The Daily Dispatch: February 13, 1862., [Electronic resource]

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The position of Florence.

--Florence, Lauderdale County, Ala., is situated at the head of navigation on the Tennessee and at the foot of the Muscle Shoals, nearly opposite Tuscumbia, Ala., and two hundred and fifty miles Northwest of Montgomery. It is the principle shipping point for the produce of the country and the adjacent parts of Tennessee, and does a large business in proportion to its population. The river which is here about a half a mile wide, is crossed by a fine bridge, the originial cost of which was $150,000. The route of the railroad between Memphis and Charleston passes near this village. A railroad was projected some thirty years ago to connect Florence with Nashville and New Orleans. There are several large cotton factories at and near Florence. The river is navigable by steamboats from the mouth of Shoal Creek to Florence, a distance of three hundred miles. Tuscumtia, Franklin County, Ala., is situated one mile south of the Tennessee River and one hundred and eleven miles north of Tuscaloosa. Steamboats from the Ohio River can ascend to this place in the higher stages of water. A railroad about forty-five miles long extends east to Decatur, and forms part of the route of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, which is here intersected by the New Orleans and Nashville Railroad. At Tuscumbia there is a spring issuing from a huge fissure in the Limestone rock. It is said to discharge twenty thousand cubit feet per minute, forming a large stream which joins the Tennessee River between two and three miles below.