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Florida Secession Begins
10/1 Democrat John Milton, a supporter of secession, was elected governor of Florida.
11/7 Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected president. Democrat John C. Breckenridge received Florida's three electoral votes.
11/30: Governor Madison Perry signed into law a bill calling for a convention to meet in Tallahassee to discuss Florida’s secession from the United States.
12/22: Elections were held to send delegates to the Secession Convention. -
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Florida's Secession
Florida was the 3rd state to secede from the North and became a separate state from the union.
By February Florida and six other southern states had formed a new government, the Confederate States of America.
Union troops refused to leave Ft. Pickens when Florida seceded and the first major battle of the war was fought at Bull Run in Virginia.
A bombardment at Pensacola between Union-occupied Fort Pickens and surrounding Confederate batteries. -
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Florida's Place in the War
February–March Due to defeats in Tennessee, most Confederate troops were withdrawn from Florida. March 4 Northern troops occupied Fernandina March 11–12 St. Augustine and Jacksonville were occupied by Union troops. Jacksonville was occupied four different times during the war, while St. Augustine remained in Union hands for the rest of the war. October 1–3 A Federal force landed on the St. Johns River below Jacksonville and forced the Confederates at St. Johns Bluff to abandon their positions -
Confederacy
President Lincoln formally issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves in the Confederate held South States, which laid the framework for the 13th Amendment, that could end all slavery in the United States. -
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Meet the MacIveys from A Land Remembered
Tobias, Emma and Zech MacIvey have been living in the Florida scrub for approximately 5 years. Tobias and Emma relocated from Georgia for several reasons such as the coming of the Civil War, and the clay soil didn’t yield sufficient crops. -
Tobias’ first run in with the war...
1863, Henry Adler recruited Tobias as a cattle driver to move a herd up to Georgia for the Confederate army. Their beef supply was being blocked by the union. This was a an important trip for the state marshall to make because many soldiers were counting on the cattle as food supply.
1864, Captain Grant recruited Tobias to saw logs for forts to help the Confederate army. This was Tobias’ first experience with being in a battle as he took cover during the Battle of Olustee. -
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was fought. Florida soldiers were heavily engaged in this Confederate defeat. -
Destruction of Saltworks
Union warships destroyed a large number of Confederate saltworks at Lake Ocala and West Bay. These saltworks, consisting primarily of large kettles for the boiling of seawater, were vital to the Confederacy. Salt was a precious commodity used in preserving food. -
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Beginning of 1864
February 7: Union ships docked at Jacksonville, unloading a large number of troops who hoped to gain control over east Florida. February 20: The Battle of Olustee was fought east of Lake City. It was the largest Civil War battle in Florida with over 5,000 men fighting on each side. The Confederates stopped the Union invasion of the interior, driving the Northern troops back to Jacksonville. -
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End of 1864
April 1: The Northern transport ship Maple Leaf was sunk by a Confederate mine in the St. Johns River. September 27: Battle of Marianna, Florida. A small Confederate force of mainly old men and boys fought a bloody battle with a group of Union cavalry led by General Alexander Asboth. The Federals defeated the Confederates and burned part of the town. -
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Beginning of 1865
February 21: A small Confederate force attacked Union-held Fort Myers but was repulsed. The Battle of Fort Myers was perhaps the southernmost battle of the Civil War. March 6: Union soldiers were defeated by the Confederates at the Battle of Natural Bridge. Among the Confederate defenders were old men and cadets from the West Florida Seminary (now Florida State University). April 1: Governor John Milton committed suicide at his home near Marianna. -
General Lee
General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army of Northern Virginia (including a number of Florida soldiers) to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia. -
Assassination of President Lincoln
John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln. Florida native Lewis Thornton Powell (alias Payne) carried out his portion of Booth's conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln, Vice President Johnson and Secretary of State Seward, on the evening of April 14. Posing as a delivery man, Powell entered the home of Secretary of State William Seward and attacked the bedridden official with a knife, inflicting serious but not fatal wounds. -
Surrendering
Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the last major Confederate Army near Durham Station, North Carolina. -
Tallahassee
Union General E. M. McCook accepted the formal surrender of Confederate troops at Tallahassee. During the remainder of the month smaller groups of Confederates surrendered throughout the state.
