Old Fort Brooke Parking Structure Memorial
- Description: A soldier depicted on the Old Fort Brooke Municipal Parking Structure Memorial in Downtown Tampa. Old Fort Brooke was established during the Seminole Wars, however is also a part of Civil War history. During the Civil War, the state of Florida was considered part of the Confederacy. In 1861, Union forces established a blockade near Tampa Bay in order to keep the confederates from making contact and trading with other nations such as Cuba. The Union Army believed that if the Confederacy was unable to recieve supplies they would eventually be forced to surrender. Despite Union efforts many blockade runners were able to evade the Union Army and trade with Cuba in order to gain supplies. In response to the blockade runners, Union forces attacked the fort in the 1862 Battle of Tampa. This small battle consisted of a Union gunboat firing upon Tampa in hopes of a confederate surrender, yet the Union army quickly seized fire without the surrender it had sought. In 1863, the Battle of Fort Brooke took place in which two more Union gunboats fired upon the fort as part of a diversion, so that a group of soldiers could find and destroy Confederate vessels and blockade runners. Upon realizing the plan, a group of confederates found and attacked the Union soldiers resulting in casualties. At the end of the Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction, Fort Brooke was occupied by federal troops until 1869. The fort was decommissioned in 1883.
- Keywords: Fort Brooke, Old Fort Brooke Municipal Parking Structure, soldier, memorial, downtown, Tampa, Florida
- TIFF File: A high resolution TIFF of Old Fort Brooke Parking Structure Memorial (19.9 Mb) is available for download. This is a very large file suitable for printing. For most on-screen purposes, you should use the image displayed on this page instead of this TIFF.
- Source: Florida Center for Instructional Technology, Exploring Florida: Social Studies Resources
for Students and Teachers (Tampa, FL: University of South Florida, 2009)
- County: Hillsborough
- Location:
- Date of Photo: 1/7/2006
- Photographer: Roy Winkelman
