[3][4] In a despatch sent to the Secretary of War, dated January 19, Jackson states 'I am strengthened not only by [the defeat of the British at New Orleans]... but by the failure of his fleet to pass fort St.

It was the site of a twelve-day siege in April 1862 by Union forces during the American Civil War, which was the decisive battle in the capture of New Orleans.

[citation needed] During the Civil Rights Movement, Leander Perez threatened to jail opponents and demonstrators against segregation at the fort and in 1964 installed barbed wire.

From 1978 through 1989 the fort complex served as the site of an intentional, nonsectarian spiritual community called Vella-Ashby,[7][8] named by conjoining the surnames of the original and subsequent private property owners respectively.

The site is accessible only by boat or helicopter,[9] and following erosion of the small levee is now subject to flooding during high water levels of the Mississippi River.