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Photo, ca. 1940s, courtesy of the Florida
Photo Archives.
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In 1781, a Spanish fleet sailed into Pensacola Bay right past the British guns of the Royal Navy Redoubt at Fort Barrancas. The British guns fired but did little damage to the ships, and Pensacola passed into Spanish hands. To remedy this defensive weakness, Spanish construction began in 1793 on a water-level battery at Fort Barrancas; Battery San Antonio was completed in 1797. Built of masonry, it held seven guns and three rooms, one of which served as the state prison under Spanish rule. In 1821, Spain ceded Florida to the United States. The Army Corps of Engineers redesigned, enlarged, and repaired Battery San Antonio, called the Spanish Water Battery, in 1839. Early in the 20th century a naval air station was located at Pensacola and, in 1947, the Army turned over the land at Fort Barrancas, which had protected Battery San Antonio, to the Navy. In 1972 the National Park Service took over the remaining coastal Pensacola fortifications as part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. The Battery was the last Spanish fortification built in Florida.
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