Post by IRONCLAD on Mar 10, 2004 21:42:06 GMT -5
Story of the Florida Cow Cavalry
Florida 1st. Special Cavalry Battalion
Nickname: Cattle Guards
Special Commissary Battalion
Organization: Organized on December 23, 1864. Surrendered at Tallahassee, Florida, by Major General Samuel Jones, commanding the District of Florida, on May 10, 1865.
First Commander: Charles J. Munnerlyn (Lieutenant Colonel)
Field Officer: William Footman (Major)
Assignment: Miller’s-Jones’ Brigade (District of Florida), Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida (December 1864-May 1865)
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During the summer and fall of 1863, a number of Floridians serving in the Confederate forces were detached from their regular units and assigned to Florida to drive cattle. A continuing supply of beef was critical to the armies of the South and the Commissary Department was in charge of the herding and supplying of cattle. Capt. James McKay, Jr., formerly Asst. Quartermaster of the 4th. Florida Infantry took command of 160 men According to Thomas B. Ellis, a company was formed with James McKay, Jr., as Captain; William W. Wall as 1st. Lieutenant; John W. Crichton as 2nd. Lieutenant and Ellis as 1st. Sergeant. This unit remained in operation from the latter part of 1863 through the fall of 1864 when it was absorbed, for the most part, into the Cow Cavalry companies of Capts. F.A. Hendry, L.G. Lesley and J.T. Lesley. But James McKay, Jr., continued his leadership roll in Munnerlyn’s Battalion as Quartermaster and commanded forces in Tampa.
By 1863, Florida had become the primary source of beef for the Confederate troops defending Charleston and the Army of the Tennessee. The fall of Vicksburg and the closing of the Mississippi had stopped the trickle of beef from the Trans-Mississippi region, placing added pressure on supply officers to find food.
The Florida prairies and woodlands often became battle-grounds as Union troops, pro-Union Floridians, and Confederate deserters and draft evaders attempted to stop the flow of needed cattle. Herds coming from the rich beef areas in the south and central Florida came under increasing attack as the War Between The States entered it’s third year.
By 1864 it was clear that an increased Confederate military presence was needed in South Florida in order for the beef shipments to continue. Even if the State had the troops under it’s command to restore order, the problems of operating in the primitive area could not easily be overlooked. South Florida was especially isolated because there was no transportation into the interior. No railroad lines ran South of Cedar Key, and any military operating in the region would be hard - pressed to find adequate food, unless they knew the land.
The Cow Cavalry’s biggest operation of the war, the raid on Fort Myers, was getting under way. Captain McKay had been arguing for a strike against the center of Union activity in his district since the previous summer. McKay believed that his plan had merit, and when the companies of the battalion in south Florida were relatively idle, he urged such an attack. Major Footman led the command out of Tampa in the second week of February and began the 200-mile march to Fort Myers. He had about 275 men with him, including John Leslie’s company and Hendry’s unit under James McKay, Jr. On February 19 they reached Fort Thompson, a deserted Seminole War post located on the Caloosahatchee River near present-day Labelle. Here the command’s supply train would be left for the duration of the attack. Footman decided to assault the fort on the twenty - first, hoping to take the Federals by surprise.
Rain on the night of February 20 shielded the Confederate approach to the enemy base, but the knee-deep water slowed the attacker’s progress. Twelve miles from Fort Myers on the Fort Thompson road stood a Union picket post manned by ten Federals. Footman knew that this post must be taken or he would risk losing the element of surprise. Lieutenant George W. Hendry, with ten men, was to make an assault on the Federals without gunfire if possible. Hendry moved out into the rainy night, only to miss the target by yards in the blackness. A Union guard heard their horses splashing through the flooded plain, but assumed that it was only some wandering cattle. Hendry returned to the main body by daybreak, leaving the troublesome Union position intact. Footman then sent another Hendry, lieutenant W. Marion Hendry, to rush the position. He led ten men in a daylight charge on the post, sweeping over the camp at full gallop. The stunned Union soldiers offered no resistance. The Confederate column then pushed on to Fort Myers.
