by donald dusinberre imartsyfartsy@gmail.com
Jacksonville doesn’t really have a glitzy history. We don’t have any widely known buildings like the Empire State Building in New York City. We don’t have any fancy monuments like the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. We’ve got seven bridges, but none so glamorous as the Golden Gate in San Francisco. We’re situated along a major river, but Pittsburg is nestled amongst three rivers.
The truth is, most cities lack such outstanding features, and maybe that’s just as well. I’ll bet the folks living in Washington D.C. get tired of looking at the Washington Monument.
Let’s focus on what makes Jacksonville special, not just well known. The St. Johns River is a majestic, northward flowing river. St. Augustine is the oldest city in the United States. Jacksonville is the largest city in the United States in terms of land area. And most importantly, we host The World’s Largest Cocktail Party.
To learn the finer points of Jacksonville history, I decided to visit the G. Howard Bryan Museum of Southern History, located at 4304 Herschel Street in Avondale. What I discovered upon entering was a museum dedicated largely to the Civil War.
I have to admit I was nervous and quite a bit disappointed, but I decided to make the most of my visit. The museum has much to offer folks who want to get a closer look at Civil War artifacts, and it features an impressive library for those who want to do some research. In addition to the Civil War items, they had a surprising collection of Native American arrowheads from all over the area.
Many of the members of the museum are involved in the Battle of Olustee reenactments, and the museum has placed markers around the area to commemorate various skirmishes and events.
The curator of the museum is Van Seagraves, but during my visit I talked to Larry Skinner. I asked him about Jacksonville’s participation in the Civil War, and he was knowledgeable enough to describe a number of incidents that took place in and around Jacksonville. He didn’t look very old, but I think he was there at every skirmish.
Jacksonville was occupied by the Union Army four separate times, the final one concluding at the Battle of Olustee, by far the largest and most well known Civil War event in the area. Here is a short timeline of Civil War events in the Jacksonville area:
January 2, 1861 – Confederate Army troops occupy Fort Clinch in Fernandina.
January 7, 1861 – Confederate Army troops occupy Fort Marion in St. Augustine.
February 2, 1862 – Confederate troops withdraw from Fort Clinch.
March 5, 1862 – Union Army troops take over Fort Clinch.
March 11, 1862 – Union troops occupy St. Augustine and Fort Marion.
March 12, 1862 – Union troops enter Jacksonville.
April 9, 1862 – Union troops leave Jacksonville.
September 11, 1862 – Union gunboats patrol the lower St. Johns River.
October 5, 1862 – Confederate troops withdraw from Yellow Bluff and St. Johns Bluff. A Confederate group led by Captain J.J. Dickinson engages Union troops but are driven back.
March 10, 1863 – Union troops reoccupy Jacksonville with regiments that include African American soldiers.
March 29, 1863 – Union troops leave Jacksonville.
February 7, 1864 – Union troops once again return to Jacksonville.
February 9-10, 1864 – Union troops occupy Baldwin and Barber’s Plantation.
February 11, 1864 – Union Army recon unit approaches Lake City but withdraws after skirmish with Confederate troops.
February 20, 1864 – The Battle of Olustee occurs. The largest battle fought in Florida, 203 Union soldiers were killed while 93 Confederate soldiers were killed in a Confederate victory.
March 1, 1864 – Skirmish results in the largest number of men killed in action within the county during the war.
April 1, 1864 – The Maple Leaf strikes a mine off Mandarin and sinks. It was one of four Union transport ships sunk during the war.
May 23, 1864 – The Battle of Horse Landing occurs in the St. Johns River near Palatka.
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