 
Fort Zachary Taylor
Key West, Florida
The US Army began construction of Fort Zachary Taylor, named for Presidend Zachary Taylor, in 1845. It was hampered in its twenty plus years of construction by constant shortages of men and material besides outbreaks of yellow fever. Fort Zachary Taylor remained under Federal control when the Civil War began. It served as headquarters for the Union Navy's East Coast Blockading Squadron. The fort was armed with 198 cannons to protect the harbor entrance. At least 300 seized CS blockade runners were detained in its harbor. Modernization began in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. Two top stories were eliminated to facilitate the installation of more modern breach loading weapons. The original casements were filled with sand and coral which buried tons of Civil War ordinance. In 1968, local historian Howard England began to excavate several casements which uncovered many heavy artillery ordinance, iron seacoast carriages, etc. Only a fraction of the still buried munitions and cannon were excavated which makes the fort having the largest collection of Civil War armament in the country. Fortunately, the State of Florida has no plans to excavate further since they have allowed the other relics to develop iron cancer and to disintegrate each year from neglect.
  
Posted notice at entrance about digging relics. Nice display of 10 inch Rodman Smoothbore cannon. Stack of 300 pound cannon balls.
  
Stack of shells containing 100 lb Parrott Shells, 30 lb Parrott Shells and eight inch cannon shells. Note how the shells are neglected. Someone had thrown some paint on them and the cancerous rust is destroying these relics.
  
Most of the displays were behind locked steel doors but exposed to the elements. Look at this stack of shells and the neglect. How many times have we heard archeologists protest relics being in private collections? Civil War collectors wouldn't treat historical artifacts in this way in their collections. This is disgraceful.
  
This a view of the parade ground. Note the haunted house being set up in the fort. I found this very disrespectful but what could I expect from a state that mistreats historical artifacts? Apparently this haunted house is to raise money to pay for repairs by the Friends of Ft. Zachary Taylor. There are other more respectful ways to raise money.
  
One side of fort was off limits completely. I took a few photos through the open doorways and found more Civil War artifacts sitting in piles of rust.
  
More examples of rusting Civil War ordinance.
  
In the left hand photo, you can see partially excavated cannons which were used to reinforce the concrete during the Spanish American War period. The construction engineers believed that the Civil War cannons would help protect them from direct hits.
  
It was extremely interesting to see these huge 10 inch Rodman cannons embedded in the concrete. I'm sure that this is just the tip of the iceberg.
 
I did see areas of the fort that had been repaired. You can see the difference on the lower right hand photo (left side has been repaired verses the right side). So there is hope that all is not being lost.
| 
