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