6th Florida Infantry Regiment

On February 2, 1862, the Confederate War Department issued a call for troops. Florida, under this newly-imposed quota, would furnish two regiments and a battalion to fight for the duration of the war. The troops would rendezvous at preselected locations and there “be clothed, supplied, and armed at the expense of the Confederate States.” Furthermore, each enlistee would receive a $50 bounty for volunteering.

The 6th Florida Infantry Regiment was raised by the Confederate State of Florida for service to the Provisional Army of the Confederate States of America. Organized and released from state service in mid-April 1862, the regiment would leave the state in mid-June, 1862. It was assigned from June through August 1862 to the Army of East Tennessee (Department of East Tennessee), General Edmund Kirby Smith commanding. The Army of East Tennessee was redesignated as the Confederate Army of Kentucky on August 25, 1862, when General Smith led it into eastern Kentucky during the Confederate Heartland Offensive. On November 20, 1862, the Army of Mississippi, General Braxton Bragg commanding, and the Army of Kentucky, General E. Kirby Smith commanding, became the Army of Tennessee. General Bragg assumed command, and General Smith was reassigned to the Department of East Tennessee. The 6th Florida would remain assigned to the Army of Tennessee until its surrender at Bentonville, North Carolina on April 26, 1865.

Organization
The ten companies that would become the 6th Florida Infantry Regiment would begin forming in February and March, 1862 as independent companies serving the State of Florida. The companies were recruited from Collier, Gadsden, Jackson, Santa Rosa, Union, Walton, and Washington counties. The companies surveyed maintained an average age of twenty-five years. The companies would be mustered individually into Confederate service for “3 years, or the war”; they would not be organized into a regiment until the election of field officers. The various units were ordered to “camp of instruction” at the Mount Vernon Arsenal at Chattahoochie in Gadsden County in late March, where they would be trained in maneuvering in large bodies and in campaigning duties.

Companies

 * Captain Jesse J. Finley’s Company was called into Confederate service on March 17, 1862. Initially stationed at the Mount Vernon Arsenal at Chattahoochie, in Gadsden County, they would be moved to Rico’s Bluff in Liberty County, Florida.
 * Captain James C. Evan’s Company was stationed at the Mount Vernon Arsenal at Chattahoochie, in Gadsden County on April 21, 1862.
 * Captain John L. Hayes’ Company was stationed at the Mount Vernon Arsenal at Chattahoochie, in Gadsden County in April, 1862.
 * Captain Henry O. Bassett’s Company is reported to have been at Camp Kirby Smith at Knoxville, Tennessee from March 28 through April 30, 1862.
 * Captain Lawrence M. Attaway’s Company was serving as state troops and stationed at Mount Vernon Arsenal at Chattahoochie, in Gadsden County, Florida from February 11 until March 11, 1862 at which time the were mustered into Confederate service. They would be moved to Rico’s Bluff in Liberty County, Florida on March 14, 1862.
 * Captain Henry B. Grace’s Company was stationed at the Mount Vernon Arsenal at Chattahoochie, in Gadsden County, Florida on March 11, 1862.
 * Captain Angus D. McLean’s Company was stationed at the Mount Vernon Arsenal at Chattahoochie, in Gadsden County, Florida on April 2, 1862.
 * Captain Harrison K Hagand’s Company was called into Confederate service on March 14, 1862, and was stationed at the Mount Vernon Arsenal at Chattahoochie, in Gadsden County, Florida.
 * Captain Angus McMillan’s Company was called into Confederate service on March 14, 1862, and was stationed at the Mount Vernon Arsenal at Chattahoochie, in Gadsden County, Florida.
 * Captain Henry B. Grace’s Company was stationed at the Mount Vernon Arsenal at Chattahoochie, in Gadsden County, Florida on March 11, 1862.
 * Captain Angus D. McLean’s Company was stationed at the Mount Vernon Arsenal at Chattahoochie, in Gadsden County, Florida on April 2, 1862.
 * Captain Harrison K Hagand’s Company was called into Confederate service on March 14, 1862, and was stationed at the Mount Vernon Arsenal at Chattahoochie, in Gadsden County, Florida.
 * Captain Angus McMillan’s Company was called into Confederate service on March 14, 1862, and was stationed at the Mount Vernon Arsenal at Chattahoochie, in Gadsden County, Florida.
 * Captain Harrison K Hagand’s Company was called into Confederate service on March 14, 1862, and was stationed at the Mount Vernon Arsenal at Chattahoochie, in Gadsden County, Florida.
 * Captain Angus McMillan’s Company was called into Confederate service on March 14, 1862, and was stationed at the Mount Vernon Arsenal at Chattahoochie, in Gadsden County, Florida.
 * Captain Angus McMillan’s Company was called into Confederate service on March 14, 1862, and was stationed at the Mount Vernon Arsenal at Chattahoochie, in Gadsden County, Florida.
 * Captain Angus McMillan’s Company was called into Confederate service on March 14, 1862, and was stationed at the Mount Vernon Arsenal at Chattahoochie, in Gadsden County, Florida.