As the cattle herding season began in April 1865, word reached Florida that Robert E. Lee had surrendered in Virginia. Lieutenant Boggess, now quartermaster of Hendry’s company, first heard the news while in Tallahassee on court martial duty. He returned to Brooksville with this information about the time that Lieutenant William b. Henderson arrived from Tampa with the same news. Both reported to Major Footman, who warned them that they would be arrested if they repeated it to anyone. Footman knew what information like this, coupled with rumors that Governor Milton had died mysteriously at his Marianna home, would do to the morale of the entire command. The strain of waiting led to tension between the officers and men of the Cow Cavalry. Boggess and James McKay, Jr., had an argument over the issuing of needed clothing to the farmers men. McKay was reluctant to release government property with the future so uncertain, but Boggess threatened that if the uniforms were not forthcoming he and his men would take them by force.
Cow Cavalrymen yearned for home, but the war was not officially over. The Confederacy still lived in name and in the hearts of its most hard-core partisans. But it was obvious that further bloodshed was pointless Colonel privatemison turned over command of all Confederate forces in south Florida to Colonel Munnerlyn on May 5. He informed Captain Lutterloh of his action, and then left for home. Tampa was occupied on May 27, and Union commissioners set out to accept the surrender of Confederate units in the vicinity. There was no choice but to concede defeat. On June 5, 1865, at Bay Port, Munnerlyn’s Battalion surrendered to representatives of the Second Florida Cavalry of the Union army.
Lieutenant Boggess left for his new home in Manatee County before the surrender ceremonies. A company of black Union troops under a lieutenant De Costa was sent out to parole any Confederate soldiers who had not been processed. Some held back, but not Francis Boggess. He reported and was promptly paroled. Both Boggess and Munnerlyn’s would return to their homes that were often shells, and try to make a living in a state with a shattered economy. And they would have to learn to live in peace with men who had been their mortal foes. Things would not be as they were before, and it would be decades before the wounds of a shattered community could heal.
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IRONCLAD
Florida 1st. Special Cavalry Battalion
Nickname: Cattle Guards
Special Commissary Battalion
Organization: Organized on December 23, 1864. Surrendered at Tallahassee, Florida, by Major General Samuel Jones, commanding the District of Florida, on May 10, 1865.
First Commander: Charles J. Munnerlyn (Lieutenant Colonel)
Field Officer: William Footman (Major)
Assignment: Miller’s-Jones’ Brigade (District of Florida), Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida (December 1864-May 1865)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
During the summer and fall of 1863, a number of Floridians serving in the Confederate forces were detached from their regular units and assigned to Florida to drive cattle. A continuing supply of beef was critical to the armies of the South and the Commissary Department was in charge of the herding and supplying of cattle. Capt. James McKay, Jr., formerly Asst. Quartermaster of the 4th. Florida Infantry took command of 160 men According to Thomas B. Ellis, a company was formed with James McKay, Jr., as Captain; William W. Wall as 1st. Lieutenant; John W. Crichton as 2nd. Lieutenant and Ellis as 1st. Sergeant. This unit remained in operation from the latter part of 1863 through the fall of 1864 when it was absorbed, for the most part, into the Cow Cavalry companies of Capts. F.A. Hendry, L.G. Lesley and J.T. Lesley. But James McKay, Jr., continued his leadership roll in Munnerlyn’s Battalion as Quartermaster and commanded forces in Tampa.
By 1863, Florida had become the primary source of beef for the Confederate troops defending Charleston and the Army of the Tennessee. The fall of Vicksburg and the closing of the Mississippi had stopped the trickle of beef from the Trans-Mississippi region, placing added pressure on supply officers to find food.
The Florida prairies and woodlands often became battle-grounds as Union troops, pro-Union Floridians, and Confederate deserters and draft evaders attempted to stop the flow of needed cattle. Herds coming from the rich beef areas in the south and central Florida came under increasing attack as the War Between The States entered it’s third year.
