The Amnesty and Reconstruction Proclamation is issued by President Lincoln. In order to rebuild the United States, Lincoln offered to forgive Confederates who swore allegiance to the Union and accepted emancipation. In return, any of their property that was taken by Union soldiers during the war would be returned (except for previously enslaved people).

Union forces take St. Augustine and many of Florida's coastal cities and free many Black people who were enslaved there. Federal troops reclaim the Saint Francis Barracks and Fort Marion and Confederate activity is criminalized. Having family members who were Confederate soldiers, many of the White ladies in St. Augustine were vehemently against the Union and openly protested and mocked the federal soldiers.

Troops who were stationed in Fort Marion under the Confederacy are ordered to withdraw from St. Augustine. For a few days, the city was empty of military forces.

Recruiting office for the U.S. Colored Troops opens in Fort Marion, which had been reclaimed by the Union Army.

Secessionists in Charleston, South Carolina attack federal troops who still occupy Fort Sumter, which is an island fort in the Charleston Harbor. This was the first battle in the American Civil War.

A month before Abraham Lincoln would be sworn in as President, eleven southern states band together to form a new country. These rebel states were (in order of secession) South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

Confederate troops occupy Fort Marion (now Castillo de San Marcos). The White citizens of St. Augustine were generally supportive of this change of government, excepting the small number of Unionists who lived here.