Florida Railroads in the Civil War

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Florida railroad currency note, 1863.

Photo Credit: Florida State Archives

The Confederate government tried to take advantage of Florida's limited railroads during the Civil War, but little could be accomplished before the end of the war.

At the onset of the Civil War, the state’s major railroads were the Florida Railroad, which ran from Fernandina on the Atlantic to Cedar Key on the Gulf; the Florida, Atlantic and Gulf Central, which ran from Jacksonville to Lake City; and the Pensacola and Georgia which in 1861 completed a line from near Quincy to Lake City.

Railroad mileage for the entire state totaled 433, and important stretches had not yet been built. Also, the main Florida lines in the east had no connection with railroads in Georgia to the north.     

In 1861, construction began on a line between Lawton, Ga., and Live Oak. The state government authorized the taking up of iron from David Levy Yulee’s Florida Railroad to use for the connector. Yulee mounted a protracted legal campaign to protect his company’s property. The Confederate government ultimately prevailed and the iron was removed from Yulee’s line and used in the connector. The various delays, however, prevented completion until March 1865, just one month before Appomattox and far too late for the railroad to have an economic or military impact.

To learn more, see “The Florida Railroad Company in the Civil War” by Robert L. Clarke, The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 19, No. 2 (May 1953).