History of the Civil War

East Martello - Key West's Hidden Diamond
by Randy (107th OVI)

Key West Florida - Off the beaten path, on the South side of Key West on A1A, lies one of Key West's best kept secrets, the East and West Martellos. The West Martello, largely destroyed by Navy ships during WWII who used it for target practice, is now home to the Key West Garden club.

The East Martello, however is intact, serving as the Key West Museum and is a wonderful piece of Civil War architecture. While Joe Allen, a local resident was walking his dog, he noticed that County workers were going to bulldoze the fort into oblivion. He appealed to the powers that be to stop and luckily, he was successful.

As you cross over the bridge into Key West, you have two choices. You can go to the right , which is US 1, or take a left, which is A1A. The East Martello lies on your right a few miles down A1A. The tour is self guided for the most part and it's a wonderful way to spend part of your day down there.

The first Martello was built in Corsica. In 1794, an English fleet decided to take the fortress. It was a round fort in design, looking like a hammer head laying on one end without the handle attached. In fact, the name is a rough Italian translation for hammer. The English warships tried and failed to take the Martello and its 3 cannon. A 38-man garrison hiding inside its 15 foot thick walls. The troops defending the Martello did indeed inflict grievous casualties on the English fleet.

Afterwards, many countries adopted the design and Martellos were built all over. There are examples of Martellos in Scotland , England, Ireland , France and of course Italy. Nine were built in Canada and six were built here in the United States, two of them in Key West. The six built in the US were built: one on the James River in Charleston ( believed to be Castle Pinckney ) , one at the mouth of the Savannah River near Ft. Pulaski ( destroyed on Government orders after WWI ) two near New Orleans ( one, ten miles from the city, the other, 20 miles from the city at Proctor's Landing ) and the two in Key West.

The Martellos were built as a "backdoor defense" for Ft. Taylor . They originally were built to secure The Straits of Florida from invading fleets and were part of the Third Stage of brick and masonry forts built in the middle and late 1840' s to defend against another British attack like the one of the War of 1812. The Federal government, fearing an attack from the ocean side of Key West and the weak point of Fort Taylor, ordered construction to be speeded up.

Deeds to the land where the two Martellos were to be built were finally acquired in 1862 only to see an epidemic of Yellow fever sweep the island and the workers. Construction picked up in the fall of 1862. The HMS Trent affair worried Washington and major emphasis on completion of the Martellos took on a new priority. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation had an impact and most of the free black and slave labor quit working on the Martello. Poor quality bricks from up North added to the building woes and in the summer of 1863, funding was cut by Washington.

Once again, labor problems mount as there was much drinking and absenteeism. In December, the laborers demanded back pay. In March of 1864, laborers strike and Yellow Fever reappears. The next month, April, the 2nd USCT replaces the civilian workers only to be stricken down with Yellow Fever the month afterwards. Congress again appropriates no money for the 1864-65 fiscal year and in October a hurricane hits the island. Thus, no major work was done on the Martellos from mid 1864 until the end of the War.

Indeed, the Martellos were never completed during the War, they did serve as an integral part of the island's defenses. The upper casement of the East Martello was never finished, but had it been , it would have been formidable. The fort was built in such a way that if any enemy breached the casement walls, the garrison could retreat through the inner hollow walls of the fort and into a tunnel that led into the square Martello. For some reason, the engineers thought they could improve on the Martello design and built it in a square rather than round design.

It is one of the hidden diamonds of Key West. A jewel of Civil War history tucked away off of the beaten path.

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