Battle of Natural Bridge Anniversary

Today is the 144th anniversary of the Battle of Natural Bridge, Florida.

Fought on the St. Marks River south of Tallahassee on March 6, 1865, the battle was the last significant Confederate victory of the War Between the States and preserved Tallahassee's status as the only Southern capital east of the Mississippi not conquered by Union troops.

Men and boys from Jackson County played an important role in the fighting. Major William Henry Milton, a Marianna lawyer, son of Governor John Milton and an officer in the 5th Florida Cavalry, commanded the right wing of the Confederate lines during the battle. Lieutenant Colonel W.D. Barnes, of Webbville, assumed command of the 1st Florida Infantry Reserves in the fighting following the wounding of the regiment's colonel, J.J. Daniel.

Others from Jackson County who took part in the fighting included John Milton (Jr.) and several other boys who fought as members of the Corps of Cadets from the West Florida Seminary (today's Florida State University). Company G of the 5th Florida Cavalry was heavily engaged at Natural Bridge and was largely from Jackson County. There were also Jackson County men in the 2nd Florida Cavalry, Company E of the 5th Florida Cavalry and in the various artillery units on the field.

The annual Natural Bridge reenactment will take place this weekend at the battlefield, which is now a state park near Woodville, a small town south of Tallahassee. The main events will take place on Sunday with a memorial service at 1 p.m. (Eastern time), followed by the primary battle reenactment.

If you would like to learn more about the Battle of Natural Bridge, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/nbindex.

The Calhoun County War of 1860 - Part One

One of the most fascinating episodes in Jackson County history took place during the fall of 1860 when the county became entangled in an outbreak of fighting in neighboring Calhoun County. The situation became so severe that Circuit Judge J.J. Finley of Marianna (seen here) declared a "state of insurrection" and ordered out the First Brigade of the Florida Militia.

Over the next few days I will be posting a series of excerpts from my book - The History of Jackson County, Florida: The Year Years - that tell the story of the "Calhoun County War." The book is available at Chipola River Book and Tea in Downtown Marianna or from Amazon.com.

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(Excerpt from Chapter Twenty-Four: The Calhoun County War)

In the fall of 1860, eleven months after John Brown’s ill-fated raid on the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, a party of “regulators” launched a wave of violence in Northwest Florida that ended only with the intervention of the state militia. Virtually forgotten today, the Calhoun County “Insurrection” of 1860 lasted only three weeks and was quickly overshadowed by the outbreak of the Civil War. Not even a historical marker stands to call to mind the outbreak and there are no memorials to the dead.

Calhoun County, which then included the territory of today’s Gulf County, was a sparsely populated area in 1860. Founded in 1838 when it was widely believed that the coastal city of St. Joseph would emerge as one of Florida’s primary ports and commercial centers, the county never realized its economic potential. Yellow fever and a devastating hurricane spelled an end to the St. Joseph dream and by 1860 the county seat had moved inland to Abe Springs. Although there were a few large plantations near the county seat and along the Apalachicola River, most of the county’s 1,446 residents lived on small farms carved from the wilderness. Among these pre-Civil War inhabitants were the Durdens and the Musgroves.

According to the 1860 census, Jesse Durden was a 31-year-old farmer who headed a household consisting of his wife, Mary, and six children. His farm was near Abe Springs, but his extended family spread across the line into neighboring Jackson County. The same was true of his neighbors, Willis and Larkin Musgrove. Willis was a 36-year-old farmer who ran small farms in both Calhoun and Jackson Counties and was married with three children. His brother, Larkin, also had land on both sides of the county line and was the head of a household that included his wife and five children. Based on their census and tax records, the Durdens and Musgroves were typical of hundreds of other farm families in Northwest Florida. They did not own slaves and lived by the labor of their own hands.

They were set apart from their neighbors in 1860, however, when they became the targets of a large and well-armed band of vigilantes. These men, who dubbed themselves “regulators,” circulated a petition at a fish fry in Calhoun County calling for the removal or extermination of the Durdens. Then, on September 24th, they struck the family with brutal force:

Yesterday a party in Calhoun, styling themselves `Regulators,’ went to the house of one Jesse Durden, and we learn shot him, giving him a mortal wound. They then met and shot Willis Musgrove from his horse, who died instantly, also wounding Larkin C. Musgrove. These are the facts as we have been able to gather them, but it is believed that last night another battle was fought between the Regulators and the Durdens. All this happened near Abe’s Spring Bluff, in Calhoun Co.

The report of the death of Willis Musgrove appears to have been premature, as a man of that name was still alive ten years later in Jackson County. Jesse Durden and Larkin Musgrove, however, were gunned down by the vigilantes and their outraged and frightened families fought back with a vengeance. Neighbors joined them and open warfare spread through the piney woods of Calhoun and southern Jackson Counties.

What led to the attack is not clear. A contemporary Florida newspaper claimed that the Durdens had feuded with another local family several years earlier and that the calls for their extermination resulted from lingering hard feelings from that earlier confrontation. Another report, published in the Augusta, Georgia, Chronicle and Sentinel on October 17, 1860, and apparently written from the point of view of the “regulators,” described the Durdens as “notorious for immorality and crime.”

The “immorality” that so outraged the regulators was never explained, but local legend holds that the two families favored the abolition of slavery. At least one modern historian has asserted that abolition meetings were held at the Durden home, but his cited sources do not verify the claim.

It is clear, however, that many Southerners opposed slavery and there is abundant evidence that individuals with pro-Union or abolitionist views were targeted by regulator gangs in Florida and elsewhere during the months leading up to the General Election of 1860. These bands of outlaws used intimidation to silence opposition as the Southern states hurtled towards secession and civil war.

It is interesting to note that although they farmed more than 400 acres, neither the Durdens nor the Musgroves owned slaves. This was a significant acreage for the time and their operation was among the largest in Northwest Florida that did not make use of slave laborers. It is also interesting to note that there was an escalation of slave disappearances from the plantations of the region throughout the year 1860 and fingers were steadily pointed at Calhoun County.
One of the more widely publicized incidents took place only two weeks before the attack on the Durdens and Musgroves:

We are in the receipt of a letter from Dr. David L. White, of Gadsden County, informing us of an attempt to decoy off two of his negro boys. They were young, and decoyed off about the first of this month. Elias H. Kemp, Esq., of our county, captured one of the boys, and the other returned home. The boys say a white man in West Florida persuaded them off, mounted upon pony horses, and told them as soon as they crossed the Chattahoochee river to leave the telegraph road, which they did. Evidently the man or men who decoyed off these boys resides in West Florida. Let our citizens give an eye to this matter, and soon the thieves will be brought to justice. – There is yet another negro with the thief at the time Dr. White’s negro left, who has not been captured. – The public had better be on the look out.

The report provides pretty solid evidence that someone living west of the Apalachicola River was involved in an aggressive effort to lead slaves away from the plantations of the region.

(End of Excerpt)

The Grave of Captain Henry Robinson

This is the grave of Captain Henry J. Robinson, a key figure in the Battle of Marianna.

Born in 1840, Robinson was only 20 years old when Florida seceeded from the Union. He originally served in Company D of the 6th Florida Infantry, a regiment mustered into the Confederate service in the spring of 1862 at the arsenal in Chattahoochee (today's Florida State Hospital).

