From Dale Cox's April 20th Southern History Blog: http://southernhistory.blogspot.com
The night of Januray 6, 1861, Federal soldiers at Pensacola, Florida's Fort Barrancas saw several shadowy figures approaching and after challenging them, opened fire. The shadowy figures quickly skeedaddled.
Fort Barrancas was the only fortification to be occupied by troops at the time. Nearby Fort Pickens only had a caretaker and no one was at the other fort.
Official reports of January 3rd showed Fort Barrancas as well-armed with 44 seacoast and garrison cannons along with 20,244 pounds of gunpowder.
The "shadowy figures" were soldiers from Alabama who had heard that Fort Barrancas was unoccupied. The shots alerted them that it wasn't.
So, the first "victory" in the war went to Union forces.
The Great Skeedaddle. --Old B-Runner
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