Editing Fernandina Beach, Florida (section)

====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 [[Robert E. Lee]], who was commanding coastal defenses in the Deep South, ordered cannons and troops withdrawn in early 1862.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"/>