The Civil War

1861-1865

Part Four

The Union Organizes for an Attack on St. Marks

Following participation in General Sherman’s campaign on Atlanta, U.S. Brigadier General John Newton was sent to Key West to assume control of the Florida District and the troops there. This was due to the fact that the Union anticipated an increase of activities in Florida.[1] The 99^th U.S. Colored Infantry had just arrived at Key West when Confederates attacked a Union garrison at Fort Myers. After some light skirmishing, the Confederates withdrew. The steamer Alliance was dispatched to Key West to inform Newton of the attack on Fort Myers. Besides bringing the most recent news of the attack on Fort Myers, the Alliance also informed Newton of an earlier skirmish at Station Number 4 near Cedar Key, in which the Union was repulsed by troops under the command of J. J. Dickison. Upon learning the news, General Newton boarded the 99^th U.S. Colored Infantry onto the steamer Magnolia and sent them to Punta Rassa, close to Fort Myers.

The day before Newton learned of the attacks, he had already planned a mission to St. Marks. Newton left Key West on February 20, 1864, aboard the Honduras with three companies from the 2^nd Colored Infantry, Companies A, B, and K. They met up with the Magnolia at Punta Rassa on February 24, at which time the two steamers began their travel together to Cedar Key, located near the mouth of the Suwannee River, where they arrived the next day. Commander of the Federal post at Cedar Key was Major Edmund Weeks of the 2^nd Florida U.S. Cavalry, but he was away on a raiding mission at the time General Newton arrived. The 2^nd Florida was one of two Union regiments made up of Florida Unionists and Confederate deserters. Another battalion from the 2^nd U.S. Colored Infantry was also stationed at Cedar Key.

U.S. Brigadier General John Newton

Major Weeks returned two days later, around the same time as the Alliance arrived from Key West. General Newton ordered Companies E, G, and H from the 2^nd U.S. Colored Infantry and Companies C, D, and E from the 2^nd Florida U.S. Cavalry to board the Magnolia, while he transferred his center of operations to the Alliance. The two Union vessels reached Apalachee Bay on the foggy morning of February 28. The fog hid the Union vessels for the next two days, as several other ships joined the flotilla at the mouth of the St. Marks River. General Newton, along with Lieutenant Commander Gibson of the U.S. Navy, formulated a plan to capture Fort Ward and destroy Newport and St. Marks. First, a group of sailors and dismounted men from the 2^nd Florida U. S. Cavalry were to land at the St. Marks lighthouse to capture the Confederates there, and take control of the East River Bridge. Afterwards, more troops would land at the lighthouse to get ready for a march inland, which was to begin at sunrise on March 4. These troops were to march to Newport, destroy all facilities in the town, then control the Newport Bridge that crosses the St. Marks River. They also planned to disrupt Confederate communication and supply lines by destroying the bridge over the Ochlocknee River, the Aucilla River, and taking control of the Tallahassee Railroad to attack Confederate forces before they could concentrate their troops. The Navy was to send ships up the St. Marks River to attack Fort Ward, and drop off around six-hundred sailors at the site of Port Leon to prevent Confederate forces from attacking the main Union force from the rear.[2]

On March 2, the Federals put their plans into action. First they dropped off soldiers at Shell Point and the mouth of the Aucilla River. Their missions were to destroy railroad bridges that connected Tallahassee to Quincy and Madison. The men at the Aucilla River were to destroy the railroad bridge that crossed the Aucilla on its way to Madison. When this small group of men neared the bridge, they noticed far more Confederate troops than anticipated. They canceled the sortie and returned to their steamer. The group that got dropped off at Shell Point were to destroy the railroad bridge that crossed the Ochlocknee River and connected Tallahassee to Quincy. They also failed at accomplishing their goal. This was a bad start for General Newton. To make matters worse for the Federals, on the morning of March 3, when the troops were preparing for their landing the next day, the fog that had been hiding them so well began to dissipate. The Federals panicked. Worried they would alarm Confederate pickets into action, they decided to exit Apalachee Bay and head out into the Gulf. They were worried that the Confederates may figure out their intentions.

When they felt the coast was clear and the sun was down, the Federal flotilla returned to the Wakulla County coastline. Unfortunately for them, a storm with very high winds came rolling through the bay, tossing the flotilla about. The officers anchored their ships and waited out the storm. Newton had planned to land his troops and begin the march inland by first light on March 4, but it was looking like that would not happen. Newton instead decided to go ahead and take the East River Bridge that was on the road from the lighthouse to the mainland, and the Confederates posted there.[3] He wanted to go ahead and control the road to the mainland. He did not want these pickets to witness the landing of the army’s main body at the lighthouse the next morning. The first party set out under the command of Acting Ensign John F. Whitman around seven o’clock on the evening of March 4. It was two boats, consisting of around twelve men, who rowed away from the Federal steamers towards the East River with the goal of capturing the Confederate pickets before they could get the word out about the Union’s attentions. Following up behind the first wave of soldiers was a second wave consisting around sixty dismounted men from the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry, under the command of Acting Master Thomas Chatfield.

Whitman’s troops landed without too much difficulty, despite it being dark and foggy. They marched a quarter-mile to the lighthouse and arrived there around twelve midnight. Whitman’s Federals tried to surprise the Confederates and take their pickets at the East River Bridge. Newton’s plan was to capture the Confederates before they could alert their superior officers, but the attentive watchmen from the 5^th Florida Cavalry were able to escape Union grasp. Instead of pursuing the fleeing rebels, Whitman decided to stay at the East River Bridge to make sure they kept control of it. Soon the main body of the Union attack force were supposed to arrive from the lighthouse.

