June 24, 1863---Confederate Florida

JUNE 24, 1863:           

Florida was the least populous State in the Confederacy, with only 150,000 residents (including 60,000 slaves). Of its remaining 90,000 citizens, Florida, however, sent the highest proportion of its population (15,000 men) to war. When the population breakdown of the State (women, children and the elderly along with able-bodied men) is factored into this ratio, it is clear that most of the capable men in Florida were under arms.

 

In the 1860s Florida consisted of three geographic regions: East Florida (the Atlantic Coast), West Florida (the Gulf Coast and the Panhandle), and Middle Florida (the plantation belt, centered around Gainesville and Ocala). 

East Florida had always been strongly influenced by its Spanish colonizers (who had had very different, more open policies than Americans in regard to slavery). 

Isolated West Florida had fewer slaves and they were more trusted (to the extent of even being given guns in order to hunt for food) than was typical in the South. East and West Florida were largely anti-secessionist and pro-Union. 

Middle Florida with its monied plantation system, was heavily secessionist, and this is where the bulk of the secessionist votes came from when the State left the Union. 

Unionist East and West Floridians were, on the whole, ignored by the Planter Class. Florida provided most of the Confederacy’s beef cattle, much of its food crops, a large percentage of its salt (used for preserving food), and all of its scurvy-preventing citrus.

Fortunately for hardcore Confederate Middle Floridians, the Union was not particularly interested in the plantation belt, being far more interested in blockading the coastlines of East and West Florida, which it did with great success, retaining control of strong points like Key West and Fort Pickens even during the secession process. 

As the war continued, Florida became a haven for escaped slaves who couldn’t flee northward, Indians who wished to avoid any involvement with whites at all, and masses of armed Confederate deserters who fought against both sides in the war.  The Union blockade lessened Florida’s wartime importance even more so. 

On this day, the U.S.S. TAHOMA captured a confederate flatboat in a bayou near the Manatee River. The flatboat was carrying cargo of sugar and molasses. During the first six months of 1863 the TAHOMA blockaded the west coast of Florida. During this time it also captured the SILAS HENRY, the British schooner MARGARET, the schooner CRAZY JANE, the schooner STATESMAN, and the British blockade runner HARRINGTON and the MARY JANE. It also destroyed the State’s all-important saltworks.