Battle of Saint John's Bluff

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Date	October 1 – October 3, 1862
Location	Duval County, Florida
Result	Union victory

Combatants

United States of America (Union)

Confederate States of America

Commanders

John M. Brannan

Charles F. Hopkins

Strength

2 infantry regiments,
1 artillery battery,
1 cavalry company

1 artillery battery,
1 cavalry company

Casualties

Unknown

Lower Seaboard Theater
Fort Sumter - Santa Rosa Island - Fort Pulaski - Forts Jackson and St. Philip – New Orleans – Secessionville – Simmon's Bluff – Tampa – Baton Rouge – 1st Donaldsonville - St. John's Bluff - Georgia Landing - 1st Fort McAllister - Fort Bisland – Irish Bend – Vermillion Bayou - 1st Charleston Harbor – 1st Fort Wagner – Grimball's Landing – 2nd Fort Wagner – 2nd Fort Sumter – 2nd Charleston Harbor - Plains Store – Port Hudson - LaFourche Crossing – 2nd Donaldsonville – Kock's Plantation – Stirling's Plantation - Fort Brooke - Gainesville - Olustee - Natural Bridge

The Battle of Saint John's Bluff (also called St. Johns Bluff) was an engagement in Duval County, Florida, that took place October 1 through October 3, 1862, during the American Civil War. A detachment of the Union Army defeated Confederate forces, forcing them to retire, and helped secure Federal control of the region.

Early in the war, Confederate Brig. Gen. Joseph Finegan established a battery on St. John's Bluff near Jacksonville, Florida, to stop the movement of Federal ships up the St. Johns River. This was part of a series of Confederate defensive works that had been constructed near Fort Caroline. But once Union forces had occupied the town of Jacksonville, it became necessary for them to also reduce the enemy batteries along the St. Johns River to consolidate control of the general area.

Union Brig. Gen. John M. Brannan embarked with about 1,500 infantry aboard the transports Boston, Ben DeFord, Cosmopolitan, and Neptune at Hilton Head, South Carolina, on September 30, 1862. The flotilla arrived at the mouth of the St. John's River on October 1, where Cdr. Charles Steedman's gunboats—Paul Jones, Cimarron, Uncas, Patroon, Hale, and Water Witch—joined them.

By midday, the gunboats approached the bluff, while Brannan began landing troops at Mayport Mills. Another Union infantry force landed at Mount Pleasant Creek, about five miles in the rear of the Confederate battery, and began marching overland on October 2. Outmaneuvered, Lt. Col. Charles F. Hopkins, the local Confederate commander, abandoned the position after dark. When the gunboats approached the bluff the next day, its guns were silent.