| TRAVELS OF DURSMIRG VOLUME IV THE ROGUES OF ST. AUGUSTINE AND OTHER SOCIAL MISFITS Chapter 6 |
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Chapter 6 SUBSISTENCE
Letter written from St, Augustine at the beginning of the Civil War by H. B. Jenckes, give us a gloomy picture of a town
bitterly divided in the sympathies and suffering from a lack of all sorts of commodities.
On January 7, 1862. Jenckes wrote: "It is dull here beyond belief. There was a candy pulling at Mrs. Dummett's at
Christmas time, and we dined with the Williams on that day and with Mrs. Gardiner the day after. Tonight the girls are
going to play cards." As for the war: "I think our prospect blackens… There is no hope of help from England."
THE GENERAL OPINION around town was that as long as Fernandina held out, St. Augustine would be safe from invasion
by Federal troops.
By March of 1862 things were grimmer. The Blues, evidently a Confederate regiment, had inarched out and gone lo
Smyrna. The city was shaken by a rumor that a "war steamer" which had been patrolling off the bar for some days was
beginning to land troops.
Jenckes was a staunch supporter of the Southern cause, and was outraged that the city fathers were making soundings
and placing buoys to guide the invaders into the harbor. The word was out that a white flag would he raised over the Fort
and the St. Francis Barracks to forestall any bombing attack by Federal forces, A Mr. Walton approached him to join in
with these who believed in cooperation with the invading northerners, but he replied that he "would see them all in a bad
place first — a set of Grannies!”
FOOD WAS SCARCE. At Fernandina, a pound of flour was selling for $5.00, and in St. Augustine many families were
making do with just one meal a day. By that time, the Union army had occupied Jacksonville, and there was no transport
for any families who wished to flee inland to Palatka to avoid the oncoming army.
March 12 was a bitter day for the Southern sympathizers. The hated white flag went up and a Union officer was escorted
around town by Mayor Bravo, although no troops had as yet landed. One local young woman had gone into a fit of
hysterics when she discovered her aunts sewing the white flag used that day, and had dashed out into the street, crying
and proclaiming to the passersby that she would never set foot in their house again.
ON THE NEXT MORNING, prayers were said in a local church for President Lincoln and the Union army, causing one
matron to stamp out angrily and later tell off the minister, proclaiming that she should not stay in any church where Old
Abe was prayed over. As for Jenckes, he decided to say his prayers at home from then on. "I cannot change my politics
as I would a filthy garment," he wrote in his letter.
A letter written in May tells us that St. Augustine was by then occupied by the Union army, but Jenckes praises the troops
as well-behaved and orderly. The church goers were still incensed at their minister who had prayed for Lincoln, and many
of them had abandoned both him and his church.
The above is from a clipping in the St. Augustine Record newspaper October 13, 1973 and sums up the state of affairs in
the poor little Oldest City.
In 1867 a cable was run to St. Augustine and the old city for the first time was connected to the outside world by telegraph.
St. Augustine in those days was a nothing little place with nothing to export and isolated from the rest of the world with
nearly no roads…that went anywhere anyway.
The first road projects were carried out by an engineer named John Moultrie. He put a bridge over the San Sebastian
River and a road north to the St. Mary’s River on the Florida-Georgia line named Kings Road, and that was all St.
Augustine was going to get for many years to come. The only access from the sea was through an ocean inlet that was
downright treacherous with anything over a twenty knot breeze blowing and the town was so close to sea level that its
unpaved streets regularly flooded and ran amuck on high tides.
(The new improved inlet was not cut until the early 1950s under the Eisenhower administration.)
Isolated downtown St. Augustine before it was connected to the outside world by road is depicted in this old pen and ink
drawing
go to chapter 7
Letter written from St, Augustine at the beginning of the Civil War by H. B. Jenckes, give us a gloomy picture of a town
bitterly divided in the sympathies and suffering from a lack of all sorts of commodities.
On January 7, 1862. Jenckes wrote: "It is dull here beyond belief. There was a candy pulling at Mrs. Dummett's at
Christmas time, and we dined with the Williams on that day and with Mrs. Gardiner the day after. Tonight the girls are
going to play cards." As for the war: "I think our prospect blackens… There is no hope of help from England."
THE GENERAL OPINION around town was that as long as Fernandina held out, St. Augustine would be safe from invasion
by Federal troops.
By March of 1862 things were grimmer. The Blues, evidently a Confederate regiment, had inarched out and gone lo
Smyrna. The city was shaken by a rumor that a "war steamer" which had been patrolling off the bar for some days was
beginning to land troops.
Jenckes was a staunch supporter of the Southern cause, and was outraged that the city fathers were making soundings
and placing buoys to guide the invaders into the harbor. The word was out that a white flag would he raised over the Fort
and the St. Francis Barracks to forestall any bombing attack by Federal forces, A Mr. Walton approached him to join in
with these who believed in cooperation with the invading northerners, but he replied that he "would see them all in a bad
place first — a set of Grannies!”
FOOD WAS SCARCE. At Fernandina, a pound of flour was selling for $5.00, and in St. Augustine many families were
making do with just one meal a day. By that time, the Union army had occupied Jacksonville, and there was no transport
for any families who wished to flee inland to Palatka to avoid the oncoming army.
March 12 was a bitter day for the Southern sympathizers. The hated white flag went up and a Union officer was escorted
around town by Mayor Bravo, although no troops had as yet landed. One local young woman had gone into a fit of
hysterics when she discovered her aunts sewing the white flag used that day, and had dashed out into the street, crying
and proclaiming to the passersby that she would never set foot in their house again.
ON THE NEXT MORNING, prayers were said in a local church for President Lincoln and the Union army, causing one
matron to stamp out angrily and later tell off the minister, proclaiming that she should not stay in any church where Old
Abe was prayed over. As for Jenckes, he decided to say his prayers at home from then on. "I cannot change my politics
as I would a filthy garment," he wrote in his letter.
A letter written in May tells us that St. Augustine was by then occupied by the Union army, but Jenckes praises the troops
as well-behaved and orderly. The church goers were still incensed at their minister who had prayed for Lincoln, and many
of them had abandoned both him and his church.
The above is from a clipping in the St. Augustine Record newspaper October 13, 1973 and sums up the state of affairs in
the poor little Oldest City.
In 1867 a cable was run to St. Augustine and the old city for the first time was connected to the outside world by telegraph.
St. Augustine in those days was a nothing little place with nothing to export and isolated from the rest of the world with
nearly no roads…that went anywhere anyway.
The first road projects were carried out by an engineer named John Moultrie. He put a bridge over the San Sebastian
River and a road north to the St. Mary’s River on the Florida-Georgia line named Kings Road, and that was all St.
Augustine was going to get for many years to come. The only access from the sea was through an ocean inlet that was
downright treacherous with anything over a twenty knot breeze blowing and the town was so close to sea level that its
unpaved streets regularly flooded and ran amuck on high tides.
(The new improved inlet was not cut until the early 1950s under the Eisenhower administration.)
Isolated downtown St. Augustine before it was connected to the outside world by road is depicted in this old pen and ink
drawing
go to chapter 7
