Battle of Natural Bridge

Monument on the battlefield

One southern state that saw very little fighting in the Civil War was Florida. Sparsely populated and mostly a peninsula, it contained few military targets or roads leading to targets. There were a few battles in the state, one of which, the Battle of Natural Bridge, took place 150 years ago today. This conflict took place because of an expedition by John Newton, the Union's Department commander. He landed near St. Marks on March 4th, and planned to destroy the Confederate force in the area and then march on Tallahassee, the state capitol.

Newton

The southern troops under William Miller were defending the crossings of the St. Marks River. They destroyed one bridge and held on Newport Bridge on March 5th, so Newton sent his men up stream to Natural Bridge, which was as yet undefended. The rebels realized what was happening, and a race was one. They arrived at the bridge first, and held it throughout the day on March 6th. Newton's troops tried to drive the Confederates away, but they held firm behind their breastworks and drove the Yankees back with heavy fire. In the evening the Federals retired. This was one of the last Confederate victories during the war, and it was key in making Tallahassee the only state capitol to remain in Confederate hands at the war's close.

Reenactment of the battle. Source.

Battle of Olustee

Olustee

Florida had the smallest population of any state in the Confederacy, and it probably saw the least combat during the war. Tallahassee was the only state capitol east of the Mississippi not captured by the end of the Civil War. But in February, 1864 a Union expedition was sent to Florida under the command of Brigadier General Truman Seymour. His mission was to establish a foothold on Florida soil, cut Confederate supply lines, and recruit freed slaves for the Union army. The Confederates correctly guessed his plans, and reinforcements arrived to bolster the army under Joseph Finnegan.

Map of the battle

After several small raids Seymour decided, without orders, to make a push deep into Florida to capture Tallahassee. On the afternoon of February 20, 150 years ago today, Seymour's 5,500 men met Confederate resistance at Olustee Station, about halfway across the state. He thought they were the ineffective Florida militia, but they turned out to be Finegan's 5,000 men. The battle grew larger and larger in the pine forest, the Federals trying to break through the advancing Confederate line, which was being strengthened as reinforcements came up. Seymour committed his men piecemeal, and they did not have the strength to drive back the rebels. Finally, with no Union reserves left, the line broke under the Confederate pressure. Seymour began his retreat back to to Jacksonville. The southerners tried to strike the Union rear, but they were driven off by the rearguard of United States Colored Troops. The Federals lost 203 killed, 1,152 wounded and 506 captured; the Confederates lost 92 killed, 847 wounded and 6 missing.

Bombardment at Pensacola, Florida - Day 2

Map of Fort Pickens

The next day the bombardment at Pensacola was renewed, and continued until past midnight. This was the last day of fighting. The Confederate fortifications were not severely damaged, except for Fort McRee, which was severely crippled. Fort Pickens was not badly damaged, but the two warships were damaged, though not sunk. The casualties from these two days, as with many bombardments, were surprisingly low. The Federals suffered one killed and seven wounded, the Confederates 21 wounded. One Northern officer wrote this in his report regarding the surprising escapes which occurred:

The fire from the enemy’s batteries was heavy and well directed. There were many marvelous escapes from wounds. Among the most notable was that of Lieutenant Shipley, Third Infantry, and the detachment serving the 10-inch columbiad en barbette of his battery. A 10-inch shell struck the shell-proof and burst among his men and himself without wounding any one, although the sand and sand bags were knocked down over and around them.

USS Richmond

Strategically, this battle had little effect. After thousands of shots were fired, dirt was thrown around and a few men were wounded, the two forces were basically in the same situation as they started in. Bragg, the Confederate commander, concluded his report saying this:

But in giving this praise to human virtue let us not be unmindful of an invisible Power, which has ruled all things for our good. The hand of disease and death has been lightly laid upon us at a place and in a season when we had reason to expect much suffering and great mortality. And in the hour of our trial the missiles of death, showered upon us by an infuriated enemy, respecting neither women, children, nor the sick, have been so directed as to cause us to laugh at their impotent rage. Verily, “Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”

Fort Pickens

Bombardment at Pensacola, Florida

The Forts in Pensacola Bay

At the time of the Civil War there were three forts to defend the Pensacola harbor: Fort Pickens, on an island sheltering the harbor, and Fort McRee and Fort Barrancas on the mainland. Just before Florida's secession, a garrison was sent to Fort Pickens, and they the fort for the rest of the war. The Confederates were not content with this. They garrisoned the forts and batteries in the area in an attempt to capture the fort. On October 9th the Confederates made a strong attack on the fort, and Col. Harvey Brown, Union commander in Florida, decided to attack the Confederate fortifications to prevent the attack from being renewed.

