Today in Florida During the Civil War …

January 4

1861 Governor Madison Perry and his advisors made the decision to seize Federal properties in Florida.

1862 The Union blockader, U.S.S. Sagamore, was sighted near Santa Rosa Island.

1863 William Dunn Moseley, Florida’s first governor under statehood (1845-1849), died today. Moseley was born at Moseley Hall, Lenoir County, North Carolina, on February 1, 1795. He attended the University of North Carolina with such notables as James K. Polk, later president of the United States. After college, he practiced law in Wilmington, North Carolina, and entered public service as a state senator. He was defeated in the North Carolina gubernatorial race of 1834. In 1835, Moseley purchased a plantation in Jefferson County, Florida, and resided there until 1851. A member of the Territorial Legislature, Moseley defeated Richard Keith Call, the third and fifth Territorial governor of Florida, in the contest to become the first governor of the new state of Florida. In 1851, Moseley moved to Palatka, where he was a planter and fruit grower.