Major William H. Milton of the 5^th Florida Cavalry, and son of Governor Milton, was stationed at Newport with a small detachment of forty-five men. The Confederates who were guarding the East River retreated to Newport where they told Major Milton that Federal soldiers had seized the bridge over the East River. Before Milton geared up to go to the East River, he sent a messenger to the Tallahassee-St. Marks Railroad to requisition a train and speed towards Tallahassee with a warning of the Federals seizing the East River Bridge. The train arrived at Tallahassee around nine o’clock at night, an odd time, which startled the residents. The message was delivered to the capitol, and people gathered around the steps to find out what was going on. The capitol fired a cannon to alarm the citizens, and to signify that local home guards were to report for duty by sunrise. Telegraphers made themselves busy by sending messages for troops to begin to converge at Tallahassee. Acting commanders in Tallahassee, General William Miller and General Samuel Jones, met to come up with a strategy.

Meanwhile, as a strategy was being formulated and local troops were beginning to make their way to Tallahassee, Major Milton and his detachment headed for the East River to stop the U.S. troops from advancing any further. Leaving Newport, Milton rode all night long towards the East River Bridge, which he reached by sunrise on March 4. Milton ordered several of his men to remain in the rear with the horses while he and the rest advanced toward the bridge. Taking their time, the cavalrymen marched to the bridge while a few scouts went a head of them. On the other side of the East River, Acting Ensign Whitman and his troops were watching the bridge when they noticed the rebel scouts approach. Most likely the first shots of what would become the Battle of Natural Bridge, Acting Ensign Whitman ordered his men to fire on the scouts. Shortly after, Milton and his men returned fire from across the river. Union reinforcements under the command of Acting Master Thomas Chatfield could hear the fighting begin as they were still making their way to the bridge from the lighthouse. Once Chatfield arrived, he ordered Whitman to take his men and return to the fleet, as they would be needed to help the main body land. The U.S. force still outnumbered the Confederates two-to-one, but they did not know that.

As the fighting at the East River continued, Weeks began to feel as though he could not hold the bridge for much longer, as the Confederates were continuously unleashing a barrage of musket fire. He sent a rider to find out if the main body had landed at the lighthouse yet and soon found out that not a single solider had been put ashore. Weeks decided he could no longer hold the bridge without reinforcements, so he ordered his troops to withdraw back to the lighthouse. Major Milton pursued the retreating Federals back to the lighthouse, keeping up fire along the way. The Confederate commander then saw the Union fleet amassed offshore, and dispatched couriers to warn Tallahassee of the larger threat.

When news reached Generals Miller and Jones in Tallahassee, they called out for all available troops. A message was sent to Lake City where Colonel Caraway Smith and the main force of the 2^nd Florida Cavalry were, which told them to be ready to go to Tallahassee by train as soon as possible. The Kilcrease and Milton Light Artillery units were ordered to Tallahassee, as well as the rest of the 5^th Florida Cavalry. Because Miller and Jones figured they needed all the men they could muster, Governor Milton approved the usage of the young cadets from West Florida Seminary and ordered them to be ready to move by daybreak. The Commanders in Tallahassee decided to make their stand on the western bank of the St. Marks River, and to not allow the Union to cross it. General William Miller, along with the cadets from West Florida Seminary and a detachment of militia, was to move out by morning and assume command.

Meanwhile, Weeks and Milton were skirmishing at the East River, as the U.S. tried to make its move and land the main body of troops at the lighthouse. However, on the way to the lighthouse, the Spirea and then the Honduras ran aground in the tricky Apalachee Bay. The other ships of the flotilla were forced to stop and wait. This stalled the Federals greatly, but by four o’clock in the afternoon of March 4, Newton had finally landed his main force, but still had to wait for his supplies to be unloaded. Within view of Major Milton and the Confederates, Newton marched his men to higher ground and set up camp for the night, realizing he could not advance any further until his supplies were unloaded. Major Milton then decided to stop the pursuit and withdrew back to the north bank of the East River. The Confederates dismantled the East River bridge so the Federals could not cross it, which he figured they planned to do in the morning.[4] As this effort was being made, Confederate reinforcements began to arrive at the East River. Lieutenant Colonel George W. Scott of the 5^th Florida Calvary arrived and brought with him a section of Dunham’s Battery from the Milton Light Artillery. They had with them a 12-pound howitzer which could easily be fired on the Federals as they tried to reach the river.

Following the storm that wreaked havoc on the Federal flotilla, a cold front began to set in as night fell. The Union, around eight o’clock in the morning of March 5, broke down their camp and fell into formation on the trail that lead to the East River Bridge and began their advance. One of the Confederate artillerymen later recalled that they could see “a blue stream that seemed endless” extending from the lighthouse and nearly reaching the bridge.[5] For reasons we may never know, Lieutenant Colonel Scott decided not to use the 12-pound howitzer against the advancing blue coats. The Confederate defenses at the East River Bridge quickly began to break down as the Federals got closer and began to fire on them. Scott ordered a retreat, but not before the 12-pounder unloaded one blast which drew the first blood of the Battle of Natural Bridge. Troops from 2^nd U.S. Colored Infantry managed to capture the howitzer that the Confederates left behind in their hastily retreat from the East River. Men from the 99^th U.C. Colored Infantry began to repair the bridge as Scott and the Confederates retreated to Newport. 

Reinforcements began to flow in from Tallahassee to St. Marks via the railroad as the Confederates were withdrawing to Newport. At Newport, the Confederates took up positions behind breastworks along the west bank of the St. Marks River and Scott had his men dismantle the bridge there. Scott also left a detachment of men on the east bank of the river to hassle the U.S. troops should they continue north from Newport. Scott furthermore ordered Daniel Ladd’s mill and workshop, along with several other buildings located on the waterfront of the east bank of the St. Marks River in Newport, to be burned to the ground so the Federals could not use them for protection. The destruction of all barges and boats that the Confederates could find was ordered as well. These men entrenched at Newport were joined by sailors from the Spray, as well as troops from Campbell’s Georgia Siege Artillery from Fort Ward. Now Scott had a force of nearly one-hundred men guarding the bridge at Newport.

