Fort McRee was a bent elliptical military fort located at the eastern tip of Perdido Key, near Pensacola Pass. Significantly damaged during the Civil War, the fort was essentially abandoned and left to the the elements. There are little or no remnants of the fort visible today.
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Construction
The fort was designed in 1829 by Simon Bernard. Ironically, the man for whom the fort would be named in 1840, Army engineer Colonel William McRee, had resigned his commission in 1819 in protest after Bernard was appointed to a high position in the Army Corps of Engineers.[1]
Construction took place between 1834 and 1839, and as was the case with Pensacola's other area forts, was overseen by William Henry Chase.
Civil War
Postbellum abandonment
After the Civil War, Fort McRee was essentially abandoned. This is evidenced by the War Department's permission in 1875 for the commanding officer at Fort Barrancas to remove 50,000 bricks from McRee to make repairs at Barrancas.[1]
Nearly everything that remained of Fort McRee was leveled by the 1906 hurricane.