Civil War Florida Secession Flag 

In many respects, Florida remains the forgotten state of the Confederacy. Although the third state to secede, Florida's small population and meager industrial resources made the state of little strategic importance to either side. However Florida's 13000 mile coastline proved invaluable for the production of salt, made by boiling sea water in large kettles or evaporating it in man-made tidal pools. Florida also became an important source of beef cattle for feeding the Confederate troops. The railroad which ran north from central Florida and connected with routes east and west in Atlanta provided a steady supply of food. Even before the firing on Fort Sumter, volunteer companies organized throughout the state. Many of these "minute man" units became the nucleus for companies that later entered Confederate service. During his last months in office Governor Madison Starke Perry, whose single term was to expire in the fall of 1861 and who would later command the 7th Florida Infantry, strove to organize and equip Florida's troops. During this period he made several trips out of state to obtain weapons and accoutrements. Perry was criticized, however, for his decision to allow state militiamen to volunteer into Confederate service as individuals rather than by units. John Milton, who won election in the fall of 1860, became governor the following October. Described by one biographer as "a loyal Confederate," Milton labored to rebuild the state militia and also worked to improve the defenses of the Apalachicola River and of Fort Clinch on Amelia Island. By the summer of 1862 Florida had raised, equipped, and sent out of state the 1st through 8th regiments of infantry, the 1st Florida Calvary Regiment, and various smaller commands. The only forces remaining in the state were a variety of independent companies, several infantry battalions, and the newly-organized 2nd Florida Cavalry Regiment. The largest battle in Florida during the war took place February 20, 1864 at Olustee. The battle followed the fourth and final Union occupation of Jacksonville, which had occurred on February 7. Launched primarily to reinstitute a loyal state government under the terms of President Lincolns Reconstruction Proclamation, the Federal troops also hoped to interdict Confederate supply operations in the state, to open the port of Jacksonville for northern commerce, and to recruit troops for union black regiments. About twelve miles east of Lake City they met a Confederate force of similar size, commanded by Brigadier General Joseph Finegan, situated near the railroad depot of Olustee and a body of water known as Ocean Pond. In the days following the original Union landing, Finegan had consolidated the few troops still in Florida and had obtained additional manpower from Georgia and South Carolina. After sharp fighting lasting four to six hours the Federals retreated. Union losses totaled more that 1,800 killed, wounded, and missing. Confederate losses were roughly half that number. For the Federals, the casualty percentage at Olustee was one of the highest of the entire war.

As Southern militias gathered in Pensacola during the first weeks of the siege of Fort Pickens, Florida, as one of the early seceding states, sent delegates to the constitutional convention that assembled on February 4, 1861, in Montgomery, Alabama, to establish the Confederate States of America. The convention produced a provisional constitution and government headed by Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as president and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia as vice president. On March 11 the convention made the constitution permanent and the provisional government, which relocated to Richmond after Virginia seceded, dissolved within a year. Davis and Stephens, who were reelected to their offices in November 1861, were inaugurated as the chief executives of the permanent Confederate government on February 22, 1862. Florida participated in all of these political developments. On February 26, 1861, the secession convention in Tallahassee approved the passage of the provisional Confederate constitution and ratified the final version on April 13. The convention also endorsed the ticket of Davis and Stephens as the Confederacy’s chief executive officers and revised Florida's constitution to recognize Florida's membership in the Confederate States. By the end of 1861, some 5,000 Floridians had joined the military forces of the Confederate States. The last significant battle of the war in Florida came in March 1865, when a Union force landed on the Gulf and threatened Tallahassee. After landing near St. Marks on March 4, 1865, Brigadier General John Newton and some 600 Union troops marched to the town of Newport with the intention of crossing the St. Marks River and attacking the port of St. Marks and its Confederate-held fort from the rear. Confederate forces in the area destroyed the bridge at Newport which prevented a Union crossing of the St. Marks at that point. The next day, General Newton and his force marched to Natural Bridge, where they hoped to cross the river and proceed to St. Marks. On the morning of March 6, Newton tried to move across the St. Marks at Natural Bridge, but a Confederate force positioned on the opposite bank blocked his crossing. The Confederates, commanded by Brigadier General William Miller, consisted of a motley collection of regulars, militia, and a company of cadets from the West Florida Seminary—one of two state military academies in Florida (the East Florida Seminary was in Gainesville)—in Tallahassee, which was about twelve miles north of Natural Bridge. Miller’s Confederates prevented several Union attempts to flank their position. Unable to dislodge the Confederates, Newton withdrew from Natural Bridge and retreated to the coast, where the Federal flotilla evacuated his force. 

