9780813030197-0813030196-America's Fortress: A History of Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas, Florida (Florida History and Culture)

America's Fortress: A History of Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas, Florida (Florida History and Culture)

ISBN-13: 9780813030197
ISBN-10: 0813030196
Edition: First Edition
Author: THOMAS REID
Publication date: 2006
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Format: Hardcover 176 pages
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Book details

ISBN-13: 9780813030197
ISBN-10: 0813030196
Edition: First Edition
Author: THOMAS REID
Publication date: 2006
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Format: Hardcover 176 pages

Summary

America's Fortress: A History of Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas, Florida (Florida History and Culture) (ISBN-13: 9780813030197 and ISBN-10: 0813030196), written by authors THOMAS REID, was published by University Press of Florida in 2006. With an overall rating of 4.4 stars, it's a notable title among other State & Local (United States History, Americas History) books. You can easily purchase or rent America's Fortress: A History of Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas, Florida (Florida History and Culture) (Hardcover) from BooksRun, along with many other new and used State & Local books and textbooks. And, if you're looking to sell your copy, our current buyback offer is $0.3.

Description

Known as the “American Gibraltar,” Fort Jefferson, located in the Dry Tortugas, Florida, was the most heavily armed coastal defense fort in United States history. Perceived as the nation’s leading maximum-security prison, the fort also held several of the accused conspirators in the Lincoln assassination. America’s Fortress is the first book-length, architectural, military, environmental, and political history of this strange and significant Florida landmark. This volume also fills a significant gap in Civil War history with regard to coastal defense strategy, support of the Confederacy blockade, the use of convicted Union soldiers as forced labor, and the treatment of civilian prisoners sentenced by military tribunals. Reid argues that Fort Jefferson’s troops faced very different threats and challenges than soldiers who served elsewhere during the war. He chronicles threats of epidemic tropical disease, hurricanes, shipwrecks, prisoner escapes, and Confederate attack. Reid also reports on white northerners’ perceptions of slaves, slavery, and the emerging free black soldiers of the latter years of the war. Drawing on the writings of Emily Holder, wife of Fort Jefferson’s resident surgeon, Reid is the first to offer a female perspective on life at the fort between 1859 and 1865. For history buffs and tourists, America's Fortress offers a fascinating account of this little-known outpost which has stood for over 150 years off the tip of the Florida Keys.

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