Diana,

The official War Department records of Fort Barrancas, Florida, are in the 
National Archives in downtown Washington, DC, but there are no records for 
the time period in which you are interested created at that post among the 
holdings that make up army post collections there. This is not to say there 
is no documentation about that post among military records at the Archives, 
as there are letters and reports sent and received among the army commands 
in Florida, as well as records sent and received from officers to the 
Adjutant General and Secretary of War. These are scattered, of course, and 
one must know the name of the officers sending the reports, which is not 
impossible to gather. The 3rd Seminole War was fought 1855-56, but most of 
the military action was in southern Florida; Fort Barrancas may have been 
active in some way in the way of quartermaster or ordnance supply to troops. 
According to the introduction to the publication: Preliminary Inventory of 
the Records of the United States Army Continental Commands, 1821-1920 Fort 
Barrancas in Record Group 393, records of that post are from the Civil War 
period and late 19th century. The army first occupied the post in 1820, but 
the post was later turned over to the Navy from 1825 to 1844. From 1844 to 
1861, the post was garrisoned by one company of artillery. Your ancestor 
might have beenin that unit. The U.S. Army thought they could not defend the 
post from Confederate forces when the Civil War broke out, and abandoned the 
post for Fort Pickens. The post was recaptured by Union forces in1862.
    The Archives has enlistment records of regular army personnel for the 
time period, and if you have the full name of your ancestor, and possibly, 
the unit in which he was in, the Archives can send you his enlistment 
information and verify the fact that he died at the post. If he were an 
officer, there would be generally more information about his service and 
death. You can obtain the form and information about ordering through the 
website: nara.gov. If you wish to correspond with me about this search, 
please contact me via email.

Stuart Butler


---- Original Message ----- 
From: "Diana Bennett" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2007 7:13 PM
Subject: Ft. Barrancas records


Dear Listers;

One of my ancestors died at Ft Barrancas, FL (near Pensacola) in 1855. There 
was no war going on, so what was he doing there? Does anyone know where I 
can get those records (death) or history of the Fort?  Thanks for any help 
you can give me.

Diana Bennett

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