Image Number

Date Note

Rights

Collection

Geographic Term

Subject Term

Physical Description

General Note

The historic Natural Bridge battlefield is the site of the second largest Civil War battle in Florida, and where the St. Marks River goes underground and flows for a distance of about one-quarter of a mile before reappearing, therefore forming a natural bridge. In 1865, during the final weeks of the Civil War, a Union flotilla landed at Apalachee Bay, planning to capture Fort Ward (San Marcos de Apalache Historic State Park) and march north to the state capital. With a timely warning, volunteers from the Tallahassee area-Confederate soldiers, old men, and young boys-met the Union forces at Natural Bridge and successfully repelled three major attacks. The Union troops were forced to retreat to the coast and Tallahassee was preserved as the only Confederate capital east of the Mississippi that did not surrender to Union forces. The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) acquired the older portion of the park to erect the monument and managed the property until it became a state park in 1949. A reenactment of the battle is held at the park every March. The historic Natural Bridge Battlefield site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and is cited as one of the top ten endangered Civil War sites in the United States by the Civil War Preservation Trust. In February 2009, the state of Florida purchased nearly 55 acres of land adjacent to the original property to protect a first magnitude spring.