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Jacksonville Jacksonville was platted in 1822 and named after General Andrew Jackson, the Territorial Governor. It was incorporated in 1832. When cotton growing became prosperous in northern Florida, Jacksonville became an important port because of the transport of goods along the St. Johns River and connection to the east coast and Atlantic Ocean. Later the railroad between Jacksonville and Cedar Key on the Gulf Coast was an important link between the coasts. Another railroad connected it to Tallahassee, Georgia and Alabama. In March 1862, federal ships sailed into the bay at Fernandina then on later to Jacksonville. In anticipation of this, most residents of Jacksonville panicked and abandoned the city. Confederates destroyed the mills, lumber, a foundry and some houses. When the federal troops arrived the town was peacefully surrendered to them. In less than a month they abandoned it and left. Depending on their other priorities they reoccupied and abandoned two more times and finally reoccupied it for the fourth time (with negro troops) in February 1864. The confederate troops outside the city resisted but the union troops prevailed and stayed until the war ended in 1865.
St. Johns River, Jacksonville to the Ocean |
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