Advance Redoubt


The Advance Redoubt is one of four Third System fortifications located in the Pensacola, Florida area. It is unlike any of the other fortifications around Pensacola, however, since it is designed exclusively to defend against a land assault.

The Advance Redoubt and Fort Barrancas are both located on the mainland, on a peninsula where the Navy Yard was located. Fort Barrancas had the dual role of acting as a harbor fort, and also blocking the peninsula to infantry. The Advance Redoubt, located about 500 yards across the peninsula, close to the Bayou Grande, was designed to act in concert with Fort Barrancas to deny access to the Navy Yard. The two fortifications were linked by a trench line to provide a line of resistance across the whole peninsula.

The Advance Redoubt, like Fort Barrancas, has a central area that is filled with sand and soil, with the cannon mounted en barbette at the parade ground level. Its shape is trapezoidal, with a dry ditch completely surrounding the structure, scarp and counterscarp galleries, and half bastions to guard the gorge wall and the sallyport.


The main entrance, or sallyport, is located in the gorge, or rear, wall of the fort, and is accessed by crossing a drawbridge over the ditch. This is the side of the fort facing the Navy Yard, opposite of the direction an assault would be expected to come from.
Another view showing the sallyport, along with the half bastions located on either side, and the dry ditch.
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