Florida in the Civil War

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Confederate artillery battery at Pensacola, 1861

Photo Credit: Florida State Archives

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Union soldiers in camp at Jacksonville.

Photo Credit: Florida State Archives

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Union Gunboat Mohawk at St. Marks Lighthouse, 1862

Photo Credit: Florida State Archives

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Union occupation of Sanderson, Florida prior to the Battle of Olustee, 1864

Photo Credit: Florida State Archives

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Slaves escaping to a Union blockading vessel off St. Marks, 1862.

Photo Credit: Florida State Archives

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Confederate cavalry crossing the St. Johns River, from 'Dickison and His Men.'

Photo Credit: Florida State Archives

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Union soldiers at Fort Marion, St. Augustine, 1865.

Photo Credit: Florida State Archives

Though it would take decades, Florida, the least populous and perhaps least significant Confederate state, eventually emerged from the war’s aftermath as a major power in the New South.

Florida’s role in the Civil War has not been as extensively examined as that of other Southern states, though in the past several decades it has received more scholarly attention. In many respects it remains the forgotten state of the Confederacy, just as it was during the 1860s, when a Northern newspaper referred to it as the “smallest tadpole in the dirty pool of secession.”

Having ended its territorial period only in 1845 and still very much a frontier at the time of the Civil War, Florida nonetheless displayed characteristics of the other Deep South states of the Cotton Kingdom. A plantation belt, similar to that found in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, ran through the north-central portion of the peninsula from Marianna to Ocala. The 1860 census reported that Florida had a total population of only 140,424 with nearly 45 percent (61,745) of those being slaves.

"You have opened the gates of Hell from which shall flow the curses of the damned which shall sink you to perdition." – Unionist and Florida Territorial Governor Richard Keith Call

The largest settlements in Florida included Pensacola, Marianna, Apalachicola, Quincy, and Tallahassee in the west; Monticello, Madison, Lake City, Ocala, and Gainesville in the central portion of the state; Fernandina, Jacksonville, and St. Augustine along the east coast; and Key West in the south. With the exception of Key West, the southern half of the state was sparsely settled and consisted of a few small towns concentrated around current or former military outposts. Some sugar production took place in the Manatee River area, and the southern region was also home to thousands of cattle that ranged the scrublands and swamps, awaiting shipment to Cuba or elsewhere. 

By the early-to-mid 1800s, sectional disputes over slavery along with economic and political differences threatened national unity. These issues intensified in the decade following the Mexican War of 1846-1848 and culminated in 1860 with Republican Abraham Lincoln’s election to the presidency. In the voting, Floridians supported Southern Democrat John C. Breckenridge over Constitutional Unionist candidate John Bell by a count of 8,543 to 5,437, while Lincoln did not even appear on the ballot in the South. In the gubernatorial race, Democrat John Milton defeated Constitutional Unionist Edward Hopkins by a comfortable margin. Milton, however, would not take office for one year; consequently Governor Madison Starke Perry would call for elections to a Secession Convention, to meet in Tallahassee in early 1861. 

When the Secession Convention convened on January 3, 1861, a majority of the delegates seemed to support immediate secession, though a few opposed the concept completely and others supported it only in cooperation with other Southern states. Despite efforts of the latter groups, the convention voted 62-7 on January 10 to withdraw from the Union, making Florida the third state to do so after South Carolina and Mississippi. The following day they signed the Ordinance of Secession, temporarily making Florida an independent nation, though it would join the new Confederate States of America within a month. Throughout the state, secessionists celebrated the action, though Unionists like former territorial governor Richard Keith Call deplored the act. “You have opened the gates of Hell,” he shouted to his detractors, “from which shall flow the curses of the damned which shall sink you to perdition.”

At the time of the state’s secession, Florida militia occupied Federal facilities around the state, taking control of the arsenal at Chattahoochee, Fort Clinch near Fernandina and Fort Marion in St. Augustine. In Pensacola, Southern troops occupied Fort McRee, Fort Barrancas and the Pensacola Navy Yard, leaving only Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island in Federal hands. At the southern end of the Florida peninsula, the Union retained Fort Jefferson in the Tortugas and Fort Taylor at Key West. These two locations later proved to be important points for the Union in enforcing the blockade of the Florida coast.

During the period from January through April 1861, tensions rose higher as the sectional crisis deepened with the secession of seven states and the formation of the Confederate States of America. For several months in early 1861, national attention was focused on Pensacola, as the possibility existed that hostilities might erupt there first. Instead the first fighting would occur in Charleston Harbor, with the April 1861 bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter. Following its surrender, President Lincoln called for 75,000 troops to suppress the rebellion and four additional states joined the infant Confederacy.

