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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 99/340

Events of the Civil War

forces advanced, the Confederates burned sawmills, lumber, and
ironworks to prevent capture. Groups of irregular troops burned
the houses of Union sympathizers as well, and three Unionists
were killed. There was ’looting and considerable destruction by
these irregular troops. Jacksonville was occupied on March 12,
while Confederate forces retired to Baldwin, the junction of the
Florida Atlantic and Gulf Central Railroad, and the Florida
Railroad, only forty miles from Lake City. Federal troops with­
drew from Jacksonville on April 9. Confederate troops never
regularly occupied Jacksonville for the duration of the war, and
the Federals were able to return on three additional occasions.25
During the summer of 1862, Federal forces occupied Jackson­
ville for the second time and withdrew in October. It was during
the third occupation of Jacksonville in March, 1863, that Federal
forces first employed black troops in Florida. These were the First
Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers and a part of the Second
Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers. The black troops were
later reinforced by white regiments, the Eighth Maine and the
Sixth Connecticut. Northern newspapers hailed this expedition as
a “great liberating host of five thousand Negroes.” General Joseph
Finegan, Confederate commander in Florida, issued a proclama­
tion to all Floridians telling them of the presence of Negro troops
in Jacksonville and calling upon the state’s citizens to prepare for
the defense of their homes. General Finegan sent a notice to
Colonel T. W. Higginson, the white commander of the black First
Regiment, informing him that Confederate troops would give the
Federals twenty-four hours to evacuate women and children from
Jacksonville. Higginson ordered his wagons to convey all those
who wished to leave. The refugees, many of the women and children
of Jacksonville, assembled at the Brick Yard Church in Jackson­
ville where they were met under a flag of truce by a Confederate
force and escorted to Lake City. Several skirmishes but no major

pp. 64-69.
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