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Civil War Exile: How Leonard Destin Was Forced to Freeport in 1861

Civil War Exile: How Leonard Destin Was Forced to Freeport in 1861

Freeport, Florida News

In the summer of 1861, the Civil War reached the Emerald Coast and upended the life of Captain Leonard Destin, the Connecticut-born fisherman who gave Destin its name. Branded a suspected Union collaborator by the Walton Guards, Destin and his family were forced from their home at East Pass and relocated to Freeport, then known as Four Mile Landing, under armed guard.