The Battle of Newport

Around eleven o’clock in the morning, General Newton’s force arrived at Newport and found that the wooden bridge that spanned the St. Marks River had been destroyed. Major Weeks was ordered, with his dismounted cavalrymen, to take the bridge an attempt to salvage it and use it. As soon as they were out in the open, the one-hundred entrenched Confederates opened fire on them. As southern musket shot whistled through the air and bark from shot-up trees went flying in every direction, the Federals withdrew in an effort to protect themselves. Musket fire was exchanged for a while as Weeks tried to force the Confederate defenders out of their entrenchments. He decided to use his howitzers to blow the breastworks away. Two cannons were pulled to the front, one directly across from the bridge and the other pointed at the west bank entrenchments. The town of Newport was being shelled by Union cannon fire as its residents fled into the woods. The Federals were highly inaccurate with their shelling, which lasted for an hour, and were unable to cause the rebels to flee their entrenchments but were able to destroy the private homes of Newport citizens. The fighting at Newport resulted in zero Confederate casualties, and very low Federal casualties. However, five of Daniel Ladd’s slaves were killed by shrapnel when a Yankee shell exploded near them. After Newton decided the shelling was not working, he called the cannons back.

In Tallahassee, many of the home guards from surrounding counties, including Wakulla, arrived on March 5. Also ready for action on March 5 were the young cadets from West Florida Seminary. Some young local boys enlisted and joined the cadets on March 5, and they replaced those who were too young to fight. With the home guards and the cadets, General Miller boarded the Tallahassee-St. Marks Railroad bound for Newport, which they reached around five o’clock in the afternoon. Miller relieved Scott of command and placed the home guards and cadets behind the breastworks, where they came under Union gunfire. The erratic shooting of guns continued until nightfall.

General Newton, having acknowledged that his troops would not be able to secure and repair the bridge at Newport, decided to march his troops north along the eastern bank of the St. Marks River to a place his scouts had discovered called Natural Bridge, where the river went underground for a short distance, creating a “natural bridge” to cross the St. Marks River. Newton decided to leave a detachment from the 2^nd Florida U.S. Cavalry behind at Newport under Major Weeks to prevent the Confederates from repairing the bridge and following and harassing his column from behind. General William Miller ordered Scott to take three companies of cavalry to mirror Newton’s march, but along the western side of the river. About three miles north of Newport, the Federals stopped at a place called Tompkins’ Mills to rest, and on the other side of the river, the Confederates did the same.

General Sam Jones arrived at Newport from Tallahassee and he and General Miller assumed correctly that Newton would try to make his crossing at Natural Bridge. Jones rode off on his horse to start directing troops to defend Natural Bridge. Around midnight at Newport, General Miller got a disheartening message that the troops stationed at Fort Ward were in a panic and planned to destroy the Spray and the fort’s magazines. The reasons for the panic is that the soldiers at Fort Ward knew that Scott was defeated at the East River Bridge, and thought they were defeated at Newport as well. Also, the Union Navy was creeping up the St. Marks River towards the fort. The U.S. planned to land near six-hundred soldiers near Fort Ward to attack it, and support the main Union force. From Newport, General Miller traveled to Fort Ward and told the garrison that the fort was the key to the defense of Tallahassee and he would hear no more talk about its abandonment. The U.S. Navy never landed the six-hundred men that it had planned to do. In fact, because of the shallowness of the St. Marks River, they never got closer than a mile-and-a-half from Port Leon, let alone Fort Ward.

Sources Used:

Cox, D. (2007). The Battle of Natural Bridge, Florida: The Confederate Defense of Tallahassee. Fort Smith, Arkansas: Dale Cox.

Brig. Gen. John Newton, Report of April 19, 1865, Official Records, Series 1, Volume 49, p.66-68 

To read Newton's April 19, 1865 report in its entirety, visit the link below:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hwanrh;view=1up;seq=86

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[1] Cox, p.8

[2] Cox, p.14

[3] Newton, p.59

[4] Ibid, p.60

[5] Cox, p.23

The Civil War

1861-1865

Part Three

The Marianna Raid and Fortifying Tallahassee

                When the Civil War was entering its final months, Tallahassee was still largely unaffected from the conflict. The citizens of Florida’s capital did not experience much of the realities of war, besides seeing the wounded who were taken there after the Battle of Olustee in 1864. The area around Tallahassee, however, saw some brutal fighting in the form of a raid on Marianna on September 27, 1864. U.S. General Alexander Asboth marched inland from U.S held Pensacola and attacked Marianna, causing more than twenty percent of the town’s population to either be killed, wounded, or captured. The area was now in a panic, but was calmed when Confederate Major George Washington Scott reported that Asboth and the Union soldiers had returned to Pensacola rather than continuing on to Tallahassee as some thought may be his plan.

           

General John K. Jackson

The commander of military forces in Florida was General John K. Jackson, who was away from Tallahassee at the time of the Marianna raid. The next highest ranking official in Tallahassee was Brigadier General William Miller. Upon learning of the raid, Miller offered to do anything he could to help, in which General Jackson accepted. The first thing that Miller did was to order the fortification of Tallahassee, which before the raid had no defenses put up.[1] Old Fort St. Marks was to be garrisoned by Campbell’s Company of Georgia Siege Artillery. Throughout the 1830s, 40s, and 50s, locals had used the limestone blocks of the old Spanish fort to build other projects, such as the marine hospital and the St. Marks lighthouse. Unfortunately for posterity, historic preservation was not on people’s minds in those days, and by the time Confederate forces aimed to re-garrison the fort in 1861, nearly all the limestone blocks from the bastion along the Wakulla River had been removed. Confederates filled in what was left of the bastion with earth to create an elevated platform in which to place a cannon battery aimed toward the Wakulla River. They also shifted some stones around from the bastion to create a ramp to the top of the battery. People can still walk on this platform today. The garrison filled in and leveled out what was left of the old moat, and used it as the fort’s main floor. They also built a magazine, or storage space, out of stone and wood, then build a mound on top of it to protect their supplies. The magazine mound was almost sixteen feet tall, and was on the east end of Fort Ward, behind the old bombproof, which was being used as a cannon battery for the St. Marks River side of the fort.

