Fort Clinch

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One of the batteries of cannon at Fort Clinch.

 

The other day, I briefly visited Fort Clinch State Park on Amelia Island.  The brick fort dates from 1847 and overlooks the St. Mary’s River and Cumberland Sound.

 

During the U.S. Civil War, the Confederates occupied it for six months during which time, General Robert E. Lee made two visits.  On his second visit, in February 1862, Lee realized that occupation of the fort was unsustainable, with the advent of rifled cannon, masonry defences were rendered virtually useless and so he ordered a withdrawal.  A skeleton garrison remained until a Union flotilla of 28 gunboats turned up on March 3,  The Confederates fired a couple of cannon rounds, spiked the guns and fled.

 

When I entered the fort, I was greeted by a man dressed in the uniform of a sergeant of the Union Army’s New York Engineers Regiment.

 

“The quartermaster’s store is through there,” he barked and pointed to an open door.

 

I thought nothing of it, thinking it was a nice touch to have a guide dressed up in an authentic uniform.  It was only later, when I came to ask him some questions about the fort, something struck me as being odd.  He told me the fort would be completed in two years and would house a garrison of 500 men.  I know the Americans are taking homeland security seriously but this statement seemed over the top.

 

Park manager Peter Scalco provided the explanation.  “George is a park ranger,” he said.  “For this particular role, George is stuck in the year 1864.  He knows nothing beyond that year.  When someone asks him about air-conditioning, George will reply that the condition of the air is good.”

 

The park rangers receive special training to perform this time warp.  They attend workshops and courses.  “It helps that George is something of an expert on this period of U.S. history,” Peter added.

 

As a small boy entered the fort with his parents, he looked across wide-eyed at George.  In his Victorian sergeant’s persona, George said, “We are recruiting for drummer boys.”  The youngster backed away and clung sheepishly to his mother’s leg.  He was convinced by George’s performance but with his head turned away, he missed George’s knowing wink to the parents.

 

When the U.S. Civil War ended, Fort Clinch was wound down; the intended improvements that George alluded to were never made.  It did, once again, answer the call of duty during the Spanish-American War of 1898.

 

By 1935, the fort’s days of service seemed to be at an end and the state of Florida purchased the land.  After work by the Conservation Corps, it was opened three years later to the public.

 

But Fort Clinch’s military role did have one final chapter, serving as communications post after America entered the Second World War.

Parade ground and buildings at Fort Clinch.

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Tags: Amelia Island, Fort Clinch, Robert E. Lee, Union Army, US Civil War