The Florida Expedition Part II: Marching through Florida

 Camp Finegan

Once enough of his army had landed, Seymour led a force out of Jacksonville on February 8. Gus Henry’s Mounted Infantry, the only mounted force, would of course be the advance guard. Those in the 54^th Massachusetts, who had been happy to leave fatigue duties at Charleston, were disappointed to learn that they would be staying behind on garrison duty for the moment. They entertained themselves by making a lot of noise in an attempt to make their regiment look larger to any Confederate partisans in the area. They were also pleased to find the civilians getting much friendlier than they had been during the landing.[1]

Seymour’s first target was Camp Finegan, the largest concentration of Confederate forces at that moment. The Rebels had destroyed all the bridges, so the Federals forded the stream instead. The mounted men led the way, surprising and capturing six pickets. In 10 minutes they were nearly upon the camp. Colonel Henry used a local guide, Mr. Alsop, to bypass the camp and strike an artillery camp at Pickett’s Station.[2]

Colonel Guy Henry. His 40th
Massachusetts Infantry was
constantly at the forefront of
the Florida Expedition.

The Confederates in the artillery camp, under Captain Joseph Dunham, were unaware of the danger. Outside, Henry formed his men for an assault, nearly surrounding the target, then said, “If ever you yell in your lives, boys, yell now!” The horsemen shouted to the calls of bugles. It was past 11 PM and most of the Confederates were already sleeping. A sergeant awakened Dunham, shouting, “Save yourselves if you can; the enemy is right upon you!” The captain yelled at everybody to grab horses, mules, or carriages, and flee to Baldwin. The Union riders entered the camp firing “their carbines and slashing with their swords shouting surrender you Rebel sons of bitches.” A Major Stevens gunned for a telegraph operator. An train was expected to arrive soon and the telegraph operator was determined to warn it away. “Major Stevens walked into the room and seized the fellow by the throat as he was on the point of sending another message. In a few minutes his instrument was knocked to pieces and the wire cut.” The Massachusetts riders quickly captured many Confederates, along with a few pieces of artillery. Much of the camp’s men escaped through the one opening, a system of swamps.[3] Henry’s men advanced further to Baldwin, driving off more Rebels and capturing more goods.[4]

The Florida Expedition Part I: The Start of the Campaign for Florida

 

People sometimes ask me why there was little fighting in Florida during the Civil War. The state noticeably juts out into the Caribbean and looks highly invasion prone. Narrow from east to west, one successful offensive could slice off a large chunk of the Confederacy. The truth is that until well into the 20^th Century Florida was a largely undeveloped state full of swamps and other wild terrain. Most of the important population centers were in the north. There was thus little strategic incentive for the Union forces to invade, and a simple blockade of its few ports was far less cost-intensive. That changed at the onset of 1864, when a mix of military, economic, and political factors suddenly drew the attention of Abraham Lincoln’s administration as well as the military Department of the South. The sole major campaign in Florida would climax in the Battle of Olustee, a Confederate victory that is often emphasized more as a Federal blunder. Historians usually portray the Florida Expedition as a wasteful sideshow akin to the Red River Campaign just about to start on the other side of the Confederacy. A few historians have attempted to argue that a Union success could have actually shortened the war. This series will attempt to see which side holds more weight.

 

Florida Before 1864

The American Civil War almost began months earlier in Florida. In late 1860 exuberant Secessionists planned an assault on a weakened Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island, in Pensacola Harbor (the westernmost point of the state). However politicians intervened, believing this would paint the Confederates as the instigator of hostilities and drum up war support in the North. This fear was still fulfilled when South Carolinians fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.[1] Almost immediately the war hit Florida hard. Its inhabitants were heavily dependent on ships to export its produced goods and import what they did not make themselves. The absence of Northern trade vessels as well as the blockade led to the shutdown of businesses and shops alongside rising prices.[2]