The Picnic Shooting at Blue Hole (September 28, 1869)

Blue Hole Spring at Florida Caverns State Park

A shooting near Blue Hole Spring in today's Florida Caverns State Park ignited one of the bloodiest confrontations of the Reconstruction-era. Often called the "picnic shooting," it occurred on September 28, 1869.

Like many such events about which little is known, the Picnic Shooting has grown considerably in the telling. Recent writers have called it a massacre. Others say it was an example of political assassination by a band of "regulators" intent on stamping out justice and fair treatment for black citizens recently freed from slavery.

There are several versions of what happened, but several basic facts are known. Calvin Rogers, an African American and the Reconstruction-era constable of Jackson County, was leading a party of picnic-goers along Carter's Mill Road. The group was on its way to celebrate the Union victory at the Battle of Marianna, a military encounter that allowed more than 600 enslaved men, women, and children to escape to freedom. It was the first and largest mass emancipation of slaves by force of arms in the county's history.

As the party approached the spring, Rogers walked ahead of the group and disappeared around a bend in the road. He suddenly called out that he had been shot at, although no eyewitnesses described hearing gunfire:

...He then called for Wyatt Scurlock, one of his friends, who on his approach to Rogers caught up a child, and he and the child were killed by one shot from some unknown person. Rogers, with the party, returned to Marianna, and with a party of whites and blacks, went in search of the murderer. They could find no clue to the perpetrator of the deed. (Macon Telegraph, 10/15/1869)

Hurricane Michael heavily damaged the area around the 

spring, which remains closed at this time.

The tragic incident could not have come at a worse time for the citizens of Jackson County. The county's federally-appointed sheriff, John W. King, had absconded with a large part of the county's treasury just four days earlier. Rogers was the constable, but he was involved in the shooting which precluded him from conducting an investigation. There was simply no law enforcement in the county to which the people could turn for help.

A coroner's inquest was held in the style of that era and a determination was reached that Scurlock and the child were killed by a shot fired by an unknown person. The posse searched but failed to find any trace of the murderer, with the possible exception of some hoof prints along the road. Both the coroner's jury and the posse included both white and black residents of the community.

The Picnic Shooting was not a massacre, as some modern journalists and writers have claimed, but it was tragic. No one was ever arrested in the case, largely because the governor - who controlled political appointments in the state - could not find a competent sheriff to serve in Jackson County.

Many questions about the incident remain unanswered. Why did Constable Rogers go ahead of the main group? Why did he call for Scurlock by name from an unseen location after claiming that a shot had been fired at him, a shot that no one else in the group heard?  The circumstances were suspicious but any hope of a thorough investigation ended when Marianna exploded with violence over the coming days.

The citizens, once again both black and white, convened a public meeting in the wake of the shooting. A number of Marianna's principal business leaders offered a reward for the apprehension of the person or persons responsible for the crimes. No one ever claimed the reward and Wyatt Scurlock and the child in his arms became statistics of Florida's Reconstruction-era.

The murders sparked demands for retaliation in some circles, based on the assumption that white leaders of the Democratic party had assassinated Scurlock for his role in Republican politics. The suspicions were never proved, but it did not take long for someone to strike back against one of Jackson County's key white leaders. 

Learn more: The Killing of Maggie McClellan: A Reconstruction-era tragedy in Jackson County, Florida

The site of the incident is within the boundaries of today's Florida Caverns State Park. The Blue Hole Spring still flows nearby, but the area around it was heavily damaged by Hurricane Michael on October 10, 2018. Cave tours have resumed at the park, but the Blue Hole remains closed until further repairs can be made.

This video will give you a quick look at Blue Hole Spring as it appears today (post-Hurricane Michael):


This video will take you on a fascinating flashlight tour of the main tour cave at Florida Caverns State Park:

The Killing of Maggie McClellan: A Reconstruction Tragedy in Jackson County

Col. James F. McClellan

The years after the Civil War were the most turbulent in the history of Jackson County, Florida.

Local control had been stripped from the people in Florida's counties. All local officials of any consequence were appointed by the governor.

It was a challenging time, with whites and blacks alike trying to adjust to the new order of life after the end of slavery. Crop failures and a bleak economy caused hunger and suffering, while U.S. soldiers often marched the streets to enforce the will of local officials against whom citizens had no recourse.

The number of assassinations or politically-targeted killings in the county never approached the estimates given by some modern writers. The closest the area came to a real "Jackson County War," in fact, was in the days following the murder of young Maggie McClellan on October 1, 1869.

The tragedy electrified Jackson County residents and ignited a violent outbreak that has assumed legendary status in Florida history. Miss McClellan was sitting on a boarding house veranda facing today's Jackson Street in Marianna when shots suddenly rang out in the dark. Col. James F. McClellan, the young woman's father, was wounded in the attack but held her in his arms as she quickly bled to death from a bullet wound to the heart. 

