Post by Chuck McCue on Jan 18, 2023 8:50:11 GMT -5
"On January 17, 1870 John Daniels ended his eventful tenure as the lighthouse keeper for the St. Johns River Lighthouse.
Daniels became the keeper in 1858, just three years before the Civil War started. Many of the lights in lighthouses in the South were turned off to prevent Union soldiers from finding their way in unknown seas. The St. Johns River Lighthouse light would stay on until it was shot out by a Confederate sympathizer that some say was keeper John Daniels.
John Daniels was arrested by Union soldiers for flashing light signals to communicate with Confederate soldiers. According to the diary of a Union soldier: “It was almost three o'clock in the morning as near as I can remember, when we started from camp ... We were going to surround the lighthouse keeper's dwelling and arrest the keeper and any other parties we might find there ... The keeper denied all knowledge of any light and declared he was a Union man. Nevertheless, they took him under guard down to camp. I pitied the light keeper's wife, who was almost frantic with fear for her husband. It turned out that when the moon was first rising ... it was only a reflection, lasting a few moments."
Although the Civil War ended on May 9, 1865 the St. Johns River Lighthouse would not be relit until July 4, 1867. Daniels would remain the lighthouse keeper until 1870."
Credit:Florida's Lighthouses in the Civil War, Neil Hurley.
