USA > Florida > Florida, 1513-1913, past and future; four hundred years of wars and peace and industrial development > Part 5
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From this bloody field one private escaped to Tampa and told the story. General Duncan L. Clinch was in command of the United States troops in Florida until 1836, when General Winfield Scott assumed command in person. During this period the depredations of the Indians were frequent and bold all over the state, but espe- cially in the section west and southwest from the present location of Jacksonville, and in western Florida along the banks of the Apalachi- cola river.
General Scott's campaign was practically fruitless and upon Gen- eral R. K. Call of Florida, devolved the command of the regular and volunteer forces in the field. In November of the same year, 1836, General Thomas Jesup relieved him in command. He had eight thousand troops at his disposal. He organized a campaign and pushed operations against the Indians southward toward the Everglades, then the stronghold of the native tribes. He accomplished more by his aggressive and relentless methods than had been done by any or all of the preceding commanders.
MILITARY COMMANDERS
General Zachary Taylor succeeded him in May, 1837, and he con- tinued the policy of keeping the Indians on the defensive. General Taylor asked to be relieved early in 1840 and General Armistead was assigned to the command.
Depredations and slaughter were continued by the savage warriors and the efforts of the regular troops seemed entirely insufficient to stop or even to check them. Some particularly horrible outrages aroused the nation once more to a general demand that the war should be ended promptly and at whatever cost. Congress appropriated one million dollars and the War Department was directed to prosecute the war without relaxation or parleying.
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Some of the more prominent of the hostile Indian chiefs who had part in this war, were Osceola, Billy Bowlegs, Coacoochee, King Philip, Halleck-Trustenuggee, Hospertorkee, Shiver and Shakes, Tiger Tail and Octiarche, names that are closely allied with the history of the state and which succeeding decades have invested with a senti- mental heroism hardly warranted by their acts.
Colonel, afterward General, W. J. Worth was placed in command of the forces in Florida in 1841, he being the eighth general officer sent by the Federal War Department to end the war. His task was an un- inviting one, for as the Indians had been reduced in numbers by cap- ture and in battle, they had divided into small bands and leaving their women and children in the fastnesses of the Everglades, they had scattered and were ravaging the state from one end to the other. Life and property were safe nowhere; agriculture and industry had been stopped. In the face of such conditions General Worth issued the order: "Find the enemy. Capture or exterminate."
SEMINOLE WAR ENDED
As the Indians had been captured during this war they had been sent to the selected location in Arkansas. Chief Coacoochee was among the captives. He had been started on the journey toward the West when General Worth directed that he be brought back. In irons he appeared before the American commander on the deck of the ves- sel that had brought him. He was told that unless his people should come in and surrender unconditionally within forty days, he would be hanged from the yardarm of the ship. He was not permitted to go to them himself, but he selected his own messengers to carry the word. Well within the appointed time some two hundred of the tribe came in and the wily chief and his band were eliminated forever from the history of Florida by their deportation to the West.
Others followed, but a considerable number of Indians remained in and about the Everglades under Bowlegs and Arpeika. An expedi- tion was sent against them which scattered the roving bands and burned their villages and supplies. As late as December, 1841, a raid was made by the Indians on Mandarin, a white settlement on the St. Johns river twelve miles from Jacksonville. Five persons were killed but the marauders escaped without harm.
After a careful survey of conditions in Florida and after having pushed the larger part of the remaining natives still unconquered into the Everglades, General Worth informed the War Department in
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February, 1842, that to the best of his knowledge and belief about three hundred of the natives were left in the state, and of these, only one hundred and twelve were fighting men. He advised that they be allowed to remain unmolested in the section south of Peace creek, a stream that empties into Charlotte Harbor in De Soto county, on the lower west coast. This was ordered by President Tyler in May, 1842, and the war was officially declared to be at an end.
Subsequent outbreaks of less importance occurred along the lower Indian river in 1849, and in the southern part of the state in 1857, but these were quickly quieted by state troops without severe loss of life or property.
But the closing of this war did not bring into the territory the influx of population that had been expected and hoped. The popula- tion of Florida in 1830, after having been for ten years a part of the United States, was only 34,730. It had increased in 1840 to 54,477, notwithstanding the prevalence of the Seminole war.
