Submitted by Gray Edenfield
Education Director
Amelia Island Museum of History
April 5, 2016 8:00 a.m.
This is the first article of a 3-part series entitled “Across One Hundred and Fifty-Five Aprils: Fernandina during the Civil War”
April 12, 2016 marks the one hundred and fifty-fifth anniversary of the commencement of the Civil War. Without being the site of any major battles, Fernandina’s history was undeniably colored by the “War Between the States.” Long before Fort Sumter was shelled in the second week of April, 1861 (in fact, a few days before Florida officially seceded from the Union), Fernandina residents got a head start on what some called the “War of Northern Aggression” – others preferred the “War of [the] Rebellion.”
In early January of 1861, a state militia force loyal to the Confederacy, known as the “Fernandina Volunteers,” preemptively seized Fort Clinch, which was promptly abandoned by the Federal workmen still in the process of constructing the Third System Fortification. At that time, the Fort’s walls had not reached their planned height, and it was without casemates or canon. The engineer tasked with Fort Clinch’s construction, Captain William H.C. Whiting, remarked that any idea of using the fort in its current state, offensively or defensively, was “absurd.”
Colonel William Scott Dilworth of the 3rd Florida Regiment oversaw Fernandina’s defenses. Besides Fort Clinch, the Confederates established a presence at Fort San Carlos in Old Town, and erected batteries on the beaches. West Point educated Francis Asbury Shoup (later a C.S.A. Brigadier General) was brought in to set up artillery batteries at the unfinished fort, and munitions were transferred to the Island from St Augustine’s Fort Marion. By August of that same year there were six companies of Confederate soldiers stationed on the island – with camps at Fort Clinch, Fort Old Town, and the Harrison Plantation on the South End. Federal gunboats were commonly spotted off the coast of Amelia Island.
Colonel Dilworth butted heads constantly with Florida’s Governor John Milton over who was really in charge of the troops at Fernandina. Dilworth felt that he was being denied resources, particularly experienced artillerymen and equipment. To remedy this, he put together his own artillery battalion, in defiance of war department regulations. Dilworth blamed politicians for hampering the war effort, and threatened to take his units across the state line to re-enlist his men in Georgia. Milton wrote to Jefferson Davis, accusing Dilworth of maintaining poor discipline, with rampant insobriety among his officers and men. [W. S. Dilworth would command the 3rd Florida for the rest of the war, seeing action at Murfreesborough, Missionary Ridge, and Chickamauga. John Milton remained Governor of Florida until 1865. With Confederate defeat imminent, he returned to his plantation at Marianna, Fl and committed suicide, after stating before the Florida Senate that Yankees “have developed a character so odious that death would be preferable to reunion with them.”]
General Robert E. Lee visited Amelia Island in November of 1861 and January of 1862, while conducting a survey of coastal fortifications – as per his early wartime appointment as commander of the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. In a letter to his daughters, Lee said: “I have been down the coast as far as Amelia Island to examine our defenses. They are poor indeed and I have laid off work enough to employ our people a month. I hope our enemy will be polite enough to wait for us. It is difficult to get people there to realize their positions.” In February of 1862, Lee recommended the withdrawal of Confederate forces from coastal areas.
Meanwhile, (soon to be rear admiral) Samuel F. Du Pont, commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron – the largest American fleet ever assembled at that time – had attacked and captured Port Royal, S.C. in late 1861, and next set his sights on securing coastal Georgia and Eastern Florida. On March 1st, Federal Naval and land forces took nearby Cumberland Island and prepared to bear down on Fernandina. Confederate authorities twice warned the people of Fernandina that Southern forces would soon withdraw from the island, but few residents took the situation seriously.
Gray Edenfield is a historian and author born and raised in Fernandina Beach, Florida. His mother is a teacher, with over 30 years experience in Nassau County, and his father is a musician. He attended Florida State University (Tallahassee, Fl) , where he graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and a minor in History. After completing his education, Gray returned to Fernandina Beach and joined the staff at the Amelia Island Museum of History. He published his first book, Amelia Island: Birthplace of the Modern Shrimping Industry in 2015.