On April 10, 1862, Florida Governor John Milton (Florida politician) informed Secretary of War George W. Randolph that the requisition for “two regiments and a half of infantry…would by the 15th instant be fully organized and subject to your orders, and companies enough have volunteered for service for three years or the war to compose three full regiments of infantry.”…”to serve during the war and wherever their services may be necessary…The Sixth Regiment, at the Mount Vernon Arsenal on the Chattahoochie, will be organized on the 14th instant.” “With regard to the arms which were received by the steamer Florida…160 [Enfield muskets] were placed in the hands of two companies at Rico’s Bluff, and the rest are at the arsenal.”

Election of Field Officers

 * Colonel Jesse J. Finley - Finley was born near Lebanon, Tennessee. He pursued an academic course. He served as captain of mounted volunteers in the Second Seminole War in 1836. Finley studied law at Cumberland University Law School in Lebanon, Tennessee and was admitted to the bar in 1838. He moved to Mississippi County, Arkansas, in 1840, where he practiced law. Finley served in the State senate in 1841. He moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 1842, and continued the practice of law. He served as mayor of Memphis in 1845. He moved to Marianna, Florida, in November 1846 and was elected to the state senate of Florida in 1850. Finley was a presidential elector on the Whig ticket in 1852. He served as a judge of the western circuit of Florida from 1853 to 1861. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Finley was appointed judge of the Confederate States court for the district of Florida in 1861. He resigned in March 1862 and volunteered as a private.  He was elected Captain of the “Jackson County Volunteers”.  With Finley’s election to Colonel, John L. Hayes would become company commander of the “Jackson County Volunteers”




 * Lieutenant Colonel Angus Duncan McLean - McLean was born in 1836 near Eucheeanna, Walton County, Florida. One of nine children of a wealthy family, he was schooled at the Knox Hill Academy in Walton County. He subsequently attended the Cumberland University Law School in Lebanon, Tennessee, from which he graduated January 26, 1859.  In 1860, he was practicing law at Milton, Santa Rosa County, Florida, and residing in the household of James G. Allen.  He was elected Captain of the “Union Rebels”.  Due in no small part to the efforts of his numerous kin in Walton County and Knox Hill Academy classmates, the 26-year old McLean would be elected Lieutenant Colonel; Stephen A. Cawthon would become company commander of the “Union Rebels”.


 * Major Daniel Lawrence Kenan - Kenan was born March 23, 1825 in Duplin County, North Carolina. His family moved from there to Quincy, Gadsden Co. Florida. in 1831 . His father died in I840 when he was still a minor.  He was a carriage maker by trade; he also became wealthy by an inheritance of 75 acres of land an 30 slaves from his Aunt, Jane Hall, in 1858.   He served in the Florida House of the State Legislature in I850, '52,- '58, ’59.  He enlisted March 12, 1862 as 1st Sgt. at Quincy in the “Florida Guards”.  He was elected Major and commissioned April 18, 1862.

On April 23, 1862, Florida Adjutant and Inspector General Wm. H. Milton would inform Governor Milton that, "The following companies compose the Sixth Regiment, eight companies of which are at the Mount Vernon Arsenal and two at Rico’s Bluff; Magnolia State Guards, Capt. L. M. Attaway; Campbellton Greys, Capt. H. B. Grace; Jackson County Volunteers, Lieut. John B. Hayes; Jackson County Company, Capt. H. O. Bassset; Union Rebels, Capt. A. D. McLean; Choctawhatchie Volunteers, H. K. Hagan; Florida Guards, R. H. M. Davidson; Gadsden Greys, Capt. Samuel B. Love; Gulf State Infantry, Capt. James C. Evans; Washington County Company, Capt. A. McMillan, of which regiment J. J. Finley is colonel, A. D. McLean lieutenant-colonel, and D. L. Kenan major.”