FLORIDA ADMITTED TO STATEHOOD
A movement to secure the admission of Florida to the Union as a state was begun in 1838, and a constitutional convention was assem- bled late in that year. The continuance of the Indian wars at that tinie, however, postponed further action until 1845. The policy of the Federal Congress had been to maintain the equilibrium of political power in the United States Senate by admitting new states, northern and southern, together, and accordingly Florida and Iowa were ad- mitted by concurrent acts of Congress on March 3, 1845.
A supplemental act of the same date gave to Florida a grant of eight entire sections of land whereon to establish a seat of government; also the sixteenth section in every township, or its equivalent, for the support of public schools, and two townships for establishing two seminaries of learning, one to be located east and the other west of the Suwanee river; also five hundred thousand acres for internal improvements, besides five per cent of the net proceeds from the sale of public lands, the same to be applied for the purposes of education.
William D. Mosely was the first governor of Florida, chosen under the new constitution. Tallahassee, which had been the territorial capi- tal, was continued as the seat of the state government, and the first Legislature was convened there in June, 1845.
Prior to the year 1855 not a mile of railroad had been built in the state, but encouraged by the liberal land grants by the Federal Gov- ernment, a project of internal improvements, to be fostered by the
BELIEVED TO BE FOUNDATIONS OF " CASTLE " OCCUPIED BY DR. ANDREW TURNBULL AT NEW SMYRNA
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construction of railroads, was set on foot largely by the foresight of United States Senator David Yulee. The state lands were placed under the control of an Internal Improvement Board, which was authorized to guarantee interest on bonds that might be issued for the construction of railroads between Fernandina and Cedar Key, and from Jacksonville to Tallahassee. These roads and some others were completed about 1860. They gave a great impulse to the development of the sections through which they passed and the settle- ment of Columbia, Alachua and Marion counties was particularly benefited.
CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD 1861-1876
Political unrest prevailed all through the South during the three or four years that preceded the war between the states, and of this Florida had its full share. The Florida Legislature in regular session, in November, 1860, provided for a convention of the people of the state, which met at Tallahassee in January of the following year, and on the tenth day of that month, an ordinance of secession was adopted by a vote of sixty-two to seven. It declared the State of Florida to be a sovereign and independent nation, and it rescinded all ordinances that recognized the union with the United States. Florida's representatives in both branches of Congress withdrew from that body. Federal judges and other United States officials in the state resigned, excepting those at Key West.
South Carolina had passed an ordinance of secession on Decem- ber 20, 1860. Mississippi followed on January 9, and Florida was thus the third state to take this decisive action.
Fort Marion at St. Augustine, Fort Clinch at Fernandina and the United States arsenal at Chattahoochee were seized by state authority. Governor Perry ordered the seizure of the navy yard and fort at Pensacola, but at that time Fort Pickens was held by Federal forces. The Confederates occupied Fort Barancas and the navy yard, and this situation continued until October. Then an artillery battle took place between the opposing forces, but the conditions were not changed.
Fort Clinch was held by a small Confederate force and was easily taken by General Dupont, March 9, 1862, and from this time Fern- andina remained in possession of the Union forces until the close of the war.
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St. Augustine was surrendered to Commodore Rogers, March 11, 1862, and was held by Federal arms until the war ended. Pensa- cola was evacuated by the Confederate forces in May, 1862. When they left they removed all accumulated stores and burned the princi- pal lumber mills in the vicinity.
Federal gunboats blockaded both coasts of the state more or less persistently, with the result that several skirmishes took place which brought no serious damage to either side. The Confederate battery at Tampa was attacked, but it remained in possession of the South- ern forces.
DEFENSE OF JACKSONVILLE
St. Johns Bluff, the scene of the Fort Caroline massacre, was again fortified for the defense of Jacksonville. Heavy batteries were placed by Capt. Thomas Ellwood Buekman, who was in command of the defense of the city. The strength of the position which com- mands the approach from the ocean, made its reduction important, even necessary, for Federal military operations in the state. Conse- quently, a heavy detachment of Federal war vessels and troops was sent against it. The troops were landed below the fort and by a strong flank movement the Confederate defense was compelled to retire. General Brannon commanded the invading forces and occupied Jack- sonville, but for a short time only, in October, 1862. General Joseph Finegan was in command of the defense of Florida, having a force of about seventeen hundred fighting men, mostly cavalry.