By 1864, Robinson was a teacher at the academy in Greenwood. As Florida required all male citizens over the age of 15 to enlist in either the regular military or state militia units, he organized the boys who studied under him into a company of cadets known as the Greenwood Club Cavalry.

After completing their lessons for the day, the boys would take part in military drills led by Robinson, who also served as their captain.

On the morning of September 27, 1864, Captain Robinson was notified that a Union force was approaching Marianna and ordered to bring the boys of the Greenwood Club Cavalry to help defend the city. Many of the older men of Greenwood were unwilling to see the teenagers ride off to fight alone, so they mounted up and went with them.

The unit fought bravely at the Battle of Marianna. Francis B. Carter, a 76-year-old Greenwood resident who rode in with the boys, was killed in the fighting at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, as was Dr. M.A. Butler, another Greenwood resident who rode in with Robinson's Company.

John J. Dickson, a 59-year-old wheelwright from Greenwood who also fought with the company, was wounded in the battle by a severe blow to the head and taken prisoner. He died in a Union prison camp in New York.

Three other members of Captain Robinson's company - W.H. Kimball, T.D. Newsome and Hansel Grice - were also captured in the fighting at Marianna.

Captain Robinson was not captured during the battle, but instead was among the Confederate cavalrymen who retreated across the Chipola River. He and his men joined other Southern soldiers in tearing up the planking of the old wooden bridge and holding off Union efforts to drive them away and capture the bridge.

He did not long survive the hard times of the war, but died in 1866 and the young age of 26. He is buried at Hays Cemetery, located west of Greenwood off the Old U.S. Road. To learn more about the Battle of Marianna, please visit http://www.battleofmarianna.net/

Walking in the Footsteps of Marcos Delgado

Spanish Expedition Marched from Sneads to Campbellton in 1686

By Dale Cox

After learning in 1686 that a French settlement had been established somewhere near the mouth of the Mississippi River (the actual location was in Texas), the Spanish governor of Florida sent out an expedition to locate and expel the interlopers.

Headed by Marcos Delgado, the expedition consisted of 13 Spanish soldiers and 40 Native American warriors. Heading northwest from Mission San Luis (now a historical landmark in Tallahassee), the party crossed the Apalachicola River near Sneads and eventually passed out of what is now Jackson County near Campbellton.

After spending a few days resting at Mission San Carlos, a Spanish settlement near the west end of the Jim Woodruff Dam, Delgado headed west on September 2, 1686. He arrived at Blue Spring, which he called Calistoble, later that day:

…Departing from the village of the Chacatos to the northwest on the road to Calistoble there is encountered at five leagues a spring of clear water which forms a river that has 48 feet of width. At the spring it is 36 feet in depth and the river below is from one yard to one yard and one-half in depth and is bordered by thickets of large cane about six inches thick.

From Blue Spring the expedition turned to the northwest and crossed the Chipola River somewhere in the vicinity of today’s Bellamy Bridge. He described the crossing place as a “clayey swamp and in its center a stream which has 36 feet of width and a depth of 6 feet.” Once across the Chipola, the explorers began to encounter buffalo for the first time.

Continuing northwest, Delgado crossed Spring Creek near present-day Campbellton and reached the abandoned site of San Antonio. He described it as being roughly 3 miles from the creek, a location that would place it somewhere near the present Alabama line:

…Continuing one league to the northwest we arrived at the chicasa (old town site) called San Antonio which had been a village of the Chacato nation, which has three springs of water within a short distance of each other.

Delgado eventually pushed as far north as present-day Montgomery, Alabama, where he visited with the leaders of Indian tribes that would soon consolidate to become the Creek Nation. The journal of his expedition provides an interesting window into the history of Jackson County.

Note: This account is excerpted from Dale Cox’s recent book, The History of Jackson County: The Early Years. It is available at Chipola River Book and Tea in Downtown Marianna or online at www.amazon.com.

Battle of Marianna Casualties buried in Pensacola

By Dale Cox

Pensacola – I had the opportunity this week to spend a few minutes walking through the tombstones at Barrancas National Cemetery. Located on board the Pensacola Naval Air Station at Pensacola, this cemetery contains the graves of men and women who served their country from the War of 1812 up until today.

Among the hundreds of graves there are two that contain the remains of seven men who died as a result of the Battle of Marianna on September 27, 1864. Three men are buried in one of the graves, four in the other.

These soldiers were among eight Union men killed or mortally wounded when Federal troops led by Brigadier General Alexander Asboth attacked Marianna following a raid that swept through Walton, Holmes and the northwestern corner of Jackson County.

Among them is Lieutenant Ellis Ayer of Company I, 2nd Maine Cavalry. Serving as a staff officer to General Asboth, he was the first man killed in the Battle of Marianna. Eyewitnesses reported that he was shot down as the Union cavalry rounded the curve at today’s intersection of Lafayette and Russ Streets. Confederate cavalry had lined up across the intersection and opened fire on the approaching Federals as they came into range. Armstrong Purdee, an 8-year-old liberated from slavery on the Waddell Plantation by a Union soldier, remembered that Ayer had been shot in the chest and was carried back to a small stream on what is now West Lafayette Street, groaning from his wound.

Another of the Union dead, Captain Mahlon M. Young of the 7th Vermont Veteran Volunteers, was the only member of his regiment to fight at Marianna. Newly married, he had just returned to Pensacola from a trip home when the rest of the 7th Vermont was sent home on furlough. He volunteered to join the raid and was shot and killed by members of the Marianna Home Guard in the fighting along West Lafayette Street. Young had earlier sparked an international incident by arresting Confederate officers protected by a flag of truce as they met with the Spanish Consul in Pensacola.

Ayer, Young and the other Union dead were originally buried at Riverside Cemetery in Marianna in graves apart from those of the town’s citizens. In the years after the war, the government hired contractors to locate and exhume the graves of Union soldiers killed during the War Between the States. Seven graves were located at Riverside and the remains inside relocated to Barrancas National Cemetery.

One body, however, is conspicuously absent from the cemetery. The body of Private Nicholas Francis (sometimes written as Francis Nicholas), who served in Company E of the 82nd U.S. Colored Infantry, was apparently neither located nor exhumed. Because of the nature of the times, as an African American soldier he was buried apart from his white comrades. When the others were removed to Barrancas, he was either overlooked or ignored. A marker has been erected in his honor at another local cemetery, but he probably still rests in an unmarked grave at Riverside.

To learn more about the Battle of Marianna, please visit http://www.battleofmarianna.net/. Read more about the cemetery at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/barrancasnationalcemetery.

Lost Grave of Former Speaker of the House Rediscovered in Marianna

Members of the Dr. Theophilus West Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) have been involved in a noteworthy project to locate, clean up and repair cemeteries in Jackson County with graves of Confederate veterans.

Today they rediscovered the overgrown and forgotten but extremely historic Long Cemetery in Marianna. The cemetery is located down a steep ridge off Kelson Avenue.

Among those buried there is Richard H. Long, a former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives and a delegate to Florida's 1838 Constitutional Convention. He also served as a county judge of Jackson County in the years before the Civil War.

