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The State of Florida was a part of the Confederate States of America from the beginning of the Civil War. Following Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860, the state of Florida joined other Southern states in declaring secession from the Union, the third of the original seven states to do so.
With a small population, Florida would contribute more goods to the Confederate cause than manpower. It produced large amounts of sustenance and its large coastline made it difficult for Union Navy efforts to curb blockade runners bringing in supplies and material from foreign markets to support the Confederate war effort.
Secession was declared January 10, 1861, and, after less than a month, Florida became one of the founding members of the Confederacy. The first six states to secede had the largest population of slaves among the Southern states. Although the vote to secede passed 62-7, there was a pro-Union and anti-Confederate minority in the state, an element that grew as the war progressed.
Florida sent a three-man delegation to the 1861-62 John Pease Sanderson.
As Florida was an important supply route for the Confederate Army, Union forces operated a blockade around the entire state. Union troops occupied major ports such as Cedar Key, Jacksonville, Key West, and Pensacola early in the war. Confederate forces moved quickly to seize control of many of Florida's U.S. Army forts, succeeding in most cases, with the significant exceptions of Fort Jefferson, Fort Pickens and Fort Zachary Taylor, which stayed firmly in Federal control throughout the war.
Governor John Milton, an ardent secessionist, throughout the war stressed the importance of Florida as a supplier of goods, rather than personnel. Florida was a large provider of food (particularly beef cattle) and salt for the Confederate Army. The 8,436-mile coastline and 11,000 miles of rivers, streams, and waterways proved a haven for blockade runners and a daunting task for patrols by Federal warships. However, the state's small population (140,000 residents making it last in size in the Confederacy), relatively remote location, and meager industry limited its overall strategic importance. Milton worked to strengthen the state militia and to improve fortifications and key defensive positions.
Overall, the state raised some 15,000 troops for the Confederacy, which were organized into twelve regiments of infantry and two of cavalry, as well as several artillery batteries and supporting units. Since neither army aggressively sought control of Florida, many of Florida's troops were sent to serve in Virginia in the Army of Northern Virginia under Brig. Gen. Edward A. Perry and Col. David Lang. The "Florida Brigade" fought in many of Robert E. Lee's campaigns, and twice charged Cemetery Ridge during the Battle of Gettysburg, including supporting Pickett's Charge.
In early 1862, the Confederate government pulled General Braxton Bragg's small army from Pensacola following successive Confederate defeats in Tennessee at Fort Donelson and Fort Henry and the fall of New Orleans. It sent them to the Western Theater for the remainder of the war. The only Confederate forces remaining in Florida at that time were a variety of independent companies, several infantry battalions, and the 2nd Florida Cavalry. They were reinforced in 1864 by troops from neighboring Georgia.
By 1840 the Anglo-American population became the majority among people of European descent, influencing the development of the culture. It became more racist and based on a binary division of white and non-white, into which latter group the Muscogee (Creeks) and other Indians were classified. They were relegated to a status below the free people of color and above slaves.[1] White Floridians concentrated on developing the territory and gaining statehood. The population had reached 54,477 people, with African-American slaves making up almost one-half of it. Steamboat navigation was well established on the Apalachicola and St. Johns rivers, and railroads were planned.
By 1861, the slave population in Florida had reached 61,000. Their labor accounted for 85 percent of the state’s cotton production. Confederate authorities used slaves as teamsters to transport supplies and as laborers in salt works and fisheries. Many Florida slaves working in these coastal industries escaped to the relative safety of Union-controlled enclaves during the American Civil War. Beginning in 1862, Union military activity in East and West Florida encouraged slaves in plantation areas to flee their owners in search of freedom. Some worked on Union ships and, beginning in 1863, more than a thousand enlisted as soldiers and sailors in the United States Colored Troops of the military.[2]
Escaped and freed slaves provided Union commanders with valuable intelligence about Confederate troop movements. They also passed back news of Union advances to the men and women who remained enslaved in Confederate-controlled Florida. Planter fears of slave uprisings increased as the war went on.[3]
Growing public dissatisfaction with Confederate conscription and impressment policies encouraged desertion by Confederate soldiers. Several Florida counties became havens for Florida deserters, as well as deserters from other Confederate states. Deserter bands attacked Confederate patrols, launched raids on plantations, confiscated slaves, stole cattle, and provided intelligence to Union army units and naval blockaders. Although most deserters formed their own raiding bands or simply tried to remain free from Confederate authorities, other deserters and Unionist Floridians joined regular Federal units for military service in Florida.[3]
Though numerous small skirmishes occurred in Florida, including the battles of Northern lawmakers and citizens to question the necessity of any further Union actions in militarily insignificant Florida. Many of the Federal troops were withdrawn and sent elsewhere. Throughout the balance of 1864 and into the following spring, the 2nd Florida Cavalry repeatedly thwarted Federal raiding parties into the Confederate-held northern and central portions of the state.
In January 1865, Union General William T. Sherman issued special orders that set aside a portion of Florida as designated territory for runaway and freed former slaves who had accompanied his command during its March to the Sea. These controversial orders were not enforced in Florida, and were later revoked by President Andrew Johnson.
In early May 1865, Emancipation Proclamation during a ceremony in Tallahassee, officially ending slavery in Florida. That same day, his jubilant troopers raised the U.S. flag over the state capitol building. Tallahassee was the next to last Confederate state capital to fall to the Union army. Austin, Texas fell the next month.
After meeting the requirements of Reconstruction, including ratifying amendments to the US Constitution to abolish slavery and grant citizenship to former slaves, Florida's representatives were readmitted to Congress. The state was fully restored to the United States on July 25, 1868.
Confederate States of America, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, United States, Republican Party (United States)
American Civil War, Jefferson Davis, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida
Ulysses S. Grant, American Civil War, Indiana, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States
American Civil War, Pocahontas County, West Virginia, Jefferson County, West Virginia, Virginia, Nicholas County, West Virginia
American Civil War, Confederate States of America, Abraham Lincoln, West Virginia in the American Civil War, Kentucky in the American Civil War
American Civil War, Confederate States of America, West Virginia in the American Civil War, Kentucky in the American Civil War, Missouri in the American Civil War
American Civil War, Confederate States of America, Oklahoma, West Virginia in the American Civil War, Kentucky in the American Civil War