Key West: Florida’s Union Island
How a Divided Town Spent Four Years Under the United States Flag
What kept Key West under the United States flag was Fort Taylor’s guns.
On the night of January 13, 1861, an Army captain named Brannan marched his command of forty-four men of the 1st U.S. Artillery to Fort Taylor on Key West’s southwestern tip. Reference works report that he acted without orders. Florida had voted to secede three days earlier, and Brannan secured the most strategically important fort in the Florida Keys before any local force could contest it. Looking back, it is tempting to see a Union-loving town welcoming the Army. The record is more complicated.
A Town Divided Over Secession
On December 12, 1860, a meeting at the Monroe County courthouse nominated delegates to the state convention. According to a University of South Florida summary of the local record, Winer Bethel received 66 yeas to 1 nay and William Pinckney 62 to 1, while Judge William Marvin, who did not favor immediate secession, received 33 to 26. Asa F. Tift replaced Marvin as delegate because of the conflict with Marvin’s federal judgeship. A correspondent quoted by the American Battlefield Trust reported that almost half the island’s residents were “bitter Secessionists.”
What kept Key West in the Union was military force, not a vote of its citizens. Major William French of the 5th U.S. Artillery arrived on April 6, 1861. The American Battlefield Trust says he ordered Confederate flags taken down, disbanded the “Island Guards” militia and organized 200 men into two Union volunteer companies, and martial law was declared on May 10, 1861.
Fort Taylor: The Gibraltar of the Gulf
The American Battlefield Trust calls Fort Taylor the “Gibraltar” of the Gulf. Southern newspapers recognized its value, and one urged in January 1861 that it be seized, but Brannan’s move had already placed it in Union hands. Fort Taylor became headquarters of the East Gulf Blockading Squadron, established in 1862, and captured blockade runners were brought to Key West. It also served as a wartime prison, where Key West resident W. D. Cash was held about two weeks in 1862 without trial.
A Complicated Freedom
Key West’s relationship to slavery was complicated. The Monroe County Public Library’s Island Chronicles series says slavery existed in the Keys from the first American settlement in 1822, and that the U.S. government was the largest employer of enslaved labor there, with slaveholders renting enslaved people to the Army Corps of Engineers to build Fort Taylor and Fort Jefferson. The wartime terms of those arrangements are not documented in the sources reviewed.
The Emancipation Proclamation applied at Key West when it took effect on January 1, 1863, and news reached the island on January 18. On January 29 the island’s Black community held a parade and dinner. About 250 men marched, led by Sandy Cornish, to the Baptist Church for speeches, toasts and a meal. A Pennsylvania soldier, Henry Hornbeck, wrote that some onlookers threw stones at the marchers, so the celebration took place amid continuing local hostility.
Marvin and Reconstruction
Judge William Marvin, a Key West resident since 1835, served as federal judge for the Southern District of Florida until July 1, 1863. President Andrew Johnson appointed him Florida’s provisional governor in July 1865, and he served until December 20, 1865. His path shows an islander who lived under federal authority through the war and then helped lead the state’s first steps toward readmission.
Quick Facts
Fort secured
Night of January 13, 1861, by Captain Brannan, 44 men of the 1st U.S. Artillery
Population, 1860
About 2,800–2,900, including 451 enslaved people (sources differ)
Local sentiment
Divided; strong secessionist element
Reinforcement
Major William French and the 5th U.S. Artillery, April 6, 1861
Martial law
Declared May 10, 1861
Naval role
Headquarters of the East Gulf Blockading Squadron
Emancipation parade
January 29, 1863, led by Sandy Cornish
Judge William Marvin
Federal judge to July 1, 1863; provisional governor July–December 1865
Did You Know?
- The captain who secured Fort Taylor reportedly acted without orders.
- Key West’s emancipation parade took place on January 29, 1863, eleven days after the news arrived.
- Key West remained in Union hands for the whole war.
Vocabulary
Garrison: the troops stationed in a fort or town.
Martial law: military rule imposed on an area, replacing normal civil authority.
Provisional: temporary, in place until a permanent arrangement is made.
Discussion Questions
1. Why did Key West stay in Union hands even though many residents favored secession?
2. What does the parade on January 29, 1863 show about how freedom was received on the island?
Related Articles
- FLH-0103 — Florida’s Unionists
- FLH-0101 — Salt Makers of the Gulf Coast
- FLH-0102 — Florida’s Blockade Runners
- FLH-0097 — Florida During the Civil War
Sources
Florida Memory. State Library and Archives of Florida. “Judge William Marvin in Key West” and “Florida in the Civil War” timeline. floridamemory.com
Federal Judicial Center. “Marvin, William.” fjc.gov
Florida Department of State. “William Marvin.” dos.fl.gov
Florida Center for Instructional Technology, University of South Florida. “Key West: Civil War.” fcit.usf.edu
Monroe County Public Library. “Island Chronicles, vol. 8.” keyslibraries.org
American Battlefield Trust. “Fort Taylor, Key West: Imprisonment in Paradise.” battlefields.org (secondary)
Copyright © 2026 Wm. E. McMullen II. All rights reserved. Published by Florida Learning Hub.