The Confederates renamed the installation Fort Ward, after Colonel George T. Ward of the Second Florida Infantry, the one-time anti-secessionist, after he was killed at Williamsburg. Although Confederates did a lot to re-fortify the fort, it was not efficient enough to mount a real defense, should the Union launch an attack. Fort Ward was completely vulnerable on the north side of the fort. The magazine projected well above the ramparts of the battery, and the fort had no rear wall. If Federal forces could advance upriver enough to flank Fort Ward, its defenders would not stand a chance.

Brigadier General William Miller

            General Miller assigned Confederate Engineer Corps Captain Theodore Moreno to investigate and expand Tallahassee’s defenses, which included Fort Ward in St. Marks. Moreno came to the conclusion that if Tallahassee faced a threat from a large Union force, that force would most likely come ashore at St. Marks lighthouse or Shell Point in Wakulla County, then they would cross the St. Marks River and march inland to Tallahassee. Confederates began to strengthen their picket line along the coast, and permanently posted guards at the St. Marks lighthouse, Shell Point, and at the site of the former Port Leon. It was believed that if a Union force came ashore at the lighthouse, it would then march to the bridge at Newport to cross the St. Marks River. The captain ordered a line of entrenchments dug along the riverside of Newport, so that in the case of a Union attempt to cross the St. Marks River Confederates in the trenches could unleash a barrage of musket fire at the bridge.

            Next on Captain Moreno’s to-do list was the strengthening of Fort Ward, and he did this by having strong earthworks built on the rear of the fort, protecting the garrison from an attack from the north. The Confederates constructed a raised earth defensive wall to the rear of the fort, just north of the old filled in moat. This embankment was tall enough to offer protection to soldiers standing on the main floor of the fort (the old moat), and can still be seen to this day. After Fort Ward was strengthened, General Miller focused his attention on improving his communication and supply lines to Tallahassee. He wanted to undertake several projects, such as: build a new bridge that crossed the Suwannee River, extend the railroad to Live Oak, extend the railroad from Quincy to the Apalachicola River, and improve the dirt road that connected the railroad at Quincy to the wharf and arsenal at Chattahoochee.[2] To complete these tasks, General Miller got permission from the Florida Legislature to conscript slaves into the engineer corps.

           

Cadets from West Florida Seminary (today's FSU) 

After fortifications and supply lines were addressed, General Miller then turned to his troops. At his command was the First Florida Infantry Reserves, which was formed in 1864 out of companies from all across the state. Also at his command were a few companies from the Fifth Florida Cavalry, the Milton Light Artillery, the Kilcrease Light Artillery, Campbell’s Company of Heavy Siege Artillery at Fort Ward, and militias from counties all around Florida, kor “home guard”, as they were called. If the need should arise, the Second Florida Cavalry in eastern Florida could also be called upon. Daniel Ladd’s steamer the Spray, patrolled the waters of the lower St. Marks River and could be used during an attack. Also at General Miller’s beck and call were the young cadets of West Florida Seminary. The West Florida Seminary was founded in 1857 and was located at the intersection of Copeland and Clinton Street (present-day College Avenue). The Seminary was the predecessor of Florida State University, and trained students from the ages of 12 to 18 years of age.

Sources used:

Brig. Gen. William Miller to Lt. Col. T.B. Roy, Assist. Adjut-Gen., Jan. 11, 1865, Official Records, S.1, V.47-2, p.1005-1006

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[1] Miller to Roy, p.1006

[2] Ibid.

The Civil War

1861-1865

Part Two

Preparing for War

Both the Florida and the Confederate government recognized that the St. Marks River would be the most likely route used for an U.S. invasion of the Florida interior. Everybody was aware that only one vessel was needed to blockade the St. Marks River, and that was the Union strategy. The coast became basically free of human activity, as U.S. gunboats patrolled the bay. Neither the U.S. nor the Confederacy held it for long periods of time. The St. Marks lighthouse/watchtower was sometimes manned by Confederate soldiers and troops moved in and out of Newport frequently. Daniel Ladd supplied the local Confederate forces often, as the local commanders became his best costumers. When the Confederate leaders decided to re-fortify and occupy Fort St. Marks, then renamed Fort Ward, Ladd provided the lumber for the job. Other than supplying goods and materials, Ladd also helped the Confederate cause by using the Spray to transport troops and supplies where ever they needed to go, such as from St. Marks to an encampment at Rattlesnake Branch, a stream north of St. Marks.

           

the Spray

        In mid-1862, the Union blockading vessel assigned to St. Marks harbor was the steamer Tahoma.  The commander of the Tahoma was obsessed with catching the Spray, and in July of 1862 Union troops came ashore on at the St. Marks lighthouse and destroyed what they could, burning the wooden staircase in the tower making it unusable. In 1863, the Spray was commissioned as a Confederate steamer to patrol the St. Marks River, and was fitted with two guns, and manned by a crew of fifty-one men.  After hearing that Daniel Ladd owned an iron works in Newport that was producing musket balls for the Confederate Army, which he had been doing since the beginning of the war, Lieutenant Commander A. F. Crossman wanted to steam up the St. Marks River, exchange fire with Fort Ward (the Confederate name for Fort St. Marks in honor George T. Ward), capture the Spray, and burn Newport to the ground. The people of Newport and St. Marks lived in constant worry of a Federal invasion.  Crossman did not receive authorization to commence that attack, but he was authorized to lead a raiding party up the St. Marks River. He took 130 men up the river in small boats, only to be repulsed by Confederate pickets stationed at the site of old Port Leon. Getting aboard his steamer, Crossman attempted to move up river but was stopped by a barge that had been sunk in the middle of the narrow channel.

            Frustrated and unable to reach Newport, the Union commanders turned their attention to the Confederate salt works located at St. Marks and Goose Creek in 1863. In early 1864, the Union forces on the Tahoma completed two successful raids on Confederate salt works, destroying 555 salt kettles, 95 boilers, 268 brick furnaces, and 245 houses and smaller buildings. They also took several people prisoner, as well as five wagons, eighteen mules, and about 1,000 head of cattle.[1] Losses in the area were estimated around $2 million. The blockade was strangling Newport to bereavement, as trade had been slowed drastically, and the price of goods were rising. Ladd did all he could for the people of Wakulla, even converting his sawmill into a gristmill, and grinding nearly the entire county’s corn. He also bought several Confederate bonds, as people with money was expected to do, but those became worthless as soon as the Confederate States of America failed. 

