We spent most of Sunday morning catching up on internet news in the Airstream and relaxing before heading out to Mass at St. Ann's in Pensacola Beach. Very nice parish and welcoming to Yankee visitors.

In the afternoon we took a tour of Fort Pickens, which is an historic military fort right on the island where we're camping. It was built in 1834 and remained in use until 1947 and is now run by the National Park Service. The fort was designed to defend Pensacola Harbor and used over 21 million bricks. When the Civil War broke out, the fort was under Union control. Local southerners from Florida - civilians - attacked the fort and historians claim their guns fired the first shot in the Civil War. They were the original Florida crackers, I guess. Two days later, Florida seceded from the Union.

Captives from Indian Wars in the West were transported to the East Coast to be held as prisoners. In 1886-87 the famous Apache war chief Geronimo was imprisoned here.