
| onsly providing what was to be of great
| service to the North in the suppression of
| secession 1t is irony of history that the
only practical military purpose that Fort
| Jefferson ever fulfilled was in the war of