 Entrepreneurs included prominent civil and social leaders, including alderman Alexander McVoy, Joseph Forsyth and E. E. Simpson (who jointly owned one of the largest operations in the state), and W. Main L. Criglar (whose combined lumber and shipping interests produced a personal fortune of more than $300,000).On January 10, 1861, Florida became the third state to secede from the Union to join the newly formed Confederate States of America.Fort Pickens, one of three forts guarding the entrance to Pensacola Bay, was held by Federal troops, and remaining Union forces in the city also evacuated there.