Another noteworthy grave is that of Captain William McPherson, C.S.A. He was the adjutant of the Confederate Post at Marianna and was wounded in the Battle of Marianna.

The photo above and the following list of burials was provided by Ashley Pollette of the West Camp. He indicates the group hopes to begin work soon to clean up and repair the cemetery and also will try to open a trail down the hill to the graves so they can be visited again.

Graves:

Richard H. Long - (1791-1865)

Ann G. Long - wife of Richard H. Long. - (1795-1846)

Meta L. McPherson - consort of William McPherson.

William McPherson - Capt. CSA. (died January 25, 1867)

Edmund B. Cobb (Died January 25, 1835)

William F. H. Long - son of Richard H. and Ann G. Long (1825-1858

Henry Long (1815-1869)

Dr. Nicholas A. Long - CSA, Capt. Indian Wars

Evidence of Prehistoric Brain Surgery in Jackson County

Sneads - The Mississippians were the ancestors of most of the Native American nations we recognize today. The Muscogee (Creek), Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw and Seminole people can all trace their history to the Mississippian culture. Some older groups such as the Yuchi and Hitchiti are believed to have descended from earlier people already living in the region when the Mississippians arrived.

From A.D. 900 until A.D. 1540, the Mississippians were the absolute masters of the Southeast. In Jackson County, the largest known early Mississippian settlement was the Curlee Site near Sneads. This site was occupied by around A.D. 1000 and consisted of a large village and mound on the banks of the Apalachicola River near where the U.S. 90 Bridge crosses between Chattahoochee and Sneads. Paired with a large seven mound ceremonial center across the river at Chattahoochee Landing, where the remains of a large platform mound can still be seen, the Curlee village was an important center supported by vast fields and a trading network that made use of the Chattahoochee, Flint and Apalachicola Rivers.

Although the mound has now been washed away by the river, the Curlee Site is one of the best researched Native American sites in Jackson County. Prior to the destruction of the site by erosion, archaeologists conducted numerous seasons of fieldwork at the site and learned a great deal about the lives of its inhabitants. They ground grain and baked bread, grew squash, melons and other crops, made both ceremonial and utility pottery, used tiny triangular points to tip their arrows and made tools from stone, wood and bone. They even made bone fishhooks for use in harvesting food from the Apalachicola River.

One of the most stunning aspects of the Curlee inhabitants, however, is that they seem to have developed the capability to perform brain surgery. A skull from the site and now in the possession of a private collector in Chattahoochee had a rectangular hole that had apparently been cut using stone tools. Most surprising, however, is the fact that the bone surrounding the hole had begun to refuse or grow back, confirming to anthropologists that the unfortunate individual had survived his primitive surgery.

Although scientists have speculated as to why inhabitants of Curlee would conduct brain surgery on a resident of their village, the best they can do is guess. Some have suggested that the individual may have suffered from migraine headaches or somehow been injured, but we may never know for sure.

At some point around 1250-1350 A.D., Curlee and other Mississippian sites along the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers in Jackson County were suddenly abandoned. No one is quite sure why, although it possibly had to do with the arrival of a new, militaristic group in western Jackson County – the Chacato.

Note: This article is excerpted from Volume One of my new book, The History of Jackson County, Florida. The book is available locally at Chipola River Book and Tea in Downtown Marianna and can also be purchased at http://www.amazon.com/.

The Wreck of the "Chamois"

Steamboat Explosion Received Wide Coverage

By Dale Cox

While travel on the early paddlewheel steamboats that served Jackson County was picturesque and romantic, it could also be very dangerous. Fires and boiler explosions were common, while the snags, rocks and sandbars of the rivers claimed a surprising number of boats. The average life of a steamboat on the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers was only a few years and quite often the boats ended their careers with an even more tragic loss of life. A number of these unfortunate accidents took place along the Jackson County banks.

Little is known of the first such incident, a fire that destroyed the steamboat Flossie at Brown’s Ferry in 1835. The next known accident was the loss of the Chamois to a boiler explosion in 1842. The fatal incident was reported widely in the nation’s newspapers:

…The steamer Chamois, Capt. Morton, burst her boiler on Thursday, 3d of November, near Chattahoochee, at the fork of the river. She was aground, and trying to pull off when the explosion occurred, which hurried three souls into eternity. There were others more or less injured, but none severely. It is stated as usual, that no blame whatever is attached to the officers of the boat. The names of the persons killed are Leander Vale, 1st engineer, Wm. Cannefax, Steward, and Joseph Floyd, deck hand.

A similar report appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer under the headline, “Dreadful Steamboat Disaster on the Chattahoochie.” According to that publication, the Chamois was grounded on a sandbar at the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers and the crew was using both the power of her engines and a capstan to try to pull her into deeper waters:

…The captain was standing at the time on the boiler deck, and was thrown a great distance, but miraculously escaped, with some slight bruises. The boat is a complete wreck and will prove an entire loss. This was the first trip of the boat up the river for this season, and she had a large freight on board, which is all damaged. The engine and furniture will be saved. The deck hands were all engaged at the capstan hauling off, and are all more or less injured.

The site of the wreck, shown above, is now covered by the waters of Lake Seminole.

The next year another vessel, the 228-ton sidewheeler Irwinton went down at Brown’s Ferry, fortunately with no loss of life. It was actually the second time that the Irwinton had hit the bottom of the river. On May 11, 1838, the boat was steaming down the Apalachicola below Blountstown when her crew discovered that she was on fire. To prevent the total loss of the boat, they scuttled her and allowed the river water to put out the fire. She was subsequently raised and put back in service.

Note: This article was excerpted from The History of Jackson County, Florida: Volume One. The book is available at Chipola River Book and Tea at 4402 Lafayette Street in Downtown Marianna or click here for information on ordering through Amazon.com.

Last Store in Parramore is now gone

The end of an era in Jackson County history was marked today as the last surviving store in the old ghost town of Parramore was torn down.

The photograph here shows the old store as it appeared about a month ago. As you can see, it was overgrown and slowly collapsing on its own. It had become a danger and was beyond saving, but it is still sad to see it go.

Parramore was an important river port in Jackson County during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Served by a series of riverboat landings on the Chattahoochee River, the community developed on the high ground back from the river. At its height, Parramore was home to four or five stores, a post office, blacksmith shop, cotton gin, grist mill, saw mill and several large turpentine operations.

The town began to fade when steamboat traffic slowed on the Chattahoochee River and the end of the paddlewheel riverboat era during the 1940s spelled the final death of the little commercial district. People moved away and the buildings were reclaimed by the woods.

Over time, the old stores and structures have disappeared one by one. The store that disappeared today was the last of the standing structures in the main area of the old community. A few outlying buildings, including a log cabin and a one room school, still survive, but for the most part little remains today to remind modern generations of this once thriving place of business and life.

Parramore comes back to life once each year, on the first Sunday in October, when an annual homecoming is held at Oak Grove Church to remember the once prosperous community.

Jeff Milton - Faster than the Fastest Gun in the West

By Dale Cox

Blue Spring – On Blue Springs Road a few miles east of Marianna, a state marker points out the site of “Sylvania,” the home of Governor John Milton. The marker provides the basic story of Governor Milton, Florida’s Confederate leader.

