The History of Florida (53 page)

possible coverage. The fifth district encompassed the major cattle areas of

south Florida and contained Hernando, Hil sborough, Manatee, Polk, Bre-

vard, Dade, and Monroe Counties. Veteran businessman James McKay took

proof

command of this vital area.13

Numerous problems faced White and his men as orders for Florida beef

flooded in from the fighting fronts and other segments of the Confederate

government. Cows soon became harder to find as herds shrank and cattle-

men grew less likely to sel their animals for low prices and payment in

Confederate script. The Confederate Impressment Act of 1863, which gave

officials the power to seize needed supplies from farmers, did little to foster

cooperation with supply officers and wounded civilian morale. When cattle

were col ected, they somehow had to be driven northward to at least the

Georgia rail network for further shipment. That took experienced “cracker”

cowboys able to move the nearly wild cattle and to protect them from Union

attacks that became all the more frequent on the trail. One solution was to

form a special unit of cattle herders, known as Munnerlyn’s Battalion or the

Cow Cavalry, to ensure the cows got through. Their efforts made the differ-

ence between success and failure in these operations.14

By war’s end, rebel forces had received at least 50,000 head of Florida

beef, and the stringy meat filled many a Johnny Reb’s stomach. The Confed-

erate Army of Tennessee and troops around Charleston depended heavily

on it as a part of their daily meals. Others subsisted, albeit poorly, on Florida

252 · Robert A. Taylor

cattle, and these included the starving Union prisoners of war languishing at

Andersonvil e. But in the final analysis, the peninsula state was never able to

keep up with the demands forced on it by rebel officials who lacked a clear

sense of what Florida could realistical y provide.

By 1863 the Civil War was having a definite impact on Florida’s frontier

society as the strains on the home front increased. People now knew full

well that this struggle would not be quick or cheap, and that toil and sacri-

fice was required from all Floridians. How the segments of Florida’s popula-

tion responded to these chal enges reveals much about what Florida was like

in the early 1860s. The fiery trial of war tore at the state’s social fabric and

impacted all from plantations in Leon County to Seminoles living on the

fringes of the Everglades. No Floridian could escape from it.

Florida women watched as their men marched off to fight in 1861, and

only a few truly realized what their absences would mean in their lives.

Shortages of once common consumer items became the new norm for them,

and demanded that they seek them out or manufacture substitutes them-

selves. Farms and plantations still had to be managed and worked without a

large segment of the male population. Florida women took up the slack, and

found the strength and self-confidence to step in and run family businesses

and raise children often alone. They made the clothes their families needed,

proof

taught their children when no schools were operating, and dealt with the

fear and the loneliness of separation.

Upper-class women could at least often count on relatives and the labor

of their slaves to keep things going. But the wives of common soldiers had

to somehow get by without the support of their husbands and sons, and by

1863 were joining their sisters in other Confederate states in demanding

some sort of relief from the government. While Florida women did not riot

in the street as happened in Richmond, they clearly could understand the

desperation that caused such unrest. Florida women had even more to fear

from Union troops, lawless deserter bands, Unionist raiders, and perhaps

even the Seminoles.15

Florida’s African American slave population soon felt wartime changes

like tremors from an earthquake. Slaves were often rented, or impressed,

into service for the Confederate government for tasks like building forti-

fication or col ecting food supplies. Whether there or on the farm, slaves

provided labor desperately needed to make up for the absence of so many

white males in the army. When Union forces made their presence known

around the state, they offered freedom for those with the courage to grasp

for it. Soon, crossing the Saint Johns River into Union-controlled territory

The Civil War, 1861–1865 · 253

meant emancipation for many black Floridians. Those working at the salt-

works could escape bondage when Yankee sailors came on raids from the

sea.16

Even in the face of such disruptions, the bulk of Florida’s slave popula-

tion stayed at work producing what was needed for survival. Without them

the state’s war effort would have withered at a much faster rate than it did.

In hindsight, the Federal forces should have targeted those areas of Florida

with the highest concentration of slaves, like the greater Tal ahassee area,

for military operations. Perhaps the Confederacy would have col apsed a bit

sooner through disruption of Florida’s economic support of the South.

The Seminoles also lived through the Florida Civil War experience in

their homes deep in the interior. After three devastating conflicts with

whites, news that their former foes were now waging war on each other

must have seemed strange to them. Florida officials began to worry about

whether the Seminoles would be emboldened to take the war path yet again

and seek vengeance from scattered Florida settlements? Would they be

forced to raid to secure the trade goods they needed to live? Government

leaders worked to maintain good relations by providing them with supplies

in the hope of at least keeping them neutral. Tribal leaders made certain

Tal ahassee knew about Union contacts Seminoles were having as a means

proof

to ensure trade items would keep arriving.17

Such native interaction with Federals was real, as in the case of a small

group of Mikasukis who visited Union troops based at Fort Myers in May

1864. They complained of poor treatment by Confederates and gladly ac-

cepted presents from the Yankees. The Indians looked with awe at African

Americans clad in blue uniforms serving with the garrison. In the end the

chances of a fourth Seminole war during the larger Civil War were slim,

but Florida’s native population were involved in the struggle and played a

significant role.18

Seminoles were not the only nonwhite Florida ethnic group living

through the Civil War. At least eighty citizens of Hispanic descent donned

gray uniforms out of the 15,000 or so male Floridians to do so. A significant

number of Florida Hispanics served in the Eight Florida Infantry Regiment,

which saw action from Fredericksburg to the end at Appomattox Court

House. One such soldier, William Baya of Saint Augustine, rose from ser-

geant to lieutenant colonel by 1865. Others, like Captain Celestine Gonzales,

were killed in action or died from wounds or disease. The war experiences

of this important part of the Florida community deserve to be acknowl-

edged in any account of the war.19

254 · Robert A. Taylor

As the war raged on, cracks in Florida’s social order widened. Many peo-

ple grew increasingly skeptical of Confederate victory, and of a national

government in Richmond that wanted much and seemingly gave little back.