Meanwhile, in Florida, Confederate troops strengthened their positions in an effort to force the Union troops out of Fort Pickens. No major fighting took place, however, until the night of Oct. 8-9, when a Confederate force landed on Santa Rosa Island and attacked a Union camp. After a brisk engagement they soon withdrew, with casualties for the two sides numbering about 150. Subsequently, artillery bombardments occurred in November 1861 and in January 1862, but no further attempt was made by the Confederates to capture Fort Pickens.

In the spring of 1862, following reverses in the western theater of the war, Confederate troops withdrew from much of Florida, including Fernandina, St. Augustine and Pensacola. In March 1862, the Federals occupied Fernandina and St. Augustine and remained there for the duration of the war, and Jacksonville was occupied by the Federals for the first of four times during the war. Pensacola was abandoned by the Confederates in May 1862, and it stayed under Federal control for the remainder of the war.

The fourth occupation of Jacksonville, in February of 1864, led to the Battle of Olustee, the largest engagement of the war in Florida. It came about as the result of the Union desire to establish a loyal state government under the provisions of President Lincoln’s 1863 Reconstruction Proclamation, as well as the desire to occupy the northeast portion of the state to recruit black troops and to disrupt Confederate supply activities. Union Brigadier General Truman Seymour, with a force of some 5,000 soldiers, including several regiments of black troops, moved west from Jacksonville in mid-February.

Confederate Brigadier General Joseph Finegan, with reinforcements sent from Georgia, met the invading force with an approximately equal number of troops east of Olustee on February 20, 1864. The ensuing engagement was a clear Confederate victory, with Union soldiers retreating back to Jacksonville. One of the bloodiest battles of the war in terms of the percentage of casualties, Olustee stopped the Federal force from capturing Lake City. However in the aftermath, the Confederates were unable to dislodge the Federals from their positions around Jacksonville, which they retained for the remainder of the war. 

In the fall of 1864, military activity increased in west Florida, culminating in the Battle of Marianna on September 27. During this engagement, a Union cavalry force under the command of Brigadier General Alexander Asboth, which included black troops and Florida Unionists, had a bloody encounter with a ragtag collection of assorted Confederate defenders, including old men and young boys. The Union forces occupied and burned part of the town before withdrawing. 

A final Confederate victory occurred in Florida in March 1865, shortly before the end of the war, at the Battle of Natural Bridge. It began with a Federal landing near the St. Marks Lighthouse on the Gulf coast south of Tallahassee in a move intended to eliminate that area from being used by blockade runners, while a Union naval force also ascended the St. Marks River to attack a Confederate fort located there. After occupying the port of St. Marks, the Federals might then be in a position to move against the capital. Confederate troops defended a bridge over the St. Marks River at Newport, forcing Brigadier General John Newton’s Federals to march northward and attempt to cross at Natural Bridge.

A hastily assembled Confederate force of some 1,000 men under the command of Brigadier General William Miller, including cadets from the West Florida Seminary (present-day Florida State University) in Tallahassee, defended the crossing. More than 600 Union black soldiers attacked the Confederate positions at Natural Bridge on March 6, but were repulsed. Following their defeat, the Federal land force returned to the coast. The Union ships were also unsuccessful in their efforts to reach the Confederate fort at St. Marks. The Confederate victory at Natural Bridge helped ensure that Tallahassee would remain the only Confederate capital east of the Mississippi River to not be captured before the war’s close.

The Confederacy’s collapse came in the spring of 1865. By that time, Confederate control of Florida was limited to the interior north and central portions of the state. On April 1, Governor John Milton committed suicide at his home near Marianna. Eight days later, General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia surrendered at Appomattox in Virginia. Other Florida units capitulated with General Joseph E. Johnston’s army in North Carolina on April 26. In May and early June, the remaining Confederate troops in Florida laid down their weapons.

The Civil War impacted not only Floridians who served in the military, but those who labored on the home front as well. Included in this category were males too young or old for military service, white females and the state’s African American population. When the war began, some of the strongest Florida pro-Confederate “fire-eaters” were women. They produced uniforms and equipment for soldiers, as well as unit flags under which their men would fight. Sewing societies continued to provide such necessities throughout the conflict. Their efforts became even more important as the war progressed and the Confederate supply system deteriorated. Governor Milton expressed his gratitude to Florida women for their “generous, patriotic and untiring efforts to clothe our gallant soldiers.” In addition, women contributed to the war effort by serving as nurses or matrons in hospitals, in raising money for relief activities, and in maintaining morale among those in the military and at home. They also managed farms and plantations in the absence of enlisted husbands, fathers and sons.

