Order

H. G. Wright, April 7, 1862

HEADQUARTERS THIRD BRIGADE,

NOTIOE.] Jacksonville, Fla., April 7, 1862.

In accordance with orders issued by the general commanding the Department of the South, the troops will be withdrawn from this place, and I am directed by him to notify the people of Jacksonville that it is his intention to have all the aid and protection afforded to the loyal inhabitants of the interior of Florida that is practicable for the security of their persons and property and for the punishment of outrages, and that he holds all persons in that vicinity responsible for the preservation of order and quiet, being fully determined that any outrages upon persons or property contrary to the laws and usages of war shall be visited fourfold upon the inhabitants of disloyal or doubtful character nearest the scene of any such wrongs, when the actual and known perpetrators cannot be discovered. The undersigned trusts that, inasmuch as the unoffending citizens of this place have been treated with the utmost forbearance by our forces, it will not be necessary to carry out the intention expressed in the last clause of the above notice.

H. G. WRIGHT, Brigadier-General, Commanding. HEADQUARTERS THIRD BRIGADE, Jacksonville, Fla., April 8, 1862.

COLONEL: The major-general commanding the department having directed the abandonment of Jacksonville as a military post and the ve-enforcement of the garrison at Saint Augustine, I send by the Belvi9 R R—VOL VI dere four companies of your regiment and the regimental quartermas.er to report to you. “There will also be delivered at the same time subsistence and forage for about sixty days and 60,000 rounds of cartridges (ealiber .69), for all of which Quartermaster Kelly has receipted. The remaining three companies of your regiment, under Major Drew, will go to Fernandina, to re-enforce the garrison at that point. The post at the mouth of the Saint John’s, at which Captain Sleeper, Fourth New Hampshire Volunteers, with his company, is now stationed, will also be abandoned. What the arrangements in regard to commands and brigades will be I am unable to say at present. Until further instructions are received you will therefore consider yourself as the commander of the post at Saint Augustine, and make your reports to the headquarters of General Benham, commanding the Northern District. Captain Ransom’s battery, likewise on the Belvidere, is to proceed to Hilton Head on that vessel without delay. Please afford the steamer all dispatch in unloading. I shall advise that the Belvidere or some other light-draught steamer be sent back to ply between Fernandina and Saint Augustine. I go to Hilton Head with the Ninety-seventh Pennsylvania Regiment.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. G. WRIGHT,
Brigadier-General, Commanding.
Editor's Notes
From: Operations in Kentucky, Tennessee, N. Alabama, S.W. Virginia, 1861–62. Summary: Brigadier General H. G. Wright announces the withdrawal of Union troops from Jacksonville, Florida, warning local inhabitants that loyal citizens will be protected and disloyal residents held accountable for any lawless acts.
Sources
The War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 6 View original source ↗