Florida's Militia and Home Guard

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'Cow Cavalry' illustrates Florida Home Guard skirmishing with Union cattle raiders.

Photo Credit: Artist: Jackson Walker; Image Courtesy of the Legendary Florida Collection

Florida's militias included many too young or too old to serve in the military.

During the Civil War, Florida militia and home guard companies, comprised primarily of individuals either too old or too young, or otherwise unable to serve in the regular military, took an active role in a number of battles and campaigns.

The origins of the militia in Florida date from the Spanish period, making it the oldest in the present-day United States. When Florida left the Union, volunteer units occupied Federal installations in the state. Most of these volunteers were eventually mustered into Confederate units, leaving the state militia system in a shambles and, in early 1862, it was disbanded.

In 1864, the Confederate Congress authorized a new reserve force that led to the formation of the 1st Florida Reserves, which served until the war’s end. In December, the state legislature passed the first militia law in two years, placing all males between 16 and 65 in state service. At this stage of the war, however, it appears unlikely that any formal organization of these men took place. Consequently, at late-war engagements like Marianna and Natural Bridge, the militia and home guard companies that took part were informal, ad hoc organizations. Nonetheless, they fought and sometimes died in defense of their state.

To learn more, see: Florida’s Army: Militia/State Troops/National Guard, 1565-1985 by Robert Hawk, Pineapple Press, Inc., 1986.