An important fact overlooked by the writer of the marker text, however, is that “Sylvania” was also the birthplace of Jefferson Davis Milton, a lawman who faced down the “fastest gun in the West” and lived to tell about it.

Jeff Milton was born at Sylvania in November of 1861 and was just four years old when his father died from a gun blast in one of the bedrooms. It was the beginning of a remarkably turbulent and yet highly successful life.

Like many young Southern men of his era, Milton turned his back on his home state and headed west for Texas. Only fifteen years old, he worked as a cowboy for a time but soon embarked on a career in which he achieved lasting fame.

In 1878, when he was just seventeen years old, Jeff Milton lied about his age and became a Texas Ranger. Four years later he moved west to New Mexico and spent the 1880s and 1890s working as a deputy U.S. marshal, sheriff’s deputy, police chief and in other law enforcement roles.

One thing is for certain, Jeff Milton had one of the fastest draws of any gunfighter in the Old West. He was responsible over the years for the gunfight shootings of such desperadoes as “Bronco Bill” Walters, “Three Fingered Jack” Dunlop and “Bravo Juan” Yoas. His famous quote, “I never killed a man who didn’t need killing,” is among the best known attributed to any gunfighter.

Milton’s most remarkable accomplishment, however, may well have been the stand he made as Police Chief of El Paso, Texas, against the man some believe was the deadliest gunfighter of them all, John Wesley Hardin. Often described as “the fastest gun in the West,” Hardin killed between 30 and 60 men over the years – many of them lawmen.

Jeff Milton had signed on as the head of El Paso’s police force in 1894 and vowed to bring law and order to the boisterous frontier town. Almost immediately he heard that the infamous Hardin was on his way to town, heavily armed and accompanied by several others. Despite Hardin’s fearsome reputation, Milton met him face to face in the streets of El Paso where he informed the gunfighter that he would not be allowed to carry weapons in the city. It was a remarkable scene, the man called by his biographer “a good man with a gun” facing down the “Dark Angel” of Texas. In the end, not a shot was fired. For one of a very few times in his life, Hardin calculated his odds and decided against a gunfight with Jeff Milton. He meekly turned over his weapons and submitted to Milton’s orders.

John Wesley Hardin died not long after, shot in the back of the head by an adversary while he rolled dice in an El Paso saloon. Jeff Milton, however, went on to live a long and productive life. In 1904 he accepted employment with the Immigration Service and continued with the agency until he was 72 years old.

Jefferson Davis Milton died in Tucson, Arizona, on May 7, 1947. His ashes were sprinkled over the deserts that he came to love, far away from his birthplace in Jackson County. He is remembered today by officers of the U.S. Border Patrol as “America’s First Border Patrolman.”

Andrew Jackson and the Natural Bridge - Part Three

We continue today with our series of excerpts from my new book, The History of Jackson County, Florida: Volume One. We are detailing the story of Andrew Jackson and the Natural Bridge of the Chipola River at Florida Caverns State Park:

(Excerpt)

The army continued forward on the morning of May 11, 1818. Crossing the hills between Blue Spring and the Chipola River, they arrived by around midday at the natural bridge. It was here that the supposed incident involving Andrew Jackson took place, but Captain Young did not record it in his journal. Instead, he wrote that the men were well aware that they were crossing a natural bridge and even offered a theory as to how it had been formed:

The Natural Bridge is in the center of a large swamp and appears to be a deposit of earth on a raft or some similar obstruction. The passage is narrow and the creek, with a rapid current is visible both above and below.

Young, of course, was mistaken about the formation of the bridge. It is actually created by the sudden disappearance of the Chipola River into a series of limestone passages. It flows underground through these for a short distance, before rising back to the surface. Nineteenth century loggers cut a canal across the top of the feature to allow them to float timber across to a downstream mill, taking away some of the unique appearance of the natural bridge, but it can still be seen today.

The absence of any mention of the legendary natural bridge incident in Young’s account is curious. A careful examination of his memoir, however, provides an explanation.

There was an incident involving a natural bridge during Jackson’s invasion, but according to Young it took place between St. Marks and Suwannee Old Town at the Natural Bridge of the Econfina. Jackson and the main body crossed over that bridge, but had to wait for a second column to catch up. When the soldiers arrived, they explained that it had been necessary for them to build rafts to cross a river.

Somehow, over time, the real incident at the Econfina Natural Bridge was claimed by the early settlers of Jackson County and relocated to the Natural Bridge of the Chipola. A number of the soldiers in Jackson’s army came back to settle Jackson County and it is possible that in later years their descendents remembered their story about the natural bridge incident and assumed they were talking about the one at today’s Florida Caverns.

A second legend about Jackson’s passage through Jackson County, however, appears to have more of a basis in truth. According to local tradition, as the army made its way through the area of Florida Caverns State Park, they were carefully watched by alarmed Native Americans who hid in caves and rock shelters as the soldiers marched past. A visit to the park in May, the month during which the expedition took place, reveals that this was clearly possible. The heavy spring growth of the forest obscures many rock bluffs and caves that look out on the route followed by the soldiers.

Native American families still living in Jackson County preserve strong oral tradition about this incident. A representative of one family indicated in 2007 that for many years, older members of the family would take younger members to the area of the natural bridge and point out caves in which their grandparents said they had hidden while the soldiers marched past.

After crossing the natural bridge, Jackson’s soldiers continued on past Blue Hole Spring and the Rock Arch Cave before turning to the northwest again and marching out of what is now Jackson County near present-day Graceville. The trail they followed took them through some of the fine farmlands between the Chipola River and Holmes Creek. The country was impressive and they knew that once the Seminole War was over, would likely be wide open for settlement.

Jackson’s topographer, Captain Hugh Young, clearly had the future settlement of the area in mind as he recorded his observations of the country through which the army passed. Describing the area below and around present-day Grand Ridge, for example, he noted that it was “good pine land with reddish soil.” With regard to the land west of the Chipola River through which the army marched, he wrote that it was “excellent land” with a “mixed growth of oak, pine and hickory with several sinks affording abundance of excellent water.”

(End of Excerpt)

If you are interested in learning more about the history of Jackson County, please consider my new book, The History of Jackson County, Florida: Volume One. The book can be purchased online by simply clicking the title. It is also available at Chipola River Book and Tea in Downtown Marianna. They are located on the same block as the Gazebo Restaurant and are directly across from the Battle of Marianna monument.

Anniversary of Scott's Massacre - November 30, 1817

Today marks the 191st anniversary of the Seminole War battle remembered as Scott's Massacre.

This bloody fight took place on November 30, 1817, on the Apalachicola River in roughly the area of Chattahoochee Landing between Chattahoochee and Sneads.

The battle began when Seminole and Creek warriors attacked a U.S. Army supply boat from the Gadsden County side of the river. The current had forced the boat to navigate close to the shore, allowing the warriors to fire from point blank range.

