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.