Fort Pickens

The Union batteries opened in the morning of December 22nd, assisted by the warships Niagara and Richmond. A half an hour later the Confederate's two forts and fourteen batteries along four miles of coastline responded. Confederate commander Bragg wrote this in his report:

Darkness closed the contest, which had lasted for more than eight hours without an intermission. For the number and caliber of guns and weight of metal brought into action it will rank with the heaviest bombardment in the world. It was grand and sublime. The houses in Pensacola, 10 miles off, trembled from the effect, and immense quantities of dead fish floated to the surface in the bay and lagoon, stunned by the concussion. Our troops behaved with the greatest coolness and gallantry, and surprised me by the regularity and accuracy of their firing, a result which would have been creditable to veterans.

Fort Barrancas

The barrage continued all day, with the Union forces getting the best of the fight. Fort McRee's guns were silenced, and there was a little damage to the other fortifications. The fight would continue the next day.

Fort Barrancas today

Fort Pickens

Fort Barrancas

The two major forts that were held by the North at the time of the South's secession were Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, and Fort Pickens in Pensacola Bay, Florida. Most historians focus on Fort Sumter because that is where the crises eventually led to war, but at the time Fort Pickens in Florida was a major focus as well.

When Florida seceded, Lt. Adam J. Slemmer held Fort Barrancas in Pensacola Bay with 50 men. On the day of secession, he transferred his men to Fort Pickens, a dilapidated fort that had not been in use since the Mexican-American war. However, he thought Fort Pickens was more defensible, probably because of its isolated position.

Fort Pickens

A truce was agreed on between Slemmer and the Confederates that the fort would not be attacked unless they received more reinforcements. While more supplies and troops were needed, the situation was not as crucial as Fort Sumter. A few days after ordering supplies to be sent to Sumter, President Lincoln ordered an expedition to be sent to Fort Pickens as well. After the war began in Charleston, Fort Pickens was resupplied, and continued to be held by the North throughout the war.

Map of the forts in Pensacola Bay

More States Secede

Mississippi's representatives in Congress

In the past few days, 150 years ago, three more states seceded from the Union. First Mississippi on January 9th, then Florida on January 10th, and Alabama on January 11th. Mississippi was the only one of the three to publish a lengthy document declaring the causes that impelled them to desire to leave the Union of the United States. I will discuss some of the most interesting and important reasons that they gave in A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union here. You can read the complete document from which these quotes were taken here.

Slavery

Mississippi started out by acknowledging that they were leaving the Union because of slavery - "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world." While there may have been other minor reasons for the first states to leave the Union, the major one was that the Federal Government was trying to abolish slavery. However, as we will discuss later, just because they seceded because of slavery did not mean war. The real question was whether the states had the right to secede.

Fugitive Slave Law

It has nullified the Fugitive Slave Law in almost every free State in the Union, and has utterly broken the compact which our fathers pledged their faith to maintain.

The rights of slaveholders were protected in the Constitution by it declaring that escaped slaves had to be returned. However, this part of the Constitution was ignored by the North and the legislatures of the states passed laws saying that escaped slaves did not have be returned. Since the Northern States had broken the Constitution, Mississippi believed that they no longer were required to stay in the Union.

Abolition

It has enlisted its press, its pulpit and its schools against us, until the whole popular mind of the North is excited and inflamed with prejudice.

It has made combinations and formed associations to carry out its schemes of emancipation in the States and wherever else slavery exists.

Several times Mississippi pointed to the fact that there was division in the Union – one half was trying to overthrow the other. It was not to their benefit to remain a part of a nation which was trying to overthrow the Southern States.

John Brown

It has invaded a State, and invested with the honors of martyrdom the wretch whose purpose was to apply flames to our dwellings, and the weapons of destruction to our lives.

In this argument they were trying to show that the Northern states really desired to overthrow the South by pointing out John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. John Brown, a fanatic criminal, was sent and financed by six prominent Northern abolitionists. While the raid was a failure, it spread fear through the South because the abolition movement had reached a point where some would attack the South rather than continue to leave the Negroes in bondage. At first the Northern papers called the attackers what they were – criminals, but eventually the view changed through the speeches and writing of men like Ralph Waldo Emerson, the famous author, who said: "[John Brown is] that new saint, than whom none purer or more brave was ever led by love of men into conflict and death,--the new saint awaiting his martyrdom, and who, if he shall suffer, will make the gallows glorious like the cross." Mississippi believed that it could separate from states who were glorifying men who had been sent to murder them and take their slaves.

Conclusion

Utter subjugation awaits us in the Union, if we should consent longer to remain in it. It is not a matter of choice, but of necessity. We must either submit to degradation, and to the loss of property worth four billions of money, or we must secede from the Union framed by our fathers, to secure this as well as every other species of property. For far less cause than this, our fathers separated from the Crown of England.

Our decision is made. We follow their footsteps. We embrace the alternative of separation; and for the reasons here stated, we resolve to maintain our rights with the full consciousness of the justice of our course, and the undoubting belief of our ability to maintain it.

Alabama's representatives in Congress

Alabama

Also of note is that when Alabama passed its resolution to secede, it invited at the same time all of the slave holding states to a meeting on February 4th to consider forming a union. This meeting of course resulted in the Confederate States of America, but we will wait to discus that until the proper time.