On this Day in Florida Civil War History

Nick Wynne, Joe Knetsch

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781467118170
• eBook ISBN: 9781625856111
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Fascinating facts and significant events of the Civil War in Florida, organized by calendar dates and accompanied by photos and illustrations. Mainland America's southernmost state has more than its share of Civil War stories. In January 1861, Florida militia forces captured the old Spanish Castillo de San Marcos, then known as Fort Marion, from the single Union soldier who guarded it. In 1862, Union forces recaptured it without a single shot fired. Union general Edward Moody McCook—later minister to Hawaii—accepted the surrender of Tallahassee on May 10, 1865, and on May 13, he read the Emancipation Proclamation to an assembled crowd of white Floridians and former slaves on the steps of the Knott House in the city. In this illustrated book, local historians Nick Wynne and Joe Knetsch detail a Civil War moment for each date on the calendar—so you can take in a tidbit every day, or enjoy a fascinating read all at once.

JUNE

JUNE 1

1864 Union troops under the command of General George H. Gordon assaulted Confederate troops at Camp Milton in a surprise attack. The Confederates fled their camp in great haste. According to Gordon’s official report, the “evidences of his hasty flight were apparent in burning trestle-work upon the railroad and in abandoned stores and forage. I found the line of fortifications one of great strength, capable of offering a successful resistance to a very large force…most solidly constructed and beautifully finished.” Gordon also reported, “These works were fired and completely demolished. The labor of many thousands of men for many weeks was thus destroyed, and one of the most formidable barriers to the march of an army to Tallahassee removed.” No further movement toward Tallahassee was made.

JUNE 2

1865 Ulysses S. Grant, commanding all the armies of the United States, formally issued an order of appreciation to the troops of the Union army and navy:

By your patriotic devotion to your country in the hour of danger and alarm—your magnificent fighting, bravery, and endurance—you have maintained the supremacy of the Union and the Constitution, overthrown all armed opposition to the enforcement of the laws, and of the proclamation forever abolishing slavery—the cause and pretext of the rebellion—and opened the way to the rightful authorities to restore order and inaugurate peace on a permanent and enduring basis on every foot of American soil…[And] tens of thousands of your gallant comrades have fallen and sealed the priceless legacy with their lives. The graves of these a grateful nation bedews with tears, honors their memories, and will ever cherish and support their stricken families.

JUNE 3

1863 The East Gulf Blockading Squadron was very active. The USS Stars and Stripes captured the blockade runner Florida with six bales of cotton and half a barrel of tar about two miles inside the mouth of the St. Marks River. Some fifty mounted Confederates appeared on the scene with the intention of intercepting the raiding party, “but owing to two well-directed shots from the steamer they fled in all directions.” Elsewhere, men from the USS Beauregard and the USS Fort Henry captured a lighter with “30 bales of upland cotton and 9 bales of sea-island cotton,” which was loaded on the Beauregard. This action took place at the mouth of the Crystal River.

1865 General John C. Breckinridge and his small party of Confederate refugees left the Indian River near Jupiter Inlet on their way to Cuba.

JUNE 4

1863 Federal Judge William Marvin of the Southern District of Florida issued guidelines for the disposition of captured blockade runners brought to Key West. Since the crews of Union ships shared in the proceeds generated by the sale of captured cargoes or ships, such rules were necessary to preserve the values of the crews’ property. Crews of the captured vessels were allowed only their wearing apparel and pocket money for immediate expenses. Interestingly, Marvin, a strong Unionist, would face suspicion that he was sympathetic to the Confederate cause and would be forced to leave Key West and return to his native state of New York. In 1865, he was appointed governor of Florida by President Andrew Johnson but served only a short time. When the Radical Republicans in Congress took control of Reconstruction from Johnson, Marvin lost his office.