Baldwin, Florida was of great importance to the Federal Government near the end of the war Between the States. The legislature in 1862 passed a law allowing the circut court of Duval County to be held here for the reason that the county seat was in the hands of the Union forces. Supplies and equipment belonging to the confederacy were stored and shipped in Baldwin until August 15, 1864.  At that time all of the town was burned to the ground by the Union soldiers.  Only one month before, the troops had entered the city to destroy communication and transportation. Virtually the fallen South lay prostrated at the victors feet. Baldwin bore its share of sorrow and misfortune.  During the period from 1865 to 1875 the area began to rebuild and finally all of the war damage was repaired.  In 1885, there were two churches,(Baptist & Methodist) several stores, a telegraph, an express and a post office.  At that time Baldwin had a population of 250 residents. After many years of pulling itself, by its own bootstraps, a new and better Baldwin had arisen from the ashes of old. The town was incorporated by the act of Legislature and approved by Governor Park Trammel, May 22, 1913.  The boundry lines of the town covered 11 sq miles.  This act provided for a Mayor, 5 Councilmen, a Clerk who could also be treasurer and a Marshall who was also the tax collector.

 

Battle of Natural Bridge, Florida: Operations near St. Marks, Florida March 6, 1865. Maj. Gen. John Newton [US]; Maj. Gen. Sam Jones [CS]:2nd U.S. Colored Infantry and 99th U.S. Colored Infantry [US]; Kilcrease Artillery; Dunham’s Battery; Abell’s Battery; 5th Florida Cavalry; 1st Florida Militia; Barwick’s Company Reserves; Hodges Company Reserves; Company A, Milton Light Artillery; Companies A, B, and F, Reserves and reinforcements from Georgia amounting to approx. 1,000 men [CS]. Maj. Gen. John Newton had undertaken a joint force expedition to engage and destroy Confederate troops that had attacked at Cedar Keys and Fort Myers and were allegedly encamped somewhere around St. Marks. The Navy had trouble getting its ships up the St. Marks River. The Army force, however, had advanced and, after finding one bridge destroyed, started before dawn on March 6 to attempt to cross the river at Natural Bridge. The troops initially pushed Rebel forces back but not away from the bridge. Confederate forces, protected by breastworks, guarded all of the approaches and the bridge itself. The action at Natural Bridge lasted most of the day, but, unable to take the bridge, the Union troops retreated to the protection of the fleet. CWSAC Reference #: FL006. Although Confederate Florida proclaimed Natural Bridge a great victory, celebration in Tallahassee was short-lived. Three weeks after the battle, on April 1, 1865, Governor John Milton took his own life at his plantation home in Jackson County. While he left no explanation for his suicide, Milton was physically and mentally exhausted after leading his state during three and a half years of war. The prospect of Confederate defeat and Union occupation of Florida was too much for him. A week after Milton’s death, on April 9, 1865, General Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to General Grant following the Union general’s capture of Richmond. The end of the Confederate experiment was now at hand. For Florida, the end came on May 10, 1865, when Union Brigadier General Edward M. McCook arrived in Tallahassee to accept Confederate Major General Samuel Jones’ surrender of all Confederate forces in Florida. In a formal ceremony held in Tallahassee on May 20, McCook ordered the United States flag to be raised over the Capitol. Florida’s civil war was over.