After firing a volley of musket and rifle fire that killed or wounded most of the able-bodied U.S. soldiers on the boat, the warriors (reportedly led by the refugee Creek chief Homathlemico and others) waded into the river and overwhelmed the survivors. The incident was widely mentioned in 19th century histories of the United States, but has now faded into obscurity. Illustrations like the one shown here were used in a number of books of that era.
The attack resulted in the deaths of at least 34 U.S. soldiers, 6 women (wives of soldiers) and 4 children. Four other soldiers were wounded, but escaped by leaping into the river and swimming away to the opposite bank. Only three people survived without injury. Two of them were soldiers that escaped to the opposite bank. The third, Elizabeth Stewart, was taken captive by the warriors and held in various villages until the following spring when she was rescued by troops under Andrew Jackson.

The event marked the deadliest day in the history of Gadsden and Jackson Counties. If you would like to learn more, please consider my new book, The History of Jackson County, Florida: Volume One. The book can be ordered by following the link and can also be purchased at Chipola River Book and Tea in Marianna (downtown across from the Battle of Marianna monument). It will be available through other locations in January.

Andrew Jackson and the Natural Bridge - Part Two

We continue tonight with the story of Andrew Jackson and the Natural Bridge of the Chipola River.

This article is part two of a series of excerpts from The History of Jackson County, Florida: Volume One, a new book published this year.

(Excerpt)

From Fort Gadsden, Jackson’s army swept east through much of the Big Bend region of Florida. He destroyed the Seminole towns of Tallahassee Talofa (“Old Field Town”) and Miccosukee and defeated a large force of Seminole, Creek and African American warriors at the Battle of Miccosukee on April 1, 1818. Turning south, he marched to the coast and forced the surrender of the Spanish fort of San Marcos de Apalache (Fort St. Marks). There he captured a Scottish trader named Alexander Arbuthnot as well as the Creek Prophet Josiah Francis and the Red Stick chief Homathlemico. Arbuthnot was accused of inciting the war, while Francis and Homathlemico were old enemies of Jackson’s from the Creek War. Both of the chiefs were summarily hanged, but Arbuthnot was held as a prisoner.

Three prisoners of the Indians were also found in the fort. William Hambly and Edmund Doyle, the traders captured at Spanish Bluff, had been turned over to the Spanish for safe keeping by their captors. With them was found a Georgia militiaman named Duncan McKrimmon. He had been captured by some of Francis’ warriors near Fort Gadsden and was on the verge of being executed when the prophet’s daughter, Milly Francis, intervened on his behalf and convinced his captors to spare his life. She later became known as the “Creek Pocahontas” and was authorized a special medal of honor and pension by the U.S. Congress in recognition of her act of mercy.

Jackson then turned east for the Suwannee, to attack the large village of Chief Boleck (also called “Bowlegs”) near what is now Suwannee Old Town. En route, however, his scouts discovered a large force of Red Sticks under the chief Peter McQueen at the Natural Bridge of the Econfina River (Note: Not to be confused with Econfina Creek). McQueen was attacked and his warriors all but annihilated in a bloody one-sided confrontation. More than 100 women and children were captured, including Mrs. Stewart, the captive survivor of Scott’s Massacre.

The army pushed on to Suwannee Old Town, where another sharp battle took place. Boleck’s village was destroyed, but most of its inhabitants managed to escape across the Suwannee River to safety. Two British interlopers, however, were not so fortunate. Sending out parties to round up any warriors that might be hiding in the area, Jackson managed to capture a schooner that had tied up near the mouth of the Suwannee. On board were Peter Cook and Robert Ambrister. Cook was a clerk to Alexander Arbuthnot, the trader captured at Fort St. Marks, while Ambrister had been a lieutenant in the British Marines and a subordinate to Colonel Nicolls and Major Woodbine during the War of 1812.

Jackson took them back to St. Marks where a military trial was convened. Cook agreed to testify for the prosecution, as did Hambly and Doyle. Arbuthnot and Ambrister were found guilty and executed by order of the general.

Believing the war was now virtually over, Jackson ordered most of his men back to Fort Scott for discharge and then returned in person to Fort Gadsden. Upon arriving there, however, he received intelligence that Spanish authorities in Pensacola were providing arms and supplies to Red Stick warriors. Assembling a force of 1,092 men and two pieces of artillery, he marched back up the east side of the Apalachicola River and on May 9, 1818, crossed over to Ocheesee Bluff.

The army turned to the northwest on the morning of May 10th and crossed into Jackson County. Their route led them across the approximate site of Grand Ridge to Blue Spring, where they camped for the night. Captain Hugh Young, Jackson’s topographer, called the spot “Big Spring,” a name it would hold for a number of years. He described it as being “forty yards in diameter and of considerable depth with a rock bottom and a clean rapid current.”

The soldiers in Jackson’s army marveled at the beauty and richness of the surrounding countryside. Young himself kept careful records of the quality of the lands through which they marched.

(End of Excerpt)

Copies of The History of Jackson County, Florida: Volume One are available at Chipola River Book and Tea in downtown Marianna (on the same block as the Gazebo Restaurant, across the street from the Battle of Marianna monument). You can also order the book online by clicking here.

Andrew Jackson and the Natural Bridge - Part One

The Natural Bridge of the Chipola River, seen here, is one of the most significant historic sites in Jackson County.

Now part of Florida Caverns State Park, the bridge is a place where the Chipola River sinks underground for a short distance before rising again and continuing down to eventually merge with the Apalachicola.

In 1818, the army of General Andrew Jackson crossed the bridge on its way to attack the Spanish city of Pensacola. The march provided many of Jackson's men with their first view of the area they would soon return to settle. It also provided Jackson County with one of its most fascinating legends, the story of Andrew Jackson and the Natural Bridge.

The following is excerpted from my new book, The History of Jackson County, Florida: Volume One. Signed copies of the book can be purchased in Marianna at Chipola River Book and Tea (on the same block as the Gazebo restaurant, across from the Battle of Marianna monument). It can also be ordered online by clicking here. I post additional parts of this story over coming days:

Excerpt from Chapter Two: Andrew Jackson and the Natural Bridge

A fascinating legend about the First Seminole War can still be heard at Florida Caverns State Park near Marianna. The story revolves around Andrew Jackson’s march through Northwest Florida during the spring of 1818 and his crossing of the Chipola River at the natural bridge in the park.
According to the oft-recited legend, Jackson’s army was moving forward in two columns. One column, led by the general himself and guided by the chief John Blunt, crossed the river at the natural bridge. The second column, moving by a route more to the north, was forced to halt the river and build rafts so the men and artillery could get across. Jackson’s column reached the planned rendezvous point west of the river and the general, known for his temper, supposedly became irate when the second column failed to appear on schedule.
When the bedraggled men finally trudged into camp, it is said that Jackson berated their officers, demanding to know the reason for the delay. His temper supposedly soared even higher when they explained the reason for their lateness, as he had seen no river. The legend holds that it was not until John Blunt explained the phenomenon of the natural bridge that Jackson could be placated.
It is a fascinating little story and one of the few that survive about Andrew Jackson in the county that today bears his name. Mrs. Janie Smith Rhyne, a Jackson County writer and historian of the 20th century, even memorialized the event in poem:

“About first candle-light he spied
His draggled cavalcade
Emerging from the northward swamp –
No sooner seen than sprayed

With oaths as hot as shrapnel shells.
They pled, ‘We built a raft
To cross the river;’ Jackson yapped
‘No river there, you’re daft!’