JUNE 5

1862 During the first two years of the Civil War, both North and South labored under the impression that the war would be over soon. As a result, both sides conducted their relations with each other in a courtly manner as evidenced by an exchange between the captain of the bark USS Kingfisher, which had a landing party captured by Confederates on the Aucilla River, and General Joseph Finegan, who commanded Southern forces in Florida. Two of the sailors were killed, and the Kingfisher’s captain wanted to send a landing party to rebury the dead men and “place the remains of our late shipmates in security from the attacks of beasts of prey and the vultures, and mark their graves so that when peace in God’s time shall visit our unhappy country again their friends may be enabled, if they wish it, to remove their bones.” Finegan agreed to the request.

JUNE 6

1863 Lieutenant Commander A.A. Semmes of the USS Tahoma reported the capture of the schooner Statesman, which was loaded with cotton, at Gadsden Point. After spotting the schooner aground near Tampa, Semmes sent three boats to take possession of it. The boarding party came under fire from a rifled gun, but it was able to take possession of the schooner and, by “kedging, towing, and using the sails under a sharp fire of a fieldpiece of the enemy planted on the beach near the schooner,” managed to free the boat and get it out of the range of fire. Semmes reported, “She had no flag or papers. Her name on the stern was partially covered with paint.” The Statesman was sent to Key West as a prize of war.

JUNE 7

1864 General William Birney, the commander of Federal troops in Jacksonville, ordered Colonel James Shaw Jr. to conduct an expedition against Confederates forces who had received shipments of torpedoes at Fleming’s Island on the St. Johns River. “These torpedoes have either already been placed in the Saint Johns River or will be shortly unless active measures are taken against it,” Birney stated. In addition, Shaw’s force of two hundred men was ordered to cause “all the loyal inhabitants to remove to the east side of the Saint Johns, and all the disloyal to remove west and within the lines of the enemy.” Birney’s concern was that the residents used their favorable location “for the purpose of espying the position of our gunboats and picket-boats on the river, and the movements of our steamers.” Above all, “Especial care will be taken to find torpedoes and to gain information as to where they are placed.”

General William Birney was an Alabama native but sided with the Union during the Civil War. He was appointed one of three commissioners authorized to recruit and lead African American troops. He led his USCT soldiers at the Battle of Olustee in 1864. He was transferred to Virginia and led black troops in the final battles in that state. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

JUNE 8

1864 After reporting that most of northeast Florida was “free from rebels,” General William Birney requested sixty miles of telegraph wire and for operators to be made available for the construction of a telegraph line between Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Picolata. Captain L.F. Sheldon, the man in charge of the army’s telegraphs, responded the cost would be about $2,200 for sixty-five miles and could be constructed at once. However, no operators were available “without closing offices now in operation in this department.” Sheldon warned that if Confederate forces attacked their “first attempt would be to cripple the telegraph if possible, and thus defeat the main object for which the line is required.” The line could be constructed at once, but “no dependence can be placed upon the line unless it should be protected along its whole length from injury by guerrillas.”

JUNE 9

1864 General William Birney sent a communication to General Joseph Finegan, the commander of Confederate forces in Florida, seeking information on the men who were killed or captured when Captain J.J. Dickison’s cavalry unit captured and destroyed the Union gunboat Columbine at Horse’s Landing on May 23, 1864. Birney was inquiring about the officers and enlisted men because “the relatives, friends, and comrades of the men in that unfortunate vessel are anxious to know their fate. I will promptly communicate to them such information as you may think proper to give.” In another communication, General Birney requested a centrifugal pump be sent to him in order to raise ships in the St. Johns River. He included the Confederate steamer St. Marys and Union ships Maple Leaf, General Hunter and Harriet A. Weed in the list of ships to be raised.

JUNE 10

1861 The USS Massachusetts stopped the English ship Perthshire with a cargo of 2,240 bales of cotton off the coast of Pensacola. The Perthshire, which entered Mobile Bay on May 13 and departed on May 31, was seized as a prize of war by the Massachusetts. A rancorous dispute between the ship’s owners, who argued that the official blockade of Mobile Bay did not begin until May 27, and the United States was finally settled in December 1861 when the owners were awarded payment for damages suffered. The dispute highlighted the United States’ difficulty in establishing a legal blockade of Southern ports.