           

U.S. attack Confederate salt works

In late 1864, after a Union raid on Marianna, Governor John Milton and local commanders began to expect an attempt to be made by the Union to land at St. Marks and march on Tallahassee. The Florida militia had been off fighting battles in distant states, and a new state militia was not organized until 1864. The governor was pleased at the amount of volunteers from each county, except Wakulla. The lack of volunteers from Wakulla was not because they were unwilling to fight, it was because of a lack of able-bodied men, most had already gone off to war, and most of those that were still in Wakulla were either too old or too young for regular military service.

Wakulla Men Far from Home

  The 5^th Florida Infantry Regiment was formed in Tallahassee in the spring of 1862, and was made up of men recruited from Madison, Liberty, Calhoun, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Baker, Polk, and Wakulla Counties. The company from Wakulla was Company I of the 5^th Florida Infantry, also known as the “Wakulla Tigers.” The 5^th Florida Infantry, numbering nearly a thousand men, was sent north and served with the Army of Northern Virginia. In that army, the 5^th Florida joined up with the 2^nd Florida and the 8^th Florida and formed the Florida Brigade under the command of E.A. Perry. The Florida Brigade served under Anderson’s Division of Longstreet’s First Corps, of the Army of Northern Virginia. Through the months of August and September of 1862, the Florida Brigade fought in the battles of Second Mananas and Sharpsburg. Afterwards, Colonel David Lang took command of the Florida Brigade and led them at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December of 1862, and the Battle of Chancellorsville in May of 1863. A few months later in July, the Florida Brigade was present for the Battle of Gettysburg, and were attached to Pickett’s Division. On the third day of the battle, the Florida Brigade took part in the famous Pickett’s Charge, which was a bold attack on the Union center. In 1864, after participating in the battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, the Florida Brigade was joined by the Florida forces who fought at the Battle of Olustee, the 9^th, 10^th, and 11^th Florida Infantry, under the command of General Joseph Finegan. Finegan then took command of the Florida Brigade, which then became known as “Finegan’s Brigade.” In 1864, the Florida Brigade fought at Cold Harbor in June, and at Petersburg during the winter of 1864-1865. The 5^th Florida Infantry, along with the rest of the Florida Brigade, retreated with the Army of Northern Virginia, and surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. The 5^th Florida Infantry surrendered fifty-three men.

Another regiment consisting of men from Wakulla was the 3^rd Florida Infantry. The men from Wakulla were in the 3^rd Florida Company D, the “Wakulla Guards”, consisting of about 103 men, commanded by Captain Daniel L. Frierson. The 3^rd Florida served on Florida’s east coast at Talbot Island and on the Gulf Coast at Cedar Key, before being sent to Mobile, Alabama. After fighting at Perryville, the 3^rd Florida consolidated with the 1^st Florida, and together in 1863 they fought at Murfreesboro, the Jackson Siege, the Vicksburg Campaign, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga. In 1864, the units fought in the Battle of Atlanta and the Franklin-Nashville Campaign that represented the end of large-scale fighting in the Western theater. In 1865, they participated in the Carolinas Campaign against Sherman.

Sources used:

Shofner, J. H. (1978). Daniel Ladd: Merchant Prince of Frontier Florida. Gainesville: University Presses of Florida.

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[1] Shofner, p.126

The Civil War

1861-1865

Part One

The Union Dissolved 

In the 1850s, Florida politics were just about identical to the national politics at the time, as slavery was the main topic, with issues such as the Kansas/Nebraska Act and the Fugitive Slave Act. After the Mexican-American War ended in 1848, southern slave states and northern free states argued in Congress whether or not slavery would be allowed to spread into the newly acquired territories in, the west. States such as South Carolina began to speak of secession, but the Compromise of 1850 was able to delay such an act. The provisions of the bill were as follows: Texas surrendered its claim to New Mexico, California was admitted into the Union as a free state, the slave trade was banned in Washington D.C., and a new Fugitive Slave Law was established.

Daniel Ladd

           

Governor Madison Starke Perry

In 1860, most Floridians lived in the northern and central part of the state, and the heavily settled lands around Tallahassee, including Wakulla County, represented the core of Florida’s plantations. In Tallahassee, after Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States, Governor Madison Starke Perry called for a state convention to consider secession, and on December 22, 1860 he authorized a special election for the counties to choose delegates to a secession convention. Dominated by planters and their allies, the Florida Legislature placed the decision on secession squarely in the hands of the Convention delegates. As one of the most influential men in Wakulla County, Daniel Ladd of Newport was often turned to for advice and leadership. Wakulla elected Ladd, and fellow Unionist David Lewis, to represent them in Tallahassee at the secession convention. During the convention, pro-secessionists elected John C. McGehee president of the convention, and pro-unionists rallied around Leon County’s George T. Ward.

Ward, hoping that the people of Florida would reject leaving the Union, proposed immediate secession, but only after a popular vote, or a vote from the people. This proposal was denied because the delegates at the convention had the authority to act on behalf of the people because they were elected representatives of the people. The pro-Union, anti-secession delegates failed to muster enough votes to force the Convention to submit its decision to a popular vote.[1] Ladd and Lewis voted repeatedly for delay, and over and over again the votes were for secession, 39-30. Eventually, when it seemed secession was inevitable, Ladd and Lewis gave in and voted to leave the Union, which did pass 62-7.

Even as the delegates debated in the capitol, Governor Perry learned that Federal troops were on their way to reinforce critical forts along Florida’s coast, and destroy federal arsenals in the state. Perry sent state militia units to seize these installations before they could be emptied and destroyed. The Quincy Guards seized control of the Chattahoochee Arsenal on January 5. Local volunteers took Fort Marion (formerly known as Castillo de San Marcos) in St. Augustine on January 7, and Fort Clinch on Amelia Island on January 8. In Pensacola, Lieutenant Adam Slemmer of the U.S. First Artillery, and chief officer of the forts in Pensacola, initiated his measures to reject the seizure of any Federal forts to the rebels. Slemmer only had 81 men at his command and he figured the best way to maintain control of Pensacola was to move all his troops to Fort Pickens, which sat on Santa Rosa Island surveilling the mouth of Pensacola Bay. On the night of January 10, the same day that Florida seceded from the United States, Slemmer completed his move to Fort Pickens and the U.S. would hold it throughout the entire upcoming war.