‘I crossed no stream.’ ‘Then come;’ they led
Him to Chipola’s bank.
He saw, and spat another oath;
Then all his mind seemed blank.”

There is some basis of truth behind the legend. Andrew Jackson did cross the Natural Bridge of the Chipola during the First Seminole War. It was part of his only visit to the county that would later be named in his honor.

Leaving Fort Scott on March 11, 1818, Jackson invaded Spanish Florida with an army of around 3,000 men. The size of this force grew as he advanced due to the arrival of two regiments of Tennessee militia and Colonel William McIntosh’s 900 U.S. Creek Auxiliaries. Pushing down the east side of the Apalachicola River through what are now Gadsden and Liberty Counties, Jackson paused briefly at Alum Bluff just north of Bristol when his men sighted supply boats coming up the river. The army was on the verge of starvation when the vessels hove into sight.

Replenished with provisions, the men continued down the east bank until they arrived at Prospect Bluff where the “Negro Fort” had stood until its destruction two years earlier. The ruins of the fort could still be seen and the site was scattered with debris including rusted muskets that, when cleaned, would still fire.

Here Jackson ordered his engineer, Lieutenant James Gadsden, to design and construct a new fort that could serve as a base for his operations in Florida. Gadsden used the surviving water battery of the destroyed fort to construct a new work that stood immediately on the face of the bluff overlooking the river. Pleased with the lieutenant’s efforts, the general named the new post Fort Gadsden in his honor.

(More coming in future posts...)

The Remarkable Story of Elizabeth Stewart Dill

By Dale Cox

Apalachicola River – In a recent article we explored the history of Scott’s Massacre, a battle fought on the Apalachicola River between Sneads and Chattahoochee on November 30, 1817. If you missed the article, you can read it online by scrolling down this page.

The battle took place when Creek and Seminole warriors attacked a U.S. Army supply boat commanded by Lieutenant Richard W. Scott of the 7th Infantry Regiment. Casualties were severe. Of the 40 men, 7 women and 4 children on board, 34 men, 6 women and all 4 children were killed.

The only female survivor of the massacre was Mrs. Elizabeth Stewart. Twenty-nine years old and a native of Maryland, she was the wife of a soldier stationed at Fort Scott. The old fort was located on the Flint River arm of what is now Lake Seminole and was the headquarters of General Edmund P. Gaines and the First Brigade.

Although six other women and four children died in the attack, Mrs. Stewart was saved through the intervention of one of the chiefs. Taken to the Seminole town of Miccosukie near present-day Tallahassee, she was assigned to the women belonging to a band of Creek refugees led by Chief Peter McQueen. A key leader in the Creek War of 1813-1814, McQueen had fled to Florida following the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Alabama.

Although records mentioning her captivity are rare, Mrs. Stewart appears to have performed tasks such as cooking and watching over the children of McQueen’s band. One of these was a nine year old boy then called “Billy” or “Powell.” In later years he became the great Seminole leader Osceola and it is his life that is memorialized today at Florida State University football games by “Chief Osceola,” the mascot of the Seminoles. In 1817 he was among the refugees that had fled to Florida from Alabama with Peter McQueen.

Enough mention of Mrs. Stewart appears in correspondence and military records of the time to verify that U.S. Army officers knew she was alive. The chances of locating and rescuing her, however, must have seemed remote.

In April of 1818, however, Andrew Jackson’s troops attacked McQueen’s warriors at Econfina Natural Bridge between Tallahassee and the Suwannee River. As the fight developed, Mrs. Stewart was seen hiding in the brush by Timpoochee Barnard, a Creek warrior fighting on the side of the United States. Barnard fought his way through the action to Mrs. Stewart and carried her safely to General Jackson.

Although early frontiersman Thomas Woodward told a vivid story later in life of the death of “Sergeant Stewart” at Scott’s Massacre, records of the time indicate that Woodward was repeating a fictional story. There was no soldier named Stewart killed during the battle and General William McIntosh, the famed Creek leader of Coweta, wrote a few days after Mrs. Stewart’s rescue that she had been returned to “her father and husband” who he said were with General Jackson.

The Stewarts settled about sixty miles north of Jackson County in Fort Gaines, Georgia. He died there in the early 1820s and she remarried a local merchant named Thomas Dill. The couple was one of the wealthiest on the frontier and a Fort Gaines legend holds that their riches originated during Elizabeth’s captivity. As the story goes, Native American warriors considered paper money worthless to them and would throw it away as they returned from raids. Elizabeth collected the money from the ground and stashed it away. By the time of her rescue, she is said to have collected a fortune.

Elizabeth Stewart Dill is buried in the Old Pioneer Cemetery in Fort Gaines and her beautiful home – seen above and supposedly built with the paper money collected in Florida – still stands as a beautiful landmark in the picturesque old town. Her story is truly one of the most remarkable in area history.

Editor’s Note: The story of Scott’s Massacre is presented in detail in Dale Cox’s new book, The History of Jackson County, Florida: Volume One. The book is available in Marianna at Chipola River Book and Tea downtown and can be ordered online by clicking here.

Florida to Save Natural Bridge Battlefield

There was a major announcement today regarding a site closely associated with the history of Jackson County.

The Battle of Natural Bridge, Florida was fought on March 6, 1865 and preserved Tallahassee's status as the only Southern capital east of the Mississippi not captured by Union troops during the Civil War.

One of the last significant Confederate victories of the war, the battle was of critical importance to North Florida and involved troops from numerous counties, including Jackson.

Major William H. Milton, of Marianna, commanded the right wing of the Confederate army during the battle. Lt. Col. W.D. Barnes, also of Marianna, commanded the Southern center. Jackson County men and boys fought at Natural Bridge in the 2nd and 5th Florida Cavalries, 1st Florida Infantry Reserves and in various artillery units.

Today, Florida Governor Charlie Christ and the state cabinet voted to save nearly 55 acres of threatened land adjoining Natural Bridge Historic State Park. The land includes the scene where Major Milton and Lt. Col. Barnes and their men held the right center and right flank of the Confederate line during the battle. It is one of the first major moves by the state to preserve an important Civil War site in Florida in many, many years.

If you would like to learn more about the battle, please click here to visit my Battle of Natural Bridge website. Also please consider my book, The Battle of Natural Bridge, Florida. The book is available at Chipola River Book and Tea in downtown Marianna (across from the Battle of Marianna monument) or for order online by clicking here.

Here is the official announcement released today by the Florida Forever program:

FLORIDA FOREVER AQUISTION PROTECTS CIVIL WAR BATTLEFIELD
AND FLORIDA SPRING
~Florida Forever acquisition preserves 54.74 acres adjacent to Natural Bridge
Historic State Park~

TALLAHASSEE— Governor Crist and Cabinet today approved the purchase of 54.74 acres of land adjacent to the Natural Bridge Historic State Park in Leon County. The acquired parcel is significant to the protection of a first magnitude spring and features a Civil War battlefield.

