Another Camping Trip

[Eva Elisabeth]

I just looked through my notes once again, and would like to add one very last aside on Fort Jefferson, which I find worth sharing. The cannon you can see in the one lighthouse photo is a 10 inch columbiad, which was a standard cannon for coast defense. It weights 15,400 pounds and can throw a 128 pound shot over 3 miles.
The fort had no guns when Major Arnold and his 66 artillery men arrived from Boston on January 19, 1861. As they worked on the first gun mount, a courier from an armed vessel came ashore and demanded surrender to the State of Florida. Arnold replied: "Tell your captain, I will blow his ship out of the water if he's not gone in ten minutes." The bluff worked. By the time the war began in April, 68 cannons were mounted.