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.Galleries:1861 to 1865: Civil War, Hillsborough, Seminoles, TampaKeywords:downtown, florida, fort brooke, memorial, old fort brooke municipal parking structure, soldier, tampaPhoto Location: Tampa, FLPhotographer: Dr. Roy WinkelmanDate of Photo: 01/06/2006Device Make: CanonDevice Model: Canon PowerShot A95Exposure Time: 1/8F Number: 28/10Original Dimensions: 1176×2364Picture Orientation: PortraitGPS Coordinates: 27°56'50"N 82°27'31"WPicture Number: 13789
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