Union Army Monument

During the Civil War, Union forces occupied the city of Jacksonville, Florida, on four separate occasions. Despite Florida’s secession into a Confederate state, like much of the south, many prominent white and African American citizens in the city supported the Union, as half the state’s population in the period before and during the war were enslaved people. The city remained in Union hands after February of 1864, making it the location to several Union Civil War monuments, which are uncommon in the South. In 1880, Evergreen Cemetery was founded, encompassing 170 acres that include the old Woodlawn Cemetery and Mount Olive, an African American cemetery that has now become a section of Evergreen.

The cemetery has various sections for fraternal, religious, and military groups, including a Catholic section and two Hebrew sections. There are over 70,000 burials in Evergreen, and over 250 of those are both Union and Confederate Civil War veterans and officials. Some notable Floridians include Captain John J. Dickison of the 2nd Florida Cavalry, Lieutenant Colonel William Baya, commander of the 8th Florida Infantry at the Battle of Gettysburg, James M. Baker, Florida senator in the Confederate Congress from 1862-1865, Dr. Abel S. Baldwin, chief surgeon for the Confederate Military District of East Florida, and Union Captain John F. Bartholf, an officer with the 2nd U.S. Colored Infantry. Monuments and memorials are scattered throughout the cemetery, such as the granite marker commemorating Dickison that was erected by the United Confederate Veterans in 1905. Evergreen Cemetery is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Because of the state’s relevance in the war and the history of Jacksonville switching from Union to Confederate hands, the cemetery houses Jacksonville’s oldest Civil War monument, the Union monument. Since Florida was a Confederate state, a majority of Civil War monuments were erected in the 1900s by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in honor of those Confederate soldiers. The Union monument in Evergreen is the second oldest of the few surviving Union monuments in Florida. It consists of a large, sculptured Civil War Union soldier cast in white metal on top of a masonry base, and serves as a monument to Union soldiers and sailors who lost their lives during the war. It was erected May 30, 1891 by the O.M. Mitchel chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic, a Union veterans’ organization, and is surrounded by the graves of 10 Union veterans. The monument reads:

“In memory of our comrades who defended the flag of the Union, on land and sea, 1861-1865.”

1. Florida Civil War Heritage Trail, Department of State. Accessed October 15th 2020. https://dos.myflorida.com/media/32357/civilwarheritagetrail.pdf.
2. Taylor, Jr., George Lansing. Union Army monument 2 Jacksonville, FL, University of North Florida. October 15th 2011. Accessed October 15th 2020. https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/historical_architecture_main/5860/.
3. Civil War Memorials in Jax, Visit Jacksonville. Accessed October 15th 2020. https://www.visitjacksonville.com/things-to-do/culture/history/civil-war-memorials/.
4. Delaney, Bill. Jacksonville’s Civil War Memorials, Modern Cities. June 9th 2020. Accessed October 15th 2020. https://www.moderncities.com/article/2020-jun-jacksonvilles-civil-war-memorials.
5. Segal, Sabrina. Florida’s Civil War Monuments 101, Coconut Creek News. August 28th 2017. Accessed October 15th 2020. https://coconutcreeknews.net/floridas-civil-war-monuments-p866-216.htm.
6. Evergreen Cemetery, Jacksonville Historical Society. Accessed October 15th 2020. https://www.jaxhistory.org/portfolio-items/evergreen-cemetery/.
7. A Stroll Through Evergreen Cemetery, Metro Jacksonville. December 24th 2012. Accessed October 15th 2020. https://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2012-dec-a-stroll-through-evergreen-cemetery.