Part Three – Freedom comes to Fernandina

Submitted by Gray Edenfield
Amelia Island Museum of History
April 7, 2016 10:30 a.m.

This is the final article of a 3-part series entitled “Across One Hundred and Fifty-Five Aprils: Fernandina during the Civil War”

After Union forces took control of Amelia Island, the area became a haven for former slaves escaping from across the region. One of Fernandina’s most historically significant contributions to the Civil War was the enlistment of hundreds of African American soldiers in the Union Army’s newly formed USCT “United States Colored Troops.” These men fought to serve their country and to ensure their families would never return to the cruel indignities of slavery.

The first officially authorized Federal regiment of freedmen was the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry, mustered on April 7, 1862, at Camp Saxton near Beaufort, South Carolina.

On November 10^th of that same year abolitionist and author Thomas Wentworth Higginson was appointed as the regiment’s colonel, serving under Brigadier General Rufus B. Saxton, the Military Governor of South Carolina. Consisting of 10 companies of about 86 men each, the First South Carolina Volunteers were composed mostly of former slaves from South Carolina and Florida. In December of 1862, one hundred African American recruits from Fernandina joined the regiment. A month later, the transport ship Boston brought 200 more volunteers from Fernandina and St Augustine.

One of these men was Robert Sutton, who escaped slavery on a Florida plantation and made his way to Fernandina. Sutton rose to the rank of Sergeant, and served his regiment with distinction. As a slave, Sutton had worked along the St Marys River, and his knowledge proved invaluable during the 1^st South Carolina Volunteers’ first expedition up the river in January of 1863. Eager to get his men under fire for the first time, Colonel Higginson used Sutton’s intel to launch an attack on a group of Confederate Calvary at a place called Township Landing, a point on the Florida bank of the St Marys. During the skirmish Robert Sutton was wounded three times (one of these was a serious head wound), but refused to stop fighting, afraid that he would be kept out of combat if he saw a surgeon. Sutton stood guard all through the night and didn’t report his injuries until the next day. Colonel Higginson singled Sutton out several times for his exemplary courage and leadership, both in official reports and articles submitted to national publications.

Harriet Tubman journeyed south during the war, and was associated with the 1^st South Carolina Volunteers in a variety of roles: as a nurse, cook, spy, and scout. Tubman provided key intelligence that aided in the capture of Jacksonville, Florida, by Union forces (Jacksonville changed hands four times during the Civil War). Tubman’s wartime service brought the famous abolitionist to Amelia Island, where her arrival was noted in the journals of several Union soldiers stationed at Fort Clinch. Not much is known about her time on the island, but her obituary, printed in her adopted hometown of Auburn, New York in 1913, suggests that she was sent to Fernandina by the War Department, tasked with helping to treat an outbreak of dysentery using her skills with herbs and natural remedies.

On January 26, 1863 the 1^st South Carolina Volunteers became the first African American troops to set foot on Amelia Island. They were active in expeditions in Georgia and northeast Florida between 1863 and 1864, raiding Confederate picket posts, capturing food, lumber, and freeing hundreds of slaves. On February 8, 1864, the regiment was re-designated as the 33rd United States Colored Infantry Regiment. The 33^rd USCT served bravely until the end of the war, seeing action in the capturing of Fort Gregg on James Island, SC, and the Battle of Honey Hill. The regiment was discharged on February 9^th, 1866. More than 178,000 free African-Americans served in the Union Army between 1863 and 1865. By the end of the Civil War, the U.S. Colored Troops made up ten percent of the U.S. Army. Many of these men chose to make Fernandina their home before or after the war. More than 30 of these veterans are buried at Bosque Bello Cemetery.

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.