Siege of Pensacola, Florida by H. Charles McBarron, Jr.
Fort George was a British fort built in 1778 by General John Campbell atop Gage Hill to protect Pensacola, Florida. The fort was the largest of a trio of fortifications on the hill, along with the Queen’s Redoubt and the Prince of Wales Redoubt. The three forts garrisoned about 1100 men.
Fort George was a quadrangle measuring about 80 yards on a side, with bastions at each corner. Within the stockade were a powder magazine and barracks. It served as the headquarters of British West Florida and spanned from the Suwannee River to the Mississippi River. It remained in British hands until Spanish General Bernardo de Galvez captured it in May 1781 during the Siege of Pensacola during the American Revolution. At that time, it was renamed San Miguel, but the Spanish government did not occupy the fort, and it was allowed to deteriorate.
During the Civil War, Union forces placed a small battery, Fort McClellan, on the site in 1862, but it never saw battle. Several decades later, in 1889, Lee Square was established at the site, becoming home to a Confederate memorial two years later.
The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, and in 1976, an archaeological excavation discovered remnants of the British and Spanish forts.
Afterward, the City of Pensacola reconstructed a portion of the fort in its original location. It became part of the Fort George Memorial Park in the North Hill Preservation District. The park is located on La Rua and Palafox Streets.
Fort George site in Pensacola, Florida courtesy of Wikipedia.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated November 2025.
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