Location: Amelia Island, Florida      Number of Rodman Guns Present: 10½

Fort Clinch was incomplete and unarmed at the start of the Civil War, and the caretaker sergeant serving as the federal government's sole representative at the fort didn't put up much of a fight when Florida Militia showed up shortly after Florida's secession in January of 1861. Robert E. Lee ordered the abandonment of Fort Clinch in 1862, however, as he (probably correctly) viewed it as indefensible in its ungunned state.

Rodman Guns likely didn't appear at Fort Clinch until the tail end of the war, and the fort was never brought up to its intended armament of 70 guns.



Presently there are ten, 10" Rodman Guns at Fort Clinch, painted a lustrous black with white numbers on their rear, fetchingly arranged along the terreplein. Sadly, I was not as interested in Rodman Guns as I clearly should have been when I visited Fort Clinch in 2014, and did not get pictures of each and every one.

There is a handy map tacked to the wall of one of the fort's inner buildings which details each gun's location...and there is what is probably a slightly fake Rodman Gun at Fort Clinch State Park's main gate!

Read the whole Fort Clinch story at Starforts.com!

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