1862 Gideon Welles, Union secretary of the navy, ordered an investigation of the “Indian River inlet south of Cape Canaveral. It is possible there is a point of transshipment there, as a road is said to be completed from that vicinity clear up to Volusia.”

Gideon Welles provided forceful leadership for the Union navy during the Civil War. He served from 1861 until 1868. When he came into office, Welles faced the task of reorganizing, expanding and equipping a navy that had been largely neglected for years. Under his leadership, the Union navy became the largest navy in the world and successfully implemented a blockade of the entire Southern coastline, conducted vigorous riverine operations and patrolled the high seas. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

JUNE 11

1861 Commander T.D. Shaw of the USS Montgomery announced the formal blockade of the port of Apalachicola. The blockade order stated, “No American coasting vessels are to be allowed to enter or depart from said port from the time of your arrival on the station. All foreign or neutral vessels now in the port of Apalachicola will be allowed ten days from the 11^th of June, instant, for their departure.”

1862 The USS Susquehanna captured the blockade runner Princeton. Although the ship’s papers indicated it was headed to Matamoros, Mexico, the captain of the Susquehanna thought its cargo of “drugs, dry goods, [and] provisions,” valued at $5,663.91, was suspicious enough to justify its capture and return to Key West.

JUNE 12

1862 Captain William W. McKean, former commander of the East Gulf Blockading Squadron, arrived in Boston aboard the USS Niagara. In his report to Gideon Welles, McKean discussed a major problem for the Union navy—recruiting and retaining enough men to man the ships blockading Confederate coasts.

There are about 100 men belonging to the ship whose term of service has expired and…about 40 others from various vessels of the squadron. I earnestly request authority to discharge all of the original crew of this ship, as they have been closely confined for more than two years, having had liberty but twice…If now discharged most if not all of them will ship again within a month. I also request authority to grant two months’ pay and two or three weeks’ liberty to about 45 others, who have nearly two years to serve.

JUNE 13

1863 The USS Sunflower reported the capture of “a suspicious looking schooner” off the Tortugas. The Sunflower’s lookout spotted the schooner while the ship was lying at anchor and taking on coal. The schooner was the Pushmataha, which had two to three bales of cotton in bulk in its hold. From evidence on deck, the Pushmataha had also been carrying cotton bales on deck. The Sunflower towed it to Key West.

1864 Major Augustus Vignos, appointed to command Union forces at Fernandina today, received a long list of required duties from the commander of the Department of Florida who reminded him, “You will not permit any officer or enlisted man…to take away with him any public horse or any captured or abandoned property, especially furniture, but you will see that all captured or abandoned property is duly handed over to the agent of the Treasury Department.”

JUNE 14

1863 Lieutenant Commander A.F. Crosman reported an attack on Confederate saltworks at Alligator Bay (St. Georges Sound) by men of the steamer USS Somerset. After shelling the surrounding woods, sixty-five seamen and marines went ashore with sledgehammers and muskets. Four saltworks were destroyed, along with sixty-five kettles. Thirty huts and houses were burned and more than two hundred bushels of salt scattered. When the raiders had finished their destructive work, they received word that some Confederate cavalry was on its way to the area, so they withdrew. The raid was a complete success, and the raiders did not suffer a single casualty.

JUNE 15

1862 Two Federal gunboats, the USS Tahoma and the USS Somerset, entered the St. Marks River and shelled a Confederate artillery battery, which had four or five fieldpieces, near the lighthouse. The ships then sent a landing party to destroy the battery and nearby barracks. The Confederates had earlier captured two boats of the USS Kingfisher on June 5 and had taken a small group of sailors prisoner. In addition, two of the Kingfisher’s crew had been killed. Confederate general Joseph Finegan, who visited the scene on June 16, reported to General Samuel Cooper, the Confederate adjutant general, “The enemy shelled the light house [sic] for several hours; sent five boats on shore and burned the wood work of the light house [sic] and...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• January
• February
• March
• April
• May
• June
• July
• August
• September
• October
• November
• December
• About the Author