Many soldier families lacked food or other essentials and begged for state

help. Unionist sentiment, existing in the state since 1861, grew as time and

home-front suffering went on. Confederate government policies like im-

pressment and the unpopular 1862 Conscription Act pushed many Florid-

ians into outright opposition to the Confederacy. By 1863 many sections of

the state hosted armed bands of Unionists as well as gangs of draft evaders

and army deserters. The true terrors of civil war came home to the state as

these groups clashed violently with pro-rebel forces like those led by caval-

ryman J. J. Dickison.

Northerners soon looked at Florida as a section ripe for reclamation for

the Union, and schemes to colonize Yankees there were in the works. The

Union army looked to Florida for recruits and managed to raise enough vol-

unteers to field two cavalry regiments for field service. Florida blacks took

the oath and joined units of the new Unites States Colored Troops or the

Union navy. Such forces were helped by Florida Unionists across the state

who served as an effective fifth column and aid to Federal troops operating

in Florida.20

proof

Those Union soldiers stationed in Florida found themselves having a

very unique Civil War experience. They occupied many Florida cities and

towns and were in little danger from direct Confederate assaults. Most of-

fensive operations were “expeditions” or raids into the interior seeking cattle

and other supplies to make their garrison life more comfortable. Of course

any slaves or cotton encountered would be promptly liberated for the Union

cause. The war in Florida for the most part was a low-intensity conflict that

stood in stark contrast to the titanic battles going on to the north.

Union troops serving in the Florida theater often found it delightful duty.

Limited combat and relatively low casualties made it attractive, as did the

balmy climate. Soldiers from Connecticut or New York looked on in won-

der at palm trees and picked fresh citrus fruit from nearby groves. The warm

winters stood in stark contrast to those at home, and many of these armed

tourists vowed they would return after the war. Those who did played a vital

role in Florida’s post-1865 growth and development.21

The state did not total y escape the fury of Civil War combat, however. By

early 1864, plans were under way for a campaign that would end in bloody

battle. The Olustee campaign had its roots in the Union high command’s

frustration with its failure to capture the city of Charleston, South Carolina.

The Civil War, 1861–1865 · 255

Union Major General Quincy A. Gilmore, whose command included much

of Florida, wanted to exert more pressure on besieged Charleston by cut-

ting its supplies coming up from the peninsula. Capturing Jacksonville once

again would open a ready port to export cotton and other supplies for the

North. Slaves could be freed and enlisted into the Union ranks, and with

luck Florida could be political y reconstructed just in time to help Presi-

dent Lincoln win reelection later that year. An assault on northern Florida

seemed to make perfect sense to Gilmore.22

The attack began with an amphibious strike at war-weary Jacksonville,

which once again brought it under Federal control. Gunboats and troops

continued up the Saint Johns River to capture Palatka and Picolata. Soldiers

under the immediate command of Brigadier General Truman A. Seymour

pushed westward from Jacksonvil e for the railroad junction at Baldwin.

Abandoned rebel supplies were seized there without resistance, and Sey-

mour bragged to his superiors in a message that if they “want to see what

Florida is good for come out to Baldwin.”23 Seymour’s confidence would

soon be shaken as Confederate officers reacted to his incursion by sending

reinforcements to the area at the fastest possible speed.

Confederate forces marched to meet Seymour’s 5,500 men at Olustee (or

Ocean Pond) just outside Lake City. Led by General Joseph Finegan, rebel

proof

forces stood their ground and mauled Seymour’s force in a day of bitter

fighting on February 20. Poorly trained and badly led Yankee soldiers beat

a retreat back toward the safety of Jacksonville. Only the rearguard effort of

the famous Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Infantry and the First North Caro-

lina, both African American regiments, saved the day from being a total

disaster. Finegan’s victorious men followed to the gates of Jacksonville, but

chose not to take on its fortifications. Olustee would turn out to be a Con-

federate victory and Florida’s largest Civil War battle. Union casualties ran

to 1,861, while Finegan reported losses of roughly 946 men.24

The Confederate victory at Olustee was a bit of bright news for a South

hungry for it in early 1864. Newspapers crowed about Confederate success

and Yankee ineptness. One Georgia editor summed it up by stating the Fed-

erals “marched forty miles in the most barren part of the South, fighting

the salamanders and gophers, and getting a terrible thrashing.”25 North-

ern newspapers, not surprisingly, attacked General Seymour and President

Lincoln for yet another bloody military blunder by northern forces. One

blue-clad veteran of Olustee summed up his feeling by exclaiming that “the

whole of Florida is not worth half the suffering and anguish this battle has

caused.”26

256 · Robert A. Taylor

The first months of 1865 brought one last Union effort to take control of a

large section of Florida. On March 4 a Federal force of about 1,000 splashed

ashore at Saint Marks with Tal ahassee as their ultimate objective. Local