On January 10, 1861, Florida adopted the Ordinance of Secession, and when the announcement was made, celebration erupted in the streets of Tallahassee. Florida was now its own independent state, but only for a short time. While Ladd was consistently voting against joining the Confederate States of America, he was also part of a committee on seacoast defenses and helped draw up a plan to defend St. Marks and other ports. Ladd, and seven other men, voted against sending delegates to a “convention of slave-holding states” in Montgomery, Alabama. But, they were outnumbered by forty votes, and within a few months Florida joined a new union, the Confederate States of America.

Florida's Ordinance of Secession

            Daniel Ladd then returned to Newport, but like every man in his position of wealth and importance, he was expected to help the new Confederate government any way he could. Ladd was not really pro-Confederate as much as he was anti-imprisonment. That is to say, perhaps he went along with it because he did not want to get arrested for treason, as his younger brother did. In 1861, Daniel Ladd’s younger brother, Alfred W. Ladd, who grew up in Newport, traveled from New York to Wakulla for a visit. Upon his arrival he was arrested for treason and forced to serve in the Confederate Army, which he deserted a year later. Daniel Ladd did not want to do anything to jeopardize what he had built in Wakulla County, so he went along with the Confederate government. The Sequestration Act of September 1861, made it lawful to confiscate enemy property within the Confederacy, and anybody who refused to purchase Confederate bonds, or help in any way, were considered an enemy and arrested. “Whatever his reasons, Ladd used his considerable resources in behalf of that government and watched his economic empire disintegrate in the smoking ruins of the little river town he helped build.”[2]

Sources Used:

Shofner, J. H. (1978). Daniel Ladd: Merchant Prince of Frontier Florida. Gainesville: University Presses of Florida

Wynne, L. N., & Taylor, R. (2002). Florida in the Civil War. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing.

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[1] Wynne & Taylor, Florida in the Civil War, p.9

[2] Shofner,p.122

Florida:

U.S. Territory and State

1821-1861

Part Five

Fort Stansbury looked as many Florida forts during the Seminole War looked

Second Seminole War – Fort Stansbury and the “Ochlocknee Indians”

         In the 1830s, while St. Marks and Magnolia were booming, and small communities in the central and western areas of present-day Wakulla County were coming along, such as Greenough along the western bank of the Sopchoppy River, hostilities between the Seminoles and Americans escalated. Throughout the Territory of Florida, one of the biggest issues to white Floridians were the Seminoles. Governor Duval insisted that the 5,000 or so Seminoles living in villages along the Apalachicola and Suwannee Rivers, in Alachua and near Tallahassee, evacuate the territory, but their leaders refused to leave. The Seminole and the American settlers sometimes had violent run-ins with each other. White settlers sent angry letters to the government in Tallahassee calling for the removal of the “savages.” In turn, Seminole leaders also sent letters to Tallahassee asking for protection from the whites and accused Americans of stealing Seminole cattle and kidnapping Black Seminoles, or maroons, and forcing them into slavery.

In 1823, Duval decided to move the Seminoles in north Florida down to a reservation in central Florida away from encroaching white settlers. A meeting headed by James Gadsden was set up for early September at Moultrie Creek, just south of St. Augustine. About 425 Seminole showed up at the meeting and chose Neamathla to be their chief representative and speaker. Under the terms of the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, the Seminole were forced to immigrate under the protection of the U.S., and give up all claim to lands in Florida in exchange for a reservation of about 4 million acres. The reservation would run down the middle of the Florida peninsula from just north of present-day Ocala, to a line even with the southern end of Tampa Bay. The boundaries were well inland from both the Gulf and Atlantic coasts to prevent the Seminole from making contact with traders from Cuba or the Bahamas. Neamathla along with five other chiefs, including John Blount, were allowed to keep their villages along the Apalachicola River.

More Americans moved into Florida and coveted the Seminole's land so they began petitioning the government to completely relocate the Seminoles to west of the Mississippi River. A meeting at Payne's Landing was called in 1832 and the Seminoles were ordered to leave Florida completely for land west of the Mississippi, and they had three years to do so. U.S. Indian Agent Wiley Thompson read a letter to the Seminoles from then President Andrew Jackson which stated that if the Seminoles did not choose to immigrate they would be made to by force. Some chiefs agreed to move, but still others did not. During this tumultuous time, atrocities were committed on both sides, which made tensions between the whites and Seminoles much worse. The U.S government realized that the Seminoles were not going to move on their own, so they began preparing for war. On December 28, 1835, the Seminoles ambushed a column of U.S. soldiers on the path from Fort Brooke (Tampa) to Fort King (Ocala). All but a few men were killed during the Dade Battle, which was named for the commanding officer who was killed during the first surprise volley of gunfire. At the same time, U.S. Indian Agent Wiley Thompson was killed at Fort King by Osceola. This was the beginning of the long Second Seminole War.

As the war dragged on, General Zachary Taylor felt it was less costly and more important to protect white settlers, rather than chase the Seminoles. After some deadly raids on white homesteads in the Leon and Wakulla County areas, as well as other places in north Florida and southern Georgia, Taylor decided to send troops from south Florida to north Florida to help protect the settlers in the area. He wanted to keep the entire area under constant military watch. Taylor conjured a plan to divide north Florida up into twenty-mile squares, each one containing a small post, or blockhouse fort, garrisoned by twenty or thirty men.[1] Taylor’s winter campaign of 1838-1839 consisted mostly of road and fort construction. Building forts and cutting roads, which connected each fort with another, was hard work, but Taylor reported “it will be observed that fifty-three new posts have been established, eight-hundred and forty-eight miles of wagon-road, and three thousand six hundred and forty-three feet of causeway and bridges opened and constructed.”[2] One such post was called Fort Stansbury, located in present-day Wakulla County, near the Leon County border in Woodville.

