On the evening of March 9, 1864, an expedition left Jacksonville under Colonel William Barton with the goal of occupying the city of Palatka 75 miles up the St. John’s River. Barton would command soldiers from the 47th, 48th, and 115th NY, the 55th MA, and the RI Artillery. Traveling at night to avoid sniper fire along the river they would be transported by the Maple Leaf, the Charles B. Houghton, and the General Hunter. Their landing in the town was unopposed as most of the town’s 600 residents had already fled. Barton’s soldiers set up camp on the grounds of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and the Bronson mansion. Chaplain John Bowles, a Black clergyman from the 55th MA led services at the church and opened an evening school. The church is shown below. Union soldiers used the church as a barracks for officers, a stable, and a meeting house at varying times during the war. Horses footprints were seen in the floorboards and the east wall near the altar. The church’s belfry was felt to be unsafe and as a result the bell was removed and placed in an aisle. When the Federals left they stole the church’s bible and register.

The Bronson-Mulholland house- During the Civil War, Union and Confederate troops both occupied the house. A friend of Sophronia Bronson, Charlotte Henry, established a school for freed slave children here from 1866 to 1868. 

A line of earthworks was constructed around the town with three batteries. Trees were cut to clear fields of fire. This was a relatively quiet period for the Union soldiers. Oranges were plentiful and many chickens, pigs and cows had been left behind. Three men from the 55th MA stationed here were among the first Blacks to become fully commissioned officers in the Union Army- Second Lieutenants James Trotter, John Shorter (a direct descendant of Elizabeth Hemings of Monticello) and William Dupree.

In 2020, Putnam County commissioners voted 4-1 in favor of relocating the monument to a yet-to-be-determined location, with costs to be paid by private funds raised by individuals or groups that support the move. A citizen-based committee was to be appointed by the commissioners to provide additional input on the monument’s potential new home. In November of 2020, the board decided that the statue would be relocated to Putnam County Veterans Memorial Park but only if $200,000 in private funds were raised within 90 days from people inside of Putnam County.A google street view in April 2023 showed the statue still there.

Source

Record of the Service of the Fifty-Fifth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers by Charles Barnard Fox