Alexander H. Darnes was an African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 born into slavery in the city of St. Augustine, Florida

St. Augustine, Florida

St. Augustine is a city in the northeast section of Florida and the county seat of St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorer and admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, it is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United...

 who became one of the first black physicians in the state of Florida. Darnes was the son of Violent Pinkney a black slave owned by the parents of Edmund Kirby Smith

Edmund Kirby Smith

Edmund Kirby Smith was a career United States Army officer and educator. He served as a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, notable for his command of the Trans-Mississippi Department of the Confederacy after the fall of Vicksburg.After the conflict ended Smith...

 who served as a lieutenant general in the Confederate States Army

Confederate States Army

The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...

 during the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

.

Both Darnes and Kirby were born in the same home in St. Augustine, the historic Segui-Kirby Smith House on 12 Aviles Street. In 1855 at about the age of 15 Darnes left St. Augustine to serve as personal valet to Smith then a member of the United States Army serving in the Western territories. He continued to serve Kirby throughout the Civil War including at the First Battle of Bull Run

First Battle of Bull Run

First Battle of Bull Run, also known as First Manassas , was fought on July 21, 1861, in Prince William County, Virginia, near the City of Manassas...

 in Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

.

After the South's defeat, Darnes attended Lincoln University

Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)

Lincoln University is the United States' first degree-granting historically black university. It is located near the town of Oxford in southern Chester County, Pennsylvania. The university also hosts a Center for Graduate Studies in the City of Philadelphia. Lincoln University provides...

 in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

. He then attended Howard University

Howard University

Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...

, an historically black university in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, where he graduated with a medical degree in 1880. Upon returning to Florida he set up a private medical practice in Jacksonville

Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...

, Florida becoming the first black physician in the city and the second in the state of Florida.

Darnes built a thriving practice operated out of his home on Ocean Street and became a pillar of the community. He joined the Freemasons

Freemasonry

Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

, was a member of the local Masonic Temple

Masonic Temple

Masonic Temple is a term commonly used in Freemasonry with multiple but related meanings. It is used to describe an abstract spiritual goal, the conceptual ritualistic space formed when a Masonic Lodge meets, and the physical rooms and structures in which a Lodge meets...

and rose to a position of prominenence becoming the Florida Deputy Grand Master and High Priest of the Royal Arch Chapter of Washington, D.C.

Darnes died in February 1894, less than a year after Edmund Kirby Smith's death in March 1893. He received a large and extravagant funeral attended by both black and white citizens of Jacksonville.

A bronze sculpture of Smith and Darnes was created in 2004 by artist Maria Kirby-Smith the great granddaughter of Smith. The life sized bronze sculpture the only one of an African American in St. Augustine, is located in the courtyard garden of the Sequi-Kirby Smith House.