Towards the end of the Second Seminole War, a chief by the name of Tustenuggee Chupco surrendered along with his seventy followers to the U.S. Army near Great Cypress Swamp. In August of 1842, it was announced that the war was over. President John Tyler, in his second annual message to Congress, stated that the war “has happily been terminated.”[3] But as Tyler was delivering his “the war is over” speech, Chief Pascofa was accused of leading raids in middle and western Florida. Pascofa’s band of Creeks, whom whites in the area called the “Ochlocknee Indians” had disturbed the peace since 1838, when they broke away from a party that was forced to migrate west. Many of the Seminoles had been pushed down south during the fighting, but in western Florida the camps of “runaway Creeks” from Georgia still dotted the wilderness, and their canoes still frequented the Choctawhatchee and the Ochlocknee Rivers, the latter being the western boundary of present-day Wakulla County. “Their war-hoop still startled the sparse settlements around Tallahassee.”[4] Sometime during the conflict, a group of Creeks raided the family homestead of the wife of a Raker brother, near Jump Creek, down present-day Whiddon Lake Road, killing her and her family.

            Estimated at forty warriors strong, Pascofa’s band were notoriously aggressive and were involved in several cases of violence. They hid in the wilderness where it was nearly inaccessible to white settlers. From these swampy camps the Creeks launched raids into American settlements, and just as suddenly retreated back into the wilds, leaving destruction in their wake. On more than one occasion, Pascofa’s Creeks attacked stagecoaches and killed all the passengers causing whites to fear travel. On August 31, 1842, the Ochlocknee Indians attacked the homestead of a man named Perkins and murdered his entire family. They claimed they were seeking vengeance for violent acts committed by whites against them. Governor Richard Keith Call sent the Florida militia to search for Pascofa, but could not find a single hostile Indian. Governor Call then appealed to President Tyler for assistance. Secretary of War John C. Spencer then told General William J. Worth to do something about the attacks in the Florida Panhandle. Worth called upon Lieutenant Colonel Ethan Allen Hitchcock, commander of the Third Infantry in Florida, to “pursue, capture, and destroy these Indians.”[5] Worth wanted to take no prisoners from this group of Creeks who had been terrorizing Americans in north Florida for years. He did not wish to relocate them. Worth wanted them all dead.

           

Lieutenant Colonel Ethan Allen Hitchcock

A very empathetic man, Ethan Allen Hitchcock decided to resolve this conflict by removing the Ochlocknee Creeks without bloodshed, for he believed that was the only wise way to deal with them. Hitchcock wrote in his diary, “I have been much with the Indians and look upon them as a part of the great human family, capable of being reasoned with and susceptible of passions and affections which, rightly touched, will secure moral results with almost mechanical certainty. I repeatedly urged Mr. Poinsett, when he was secretary of war, to voluntarily assign to the Indians some small part of Florida, and they would soon be willing to go west. One reason why the Indians would not surrender is that they were under the impression that they would be killed if they do so. Years of bloody pursuit of them makes it absolutely necessary to give them assurance of protection and security…Even if the war was unavoidable, which I do not believe, there have been many lives and at least then million dollars wasted to pay for a ridiculous pride in warring against a handful of abused savages.”[6]

Hitchcock’s headquarters in north Florida would be Fort Stansbury. In 1839, the U.S. Army established Fort Stansbury in present-day Wakulla County, near the Leon County border, located in what is now woods on private land back off Bob Miller Road near present-day Woodville. Built on a spot of land that was originally a settler’s home, until they were scared away by the constant threat of Indian attacks, Fort Stansburry was the headquarters for the Third Infantry of whom Hitchcock commanded. Colonel Hitchcock departed from New York on September 10, 1842 and arrived at Fort Gamble, in Jefferson County, on October 10. At Fort Gamble he rested and dined with some old army buddies. He then proceeded to Fort Hamilton, in Madison County, then to Fort Pleasant in present-day Taylor County, before finally reaching his new post at Fort Stansbury. It was described as being a ring of buildings inside a stockade in the shape of a parallelogram. There is evidence of seven or eight barracks in the fort. The construction was of split pine logs, flat side facing in, round side facing out, and pointed at the top. “There is something indescribably solemn and grand,” Hitchcock wrote about Fort Stansbury, “in the moaning of the wind through the tall pines among which my post is situated.”[7]

            On November 28, Hitchcock received an order form General Worth to reopen the war and destroy Chief Pascofa and his Ochlocknee Creeks. Hitchcock and his command left Fort Stansbury on December 9, to end the Seminole War once again. His plan was to make friendly advances and invite the hostiles in to convince them to move west. He knew if he wanted to be successful against Chief Pascofa, as many commanders in the past were not, he would not use military force. He even rejected two companies of local volunteer miltia who wanted to be mustered in. Hitchcock along with two regiments of the Third Infantry marched to the Chattahoochee River at the Florida/Georgia border, boarded the steam ship William Gaston, and then floated down the Apalachicola River in search for the hostiles. Hitchcock brought with him two Indians, U.S. friendly, to act as scouts. He instructed them to enter the woods and search for any Indian and ask them to meet with Hitchcock. They were to tell the Indians that they would not be held against their will and were free to leave whenever they wanted. Two days later, Hitchcock’s Indian allies returned to camp with a young warrior who had a look on his face that he had made a very bad decision. Hitchcock took the freighted young man’s hand, reassured him of his safety, and had his men bring him some food. He asked the man to sit with him for a chat.

The two had a long talk about his people and Chief Pascofa. At the end of the meeting, Hitchcock had more food brought out to the young man, and asked him to try and convince Pascofa to come to Hitchcock for a friendly meeting, in which he would be safe. The young warrior left and returned two days later, stating that Chief Pascofa would meet Hitchcock in three days’ time. Three Creeks came to Hitchcock the next day and Pascofa himself arrived a day or two later. Hitchcock walked with Pascofa to just outside his camp where the two sat on a log and had a long talk. Calmly and non-threatening, Hitchcock told Pascofa that his band had become isolated amongst the ever-growing white population in north Florida who had no desire to co-exist with Indians, and that they unfortunately would never see peace unless they emigrated west. Chief Pascofa agreed to leave if his people had no objections. He told Hitchcock that he would talk to them and return in a few days.

