Fort Randall, located about 5 miles east of here, was a Confederate fort with a blockhouse pierced for musketry and earthworks surrounded by a ditch about 10 feet broad and 5 feet deep. In January 1863, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Wm. B. Cushing and twenty-five men captured the fort while looking for blockade-runner pilots. Cushing held it briefly until his supply of ammunition was exhausted.