Early in 1863 the plan to reoccupy Jacksonville and make it the rendezvous and asylum for negroes from this part of the South, received the approval of President Lincoln. Colonel Higginson and Colonel Montgomery commanding an expedition of colored troops, took possession of the city. General Finegan with a much smaller force, closely surrounded Jacksonville and was successful in a num- ber of sharp skirmishes. Colonel Montgomery led a raid that sacked the plantations along the St. Johns river as far south as Palatka, but in attempting to land there, he was repulsed and compelled to retire.
General Hunter ordered that Jacksonville be evacuated March 27, 1863, after an occupation of seventen days, and this, for a time at least, set aside Lincoln's plan to recover Florida to the Union.
With the exception of the fighting at Pensacola in 1861, the military operations in the state prior to 1864, were unimportant. Fernandina, St. Augustine, Key West and Pensacola were occupied
FLORIDA'S STATE CAPITOL BEGUN IN 1824, BUT NOT COMPLETED FOR MANY YEARS Seat of present State Government at Tallahassee
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continuously by Federal garrisons which, with rare exceptions, made no offensive or aggressive movements.
CAMPAIGN AGAINST FLORIDA
But Florida was the source of a large portion of the supplies for the Confederate armies in other fields, especially in furnishing beef and salt. It became an important part of the Federal plans, therefore, that this source of supplies should be cut off from the Southern fight- ing forces. President Lincoln had been led to believe that a strong Union sentiment existed in the state, which needed only the proper recognition and assistance to assert itself. General Gillmore, who commanded the Federal troops in the southeast, entertained similar ideas. In carrying out this campaign for the reunion of Florida with the United States, General Gillmore planned to occupy the state with a large force, to cut off the Confederate sources of supplies, to enlist negroes in large numbers, and finally to inaugurate measures to bring Florida back into the Union.
Several regiments of infantry, a few of them negro troops, a mounted brigade and several batteries were landed at Jacksonville, February 7, 1864. From this point an advance was made toward the west. Baldwin, Pickett's, Sanderson and other Confederate points were taken and the Federal forces proceeded toward Lake City as the objective point. General Finegan was in personal command of the opposing forces which harassed in frequent skirmishes the advanc- ing Unionists. Gainesville was taken and fortified by the Northern forces on March 13. For several days the two armies maneuvered without coming into close touch, but they finally claslied in a skir- mish which developed into the Battle of Olustce, one of the bloodiest encounters of the entire war, when the number of troops engaged is taken into consideration. It was important, as well. in the general results that followed.
BATTLE OF OLUSTEE
General Finegan's force of two thousand men had been reinforced by the timely arrival of regulars from Georgia, augmenting his com- mand to forty-six hundred men and twelve heavy guns. General Sevmour, with nearly six thousand troops, after three hours of hard fighting was compelled to retreat, and he retired with his command to Jacksonville. The losses in this battle, as officially reported, were, on the Federal side, eighteen hundred and sixty-one killed and wounded,
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and on the Confederate, nine hundred and forty killed, wounded and missing.
The Battle of Ohuistee was decisive in that it put an end to any expectation of restoring Florida to the Union at that time or of sep- arating it from other Southern states. It was also the last important engagement of the Civil war within the limits of the state. Federal forces occupied Palatka for about thirty days early in 1864. Tampa was captured and held for a short time in May of that year, and numerous skirmishes took place between the opposing forces, espe- cially along the St. Johns river and in the southwestern part of the state, but in April a large portion of the Federal forces were with- drawn from the eastern side of the state, and soon thereafter most of the Confederate troops, which had been needed for home defense, were sent to reinforce the armies in Virginia and Tennessee.
Capt. J. J. Dickison achieved much distinction in 1864 and early in 1865 by his gallant defensive and aggressive operations against the Federal forces remaining in the state.
