Floridian vs. Floridian on Hard Labor Creek

Remembering the Battle of Vernon, Florida

Historic marker on the square in Vernon, Florida.

Editor's Note: The Battle of Vernon was a running skirmish fought in Washington County as Union troops returned to Pensacola from the Battle of Marianna, Florida. The encounter was unique in that it was a true "brother against brother" fight. The Confederates involved were from Capt. W.B. Jones' Scouts (Vernon Home Guard), a militia unit raised in Washington County several months earlier. The main Federals actually engaged were primarily from the 1st Florida Cavalry (U.S.), a Union force that included several men from the same county.

The following is excerpted from Dale Cox's book The Battle of Marianna, Florida:

(Excerpt)

Confederate troops were now swarming into Northwest Florida, but it was too late.  The Federals were already well on their way to Washington County before Milton, Jeter, and Chisolm crossed the bridge back into town on the morning of the 28th. Leaving Marianna, they followed the road southwest through present-day Kynesville to Oak and Hickory (Orange) Hills. The plantation of David Porter Everett at Hickory Hill was heavily damaged. The raiders may have been concerned about pursuit by Confederate cavalry, but not so much so that they stopped carrying out the goals of the raid as they advanced. Legend holds that they rested briefly on the grounds of the academy at Hickory Hill (at today’s Orange Hill Methodist Church) before continuing down the hill in the direction of Holmes Valley and Vernon.

A number of the men and boys who fought at the Battle of
Vernon attended Moss Hill United Methodist Church. The
structure is virtually unchanged since the day of the battle.

A courier had gone out along this same route on the morning of the 27th to summon help from Captain W.B. Jones and his scouts at Vernon, then the county seat of Washington County. Jones assembled his company on the morning of the 28th and conscripted every available man and boy in the area, regardless of age.

Exactly how many men he managed to get into the field may never be known. The unit originally included around 30 men, but evidence from pension files indicates that it was expanded when Florida’s home guard was organized in August. A number of men from Walton County later claimed they had been taken to Vernon by Captain J.B. Hutto for service under Captain Jones. In addition, the men were joined on the morning of the 28th by several Confederate regulars home on leave and by a number of other men, many of them over 60 years old, who later indicated they were conscripted into the service that day due to the emergency.

The main fighting of the Battle of Vernon was at
Hard Labor Creek several miles east of town.

The company probably numbered 50 by the time it was ready to leave Vernon, but the actual number could have been somewhat higher. By mid to late morning, they were heading east for Marianna on the same road by which the Union command was marching west. It was a recipe for disaster, and that is exactly what happened:

…Hearing that the Federal soldiers were coming Captain William Jones went to meet them… we suddenly met the Northern soldiers and they demanded that we surrender, fighting opened and a large man by the name of Pierce was killed near me. I was wounded, and was taken home. Captain Jones was captured, and was taken away. [194]

Coming down the hill to Hard Labor Creek just west of today’s Washington Cemetery, Jones and his men ran head-on into the vanguard of Asboth’s column. The Federals were in no mood to be delayed and promptly ordered the home guard to surrender. Whether they declined or had time to do so in the confusion is not known. According to legend, one of Jones’ men verbally taunted the Union soldiers, profanely voicing his opinion of them. The Federals responded by opening fire on the outnumbered Confederates, capturing most of them and scattering the rest. Stephen Pierce, the man who is said to have taunted the Union soldiers, was supposedly dragged away behind a gallberry bush and executed. [195]

Stephen Pierce, a member of Jones'
company allegedly taunted the Union
soldiers in the minutes before his death.

The truth of the incident is difficult to determine. The encounter was officially mentioned only in the activity record of the 1st Florida U.S. Cavalry, but no details were provided in the reports of either side. Samuel Wood Doble of the 2nd Maine Cavalry did not participate in the fight but gave a vague description of it:

Started this morning at seven. The advance guard met and fought a small number of Rebels and took several prisoners. Shot the Captain of the company. He was going to reinforce the Rebels at Marianna, thinking we should stop a day or two at that place. [196]

Doble remembered passing a Confederate soldier who was, in his words, “just dying.” The Federals made no effort to carry him along but instead left him to his fate. This individual may have been Stephen Pierce, who is known to have been killed in the encounter near Vernon, or he may have been some other home guard member whose name has been lost to time.