“This important purchase is a part of the Florida First Magnitude Springs project and one of the top projects on the Florida Forever priority list,” said Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Deputy Secretary Bob Ballard. “This acquisition ensures that the geological, historical and cultural integrity of this property and the surrounding water resources are preserved for Floridians and visitors from all over the world to enjoy for years to come.”

This Florida Forever project focuses on land that provides increased protection for Florida’s First Magnitude Springs that discharge more than 100 cubic feet of water per second. Florida’s springs, scattered through northern and central Florida, draw from the Floridan aquifer system, which is the state’s primary source of drinking water. Springs, with clear, continuously flowing waters, are among the state’s most important natural resources and are famous attractions. This acquisition brings the Florida First Magnitude Springs project closer to completion, with 7,844 acres of the 14,081 acre project remaining.

The property contains many karst features such as sink holes, natural bridges, swallets, karst windows and submerged cave systems. By preserving the surrounding land, this project will preserve the area’s geological significance and protect Florida’s water resources from the effects of commercial, residential and agricultural runoff and other potential impacts.

The property is also the site of Florida’s second largest Civil War battle. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and cited as one of the top ten endangered Civil War sites in the United States by the Civil War Preservation Trust. In 1865, during the final week of the Civil War, the battle at natural bridge preserved Tallahassee as the only Confederate Capitol east of the Mississippi that did not surrender to Union forces. Today, important historical and cultural, resources can be found on the property dating from the Paleo-Indian period (10,000 B.C.) to the Civil War. The property will eventually be managed by DEP’s Division of Recreation and Parks as part of the Natural Bridge Historic State Park.

Originally established in 1999, the 10-year, $3 billion Florida Forever program is the largest land-buying initiative in the nation, conserving environmentally sensitive land, restoring water resources and preserving important cultural and historical sites. More than two million acres throughout the state have been placed in public ownership under Florida Forever and its predecessor program, Preservation 2000 (P2000). For more information on the Florida Forever program, visit http://www.dep.state.fl.us/lands/acquisition/FloridaForever/.

To view maps that outline the subject parcel in this purchase, visit the following links: www.dep.state.fl.us/secretary/news/2008/11/files/rakestraw_springs76.pdf
www.dep.state.fl.us/secretary/news/2008/11/files/rakestraw_springs77.pdf


--30--

Remembering Scott's Massacre of 1817

The grave visible in the background here (near the fence) is that of Elizabeth Stewart Dill, the only female survivor of a fierce battle that took place on the Apalachicola River between Chattahoochee and Sneads in November of 1817.

Remembered today as Scott's Massacre, the devastating attack on a U.S. supply boat by a combined force of Creek and Seminole warriors was the action that prompted Washington to order General Andrew Jackson to invade Florida...

Remembering Scott’s Massacre: Forgotten Battle Took Place 191 Years Ago This Month

By Dale Cox


Apalachicola River – The deadliest battle in the history of Jackson County took place 191 years ago this month on the Apalachicola River between Sneads and Chattahoochee. Remembered by history as Scott’s Massacre, it was the event that led Andrew Jackson to invade Florida and eventually brought many of his soldiers to Jackson County as settlers.

In November of 1817, following a determined but peaceful standoff between the Lower Creek Chief Neamathla and Major David E. Twiggs, the commanding officer at Fort Scott (located on the Flint River arm of today’s Lake Seminole), Major General Edmund P. Gaines ordered the movement of nearly 1,000 U.S. troops to the fort. Supplies for the soldiers were sent via the Gulf of Mexico and Apalachicola River on boats escorted by troops from the 4th U.S. Infantry.
When he arrived at Fort Scott in person, General Gaines ordered Lieutenant Richard W. Scott to take 40 men down the Apalachicola on a boat to assist the supply vessels in reaching the fort. He then sent 250 men under Major Twiggs to Fowltown, the village of Neamathla, with orders to bring the chief to Fort Scott.

Neamathla and his warriors resisted and on November 21 and 23, 1817, the first and second Battles of Fowltown opened the conflict remembered today as the First Seminole War.
Infuriated by what he considered unprovoked attacks, Neamathla called for reinforcements from other Creek and Seminole villages across North Florida and ordered one of his sub-chiefs to stop the supply boats from reaching Fort Scott. Hundreds of warriors (some reports estimated as many as 2,000) flooded to the banks of the Apalachicola River in anticipation of a battle against the supply flotilla.

Unexpectedly, though, the commander of the flotilla did not keep all of Lieutenant Scott’s men to reinforce his own force. Instead he took only 20 of Scott’s men and then put 20 men that were sick with fever, 7 women (wives of soldiers) and 4 children on the lieutenant’s boat and ordered him to return upriver to the fort. Neither officer knew of the attacks on Fowltown or the outbreak of war with the Seminoles and Creeks.

Following his orders, Lieutenant Scott started back upriver but on November 28, 1817, was warned at present-day Blountstown by the friendly chief John Blunt and the traders William Hambly and Edmund Doyle that a large force was assembling upstream and it would be extremely dangerous for him to continue. He sent a letter overland to Fort Scott requesting help, but then inexplicably continued his journey up the Apalachicola.

On November 30, 1817, as Scott’s boat rounded the sharp bend in the Apalachicola River between today’s Sneads and Chattahoochee, he was suddenly attacked by hundreds of Native American warriors.

The Creeks and Seminoles had formed along the Gadsden County bank of the river at a point where they knew the current would force the military boat close to shore. According to the reports of survivors, they ambushed the lieutenant and his men from the cover of trees and brush, killing Scott and most of his able-bodied men with their first volley. They then waded out into the river and stormed the boat, fighting hand to hand with the rest of the soldiers and killing most of them with hatchets, knives and war clubs.

Only 6 of the 40 soldiers on the boat survived and four of them were wounded. They leaped overboard and swam across the river to the Jackson County shore and safety. Six of the women and all 4 children were also killed. In less than 15 minutes, the Creeks and Seminoles had taken their revenge for the attacks on Fowltown and killed 44 of the 51 men, women and children on Lieutenant Scott’s boat.

The six surviving soldiers made their way overland to Fort Scott with news of the disaster. The only surviving woman, Mrs. Elizabeth Stewart (or Stuart), was taken captive by the warriors and carried away to their villages. Her story became one of the most remarkable of the era and we will detail it in next week’s article.

Scott’s Massacre outraged authorities in Washington, D.C., and Major General Andrew Jackson was ordered to assemble an army and head for the frontier. His campaign would carry him through today’s Jackson County, where many of his soldiers were so impressed with the quality of the lands that they returned over the next few years as the area’s first settlers.

Editor’s Note: The story of Scott’s Massacre is told in-depth in Dale Cox’s book, The History of Jackson County, Florida: Volume One. The book is available at Chipola River Book and Tea in Marianna or for order directly from the printer at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/dalecox.

The Abstract Office - Marianna's Oldest Business Structure

This charming little frame building facing the west side of Courthouse Square in Marianna has been known to generations as the "Abstract Office."

It is actually the oldest commercial structure still standing in Marianna. Believed to have been built by Dr. W.S. Wilson as a medical office in the 1840s, it was originally located on nearby Market Street. The building was moved to its present location on South Jefferson in 1910.

Wilson was practicing in partnership with Dr. William H. Whitehead by 1858 and provided medical services to Marianna residents through the Civil War.