Florida furnished, in proportion to its population, more troops to the Confederacy than any other state; twelve regiments of infan- try, two regiments and one battalion of cavalry, and four light bat- teries came from the Peninsular state. They were represented in nearly every important engagement during the war and made splen- did records on every battle field.
Florida was also well represented in the higher ranks of the Con- federate armies. Gen. E. Kirby Smith, Maj .- Gen. W. W. Loring, Brig .- Gens. M. L. Smith, J. Patton Anderson, Joseph Finegan, J. J. Finley, W. G. M. Davis, E. A. Perry and J. J. Dickison were among the officers who achieved distinction.
FLORIDA'S RETURN TO THE UNION
The Confederate forces in Florida made formal surrender to Gen- eral McCook May 20, 1865. President Johnson appointed Judge William Marvin the provisional governor of the state in July, and in August he issued a call for an election of delegates to a constitutional convention, to be held in October. An amnesty oath was required as a qualification to vote at this election, and this oath was taken by seven thousand and forty-two persons in the entire state. Fifty-six delegates were chosen: the convention repealed the Ordinance of Secession and adopted a new constitution.
This instrument provided for the clection in November of a Gov- ernor, cabinet officers, a legislature, county officers and Congres-
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sional representatives. The entire vote east at the election was less than four thousand. Davis S. Walker was elected Governor and took his office on December 20th.
The functions of the state government were resumed during the following year, and citizens returned to their ordinary oceupations. The Legislature met in December, 1866, and refused to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, on the ground that it virtually disfranchised the most intelligent elasses in the south.
The Reconstruction Law of 1867, passed over the President's veto, placed the southern states under the supreme military control of the United States. It praetieally disfranchised all who had served with the Confederate armies or who "had given aid to the enemies of the United States."
After the registration of all who were not debarred by these regu- lations, an election of delegates to another constitutional convention was ordered. This registration in Florida showed 11,148 white and 15,434 negro voters, but only about 14,500 votes were cast at the elee- tion, nearly all of them favoring the convention. Forty-five delegates were chosen and when they met, they immediately split into two fae- tions. Each held its own convention and went through the forms of transaeting the business for which it had been ealled. The two factions were then peremptorily summoned to gather at a time and place appointed, with General Sprague, the military commander of Florida who had been named by the President, as the presiding offieer. The presiding officers of the two conventions were set aside and the bellig- erent members who manifested inelinations to obstruet the progress of the reunited convention, were unseated. The business was speedily transacted and the constitution of 1868 was adopted. This was ratified subsequently by popular vote with small opposition.
PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION
Baeked by the military power of the Federal Government, the negroes in the hands of more or less unserupulous advisers, were in practical control of the politieal situation in Florida. The Period of Reconstruction which followed the Civil war brought to the state, as to many other southern states, disaster almost, if not quite, as appall- ing as those of actual confliet. The south lost more than two and a half millions of its young men who should, and would. have been the rebuilders of its wasted fortunes. Discouraged by the economic and social conditions forced upon them by the mistaken polieies of the Federal Government, they left their homes and identified themselves
Vol. I- 5
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with the growing communities of the north and west. Of the total assessed values of property in the southern states, eighty per cent had been wiped out by the war, and more than thirty-five years passed before these values recovered to even approximately their former totals. Florida bore its full share of the losses thus inflicted upon the south.
The impartial student of history now recognizes that the policy of the National Government following the Civil war retarded by many years the industrial development of the south and brought a lethargy from which it is but now arousing itself.
Harrison Reed, a republican from Wisconsin, who had come to Florida after the war as a Federal office-holder, was elected Governor under the new constitution. A legislature was chosen, many of its members negroes, and strongly republican in its majorities. It promptly ratified the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Federal Constitution. Following this procedure an Act of Congress, June 25, 1868, readmitted Florida to representation on the floors of Congress, and the new state officers were inaugurated on the Fourth of July following.
The new constitution provided that all local officers should be appointed by the Governor, and Governor Reed naturally made many enemies in his own party by his selections. The supply of offices was entirely inadequate to meet the demand. He was charged with mal- feasance in office and three attempts were made to impeach him, but all failed. He was a man of unswerving integrity, but he found him- self in a position and in surroundings which only the genius of a Napoleon could have mastered and controlled.
