Joseph Finnegan (Brigadier general)
| Joseph Finnegan | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
November 17, 1814 Clones, Ireland |
| Died | October 29, 1885 (aged 71) Rutledge, Florida |
| Allegiance |
 Confederate States of America
|
| Service/branch |
 Confederate States Army
|
| Years of service | 1862–65 |
| Rank |
 Brigadier General (CSA) |
| Battles/wars | |
Joseph Finnegan (November 17, 1814 – October 29, 1885) was an attorney, politician, lumber mill operator, slave owner and railroad builder in Florida, but is primarily known as the general who commanded the Confederate States Army in its victory at the Battle of Olustee.
Finnegan was born November 17, 1814 at Clones in County Monaghan, Ireland. He came to Florida in the 1830s, first establishing a sawmill at Jacksonville and later a law practice at Fernandina. At the latter place, he became the business partner of David Levy Yulee and began construction of the Florida Railroad to speed transportation of goods and people from the new state's east coast to the Gulf of Mexico.
Finnegan's successes are perhaps attributable to his first marriage on July 28, 1842, to the widow Rebecca Smith Travers. Her sister Mary Martha Smith was the wife of Florida's territorial governor Robert Raymond Reid, an appointee of President Martin Van Buren.
At a courthouse auction in 1849, Finnegan paid just forty dollars ($40) for five miles of shoreline along Lake Monroe.
In 1852, he was a member of the Committee of Vigilance and Safety of Jacksonille, Florida.
By the outbreak of the American Civil War, Finnegan had built his family a forty-room mansion in Fernandina, bounded by 11th and 12th Streets and Broome and Calhoun Avenues, the site of the modern Atlantic Elementary School. His family included his three stepdaughters Maria, Margaret, and Martha Travers; and children Rutledge, Agnes, Josephine, and Yulee Finnegan.
At Florida's secession convention, Finnegan represented Nassau County alongside James G. Cooper.
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