Natural Bridge Battlefield Historic State Park

Dale Cox told me that each March,there is a reenactment of the entire Natural Bridge Campaign and that it draws quite a crowd of spectators and the reenactment of the Battle of Natural Bridge is actually at the battle site. I'd like to attend that some day.
 
Thanks for the tour @bdtex They have a reenactment there every year I've been meaning to get to but if always conflicts with an event our group holds close to home. I'll get over there one of these days, it's on the opposite side of the world from my part of the state.
 
It is $5/car entry fee at the gate at St. Marks NWR. There is a Visitor Center to the right just after you go through the gate. We drove straight to the Lighthouse which is literally at the end of the NWR road. It is not a short road either. You can easily envision it being the same road that was there in wartime too. Nothing but flooded timber,coastal marsh, marsh ponds and small canals on either side of the road as far as the eye can see. Couldn't see anywhere else where a road mighta been. At intervals,there are areas to launch canoes, kayaks and trolling motor powered boats.There are fishing and picnic areas and some hiking trails too.

In Dale Cox's book,he wrote that the Union troops brought artillery but no artillery horses. The cannons had to be manhandled to the areas they were used. I'm guessing powder,ammo and other supplies had to be moved the same way. Most of the Union troops in the Natural Bridge Campaign were USCTs. They earned their $10 in March 1865.
 
The St. Marks Lighthouse was built in 1842 and is the second St. Marks Lighthouse. The first one was located a bit to the east of the current lighthouse. The keeper's house has been rebuilt several times.

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As I said above,what was the former keeper's house is now a small museum. I think it's $2/person to get in. My aunt and uncle paid for the 4 of us to go in. There were 2-3 people giving visitors tours of the museum and the history of the lighthouse. On this particular day there was a man there who is the great grandson or grandson of one of the lighthouse keepers and was sharing some of the lighthouse history. They told about the lighthouse lens being removed during the war and hidden. It was reinstalled in 1867 and lit back up. There are a lotta artifacts and old photographs on display. There are also relics found during renovations and storm repair.

They also had a number of free brochures. I got a few including a couple about a "Fort Williams" built near the lighthouse when the blockade began. According to the brochure,it was more of a stockade for troops guarding salt works and the town of St. Marks. Union Marines landed near the lighthouse on June 15,1862 and burned the Fort and it wasn't rebuilt. The brochure says "The exact location of Fort Williams is unknown,but it is thought to be near the end of Cedar Point Trail." On the brochure there is a drawing of the area including the fort and lighthouse that is in the State Archives Of Florida. Using Google,I have not been able to find anything on Fort Williams.
 
I'm relieved and optimistic that the FPS is apparently on board with showing the correct flags; leaving out the popular but naively incorrect battle flag of Northern Virginia (the symbol of which had been absconded by racists in the post-war). Now, even here in the deep South, the lie of the Lost Cause is slowly yet relentlessly being purged from public venue.

The men, the defenders, involved in this incident surely deserve to be honored, to recognize their bravery and cleverness, their loyalty so very late in the war.
 
Our tour guide in the Lighthouse told us the history of the lens. As I said earlier,it was removed and hidden during the Civil War and put back in 1867. It was eventually moved one more time to where it is today. It is on display in the St. Marks NWR Visitor Center. The guide said it was moved a total of 4 times including it's initial installation and had been chipped some along the edges and had a coupla small cracks. We looked around a little more outside the lighthouse and headed for the Visitor Center. My aunt wanted to do a little shopping there. They do have quite a bit of stuff. I was mainly interested in the lighthouse lens.

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My aunt bought a hat for my uncle and a coffee cup for herself at the Visitor Center and a book for herself about Haunted Lighthouses. I didn't know she was into hauntings and paranormal activity. When I got home I ordered her one of the Blue & Gray Magazine books about haunted places of the Civil War. She pulled a surprise on me at the Visitor Center. She bought a book for me at the Visitor Center and gave it to me in the truck. It is historical fiction, which ain't really my thing,but I appreciate the gift and thought and I intend to read it next.

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01B3MLTFI/?tag=civilwartalkc-20
 
Being quite familiar with the nature of that latitude in Florida, I have an awe-inspiring reflection on troop movements through such an inhospitable terrain. Snakes, alligators, spiders and ants with nowhere to see where your foot is to tread makes me shiver. Then the flatness makes all cardinal points feel the same, NESW, so easily turned around and everything seem up close. Then you say they carried the ammo and manhandled the guns into place? Ah, I am glad to be southern. Wonderful thread.
Lubliner.
 
The one you posted that listed all the casualties.
I will have to check my book again. My guess is that number was taken from the OR but they were actually captured.
 
We had such a good time at the St. Marks NWR that I kinda lost track of time. Sneads is in the Central Time zone and Tallahassee is in the Eastern Time zone so we left kinda early that day to make up for the lost hour but when Dale Cox had to cancel on us we had to improvise. I had wanted to visit 2 other sites in the Tallahassee area that day but we ran out of time to do both. One site was Tallahassee National Cemetery but it closes at 4:30pm and there is no way we could've gotten there in time. The other site was San Marcos de Apalache Historic State Park in St. Marks. The remains of the Civil War Fort Ward are there and a small museum. It closes at 5pm so we had to busta move to get there. Google Maps was a little confused out there too. Winds from Hurricane Michael didn't cause much damage in and around Tallahassee but tidal surge apparently did in the coastal area. Looked to me like some roads got flooded. It was an adventure getting to our last stop. I told my mom,aunt and uncle that that's typical for me on these Civil War sightseeing trips. :D
 
https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/san-marcos-de-apalache-historic-state-park

Maybe I can finish this thread tonight. By the time we arrived at San Marcos de Apalache Historic State Park it was 4:42pm. The park is open Thursday-Monday but it closes at 5pm. The lesson of the story is leave Sneads earlier next time. That is a task. My aunt and uncle are both on disability and have no vehicle. Other than a doctor's appointment now and then or being in front of the TV for favorite shows,they really don't have to be anywhere at a certain time often and both of them have sorta lost any sense of time. Besides that though,as I said earlier in the thread this was supposed to be a guided tour and San Marcos de Apalache Historic State Park was an unscheduled stop. Other than bookmarking the site and knowing that a small museum and remnants of the Civil War Fort Ward earthworks were there,I hadn't really researched the park much.
 
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