Fort Williams

GPS Coordinates: 30° 4.658′ N, 84° 10.955′ W

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Before the Civil War, Florida was thinly populated with few cities of any size. St. Marks had been the fifth largest town in Florida and a busy port. But in the decade before the war shipping business shifted to other towns. The beginning of the conflict signaled a short lived revival for the port of St. Marks; blockade-runners easily slipped in and out until President Lincoln authorized a blockade of southern ports – including St. Marks – on April 19, 1861.

Shortly after the blockade began, the Confederates built a fort near the St. Marks Lighthouse and named it Ft. Williams in honor of Colonel J.J. Williams, a Tallahassee planter who led the 2nd Florida Cavalry. The Fort was more of a stockade to shelter the soldiers who were guarding the salt workers and the townspeople of St. Marks.

On June 15, 1862, a party of Union Marines landed near the lighthouse. They burned the barracks and the keeper’s home. The fort was not rebuilt, but it had provided a sense of safety for a few months.

On March 4, 1865, soldiers from the 2nd and 99th U.S. Colored Infantry landed near the lighthouse. They logged north through the watery woods and engaged Confederate forces on March 6 at the Battle of Natural Bridge. Their goal was to capture Tallahassee, but the Union troops withdrew after the battle. Tallahassee remained the only southern capital east of the Mississippi that was never captured by Union forces.

The exact location of Fort Williams is unknown, but it is thought to be near the end of Cedar Point Trail.