Natural Bridge Monument

Jacksonville Confederate Park & The Scottish Rite Memorial 

CSA Navy CSS Florida

CSA 1861 Judgement against Gov John Milton and Horace Eli 

Arcadia 1901 Reunion

Confederate Army Veterans- Boys of '61 

1925 Gainesville CSA Member Reunion

Front row: 4th from left: Gen Lawrence Whitefield Jackson, 2nd from left Allen Goolsby

Confederate veterans in 1888 formed the United Confederate Veterans of Florida, and Alachua County had an active chapter until too few were left to keep it alive. The County had, at one time, about 135 men who served for the Confederacy. CSA Veterans line up on the steps of the Gainesville County Courthouse, they met, wearing their old uniforms wrinkled from storage and their medals rich with memories. They stood for this photograph, taken by Gainesville's Vansickel Studio: "The Civil War had been ended sixty years when these 19 men gathered in Gainesville, convention was November 4th, 1925." 

125th Annual National Reunion of the Sons of Confederate Veterans

Florida Keys  

Confederate Monument - St. Augustine. Draped for Gen. Lee Creator: Barker, George, 1844-1894, photo: c1891

Confederate Monument - St. Augustine

Jacksonville This is the Monument to Confederate Women. The Monument is in Confederate Park.

Newnansville Cemetery

CSA Monument Orlando

Fort Myers

Bradfordville  Robert E. Lee monument

Florida's Flag 1861

CSA Florida Button 

The Letter 1864

CSA Gen Martin L Smith 

At the outbreak of the Civil War, he left his law practice, enlisted in the Confederate Army, he was elected lieutenant-colonel of the Seventh FL Regiment of which he was commissioned to raise at the beginning of the war. He participated in the battle of Richmond under General Kirby Smith; being promoted to Colonel. Civil War Confederate Brigadier General, US Congressman. and was commissioned a Captain in the 7th Florida Infantry. At the Battle of Stone's River, he was wounded and at Chickamauga, he led his troops to victory, capturing 150 prisoners. In 1863, he took part in the Battle of Missionary Ridge and was Colonel in command of 7th Florida in the Atlanta Campaign. In 1864, he was promoted Brigadier General in command of a brigade in the Army of Tennessee. His last action was in Franklin and the Nashville Campaign as General John Hood's field commander. He was captured at Missionary Ridge and sent to Johnson's Island in Lake Erie where he remained a prisoner of war from November 1, 1863 to March, 1864.  After his exchange he resumed the command of his regiment and after General Finley was wounded at the battle of Resaca, he was made brigade commander and then brigadier-general. He was severely wounded at the battle of Utoy Creek On December, 1864; his wounds disabling him for further field duty.

After his recovery, General Bullock resumed his law practice.  Raised in a large family he was not collage educated, but his strong mind was stored with the useful knowledge he learned in the school of life. His eloquent yet forceful delivery placed him in the forefront as  the public speaker of the state. He possessed the confidence of the plain people. This confidence was gained  because they knew him to be honest with them.He moved from rank of captain in the Indian War to  that of brigadier-general in the confederate army, efficient member of the 51st and 32nd congress of the United States in 1888, besides holding several important official positions in Marion County, including being nominated by the democratic convention for lieutenant-governor in 1872.

He was a presidential elector in the Tilden campaign of 1876 and in 1880 was elected clerk of the circuit court, which he filled for eight years.He retired from public life in 1892 and relocated to Lake Weir and worked his massive orange and lemon groves, which were destroyed in the freeze of 1895. After the freeze General Bullock returned to Ocala. He was appointed as judge of the Fifth Judicial District when Jude Hill died leaving an unexpired term, which needed to be filled. He was chosen again for a four year term and later became mayor and postmaster at Ocala.General Bullock was one of the most honored and distinguished citizens whose wise counsel was sought by many. His superb patriotism and unswerving devotion to high principles left a fixed place in the hearts of his fellow citizens in  Florida. He was a lover of country and friend of humanity and held a conscientious devotion to every duty.

1862 Kentucky campaign