Ossian B. Hart was elected Governor in 1872 and the increasing population of the state by this time entitled it to two representatives in Congress. Governor Hart died in 1874 and was succeeded by Lieut .- Gov. Marcus L. Stearns.
INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS
The republican party, mainly through the negro vote, was in power in Florida from 1868 to 1876, when George F. Drew was elected Governor by a democratic vote. He was chosen at the same general election which was so close through the United States that Florida's four electoral votes were necessary to decide between Samuel J. Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes for the presidency, which was awarded to the republican candidate by the Electoral Commission.
PRESENT RUINS OF OLD SPANISH MISSION STANDING NEAR NEW SMYRNA. BUILT PROBABLY IN THE 16TH CENTURY This was afterward used as sugar mill but was abandoned at the outbreak of the Indian wars
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Governor Drew's election was welcomed by the people of Florida as a return to home rule. The state's finances which had fallen to a low ebb, revived and its bonds rose in the markets from the quotation of sixty-five cents on the dollar to par; taxes were reduced and a new era of prosperity was begun, wherein the industrial and agricul- tural growth of the state started in earnest. The population of the state by the census of 1880 was 269,493, of which 142,605 were whites and 126,696 negroes. The assessed value of the taxable property in the state was approximately thirty-one million dollars.
William D. Bloxham was elected Governor in 1880 and his admin- istration was marked by the inception of many railroad and other industrial enterprises. A number of charters was granted by the Leg- islature for railroad construction, accompanied by grants of lands. By the close of the year 1884, one thousand and forty-five miles of rail lines had been built in the state. The sections through which they were run were settled rapidly and the orange industry began to be important.
CONSTITUTION OF 1885
A constitutional convention was called in 1885, and the instrument then adopted became effective January 1, 1887. This constitution showed an increasing socialistic tendency among the people, in that it provided, with subsequent amendments, for the election of prac- tically all state, county, and judicial officers by popular vote, the judges of the Circuit Courts being still excepted, and these are ap- pointed by the Governor. It was, in the opinion of a considerable num- ber of the legal authorities of the state, not so effective an instrument as the constitution of 1868, which had been adopted under the stress of Federal military power, and which placed in the hands of the Gov- ernor the appointment of a large majority of all officers in the execu- tive and judicial branches of the state administration. In connection with the state primary election law, it practically gives to the qualified electors of the state the naming of all their officers, state and national, with the exceptions named. The large majorities in Florida being democratic, all the administrations since 1876 have been directed by that political party.
By the constitution of 1885, the office of lieutenant-governor was abolished, the duties of that position devolving upon the president of the State Senate. The regular sessions of the State Legislature were made biennial, beginning in April of the odd numbered years and the sessions were limited to sixty days.
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Edward A. Perry was elected Governor in 1884 and, according to custom, assumed his office at the beginning of the following year. Francis P. Fleming was elected his suceessor in 1888, the vote of the state at this election being 66,641. Henry L. Mitehell was his sue- eessor in 1892, and William D. Bloxham was called for the second time to the executive chair in 1896.
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT
The eensus of 1890 gave Florida a population of 391,422, of which 224,949 were whites and 166,475, negroes. It was about the beginning of this decade that the state received a tremendous impetus toward its present industrial prosperity through the beginning of invest- ments by Henry M. Flagler, Henry B. Plant and others. Mr. Flag- ler's operations were along the Atlantic coast of the state, in the build- ing of the Florida East Coast Railway, which early in 1912 was eom- pleted to Key West, a distance of five hundred and twenty-two miles from its northern terminus at Jacksonville. He opened the east side of the state to an immense tourist travel by the ereetion of the most magnificent system of hotels along the coast that has ever been planned for the delectation of pleasure and health seekers. Also by providing ample transportation facilities, he developed the vegetable and fruit production of the Indian River section and of the entire east . eoast, to the value of many millions of dollars each year. His expendi- tures in Florida to the beginning of 1912 aggregated not far from sixty million dollars.
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