Pierce’s body was carried to the top of the hill on the east side of the creek and buried at what is now Washington Cemetery. The 1860 Census Records for Washington County show that at the time of the battle, he was a 46-year-old farmer who supported a wife, Jane, and at least six children. He owned no slaves, and his total worth was only $100. Pierce had enlisted in the “Washington County Invincibles” on September 13, 1861. The unit became Company H of the 4th Florida Infantry. Pierce served with his company in the Army of Tennessee, fighting at Shiloh and Stones River. He received a medical discharge in 1863 and returned home to his farm. He enlisted under Captain Jones in August of 1864 when Governor Milton ordered the formation of the Florida home guard. [197]

So far as is known, Pierce was the only man killed in the “Battle” of Vernon. Another man, John J. Wright, was wounded. In an account written many years later for a pension application, he reported receiving two wounds, “I have lost the use of my right arm, never could use it as good after I was shot in the shoulder. I was also hit in the left leg that soon got well and has not bothered me but little.” [198]

Nathaniel Miller, a Seminole Wars veteran, was among the
prisoners captured at the Battle of Vernon. He died at the
Union prison in Elmira, New York.

Outnumbered and completely overwhelmed by the sudden burst of gunfire, the men of Jones’ company broke and ran. The surviving accounts indicate the Federals were hot on their heels:

…On our way to Marianna we met a company of Federals, near Hard Labor Creek, and Jones company was captured and taken to Ship Island Prison. I made my escape on horseback and outran them. I was pursued all the way back to Vernon and shot at many times but escaped without injury. [199]

In either the initial melee or the running fight back to Vernon, Captain Jones and ten of his men were captured. Among these were four Confederate regulars on leave from their regiments: Andrew and James Gable of the 6th Florida Infantry and H.R. and B.A. Walker of the 1st Florida Infantry. Also captured were Enoch Johns, Shadrick Johns, John Nelson, Cary Taylor, Freeman Irwin, and Nathaniel Miller. Irwin had represented Washington County at Florida’s secession convention in 1861 and Taylor was a former Washington County sheriff. 

The story of these prisoners is particularly tragic. Taken away by the raiders, they wound up in the disease-ridden prison camp at Elmira, New York. Cary Taylor and Enoch Johns died there of smallpox less than two months later on December 27, 1864. Shadrick Johns and John Nelson tried to secure their freedom by offering to swear an oath of allegiance to the U.S. Government, stating that they had been, “conscripted, ordered out by the Governor to resist a raiding party, and had been captured the same day.” Although the men were seriously ill and over 50 years old, their request was denied, and they remained at Elmira until the end of the war. Andrew Gable, one of the regulars captured in Washington County, lost his life to pneumonia on January 1, 1865, Freeman Irwin died from sickness on February 7th and Nathaniel Miller followed on March 13th. [200]

(End of Excerpt)

Editor's Note: Copies of Dale Cox's book - The Battle of Marianna, Florida - are available from the Washington County Historical Society Museum in Chipley, Florida, or in print and Kindle e-book format at Amazon. Just click here for ordering information.

Learn more about the Battle of Marianna in this free mini-documentary from Two Egg TV:

References

[194] Statement of John J. Wright, June 4, 1922, Confederate Pension Application File, Florida State Archives.
[195] E.W. Carswell, Washington: Florida's Twelfth County, 1991.
[196] Samuel Wood Doble, A Civil War Diary.
[197] Ibid.; Washington County Census of 1860; Service Record of Stephen G. Pierce, National Archives.
[198] Wright statement.
[199] Statement of M.L. Lassiter, January 1, 1931, Confederate Pension Application File of JOhn J. Wright, Florida State Archives.
[200] Individual Service Records, National Archives.

Woody Nickels: Youngest Casualty of the Battle of Marianna, Florida

"Good-bye all of you, I'm in for it now."

Woodbury "Woody" Nickels was killed at
the Battle of Marianna, Florida. He was a
15-year old student at Marianna Academy.

Editor's note: The following is excerpted from Dale Cox's critically-acclaimed book, The Battle of Marianna, Florida. It tells the story of Woodbury "Woody" Nickels, a 15-year old schoolboy who fought and died on September 27, 1864.

