Editing Fernandina Beach, Florida (section)

==History==
[[File:Florida - Fernandian - NARA - 23936609 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|Fernandina Beach, December 1924]]
Prior to the arrival of Europeans on what is now Amelia Island, Native Americans occupied the site of the [[Original Town of Fernandina Historic Site|original town]] of Fernandina.<ref name="dep.state">{{cite web|title=Fernandina Plaza Historic State Park|url=http://www.dep.state.fl.us/parks/planning/parkplans/FernandinaPlazaStateHistoricSite.pdf|publisher=State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection Division of Recreation and Parks|access-date=April 30, 2013|page=11|date=March 10, 2004}}</ref> Native American bands associated with the Timucuan mound-building culture had settled on the island about 1000 CE, calling it Napoyca. They remained on the island until the early 18th century, when European settlement began.

===Old Town Fernandina===
{{main|Original Town of Fernandina Historic Site}}

On January 1, 1811, [[Enrique White]], governor of Spain's [[East Florida]] province, named the town of Fernandina, about a mile from the present city, in honor of [[King Ferdinand VII]]. On May 10 of that year,<ref name="Society1941">{{cite book|author= Louise Biles Hill|title=Florida Historical Quarterly|chapter-url=https://palmm.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/ucf%3A22306|access-date=May 3, 2013|edition=3|volume=21|year=1941|publisher=Florida Historical Society|page=214|chapter=George J. F. Clarke, 1774-1836}}</ref> Fernandina became the last town platted under the [[Laws of the Indies]] in the Western hemisphere. The town was intended as a bulwark against U.S. territorial expansion. In the following years, it was captured and recaptured by a succession of renegades and privateers.

====Republic of East Florida====
At the beginning of the [[Florida Seminole Wars#Patriot War of East Florida (1812)|Patriot War]], with the approval of President [[James Madison]] and [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] Governor [[George Mathews (Georgia)|George Mathews]] on March 13, 1812,<ref>{{cite book|last=Cusick|first=James G.|title=The other war of 1812 : the Patriot War and the American invasion of Spanish East Florida|year=2007|publisher=University of Georgia Press|location=Athens, Georgia|isbn=978-0820329215|pages=32}}</ref> insurgents known as the "Patriots of Amelia Island" seized the island. After raising a Patriot flag, they replaced it with the [[Flag Acts (United States)#Flag Act of 1794|United States flag]]. American gunboats under the command of [[Commodore (United States)|Commodore]] Hugh Campbell maintained control of the island. On May 15, 1812, the British brig. [[HMS Sappho (1806)|''Sappho'']] fired on Gunboat no. 168, which had fired on the loyalist merchant vessel ''Fernando'' to prevent her leaving. Outgunned, the American gunboat withdrew, which enabled several vessels to escape from the port. President Madison eventually denounced the filibustering of George Mathews, however, on the grounds that Mathews had violated his instructions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ibiblio.org/uncpress/chapters/may_manifest.html |title=Manifest Destiny's Underworld: Filibustering in Antebellum America, by Robert e. May. Chapter 1 |access-date=July 23, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090209182541/http://www.ibiblio.org/uncpress/chapters/may_manifest.html |archive-date=February 9, 2009 }} Manifest Destiny's Underworld: Filibustering in Antebellum America. Robert E. May. Chapter 1</ref><!-- Bot generated title -->

====Mexico====
Spanish pressure forced the American evacuation from the island in 1813. Spanish forces erected [[Fort San Carlos]] on the island in 1816. However, A Scottish soldier and adventurer named [[Gregor MacGregor]] with 55 musketeers seized [[Fort San Carlos (Fernandina, Florida)|Fort San Carlos]] in 1817, claiming the island on behalf of "the brethren of Mexico, Buenos Ayres, New Grenada and Venezuela",<ref name="Another View of Gregor MacGregor">[http://www.amelianow.com/winter01-gregor.htm "Another View of Gregor MacGregor"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090328174504/http://www.amelianow.com/winter01-gregor.htm |date=March 28, 2009 }} in ''[http://www.amelianow.com/ Amelia Now On Line]'', Winter 2001.</ref> and raised the Green Cross of Florida flag over the Spanish [[Fort San Carlos]].<ref name="Burnett2014">{{cite book|author=Gene M. Burnett|title=Florida's Past, Vol 2: People and Events That Shaped the State|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a5hxDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT120|date=1 October 2014|publisher=Pineapple Press|isbn=978-1-56164-759-0|page=120}}</ref>
MacGregor claimed to be Brigadier General of the armies of the United Provinces of New Grenada and Venezuela (where he had successfully fought and led troops), and General-in-Chief of the armies for the two Floridas, commissioned by the Supreme Director of Mexico.<ref name="Another View of Gregor MacGregor"/>