Floridians on the home front suffered from the constant threat of Union occupation. Citizens in Key West remained under the control of Federal forces throughout the war, while those in Apalachicola, Cedar Key, Fernandina, Jacksonville, Palatka, Pensacola, St. Augustine, Tampa, and other towns faced either long-term or occasional occupations. Florida civilians faced growing shortages of luxury items and many necessities as well. Salt became unobtainable from pre-war sources, and Floridians turned to the state’s long coastline for the boiling of seawater to produce the vital commodity used in the preservation of meat. Coffee white sugar, and many other foodstuffs were not available, or could be found only at exorbitant prices. The same was true with clothing, particularly shoes. Various substitutes were resorted to, including drinking coffee made with cottonseed and making hats and shoes from palmetto leaves and corn shucks.

The war most profoundly affected Florida’s African American population, which included 61,745 slaves and a small number of free blacks. Some slaves remained with their owners throughout the war, while others fled to Union-occupied sections of the state. Many enlisted in the Union army and navy. In addition to forced labor on farms and plantations, the enslaved population was frequently impressed by the Confederate government for military-related tasks, such as building fortifications. Concerned over possible revolts, white Floridians maintained slave patrols during the war. To ensure slave productivity and maintain the safety of the white population, a provision of the first Confederate Conscription Act exempted one white male from military service for every 20 slaves. The end of the war and the subsequent passage of the Thirteenth Amendment brought freedom to black Floridians, though true social, political and economic equality proved much more elusive.

The Union blockade of the Florida coast also had an important impact on the state. Upon the war’s outbreak, the U.S. Navy implemented a blockade along the southern coast, with the South Atlantic and the East Gulf Blockading Squadrons having jurisdiction over Florida’s extensive coastline. While the state had few major ports within its borders, its numerous coves and bays and its proximity to both Cuba and the Bahamas made it a popular location for blockade running, particularly in small, shallow-draft vessels. The blockade initially proved porous, but it became more successful as the war progressed, with the East Gulf Blockading Squadron alone capturing or destroying 283 vessels. While blockade runners brought in much needed medicine, weapons and equipment, they also wasted precious cargo space on profitable luxury items and contributed to the continued production of cotton, which commanded a high price in Europe, rather than the growing of vital food crops.

Florida’s contributions to the Confederate economy were significant. Beef from the central and southern portions of the state became an increasingly important source of supply to Confederate armies, especially during the later stages of the war. Federal forces made efforts to stop the flow of beef northward, while a Confederate “Cow Cavalry” was established to protect the herds from Union threats. This led to a small-scale, yet vicious “cattle war” in southern Florida during 1864-1865. Florida’s salt production was essential for curing the beef and pork used by both the military and civilian populations. As the war continued, many Florida saltworks became the target of Union naval attacks.

Anti-war sentiment increased during the course of the war. Conscription, adopted in 1862, proved unpopular and led some Floridians to “lay-out” in remote areas of the state to avoid military service. The impressment of goods by the Confederate government and the adoption of an unpopular tax-in-kind, coupled with inflation and wartime shortages, led to a surge in anti-war or pro-Union sentiment. Consequently, as historian John E. Johns writes, “[b]y the spring of 1865 the desire for an end to hostilities was general throughout the state.”

Nevertheless, more than 15,000 Floridians served in the Confederate military, most outside the borders of the state. Florida regiments took part in virtually all of the major battles of the Civil War, in both the eastern and western theaters, where separate Florida Brigades fought valiantly and suffered heavy casualties. Reflecting the fraternal nature of the conflict, white Florida Unionists manned two cavalry regiments and a small artillery battery, and more than 1,000 African Americans from Florida joined the Union army as well. Additionally, numbers of white Unionists and escaped black slaves served in the Federal naval squadrons that blockaded the state. High ranking Confederate officers from Florida included generals James Patton Anderson, Theodore Brevard, William Davis, Joseph Finegan, William Loring, William Miller, Edward Perry and Edmund Kirby Smith, while Stephen Mallory was Secretary of the Navy. Additionally, several Florida-born officers rose to the rank of general in the Union army.

The Civil War represented a watershed event and major turning point in American history. It ended slavery and the concept of secession, and cemented the dominance of national rights and the national government over states’ rights. Floridians, both white and black, and male and female, were deeply affected by the war. Unionist white Floridians celebrated victory, while the pro-Confederate majority accepted defeat; both groups strove to rebuild their lives after the conflict’s end. African Americans in Florida endured the war years, rejoiced over emancipation and faced the Reconstruction years with cautious optimism. Though it would take decades, Florida, the least populous and perhaps least significant Confederate state, eventually emerged from the war’s aftermath as a major power in the New South.