A Revolution in Arms: A History of the First Repeating Rifles by Joseph G. Bilby

Author:Joseph G. Bilby [Bilby, Joseph G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Firearms, History, Non-Fiction, Rifles
ISBN: 9781594165801
Google: GBmyjwEACAAJ
Publisher: Westholme
Published: 2006-07-14T23:00:00+00:00

In the modern popular imagination, Florida would no doubt be at or near the top of the list of Civil War backwaters. Although 15,000 Confederate soldiers, most of whom fought elsewhere, were raised in the state, Florida's chief contributions to the Southern war effort were beef cattle and salt production, the latter of great importance to preserve the former in the pre-refrigeration era. As the war progressed, the state's transportation system also served as a source of cannibalized replacement parts for wrecked and deteriorating railroads further north.

Prior to 1864, Union military activity in Florida was limited to coastal raiding and the establishment of strong points on the state's periphery. Fort Pickens in Pensacola and posts in the Keys never left Union hands and Jacksonville was occupied briefly in 1862 and again in 1863. Fernandina and St. Augustine became permanent Federal bases in 1862. In late 1863, General Gillmore proposed an invasion leading to an expanded and more permanent Federal presence in the state. Such an expedition would, according to Gillmore, interdict the shipment north of beef, salt, and other commodities to hard-pressed Confederate armies, as well as provide access to more African American recruits for the Union army. As an added benefit, Union politicians believed there was a significant and growing amount of Unionist sympathy in Florida (as well as a profitable access to cotton) that could be successfully exploited. The possibility of establishing a Unionist state government which could then apply for readmission to the Union under President Lincoln's recently announced reconstruction plan added to the attraction of Gillmore's proposal, and it was quickly approved. Gillmore tapped General Truman Seymour to command the invasion force. Seymour, a Vermonter who had been severely wounded at the storming of Battery Wagner in July 1863, was something of an old Florida hand, since he had served in the last of the state's Seminole Wars in the late 1850s.41

Seymour's Division of the X Corps was modified a bit, due to the availability of troops, into a sort of combined arms task force. It included Colonel William B. Barton's brigade, consisting of the Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth, and 115th New York Infantry, Colonel Joseph Hawley's brigade of the Seventh Connecticut and Seventh New Hampshire Infantry and Eighth U.S. Colored Infantry, and Colonel James Montgomery's brigade of the First North Carolina (Colored) Infantry, Fifty-fourth Massachusetts (Colored) Infantry, Fortieth Massachusetts Mounted Infantry, and the Independent Massachusetts Cavalry Battalion. The infantry and cavalry were supported by Batteries B and E, Third U. S. Artillery, Battery M, First U. S. Artillery, Sections C and B of the Third Rhode Island Artillery, and two companies of the First New York Engineers. The Union invasion force totaled around 6,000 men.

General Seymour's little army landed at and captured Jacksonville on February 7, 1864. For the next several days, the Yankees conducted a series of successful raids as far away as Gainesville, while Federal political operatives began to administer loyalty oaths and register voters in the newly occupied territory. Overcoming some initial doubts expressed

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