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The copyrighted publication, "The Correspondence of Will and Ju Stockton, 1845-1869," may be reproduced and distributed by the Florida State Archives only for its own use and for the use of researchers and library users, in accordance with the Copyright Act of 1976. No restrictions apply to the original letters in the possession of the Archives.
Biographical/Historical:
William Stockton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 9, 1812. He graduated from West Point as a second lieutenant in 1834. Stockton served in Florida during the Second Seminole War, before resigning his commission in 1836. He settled in Quincy, Florida, operating a stagecoach line and later serving as mayor. In 1845 he married Julia Elizabeth Telfair and together the couple had ten children.
In January 1861, Stockton offered his services and those of a Quincy cavalry company, the Gadsden Dragoons, to the state. In July 1861, Stockton received a commission as a major in the First Florida Cavalry. The unit remained in Florida until the spring of 1862, when it went to Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Stockton served with the First Florida Cavalry in the western theater of the war during 1862 and 1863. The regiment participated in the Confederacy's invasion of Kentucky in the late summer and early fall of 1862. Following the failure of this campaign, the First Florida Calvary remained near Knoxville, Tennessee, during late 1862 and the first half of 1863. The unit engaged in the September 1863 Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia; followed two months later by the Confederate defeat at Chattanooga.
At Chattanooga, William Stockton fell into Union hands as a prisoner of war. He spent the remaining year and a half of the war in Johnson Island Prison, Ohio, located in the Sandusky Bay off Lake Erie. Released in July 1865, Stockton returned home to Quincy where he died of an unspecified illness in 1869. His wife Julia moved to Jacksonville after her husband's death, where she died in 1892.
Summary:
The Stockton Papers consist of 160 letters to and from William and Julia Stockton, the bulk of which date from 1861-1865. Other items include newspaper clippings relating to the family, poems, William Stockton's military commission, a photograph of William Stockton, and two of Stockton's books. Typescripts of all the letters, along with background information and a family genealogy, are published in Herman Ulmer's "The Correspondence of Will and Ju Stockton, 1845-1869." A copy of this work is also in the collection.
Finding Aids:
Calendar available. 0 Box listing available. 0
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Publication Note:
The correspondence of Will and Ju Stockton, 1845-1869 / transcribed and annotated by Herman Ulmer, Jr. Jacksonville, Fla. : Herman Ulmer, Jr., c1984-1989.
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Electronic Records Access:
Subject Access Fields:
Confederate States of America. Army. --Florida Cavalry Regiment, 1st.
Chattanooga (Tenn.), Battle of, 1863. Chickamauga (Ga.), Battle of, 1863. Military prisons. Richmond (Ky.), Battle of, 1862. Women History 19th century Florida
Florida History Civil War, 1861-1865 Johnson Island Prison Quincy (Fla.) United States History Civil War, 1861-1865
for detailed listing.