On September 27, 1864, he was among the citizens that turned out with the Marianna Home Guard to defend the city against Union attack. The doctor fought in the Battle of Marianna and treated wounded men after the fight. Some may have been brought to this structure for care.

Dr. Wilson died in 1868, but his office has continued to serve the community ever since. It was the home of Marianna's first telephone exchange and later served as an abstract office for Florida Land Title and Trust for over 90 years.

Jackson County Soldiers Accused of Seminole War Attrocity

This image from the Library of Congress shows a Native American town in Florida at the time of the Second Seminole War.

The war attracted widespread criticism in the United States, largely because of alleged attrocities and growing national sympathy with the plight of tribes such as the Seminoles and Creeks.

It was in this environment that a unit of militia soldiers (equivalent of today's National Guard) from Jackson County became involved in a bloody incident remembered today as the Alaqua Massacre.

“One of the Most Outrageous Acts Civilized Men Could Be Guilty Of”
Jackson County Soldiers Accused of Seminole War Atrocity

By Dale Cox

Marianna – During the spring of 1837 brutal warfare spilled over into Northwest Florida from Alabama as militia forces from that state drove a large party of Creek warriors and their families down the valley of the Choctawhatchee River. Fighting soon broke out between the warriors and the early settlers of Walton County and appeals for help went out to other area counties. Jackson County responded by sending a force of local militia (the equivalent of today’s National Guard) to join the fight.

Commanded by Colonel Levin Brown, the force of 73 drafted men left Marianna on the morning of May 6, 1837, and marched to Campbellton where supply wagons were waiting. Supplies to put in the wagons were difficult to obtain, however, and it was not until the morning of May 11th that the little army marched west for the Choctawhatchee River.

Two days later the soldiers crossed the river at Pittman’s Ferry in what is now Holmes County and then turned south for the community of Eucheeanna, the original county seat of Walton County. They did a lot of marching back and forth, but encountered no Creeks until the 23rd of May when Brown and his men succeeded in capturing a party of four warriors and thirteen hungry women and children near Alaqua Creek.

Colonel Brown tried to force one of the warriors to lead the soldiers on to where the main party of Creeks was hiding, but instead he intentionally led them astray. After spending a day hacking their way through dense forests and wading in waist-deep mud, the Jackson County soldiers let their frustrations get the best of them.

As Colonel Brown reported in a letter to Florida’s governor, things turned violent when the men of Captain Stephen Daniel’s company suddenly opened fire on their unfortunate guide:

Captain Daniels’ company having charge of the prisoners in the rear, when Capt. D. and nearly all his company fired on the Indian prisoner who had led us through so many difficulties during the night. The women and children, taking fright at this, started to run, when they were all shot down, and left on the ground.

The massacre of the unfortunate women and children was one of the great tragedies of the conflict remembered today as the Second Seminole War and undoubtedly was one of the darkest days in the history of Jackson County.

Lieutenant J.G. Reynolds of the regular U.S. Army investigated the incident and made clear in his report that the attack was even more brutal than described in Colonel Brown’s account:

The shrieks of the poor children were distinctly heard at the house, distant, I should think, one-quarter of a mile. Several were scalped and all who had earrings had their ears slit with knives in order to possess themselves of the silver. I do think this is one of the most outrageous acts civilized men could be guilty of.

Despite the severity of Reynolds’ report, no action was ever taken against the Jackson County soldiers for their role in the Alaqua Massacre.

Note: This article is based on a chapter in the new book, The History of Jackson County, Florida: Volume One. The book can be purchased from Chipola River Book and Tea in downtown Marianna or online at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/dalecox.

The Rough and Tumble Election of 1849

As Jackson County voters go to the polls for this year's General Election, it should be a peaceful experience. In our modern times election day is still exciting, but doesn't quite involve the bodily risk that it did in earlier times! Consider the election of 1849 for example.

The following is excerpted from my new book, The History of Jackson County, Florida: Volume One...

One of the more fascinating documents to survive from the early days of Jackson County is an autobiography written by Dr. Charles Hentz. The doctor maintained a medical practice in Port Jackson on the Chattahoochee River in the year 1849. His writings, based on his memories and a shorter diary he kept during his time in the area, reveal much about the rough and tumble nature of life in the rural areas of Jackson County during the late 1840s.

In one fascinating passage, he described the election of 1849 as a day of drinking, rowdiness, drug use and murder:

…It was an eventful day, in more ways than one. In the forenoon, some of the reckless, drinking men came to me to ask me to give them some chloroform; they having heard of its wonderful effects in the way of sudden exhilaration; I did my best to get rid of them; told them they had too much aboard already &c., &c., but they insisted so perseveringly, and declared that I should be held blameless, I finally announced loudly from my window what was going to happen, and warned everybody to look out; I got several of them – the two Keels, a man named Bowers, &c., &c. – to roll their handkerchiefs up, & I poured in a good dose of chloroform into each, and told them to walk up and down under the cotton shed, & smell deep and hard. It was not long before I regretted my folly.

It is difficult to imagine such a scene today. Not only was Hentz a trained physician, but he was the clerk and inspector for the Port Jackson precinct in the election that was underway. In addition to administering chloroform to the crowd of rowdy voters, he was also accepting ballots through the window of his office.

His description of what happened next is nothing short of bizarre:

…A wild scene of confusion took place; yelling & screaming; & flying fists created for a while a pandemonium; one of them came bounding in the window, seeking shelter from one of the Keels, who looked like a raging demon.

Old Tommy Hair (sic.) was leaning against a cotton bale, in a state of blissful repletion with his favorite beverage, not noticing the wild chloroform excitement, when he received a clip on the side of the head that sent him off in a summerset to one side….

Once he recovered from the attack and discovered the cause of the frenzy, Hare grabbed a stick and rampaged up and down outside Hentz’s office, cursing him for giving the men “stuff that made them crazy.” Apparently it was a lesson well learned, as Hentz noted that he was “careful never to give any chloroform again to such a set of people as we had about us there.”

It might have been expected, however, that such a day would not end without further violence. It came later in the afternoon when a man named Jordan left the voting precinct accompanied by a second man named Lott Owens. Jordan had been accused of paying improper attention to the wife of one of his neighbors, B.F. Wood. Jordan and Owens had not been gone from Port Jackson for more than about thirty minutes when Owens suddenly reappeared:

…Owens made his appearance, on foot, out of breath from running and excitement; and called out to the crowd about the store, “Boys, Wood has killed Jordan, get on your horses all, & come up the road.” There was immediately wild excitement; everybody mounted, I had my horse saddled, & joined the crowd.

The party found Jordan lying face down on a dirt road. Upon examination it was found that he had been killed by a shotgun blast to the chest. Owens, who had witnessed the killing, described how he and Jordan were riding in a wagon along the road when they saw Wood approaching them on foot with a whip in one hand and a shotgun over his shoulder. Wood blocked the road, dropped to one knee, aimed his gun and showed “Stop Sir.” At that, Owens said he took shelter behind a tree, but Jordan tried to rush their assailant. Wood fired and Jordan was killed.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of The History of Jackson County, Florida: Volume One, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/dalecox for information on how to order the book directly from the printer.