Spanish soldiers forced MacGregor's withdrawal, but their attempt to regain complete control was foiled by American irregulars organized by Ruggles Hubbard and former Pennsylvania congressman [[Jared Irwin (Pennsylvania politician)|Jared Irwin]]. Hubbard and Irwin later joined forces with the French-born pirate [[Louis Aury]], who laid claim to the island on behalf of the Republic of Mexico. U.S. Navy forces drove Aury from the island, and President [[James Monroe]] vowed to hold Amelia Island "in trust for Spain."

===Modern Fernandina===
In 1847 construction of [[Fort Clinch]] began in nearby present-day Fernandina. The Third System fort was named after General [[Duncan Lamont Clinch]] who fought in the [[War of 1812]] and the [[Seminole Wars]]. Senator [[David Levy Yulee]], founder of the [[Florida Railroad]], wanted the eastern terminus of his railroad line to end in [[Amelia Island]]. The Old Town Fernandina was too cut off by the marshes to be used as a terminal. Yulee wanted to end the railroad on the banks of the Amelia River one mile to the south. The leaders of Fernandina did not want a new community to grow and prosper to surpass their town. The leaders of Fernandina decided to move the town up to the railroad where the present-day Fernandina Beach stands. Yulee began construction of the railroad in 1855 and was completed in 1861.<ref name="Seaport built for a Railroad">{{cite web|title=Seaport built for a Railroad|url=http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/fernandina.html|website=exploresouthernhistory.com|access-date=6 May 2018}}</ref>

====Civil War====
[[File:Fort Clinch, Florida, U.S. - Cannons.jpg|thumb|right|190px|Inside [[Fort Clinch]]]]
On January 8, 1861, two days before Florida's secession, Confederate sympathizers (the Third Regiment of Florida Volunteers) took control of [[Fort Clinch]], already abandoned by the Federal workers who had been enlarging the structure. The Confederates erected [[Artillery battery|batteries]] on the northern end of Amelia Island but lacked the resources to fortify Fort Clinch. [[Robert E. Lee]], who was commanding coastal defenses in the Deep South, ordered cannons and troops withdrawn in early 1862.

Lee's orders to withdraw the cannons and troops were too late. Union forces, consisting of 28 gunboats commanded by Commodore [[Samuel Dupont]], occupied the island on March 3, 1862, and raised the American flag. In January 1863, the first all-black regiment of former slaves recruited to fight for the Union was read Lincoln's [[Emancipation Proclamation]] at Fernandina.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}} Three weeks later they set sail up the St. Marys River to engage the Confederate forces. The Union used the fort as a base for its operations in the area for the remainder of the war.<ref name="Seaport built for a Railroad"/>

====Later 19th century====
In 1891, [[Harmon Murray]], who had been the leader of a criminal gang operating out of [[Gainesville, Florida|Gainesville]], arrived in Fernandina, where his sister lived. Murray was soon committing burglaries and robberies in Fernandina and elsewhere on Amelia Island. Law officers chased a black suspect several times, who shot at them on one occasion. Murray taunted the police with a letter in early May, to the effect that he would not be taken alive, and would take the Nassau County sheriff and Fernandina police chief with him. Acting on a tip, on May 16 police surrounded the house Murray was staying in. Murray heard the officers getting into position, and shot and killed deputy sheriff Joseph W. Robinson. In the ensuing gun battle Murray wounded Fernandina Police Chief James Higgenbotham. Although grazed on the wrist and scalp, Murray was able to escape. Despite the intensive manhunt for him, Murray was able to slip off of Amelia Island to the mainland. The City of Fernandina offered a reward for the capture of Murray, "dead or alive".<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Killing of Harmon Murray|last=Braley|first=R. Olin|publisher=The Alachua Press|year=2004|location=Gainesville, Florida|pages=69–71}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|title=Harmon Murray: Black Desperado in Late Nineteenth-Century Florida|last=Chandler|first=Billy Jaynes|journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly|volume=73|issue=2|date=October 1994|language=en|page=190|jstor = 30148759}}</ref>
<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://nassauso.com/memorialsfallen-deputies/|title=Memorials/Fallen Deputies - Deputy Joseph W. Robinson|website=Nassau County Sheriff's Office|access-date=November 7, 2018|archive-date=January 2, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190102095010/http://nassauso.com/memorialsfallen-deputies/|url-status=dead}}</ref>