By 1864 it was clear that an increased Confederate military presence was needed in South Florida in order for the beef shipments to continue. Even if the State had the troops under it’s command to restore order, the problems of operating in the primitive area could not easily be overlooked. South Florida was especially isolated because there was no transportation into the interior. No railroad lines ran South of Cedar Key, and any military operating in the region would be hard - pressed to find adequate food, unless they knew the land.
The Cow Cavalry’s biggest operation of the war, the raid on Fort Myers, was getting under way. Captain McKay had been arguing for a strike against the center of Union activity in his district since the previous summer. McKay believed that his plan had merit, and when the companies of the battalion in south Florida were relatively idle, he urged such an attack. Major Footman led the command out of Tampa in the second week of February and began the 200-mile march to Fort Myers. He had about 275 men with him, including John Leslie’s company and Hendry’s unit under James McKay, Jr. On February 19 they reached Fort Thompson, a deserted Seminole War post located on the Caloosahatchee River near present-day Labelle. Here the command’s supply train would be left for the duration of the attack. Footman decided to assault the fort on the twenty - first, hoping to take the Federals by surprise.
Rain on the night of February 20 shielded the Confederate approach to the enemy base, but the knee-deep water slowed the attacker’s progress. Twelve miles from Fort Myers on the Fort Thompson road stood a Union picket post manned by ten Federals. Footman knew that this post must be taken or he would risk losing the element of surprise. Lieutenant George W. Hendry, with ten men, was to make an assault on the Federals without gunfire if possible. Hendry moved out into the rainy night, only to miss the target by yards in the blackness. A Union guard heard their horses splashing through the flooded plain, but assumed that it was only some wandering cattle. Hendry returned to the main body by daybreak, leaving the troublesome Union position intact. Footman then sent another Hendry, lieutenant W. Marion Hendry, to rush the position. He led ten men in a daylight charge on the post, sweeping over the camp at full gallop. The stunned Union soldiers offered no resistance. The Confederate column then pushed on to Fort Myers.
As the cattle herding season began in April 1865, word reached Florida that Robert E. Lee had surrendered in Virginia. Lieutenant Boggess, now quartermaster of Hendry’s company, first heard the news while in Tallahassee on court martial duty. He returned to Brooksville with this information about the time that Lieutenant William b. Henderson arrived from Tampa with the same news. Both reported to Major Footman, who warned them that they would be arrested if they repeated it to anyone. Footman knew what information like this, coupled with rumors that Governor Milton had died mysteriously at his Marianna home, would do to the morale of the entire command. The strain of waiting led to tension between the officers and men of the Cow Cavalry. Boggess and James McKay, Jr., had an argument over the issuing of needed clothing to the farmers men. McKay was reluctant to release government property with the future so uncertain, but Boggess threatened that if the uniforms were not forthcoming he and his men would take them by force.
Cow Cavalrymen yearned for home, but the war was not officially over. The Confederacy still lived in name and in the hearts of its most hard-core partisans. But it was obvious that further bloodshed was pointless Colonel privatemison turned over command of all Confederate forces in south Florida to Colonel Munnerlyn on May 5. He informed Captain Lutterloh of his action, and then left for home. Tampa was occupied on May 27, and Union commissioners set out to accept the surrender of Confederate units in the vicinity. There was no choice but to concede defeat. On June 5, 1865, at Bay Port, Munnerlyn’s Battalion surrendered to representatives of the Second Florida Cavalry of the Union army.
Lieutenant Boggess left for his new home in Manatee County before the surrender ceremonies. A company of black Union troops under a lieutenant De Costa was sent out to parole any Confederate soldiers who had not been processed. Some held back, but not Francis Boggess. He reported and was promptly paroled. Both Boggess and Munnerlyn’s would return to their homes that were often shells, and try to make a living in a state with a shattered economy. And they would have to learn to live in peace with men who had been their mortal foes. Things would not be as they were before, and it would be decades before the wounds of a shattered community could heal.
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IRONCLAD
