Linn prospered in Montgomery and added a farming spread to his holdings. He sold his business at the start of the
American Civil War and returned to the seas as a captain in the
Confederate States Navy, charged with running ships laden with Southern cotton to
Liverpool to raise war funds. His ship, the
CSS Kate Dale was captured on July 14, 1863, by the
USS R. R. Cuyler off the
Florida Keys. Linn and his son were captured, and taken to
Washington, D.C., where they were quickly pardoned. Linn resumed the mercantile business with a wholesale grocery warehouse in
New Orleans, Louisiana, importing dozens of his countrymen from Finland to work in his company. Linn sold off his New Orleans business and retired to
Montgomery, where a group of businessmen which included
James R. Powell interested him in the idea of opening a bank in the newly founded City of
Birmingham. He agreed and launched the National Bank of Birmingham (now
Regions Financial) in 1872 with $50,000 in gold. Later that year, Linn erected the monumental 3-story National Bank of Birmingham building on the corner of 1st Avenue North and 20th Street at a time when the city's future was doubtful. The building became known as "Linn's Folly", and it was there that Linn hosted the legendary New Year's Eve "Calico Ball" that signaled the city's emergence from a
cholera epidemic. Linn extended his investments from banking to industry, organizing two of the city's first such ventures, the Linn Iron Works and the Birmingham Car and Foundry Company with skilled workers brought in from
Cleveland and
Cincinnati, Ohio. Linn died in
Birmingham, Alabama. He is entombed in Birmingham's
Oak Hill Cemetery. ==Legacy==