The next day, Chief Pascofa with ten warriors unexpectedly arrived outside of the camp on the Apalachicola River armed with muskets. Before the startled Americans could react, the warriors unloaded their muskets into the treetops, signifying they were there in peace. They then entered the camp chanting a song of peace. Hitchcock wrote, “I met them in the center of camp at the head of my officers, and we shook hands and exchanged talk – rejoicing that peace was now made.”[8] The Lieutenant Colonel then sat down and talked with Chief Pascofa and his people. They expressed how happy they were to be treated like human beings. Hitchcock presented them with gifts, and they presented Hitchcock with the peace pipe. After the celebration, Pascofa and his warriors promised to bring back with them the rest of the Ochlocknee Creeks in three days. Pascofa told Hitchcock that his people had been “rained on for years, but the sun is now shining.”[9]

Three days had passed and still no sign of Pascofa’s band. Then on December 29, a handful of Indians arrived and informed Hitchcock that several families would be trickling in slowly. Once they did, they told Hitchcock that too many white settlers along the Apalachicola River wanted them dead, and asked him to travel in his boat to the Ochlocknee River where they would then board his ship. Thinking it could be a trick to get rid of him, Hitchcock reluctantly agreed.

Lieutenant Colonel Ethan Allen Hitchcock soon headed for the Ochlocknee River, accompanied by only twenty men, as he had sent the remainder of his troops back to Fort Stansbury. Two days later, Hitchcock arrived at the Ochlocknee River, with no Creeks in sight. Growing anxious, Hitchcock was beginning to believe maybe he was duped. On January 8, 1843 he ordered the steamboat to travel further upriver into seemingly unknown territory that was virtually unpopulated by whites at this time. Days passed and still no sign of the Ochlocknee Indians. One morning, the Colonel sent a row boat upriver in search of the Indians. Later that afternoon the boat returned with Chief Pascofa himself on board. The chief came aboard and shook hands with Hitchcock, apologizing profusely for his tardiness, blaming it on the slower moving families. Soon after, all of Pascofa’s band arrived and they then performed a goodbye dance on the banks of the Ochlocknee River. Hitchcock wrote, “I went with him (Pascofa) to his camp – a strange and memorable scene. A few fires in the thick woods with some fifty Indians around them. They had a dance, in which my officers joined. Pascofa looked on as chief and insisted on my sitting by his side. He constantly talked of his happiness that peace had come and frequently spoke of me as having ended the war. They are badly dressed, the blankets I had given them just covering their nakedness, and seem haggard and poor. Lieutenant Henry has issued a blanket to each and a shirt and turban to each man and a calico dress and handkerchief for each women, food, etc.”[10]

The next day, everybody boarded the William Gaston, and headed for the Gulf of Mexico. Hitchcock was very pleased with himself, and even received a congratulatory letter from General Worth on his success. It was longtime believed that the Ochlocknee Indians would never leave peacefully, but Hitchcock managed the impossible. There was great joy at Fort Stansbury, and the Indians called Hitchcock their peaceful capture, or Pa-ga-chu-lee, the “Controlling Spirit.” Hitchcock wrote in his diary that once the William Gaston neared a wharf at Cedar Key with several white people near, the Creek men became suddenly very serious and the women began to tear up. The Colonel told them to remain calm, that they were now among people who wanted to help them. Chief Pascofa’s lips trembled so much he could not speak. “A women”, Hitchcock wrote, “stood near with a small child in her arms, and I told her that they had been living more like wild animals than like human creatures, and she could now bring her children up in peace and safety. At this she dropped her head and burst into tears.”[11]

Hitchcock remarked to one of the women that he had noticed there were no children between the ages of four and fourteen. She replied that to prevent the whole group from being caught, some of the babies were put to death to stop their crying, and it was easier to flee without them. What a terrible life these poor people were forced to live before they agreed to emigrate. At Cedar Key, Hitchcock turned over command to a junior officer, who was to get the party to Arkansas, their new home. Hitchcock returned to Fort Stansbury on February 16. On March 7 and 8, Governor Call gave a party and a dinner in honor of Hitchcock and his officers. Orders came down from Washington on March 20 to transfer Hitchcock from Fort Stansbury to Jefferson Barracks in Missouri. He and his regiment arrived there on April 22, 1843.

           The U.S. Army then abandoned Fort Stansbury, leaving the blockhouse made of pine to the elements of the Florida climate. There are documents that indicate that while the army was there, fourteen men died and were buried at Fort Stansbury. Dysentery and apoplexy were the main causes of death for the soldiers. Unfortunately, the documents give no adequate information regarding the whereabouts of the cemetery, and none have been discovered to this day. Researchers have found that Fort Stansbury was not confined to just the blockhouse fort, but also extended to a nearby sinkhole, which apparently the regiment used as a trash dump. The most interesting fact about Fort Stansbury is that it is one of the few places in Florida in which a peaceful resolution was reached with the local Indians during the Second Seminole War, rather than bloodshed, all because of Ethan Allen Hitchcock.

Sources used:

Missall, J., & Missall, M. L. (2004). The Seminole Wars: America's Longest Indian Conflict. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

McReynolds, E. C. (1957). The Seminoles. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Croffut, W. (1909). Fifty Years in Camp and Field - Diary of Major-General Ethan Allen Hitchcock, U.S.A. New York: The Knickerbocker Press.

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[1] Missall and Missall, p.159

[2] Ibid. p.160

[3] McReynolds,  p.236

[4] Croffut, p.164

[5] Ibid. p.165

[6] Ibid. p.165-166

[7] Ibid. p.167

[8] Ibid. p.170

[9] Ibid

[10] Ibid, p.172

[11] Ibid. p.172