Jacksonville in the War Between the States: 1861

Few know the interesting local story of this epic war. According to the 1860 Census, Jacksonville had a population of just over 2,000 people. Most lived in the area of today’s downtown. H.H. Hoeg was Mayor.


The chief amusements of Jacksonville citizens were dinner parties, picnics, oyster roasts, card playing, and dancing. Camping, then called “marooning,” on the St. Johns riverbank was popular when the moon was full.

Romantic serenading was common. One was known as “charivari” or “shiveree,” targeting the newly married. Friends and neighbors would make noise with tin pans, horns, and whistles outside the couple’s home, and it would not stop until the couple invited their harassers in for cake and wine.

The road to today’s Lake City, then called Alligator, began at Monroe Street. Bay, Julia, and Forsyth streets bound the Judson House, Jacksonville’s most fashionable hotel. Today’s Robert E. Lee High School is located on what was Magnolia Plantation. Its owner, Elias G. Jaudon, raised cattle. Florida would be the Confederacy’s primary source of beef and dairy products throughout the war. The Union forces’ goal in their frequent North Florida raids was to shut down this supply line.

Anna Kingsley, widow and former African slave of Zephaniah Kingsley, presided over her family’s businesses after returning to Jacksonville from Haiti in 1860. She, along with her daughter Mary and son-in-law John Sammis, operated Kingsley Plantation on Ft. George Island, Laurel Grove in today’s Orange Park, and Anna’s Plantation on Mandarin Point. They also owned a sawmill, sugar mill, cotton gins, and a brickyard that provided bricks for many buildings in the growing town. They sided with the Union despite being the number one slave-owners in the area.

When Florida withdrew from the Union on January 10, 1861, it intended to be an independent republic, but it joined the Confederate States of America (the C.S.A.) a few months later. After Florida’s secession, citizen militias formed quickly. The Jacksonville Light Infantry garrisoned at the mouth of the St. Johns River near today’s jetties. The Duval Cow Boys took a position up on St. Johns Bluff near Fort Caroline. All understood the St. Johns River would be the route of any Union assault on Jacksonville.

Helen Broward of Duval County designed Florida’s secession flag with three stars and the motto “The Rights of the South at All Hazards.” The flag hung in the state’s House of Representatives throughout the war.

St. Augustine-born Edmund Kirby Smith, an 1845 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and veteran of the Mexican War, resigned from the U.S. Army in 1861 to join the Confederate forces. He was commissioned a colonel of the cavalry. He was assigned to serve as chief of staff to General Joseph E. Johnston at Harper’s Ferry and helped organize the Army of the Shenandoah.

Joseph Finegan was Florida’s most famous Confederate warrior. Born in Ireland, he settled in Nassau County as a planter, lumberman, and railroader. He served as a member of Florida’s secession convention. He was appointed as commander of all of east Florida.

To be continued

© 2011, Susan M. Lamb