MARCH 3RD, 1862: Flag Officer Du Pont, commanding the joint amphibious expedition to Fernandina, Florida, reported to Secretary of Navy Welles that he was "in full possession of Cumberland Island and Sound, of Fernandina and Amelia Island, and the river and town of St. Mary's."
Confederate defenders were in the process of withdrawing heavy guns inland and offered only token resistance.
Fort Clinch on Amelia Island was occupied by an armed boat crew from the USS Ottawa. It had been seized by Confederates at the beginning of the war and had thus become the first formely-held U.S. fort to be retaken.
--Old B-R'er
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