Combat· American Civil War
Pensacola Navy Yard surrendered
The first significant Marine loss of the secession crisis, a surrender without a fight.
At the Pensacola Navy Yard in Florida, Commodore James Armstrong commanded a small force that included a detachment of about thirty-eight Marines under Captain Josiah Watson. When several hundred Florida and Alabama militia marched on the yard in January 1861, Armstrong, with too few men to resist, surrendered the installation, and the Marines were given up with it and paroled. Watson forwarded his parole to the Commandant, Colonel Harris, who tartly replied that he was not aware of the United States being at war with Florida. The loss of the yard was a real early gain for the secessionists, and the surrender of its Marines was the first such prisoner incident of the gathering conflict. Captain Watson and his men were in time exchanged. No fighting and no casualties attended the surrender.
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Record no. 389