(Excerpt)

[A] fascinating account of the scene in town was written years later by Mary Beeman, who as a 12-year-old girl had been sent from North Carolina to stay with relatives in Marianna. She and her younger cousin were walking up what is now Wynn Street on their way to school but found the people of the town all greatly alarmed. They stopped at the corner of Wynn and Lafayette to admire the roses on the fence of Mrs. Caroline Hunter’s boarding house before continuing up Lafayette Street into town:

…We were now fairly in town and were soon curious to know what was amiss. Something was wrong as could plainly be seen. Women stood bareheaded talking in groups on the sidewalk or at the gates, with a look of startled expectancy on their faces, all talking so eagerly and all at once as in a chorus, while the little children grabbed tight their mothers’ hands or dress skirts, and gave little terrified glances up and down the street. [96]

Beeman remembered that it seemed as if everyone in town was “mad today.” The schoolboys ran excitedly in the streets as if a holiday had been declared, but the men looked angry, and the women rushed to save what possessions they could:

…Wagons, carts and carriages drive hurriedly up the street, while in many yards carts and wheelbarrows even stand at front doors, being heavily laden as on moving-day. Women would rush to the door with sheets tied up full of something, dump it in the carts and fly off like mad for another load. And the men sat impatiently in the wagons, calling out: “Hello! Hurry up there, unless you want them to come before you get these tricks off.” [97]

The Nickels or Bellamy Mansion no longer
stands. This was the scene of Woody's last
farewell to his family. The house is better
remembered for its connection to Jackson
County's Bellamy Bridge Ghost Story.

It became apparent to the girls that there would be no school that day, so they went to the home of her uncle, William Nickels. A prominent Marianna merchant and innkeeper, Nickels lived in the massive old mansion built years earlier by Samuel Bellamy. They were told there by a cousin that 10,000 Union troops were on their way, which prompted Beeman to remark that they would “swallow
Marianna.” Another relative responded defiantly that they would have to swallow guns and bayonets if they did. “We won’t sit ready greased for the eating,” the female cousin proclaimed. It was as this discussion was underway that Beeman’s 15-year-old cousin, Woodbury “Woody” Nickels, appeared in the central hallway of the house:

“What’s that, little Reb,” called out Woody, as he came bouncing in the hall where we were all at work with toungue and hands; “want me to bring you a dead Yank for that bloody speech after the battle?” “Yes, Lot’s of them” returned I, “if you can. Nothing would please me better.” Well, here goes!” cried he, taking Josie’s gun and cap from behind the door and proceeding to don one and load the other [Note: Josie was Woody’s brother, who had been killed earlier in the war]. “Put in lots of shot,” I called to him. “Aye, that I will. Good-bye, all of you. I’m in for it now.” And he gave me a pinch on one cheek, while he laid a hearty kiss on the other. As he went down the steps he called out to me: “Don’t you wish you were a man?” [98]

Dale Cox, author of The Battle of Marianna, Florida, points
out bullet scars on a grave monument for students of
Thomasville Christian School.

(End of Excerpt)

Woody Nickels died that day. He was among those inside St. Luke's Episcopal Church when it was torched by Union soldiers. Running out through the front door, he was shot through the leg. The wound left him unable to walk, but Woody crawled as far as he could from the fire, wrapping his arms around the Robinson monument in front of the church as his enemies closed in around him.

The body of Woodbury "Woody" Nickels was found in the St. Luke's Churchyard after the battle. His hands still clung to the monument. His head had been crushed by a blow from a musket butt.

Just 15-years old, he was the youngest man killed in the Battle of Marianna.

Editor's Note: Read the full story in Dale Cox's book, The Battle of Marianna, Florida. It is available in Marianna at Bespoken Gifts and Antiques (4430 Lafayette Street) or online from Amazon in print and Kindle e-book formats. Click here for ordering information. 

You can also learn more in this free mini-documentary from Two Egg TV:

References

[96] Mrs. Mary Beeman, “Killed in Cold Blood,” Our Women in the War: The Lives They Lived, The
Deaths They Died, published by the Charleston News and Courier, 1885.

[97] Ibid.

[98] Ibid.