Tuesday, September 16, 2014

September 17, 1864---Asboth's March Through Florida



SEPTEMBER 17, 1864:      


Brigadier General Szandor (Alexander) Asboth U.S.A. lands troops in Pensacola Bay. These troops move north (from what is now the town of Gulf Breeze) and through the fiercely Confederate counties of Walton, Holmes, Jackson and Washington, burning and despoiling the plantations, farmlands and homesteads in what is essentially a dress rehearsal for Sherman’s March To The Sea (Asboth actually marches more miles than Sherman).


John C. Fremont, the Radical Republican candidate for President, withdraws from the Presidential race, completely unifying the Republican ticket behind Abraham Lincoln. The price of Fremont’s withdrawal is the dismissal of Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, an avowed War Democrat, from Lincoln’s Cabinet. Blair had modernized the Post Office, allowing mail to reach men at the front lines, and had invented the Money Order so that funds could be mailed home or to needy soldiers without fear of loss.


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