Orange Springs, FL

In the shadows of Florida Civil War history is the Orange Springs Episcopal Church and Cemetery, established 1852 at SR 315 and Church Street in Orange Springs, FL, now designated Orange Springs Community Church. In a skirmish with Federal troops near Palatka on August 2, 1864 Sgt Charlie Dickison, son of Captain J. J. Dickison, was shot, exclaimed to his friend Sgt J.C. Crews, “Joe I am killed” and died in his father’s arms. The body of Sgt Dickison was transported to the Orange Springs church for a burial neither of his parents could attend. Sarah Freyer described the burial in a letter to Captain Dickison, “We accepted the remains of the young hero-martyr as a sacred trust… gentle maidens kissed his calm, pale brow with sisterly affection, and twined a laurel wreath around it. Kind matrons kissed him for his absent mother.” Sgt Dickison’s grave is well marked in the cemetery…

(with information from “Florida’s Civil War Terrible Sacrifices” by Tracy Reeves, Mercer University Press)