In April, the regiment reported an aggregate of 782 officers and men, with 31 officers and 511 men present for duty.

Colonel Finley took the discipline of his regiment seriously, writing to his superior in the Department of East and Middle Florida, Brigadier General Joseph Finegan, that, “I can usefully employ as many as six drill officers in the Regiment; being anxious to hasten its instruction, so as to make it capable of being handled in the field at the earliest possible convenience.” “The soldiers at the arsenal woke at daylight, and drilled for three hours each day. To make better officers of the elected civilians, these gentlemen held their own drill session at ten a.m. and a regimental dress parade held every evening at five.

Soon after the regiment was organized, Governor John Milton assigned Colonel Finley to command of the troops stationed on the river from Chattahoochee to Apalachicola; this assignment was short-lived, as the regiment was ordered in early June to report to General Edmund Kirby Smith at Knoxville, Tennessee.

1862


The 6th Florida Infantry Regiment departed the Mount Vernon Arsenal at Chattahoochee, Florida on June 13, 1862. Transport was by steamboat from there to Columbus, Georgia where it arrived on June 16, 1862. From Columbus, they would take the cars to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Lieutenant James Hayes of Company D wrote that, "After we left Columbus, nearly every house we passed they were out with their handkerchiefs waving and hollering, throwing bocaies[sic] and apples into the cars as we would pass by. From Atlanta to this place beat all . . . They were perfect swarms of young ladies standing on the road with their flags flying.” Lieutenant Hugh Black of Company A found the journey from Columbus to Chattanooga somewhat less enjoyable; he would write to his wife that, “the car that myself and the remainder of our company was in ran off the track and very near crushing the whole concern to attoms.” Arriving at Chattanooga on June 18, the 6th Florida was immediately ordered to report temporarily to General Danville Leadbetter, who had planned an expedition across the Tennessee River at Shell Mound.  The expedition was abandoned while the regiment was enroute, and continued to Knoxville. On July 3, the 6th Florida Infantry (Col. Jesse. J. Finley), 7th Florida Infantry (Col. Madison S. Perry), 1st Florida Cavalry (Col. William G. M. Davis), and the Marion (Florida) Artillery would become a brigade; Colonel Davis was the senior officer and given command. This brigade would be designated as the 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Division, commanded by Brigadier General Henry Heth.

The 6th Florida remained at or near Knoxville until August 13 to thwart an anticipated Federal advance from the mountains. During this period, it performed skirmish and picket duties at Knoxville and at Loudon, some 35 miles to the southwest. On July 25, Colonel Finley was given custody of a suspected Union spy and orders from Major General Smith that he was to keep the prisoner, “… in closest guard beyond the possibility of escape, and if a single gun be fired by the enemy to-morrow morning the guard will be instructed by you to shoot the prisoner immediately, putting him to death.”

Confederate Heartland Offensive (Kentucky Campaign)
On August 13, General Kirby Smith’s force departed Knoxville and began its march toward Kentucky through the Cumberland Mountains by way of Big Creek Gap. The 6th Florida, part of Colonel W. G. M. Davis’s Brigade, attached to Brigadier General Henry Heth’s 2nd Division, departed about 5 o’clock that evening. The tents and camp equipment remained in Knoxville; marching order was “heavy”, with each enlisted soldier carrying, “…knapsacks, rifle, forty rounds of ammunition, haversacks and three days provisions, and canteens.”

The infantry plodded northward for the next four days along dusty roads over a series of ridges, arriving at Big Creek Gap on August 17. Though the gap offered passage through the Cumberland Mountains, it was described as a, “…second-class wagon road. . .rough, rocky and steep.”  General Smith assigned Heth’s Division the responsibility of guarding the army’s wagon train during its passage through the gap. Lieutenant Hays of Company D recorded that, “…here have been three companies of our Regiment working all day rolling wagons over the mountain, we put over two hundred. . . We are the blackest lot you ever saw for we havent shifted our clothes since we left Knoxville.” The next day, General Smith’s infantry reached Barbourville, ten miles south of London, where they captured an unsuspecting Yankee supply train. On August 25, after allowing his soldiers a week’s rest and the pleasure of Yankee-supplied provisions, General Smith put his aptly renamed “Army of Kentucky” in motion on the Wilderness Road, moving toward Lexington, Kentucky, with Colonel W. G. M. Davis’ Brigade occupying a position near the rear of the column.

