St. Augustine

The Confederates seized control of Fort Marion (Castillo de San Marcos) without a shot being fired on January 7, 1861. Paul Arnau, the customhouse officer in St. Augustine, formed a group called the “Coast Guard” who set out to remove the lights from the coastal lighthouses. They started with the St. Augustine Lighthouse removing the lenses and hiding them. The “Coast Guard” did the same at Cape Canaveral. At Jupiter Inlet when the keeper refused to remove the lenses he was escorted off the property at gunpoint and they dismantled the light and hid the lenses. Arnau on his return became the mayor of St. Augustine.

The blockade resulted in a rise in food prices and the tourist trade quickly disappeared. In February of 1862 Robert E. Lee made the decision to no longer defend ports in Florida. On February 28, 1862, twenty six Navy vessels left Hilton Head, SC, to reoccupy Fernandina, Jacksonville and St. Augustine. Rather than surrender the town Paul Arnau resigned as mayor. Union Commander C.R.P. Rogers accepted the city’s surrender on March 11 at the Government House. The 4th NH, under Colonel Louis Bell, arrived to garrison St. Augustine. Former mayor Arnau was imprisoned on the USS Isaac Smith until he revealed where the lighthouse lenses were hidden.

In order to draw food supplies from the Federal commissary citizens were required to take the oath of allegiance. In September of 1862 the 7th NH arrived. All white males above the age of 14 and families with men in Confederate service were required to take the oath or face removal. Several hundred were removed. Confederate Captain J.J. Dickison’s men roamed the woods west of the city making Union excursions outside town dangerous. In the spring of 1863 the NH troops were replaced by the 7th CT under Colonel Joseph R. Hawley. By this time only 700 whites and 300 blacks remained in the city. The 48th NY arrived in August but stayed only a couple months before the 24th MA and 10th CT were assigned to St. Augustine in the fall. The town’s population had fallen to 400. Dickison was more active in the area and ambushed a Union wood-cutting party in December. In April of 1864, before the November election, the 17th CT who were strongly pro Lincoln were ordered to garrison the town. After the war the city would recover slowly with its population in 1870 still lower than 1830.

**St. Francis Barracks- barracks on this site were used for housing by Confederate and Union troops during the war.**

**The Dade pyramids and** **monument mark the graves of soldiers killed in Florida’s Indian wars**

General Martin Davis Hardin- Civil War Union Brigadier General. At the start of the Civil War, he was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Pennsylvania Reserves and was promoted Colonel in command of the 12th Pennsylvania Regiment in July 1862. He led the 12th Pennsylvania in actions from the Peninsula to Falmouth and was wounded at Antietam. At the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1863, he commanded his regiment and an artillery battery at Little Round Top. For his service at Gettysburg, he was promoted Brigadier General in October 1863, in command of Fort De Russy. His last service action was as a commander of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Division of the V Corps at the Battle of Cold Harbor, Louisiana, in June 1864 (from findagrave.com).

The Llambias family had three sons who were soldiers for the Confederacy only one survived the war. Their father, Joseph, refused to take the oath of allegiance and was imprisoned at Fort Marion. They were sent to Fernandina. After they left the first floor of the house was used as a stable by Union soldiers.

**The Tovar house was the home to General Martin D. Hardin after the war.**

**29.8880278, -81.3101111**– **the oldest house in St. Augustine**. **General Martin D Hardin was once an occupant**

**During the war the home was owned by Confederate General William J Hardee. Confederate spies may have operated out of the house. It is now a Bed and Breakfast.**

**32 Aviles Street-** **The building is now a museum that interprets the life and significance of the Sisters of St. Joseph who arrived in 1866 to educate the community’s African American children** **after the war.**

**36 Aviles Street- owned by the Sisters of St. Joseph**

**12 Aviles Street- Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith was born here**

**Statue commemorating Edmund Kirby Smith and Dr. Alexander H Darnes.** **Darnes was a slave who accompanied Smith during the war and later became a physician in Jacksonville.**

**An 8-inch Columbiad cannon- 29.8925833, -81.3126944** **Link**

Markland- Clarissa Anderson, its owner, was a Union supporter and held many gatherings and meetings here during the Union occupation. Her son Andrew Anderson Jr. was a member of the 3rd FL Infantry, the St. Augustine Blues, before hiring a substitute and attending medical school.

**The Generals House- two different Union generals called this house home after the war- John M. Schofield and Martin D Hardin.**

**Bishop Augustin Verot- became a Reconstruction leader educating Black children after the war**

**Hector Adams served in the Union Army’s 21st United States Colored Troops (USCT) during the Civil War under Col. Milton Littlefield.**

**The graves of 11 Confederate soldiers over half of which served in the St. Augustine Blues**

**The City Gates- 29.8978887, -81.3136208**– **was used to control access into and out of the City during the Civil War**

**The current lighthouse is a post war structure located at 100 Red Cox Drive**

From staugustinelighthouse.org (link)- Authorities darkened the tower during the Civil War in an effort to hinder the Union Navy off Florida’s coast. As the city’s Collector of Customs, Paul Arnau, oversaw the removal of the lighthouse Fresnel lens in January 1861, per Confederate orders. Serving as mayor of St. Augustine from November 1861 to March 1862, Arnau resigned rather than surrender the city to Union forces. Northern troops arrested Arnau and sequestered him on the Union gunboat Isaac Smith until he revealed the location of the lighting mechanisms for the St. Augustine light and other lighthouses in the area including Cape Canaveral.