When General David Twiggs was ordered to build a new fort on Florida’s Caloosahatchee River, he named it Fort Myers—not for a battlefield victory, but as a Valentine’s Day gift honoring his future son-in-law, Col. Abraham C. Myers, and to delight his 13-year-old daughter, Marion, who had fallen in love with the much older officer. Myers later became the Confederate Quartermaster General during the Civil War. Both he and Marion are buried in St. Paul’s Cemetery in Alexandria, the very city where their enduring story of love and legacy is remembered.