On August 26, the 6th Florida along with the 7th Florida and the Marion (Florida) Artillery, were detached from the main body to Williamsburg, a village fifteen miles to the southeast to deal with a supposed threat to the Confederate flank. Lieutenant Hugh Black of Company A recorded that the diversion was caused by “a few stragglers.” The regiments remained at Williamsburg until August 28 before finally marching to rejoin the army.” Colonel Davis pushed his Brigade in the attempt to rejoin the main body of General Smith’s Army of Kentucky. On the morning of August 30, advanced elements of Davis’s Brigade reported hearing distant artillery from the direction of Richmond, some 20 miles southeast of Lexington. This provided an even greater sense of urgency to rejoin the main body. After a forced march of 36 hours with only one hour of rest, the Brigade would rejoin the main body of the army after sunset, and after General Smith had won the Battle of Richmond. Colonel Davis’s Brigade would return to Lexington on September 5, and almost immediately received orders to continue on to and to occupy Kentucky’s capitol city of Frankfort.

On September 11, Brig. Gen. Henry Heth was sent north from Lexington, Kentucky to "make a demonstration" against the Defense of Cincinnati, then the sixth largest city in the United States. General Heth and his men (including the 6th Florida) marched up the Lexington Road in Northern Kentucky towards the Ohio River. He soon encountered the strong line of Federal defenses and wisely decided not to attack. He lingered in the region for one day and then retreated on September 13. Although this caused a great commotion in the city's defenses, only a few skirmishes occurred.

On October 4, General Braxton Bragg (commanding the Army of Mississippi) arrived at Frankfort to see through to completion the inauguration of pro-Confederate Governor Richard Hawes. Even as the citizens gathered for the event, they could hear the distant sounds of artillery. A soldier in the 6th Florida, writing on the day of the festivities recorded, “I hear them now, cannonading at Shelbyville. I expect a hot time this evening or tomorrow. Jenerals Braggs and Buckner is in town. A Governer of Kentucky was appointed and today innaugaurated.” Davis’s brigade would have to wait for a fight, for Kirby Smith’s troops departed the town that evening to return to Tennessee.”

Some 250 Floridians were taken prisoner during the Confederate Heartland Offensive; 79 of these were from the 6th Florida. The great majority of these men were captured without resistance, being left behind in hospitals due to disease, or straggling when Generals Bragg and Smith retreated from Kentucky. Most were transported to Louisville soon after their capture to be paroled, either to their homes in case of medical debility, or to Vicksburg, Mississippi, to await exchange.

Establishment of the Confederate Army of Tennessee
The Army of Tennessee was formed on November 20, 1862, when General Braxton Bragg renamed the former Army of Mississippi and was divided into two corps commanded by Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk and Lieutenant General William J. Hardee. A third corps was formed from troops from the General Smith’s Department of East Tennessee which was disbanded in early December after one of its two divisions was sent to Mississippi. The remaining division (2nd Division, General Henry Heth) was assigned to Hardee's corps, and became its 3rd Division. Kirby Smith returned to East Tennessee. Colonel Davis was promoted to Brigadier General and retained command of his Brigade consisting of the 1st Florida Cavalry (Col. George Troup Maxwell); 6th Florida Infantry (Col. Jesse J. Finley); 7th Florida Infantry (Col. Madison S. Perry); 63 Tennessee Infantry (Col. R. G. Fain); & Marion (Florida) Artillery (Capt. J. M. Martin).

Near Cumberland Gap in November, General Davis’s 1,800 soldiers, with no tents and poor clothing endured miserable conditions. Despite the necessity for the Confederates to guard the strategic pass, the Floridians wished they could depart the mountains before winter arrived. Early in the month, Lieutenant A. G. McLeod (6th Florida, Company G) believed, “one thing I know, if we are stationed anywhere up here many will not survive the winter The Snow was six inches deep here last Saturday and Sunday. . . .” Colonel J. J. Finley, dissatisfied with his regiment’s station, pleaded with Adjutant General Samuel Cooper (general) that “we are now here without tents and without axes and tools for building huts - and I really wish an easier and less exposed service for my poor men.” Major William T. Stockton (1st Florida Cavalry, Dismounted) reported “all heart & interest in the Regt. is departed. We seem to be dumped down here, without tents, food almost, cooking utensils. . . feed for our horses.”

