Bronson-Mulholland House, 1975, Palatka Built by Isaac Bronson in 1854, this house was occupied by both Confederate and Union troops during the Civil War. It subsequently passed through several hands until the City of Palatka acquired in 1975. It is now home to the Putnam County Historical Society and hosts events; since 2010 it has hosted a reenactment of the 1864 Union occupation.
Union soldiers’ cross: 1991, Olustee Battlefield, Baker County
(Bill Delaney)
In 1866, a U.S. Army unit under Lieutenant Frederick E. Grossman was dispatched to Olustee to inspect the resting places of the over 200 Union men who had fallen there two years prior. Many of the remains, which had been buried hastily in shallow graves after the battle, had become exposed by animals and the elements. Grossman’s men reburied the remains of 125 soldiers in a more permanent mass grave, which they marked with large wooden cross and fencing. By the 1870s this had deteriorated, and the grave site was lost by the time Confederate organizations started campaigning to preserve the battlefield. In 1991, the Sons of Union Veterans placed a granite cross where the Union mass grave is thought to lie. It bears the same inscriptions from the original wooden memorial, invoking “Unity and Peace” and “Our County.” It is located in a poorly maintained cemetery outside Olustee Battlefield State Park property. It is the only memorial to Union soldiers in the area, though the Sons of Union Veterans and other groups have pushed for a fuller Union monument near the Confederate one. This proposal has met with resistance from pro-Confederate locals and state inaction.
Emancipation Proclamation memorial: 2000, St. Augustine
(Kyriaki Karalis)
In September 1862 or shortly after, the military authorities in Union-held St. Augustine received the first version of President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. They ordered the local slaveowners to release their slaves so they could congregate in a vacant lot on St. George Street, where the Proclamation was read. St. Augustine thus became one of the first cities in the south to free its slaves. For years, freedmen gathered on the anniversary to re-read the Proclamation. An account of the events by Mary Anne Murray, one of the freedwomen, appeared in the St. Augustine Record in 1934. In the mid-20th century, art collector Kenneth Worcester Dow acquired this and the surrounding parcels and buildings, and in 2000, the site was converted into the Dow Museum of Historic Homes. A monument to the Emancipation Proclamation was placed, featuring a bell and plaque describing the events of 1862. The property is now The Collector Inn, a boutique hotel.
Battle at Horse Landing marker: 2001, Rodeheaver Boys Ranch, Putnam County In May 1864, the Union controlled Jacksonville, Palatka, and most territory east of the St. Johns River, although Confederate raids and torpedo mines made their grip precarious. On May 22, the U.S.S. Columbine moved south to Welaka to contend with a Confederate force under the daring cavalry officer J. J. Dickison. Finding nothing, the Columbine headed back to Palatka, but Dickinson surprised the ship at Horse Landing. During the shootout, Dickinson managed to cripple, capture and sink the Columbine in a rare case of a cavalry unit taking a gunboat. Horse Landing is thought to be located at the present site of the Rodeheaver Boys Ranch, where the historical marker was placed in 2001. The ranch formerly hosted a reenactment of the battle, though sans gunboat.
Sons of St. Augustine sculpture: 2004, St. Augustine
(Kyriaki Karalis)
On the grounds of the Segui-Kirby Smith House on Aviles street is a monument to the structure’s two most famous residents: Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith and Dr. Alexander Darnes, Kirby Smith’s former slave and one of Florida’s first African-American physicians. Darnes, who was quite possibly Kirby Smith’s half-brother, served as Kirby Smith’s personal valet during the Civil War; afterward he attended Lincoln University and then medical school at Howard University. He then came to Jacksonville to become the city’s first African-American doctor, and the second in Florida. Kirby Smith and Darnes maintained a friendly if complicated relationship through correspondence until Kirby Smith’s death. The sculpture, created by Kirby Smith’s descendant, artist Maria Kirby-Smith, is perhaps the only sculpture in the First Coast to depict Confederate figures outside a Civil War milieu. It portrays a fictitious meeting of the two men in their later careers: Kirby-Smith dons the academic robes he wore as a professor at Sewanee, the University of the South, while Darnes’ doctor’s bag sits beside him.
Torpedo Warfare marker: 2007, Orange Park This historical marker on the River Road Walking Trail commemorates the sinking of the Union steamer the Maple Leaf by Confederate torpedo mines. On March 30, 1864, Confederates under Captain E. Pliny Bryan placed the torpedo that struck the Maple Leaf, which quickly sank in the river. As noted in our previous article, its wreck still lies submerged beneath 7 feet of mud and 20 feet of water; it became an immensely valuable archaeological site when it was rediscovered by local divers in 1984. Exhibits on the wreck can be seen across the river at the Mandarin Museum as well as in Jacksonville’s Museum of Science and History and other institutions nationwide.
https://www.moderncities.com/article/2017-aug-jacksonvilles-civil-war-memorials/page/2
Battle at Horse Landing mural: 2007, Palatka
(Kyriaki Karalis)
In 2007, Palatka’s Conlee-Snyder Mural Committee chose local artist Betty Sutliff to depict the area’s most significant Civil War battle in a mural at the southeast corner of South 3rd Street at St. Johns Avenue. It is one of more than 20 murals in downtown Palakta depicting the town’s history and culture.
Florida Agricultural Museum Pellicer Creek Raid reenactment: 2010-, Palm Coast Since 2010, Palm Coast’s Florida Agricultural Museum has hosted a reenactment of an imagined Civil War battle each October. It features battle reenactors and vendors in period attire to depict life in rural Florida circa 1864.
David Levy Yulee statue: 2014, Fernandina Beach This statue by sculptor Susan Luery commemorates Fernandina Beach resident David Levy Yulee, a U.S. Senator and railroad magnate, and namesake of the nearby community of Yulee. Yulee was a major supporter of Florida’s secession movement,and the Confederacy, although memorials to him in Fernandina and around Florida (including the nearby marker at his former homesite) tend to downplay this part of his life. Instead, public memory of Yulee focuses on his impact on Florida through his businesses and statesmanship, and his status as the first Senator of Jewish heritage. This statue, located on a bench at the former Florida Railroad station, depicts Yulee the railroad man, awaiting his train.
Liberty Lot obelisk: 2015, St. Augustine Among the festivities marking the 450th anniversary of St. Augustine’s founding was the Obelisk Art 450 project, which commissioned artists to create 25 obelisks commemorating events from the city’s long history. Artist John “Jahni” Moore painted this obelisk dedicated to the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation in St. Augustine’s “Liberty Lot” in 1862. In 2016, the city voted to install the obelisk at the newly created Dr. Robert B. Hayling Freedom Park, located at the far south of the Lincolnville neighborhood. The park, named after St. Augustine’s civil rights leader, is planned to feature several artworks celebrating the city’s civil rights legacy.
Article by Bill Delaney