Jackson County Courthouse, the late 1800s

The boarding house attack was long shrouded by mystery and speculation. The discovery of a trove of Reconstruction-era documents during the demolition of the old Jackson County Jail, however, shed new light on the incident.

The documents, still bound in ribbons and sealed in the wax, included the case file and testimony from the trial of Alex Dickens. A freedman or former slave, he was convicted of being an accessory to McClellan's murder.

It is crucial when considering such cases to remember that the court system was then controlled by former Union officers and officials and not local residents. Dickens was judged by a jury that included both white and back members, while the judge was a Nothern appointee.

Perhaps the most poignant testimony heard during the trial was that given by Maggie's father, Col. James F. McClellan:

Lafayette Street in Marianna, the late 1800s

  James F. McClellan being duly sworn says that on Friday evening, Oct. 1^st, 1869, between half past seven and eight o’clock (an hour in the night at least) at the Hotel (Mrs. Attaway’s) in town, my daughter Margaret Y. McClellan, James P. Coker, Miss Mary Ann Tillinghast, Miss Mollie Attaway and I were sitting in the front piazza, and were talking at the time. Am confident I was talking at the time. I was sitting near the right hand pillar as you pass in to the parlor. Col. Coker was at my left and the rest of the company also. I heard a slight noise near the fence which at the moment I supposed to be a calf or other animal. Immediately after I heard in a low but very distinct whisper the word “fire” which I recognized as the voice of Calvin Rogers. Instantaneously following the word fire was the report of two guns. They were just enough apart to distinguish that they were two guns fired very near to me. I felt the concussion. The charge of one of the guns hit me in the shoulder, passing out in the muscle of the arm. Either the same charge, or the other, hit my daughter immediately in the breast with four or five shot. I saw that she was hit from the fall of her head on her breast. The load that hit me produced some concussion to the nervous system but I soon recovered, and I said to the company to go into the house. I found my arm around my daughter and carried her into the passage where she slipped out of the chair and was carried into the room where she died a few moments after. She breathed I think but twice after being laid upon the bead. This occurred in Jackson County. The order to fire was in a suppressed tone but was very distinct. At first I thought I heard a hog or calf or something like a shuffle on the pavement. It was in a low tone, but very distinct. I know Calvin Rogers very well. I remember once to have heard him prompt a witness in a whisper before going before a Justice of the Peace. It was a distinct whisper. I have never had any doubt that it was the voice of Calvin Rogers. His enunciation was very distinct whether whispering or speaking. More so than other persons. I have never seen him since until the 27^th of January. He was then dead. His residence was at that time in this place, and he was in Marianna almost daily. From the time of the killing, although diligent search was made, I have never been able to found out his exact whereabouts, was alleged he was in the county. The next morning I sued out a warrant for him. I think not later than nine o’clock. He was not arrested on that warrant, but was taken. I sued on another warrant. On the morning after the killing I made affidavit before Justice Dickinson of the murder of my daughter, Margaret Y. McClellan, against Rovers, on which, I believe, a warrant was issued. On the Tuesday or Wednesday afterwards I made affidavit before Adam McNealy, Justice of the Peace, charging Rogers with the same murder, and had seven or eight warrants issued and placed in the hands of the parties deputized. When Mr. West was appointed Sheriff, I had a warrant placed in his hands. After an indictment was made against him I consulted with Mr. West and with Mr. Davis as to the best means of capturing him believing that he was still in the county.

John Q. Dickinson
Clerk of Court during Dickens Trial

  An indictment was found against him at the next term of the Court. A public meeting was held nine or ten days after the murder at which a thousand dollars was offered for his capture. I subsequently published in the “Courier” a statement guaranteeing this reward. A large reward was offered by the Executive for the apprehension & conviction of the murderer of my daughter. Am uncertain whether Rogers’ name is in proclamation or no.

--

Col. McClellan's testimony, which offers a heartbreaking description of his daughter's death, was taken on May 21, 1870.

Maggie McClellan's murder sparked a regional manhunt for the suspected assassin, a freedman named Calvin Rogers. He was the constable of Jackson County when the assassination took place but died of gunshot wounds in a confrontation with a Jackson County Sheriff's posse near present-day Graceville.

Modern writers claim that Rogers was lynched or murdered, but he died while attempting to escape from sheriff's deputy who was trying to arrest him on an indictment for murder. The records and testimony surrounding the incident were also found in the trove of Reconstruction documents.

A rash of murders following Maggie McClellan's death leading Federal authorities to order soldiers back to the streets of Marianna. 

To read another eyewitness account of Maggie's murder, please click here: http://twoegg.blogspot.com/2012/02/another-account-of-killing-of-maggie.html.