Spanish wooden stockades were built here in 1680 and 1758. In 1758, a hurricane destroyed them and drowned the garrison. A masonry fort was begun in 1759 but was soon abandoned to the Indians for a trading post and Indian rendezvous. The Spanish reoccupied it in 1783. General Andrew Jackson seized and occupied the fort in 1819. It became a United States possession in 1821 when the territory was purchased from Spain. It was occupied as an army post until 1824, when the Indians were moved to a reservation. The Town of St. Marks was created by an act of Congress in 1830 and became a port of entry before railroads were extended to the seaboard. During the Civil War, the fort was re-established and occupied by the Confederate Army, and a Federal naval attack on it was repulsed in 1865.