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==Civil War==
[[Image:Fort-pickens.jpg|thumb|right|Engraving of wartime Fort Pickens]]
By the time of the Civil War, Fort Pickens had not been regularly occupied since the [[Wikipedia:Mexican–American War|Mexican–American War]]. However, Lieutenant [[Wikipedia:Adam J. Slemmer|Adam J. Jacoby Slemmer]], in charge of United States forces at Fort Barrancas, determined that Fort Pickens was more defensible than any of the other posts in the area.
His decision to abandon Fort Barrancas was hastened when, around midnight of [[January 8]], [[1861]], his guards repelled a group of local men intending to take the fort. Some historians suggest that these were the first shots fired by United States forces in the Civil War. Shortly after this incident, Slemmer destroyed over 20,000 pounds of gunpowder at Fort McRee, spiked the guns at Barrancas, and evacuated about eighty troops to Fort Pickens. Despite repeated Confederate military threats to it, Fort Pickens remained in Union hands throughout the Civil War.