Fernandina and Fort Clinch
Port, Fernandina Beach, Florida.
- Side
- Confederate
- Kind
- Port
- Where
- Fernandina Beach, Florida
- Years
- 1861-1862
- Today
- Park
FERNANDINA AND FORT CLINCH
Atlantic terminus of the Florida Railroad. Confederates took Fort Clinch in January 1861, and it sheltered blockade runners during the first year of the war. Lee ordered the fort abandoned, and Union forces occupied the island on March 3, 1862, as USS Ottawa shelled the last train leaving Fernandina.
Then
Fernandina was the Atlantic terminus of the Florida Railroad. Confederates took Fort Clinch in January 1861, and the fort sheltered Confederate blockade runners during the first year of the war.
Lee ordered the fort abandoned in March 1862. Union forces occupied the island on March 3, 1862, and USS Ottawa shelled the last train leaving Fernandina; the fort stayed a Union base to the end of the war.
Now
Park
Fort Clinch State Park, opened in 1938, holds the restored fort.
The nearest railroad in service today is a line owned by a smaller railroad, about 1.9 miles away.