At roughly the same time, East Tennessee Tories (pro-Union sympathizers) burned five railroad bridges between Chattanooga and Bristol in anticipation of a Union invasion. After Confederate soldiers carried out a harsh retaliation against suspects, the violence increased as “Unionists would operate in smaller-bands, seek limited objectives, and rely on the weapons of ambush, harassment, and intimidation to achieve their purposes.

During the first week in December the Floridians received the welcome order that moved the regiments’ southwestward to Knoxville. The forty-five-mile march became one of the roughest endured by Davis’s soldiers during the entire war. Lt. James Hays confessed to his wife “it was the worst traveling I ever saw. . . you don’t know anything about cold weather.” Lt. Col. Robert Bullock (7th Florida Infantry) felt ashamed that: I have read about soldiers of the Revolution being tracked in the snow by the blood that came from their bare feet, but I always thought it was an exaggeration; but I am now convinced that it was true, for I saw on the march from the Gap here, any quantity of blood that came from the feet of the men who had no shoes. . . their feet so badly cut up by the rocks and frozen ground. . ..”.

Upon arrival at Knoxville, General Davis’s Brigade went into winter quarters. General Davis and newly-promoted Colonel G. Troup Maxwell’s 1st Florida Cavalry encamped at Strawberry Plains, an obscure depot fifteen miles northeast of Knoxville that gained importance because of the nearby 1,600 foot Holston River bridge. The majority of Colonel J. J. Finley’s 6th Florida was stationed at Strawberry Plains as well. The 6th Florida’s Company H engaged in “building a stockade and guarding the Hiawassee Bridge. . . .” near Charleston on the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad. Lieut A. G. McLeod of Company G enjoyed the time spent at this pleasant community, writing “we have been invite[d] to a party one or two nights every week since we came here.”

Though the winter weather precluded an invasion by a sizeable Union force, this did not stop small scale Federal raids from exacting a toll on the region. In late-December, a thousand blue-clad cavalrymen emerged from the Cumberland Mountains and wreaked havoc upon several trestles and munition depots in the extreme northeastern tip of the state. Davis’s Florida Brigade, due to this incursion and the continued Unionist menace, spent the winter dispersed along the railroad, charged with guarding essential bridges.

1863
By January 1863, the conflict between the Confederates and the pro-Union sympathizers of eastern Tennessee had reached a viciousness previously not witnessed in the Appalachians. Though the 6th Florida under Brigadier General Davis spent a great deal of time building stockades and blockhouses for the purpose of safeguarding the railroad, they would also participate to some degree in patrols and retaliatory raids against the pro-Union sympathizers.

Shelton Laurel Massacre
Confederate deserters and Unionists set in motion the series of events on January 8 when a party raided Marshall, North Carolina in a search of salt. On January 17, General Heth, then commanding the Department of East Tennessee, dispatched General W. G. M. Davis into North Carolina to investigate. General Davis’s force included 200 Floridians, and also the 64th North Carolina and Colonel William Thomas' Legion; both units contained soldiers native to the Great Smoky Mountains. Departing from Strawberry Plains, the expedition had but a short march before reaching the French Broad Turnpike, which passed directly through the troubled area. In his official orders, General Davis charged his subordinate commanders to, “pursue and arrest every man in the mountains, of known bad character. . . .”, with explicit instructions for, ““all the citizen prisoners to be turned over to the civil authorities of Madison [County].”

General Davis, after establishing his headquarters at the antebellum resort town of Warm Springs and sorting through the evidence, concluded very quickly that “there is no organization in the mountains of armed men banded together for the purpose of making efforts to destroy bridges or to burn towns,” and that “the attack on Marshall was gotten up to obtain salt, for want of which there is great suffering in the mountains. Plunder of other property followed as a matter of course.”

The pro-Union sympathizers aimed part of this plundering against the homes of soldiers serving in the 64th North Carolina, including that of its colonel, Lawrence M. Allen. General Heth is reported to have given explicit instructions to Colonel Allen, saying that, “I want no reports from you about your course at Laurel. I do not want to be troubled with any prisoners and the last one of them should be killed.” Using harsh methods of interrogation, Colonel Allen’s Tarheels rounded up fifteen suspects and several days later executed these men. General Davis (and his Floridians) had remained near Greeneville, Tennessee and Warm Springs, North Carolina, for the majority of the operation; and it is unclear as to whether the commander knew of the transgressions Colonel Allen and the 64th North Carolina.

