The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

A "Rebel" Retirement Home for Union Soldiers-- Part 1

From the Feb, 27, 2011, Panama City (Fl) News Herald "Southern City, Union Pride" by Ali Helgoth.

On April 9, 1865, Seth M. Flint played taps on the bugle for the Confederate surrender at Appomattox.  His account of the event was published in the Saturday Evening Post, 75 years later.

The town of Lyn Haven, Florida, was founded in 1911 as a retirement community for Union soldiers, along with other communities in Fitzgerald, Georgia, and St. Cloud, Florida.

Union soldiers were the first to receive their Civil War pensions and Grand Army of the Republic papers carried advertisements to return to the sunny south, this time, instead of conquerors, to live out their lives.  So it started even back then.

Florida's Panhandle was not the scene of major fighting during the war, but there was a lot of activity involving salt works and blockade-running.

Come to Sunny F-L-A.  --Old Secesh

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