In late February, General Alfred E. Jackson, commanding in place of an absent General Davis, led a brigade-sized force into the Shelton Laurel area to forcibly remove Tories and their families. General W. G. M. Davis suggested this policy in January, writing to Governor Zebulon Baird Vance: “I have proposed to allow all who are not implicated in any crime to leave the State and to aid them in crossing into Kentucky. . . They will be driven to do so from necessity, as I learn our troops have consumed all the corn and meat in the settlement. If the people alluded to agree to emigrate I will cause them to be paid for their property used by our troops.”

General Jackson’s troops, which included elements of the 6th Florida and 1st Florida Cavalry, set out from Limestone Depot on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad and entered the mountains in three columns, each converging on the Laurel River Valley. The expedition traversed very treacherous terrain, and the march coincided with some of the worst weather to hit the region that winter. Lt. Hugh Black wrote that, “…the last day of February and the first day of March I did the hardest traveling and traveled the shortest distance that I ever did in my life.” Another account held that there were, “some steep and difficult ascents to make, a horse could not have gone where we went indeed a cat would have thought it a hard trip.”

The 6th Florida would continue to be assigned patrols and picket duties through May, most of which were conducted to deter Union Cavalry raids or sabotage by Union-sympathizers upon the railroad and bridges in the vicinity of Knoxville until late May.

In May, Brigadier General W. G. M. Davis, who for a short time commanded the Department of East Tennessee that spring, tendered his resignation, claiming impaired health and “entire neglect of my private affairs.” Command of the brigade passed to Colonel Robert C. Trigg. Originally a captain in the 4th Virginia Infantry, Trigg had helped his brigade earn the moniker “Stonewall” at First Manassas. In the fall of 1861, Trigg became the 54th Virginia’s colonel, soon after overseeing the regiment’s organization. Following service in western Virginia, the regiment was ordered to East Tennessee and was eventually placed in Davis’s Brigade. Trigg’s admirers and superiors called the officer both a “strict disciplinarian” and an “energetic soldier.”

Middle Tennessee Operations
With the resignation of Brigadier General Davis, command of the Department of East Tennessee was assumed by Major General Simon Bolivar Buckner, who arrived in Knoxville on May 11, and assumed command the following day. Shortly thereafter, his department was converted into a district of the Department of Tennessee under Gen. Braxton Bragg and was designated the Third Corps of the Army of Tennessee.

In mid-June, Major General Buckner departed Knoxville with orders to join General Bragg’s Army of Tennessee at Tullahoma as reinforcements against an anticipated offensive by General William Rosecrans’s Army of the Cumberland. General Buckner took with him all the artillery and all the other disposable force at Knoxville except Colonel Robert Trigg’s 54th Virginia Infantry and Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bullock’s Seventh Florida Infantry, about 1,000 effective. Colonel Trigg had command of his scattered brigade for a month before it faced the enemy for the first time on the field of battle.

On June 14, Colonel William P. Sanders, commanding the 5th Kentucky Cavalry, U.S., set out with 1,500 troopers from Mount Vernon, Kentucky. The cavalry pointed their mounts southward toward the East Tennessee Valley. Sanders, hoping to emulate the raid of the previous December, had orders “to move up, destroying the road as much as possible, burning bridges, breaking up culverts, and destroying rolling stock.” While the earlier winter raid was undertaken to merely harass the Confederates, Sanders’ movement would presage a Federal invasion of the area.

On June 19, 1863, Sanders’s soldiers arrived at Lenoir Station after having failed to destroy the railroad trestle at Loudon. Sanders burned the depot as well as the Lenoirs' sawmill and flour mill. He spared the cotton mill, however, since there were few such mills in the area to provide cloth for the army, and because the Lenoirs were fellow Masons. After destroying the depot at Lenoir’s Station, Sanders’s soldiers wrecked the railroad and telegraph lines between that point and Knoxville, some 27 miles to the northeast.”

At Knoxville, Major Victor Von Sheliha (General Buckner’s acting Chief of Staff) had received information regarding Colonel Sanders’s location and forces. He requested that Lieut. Col. Milton A. Haynes, C.S. Artillery take charge of the artillery defense of Knoxville. Colonel Trigg, as the senior infantry colonel, was in temporary command of Confederate forces at Knoxville.

At 3 o’clock on the afternoon of the 19th, the Federal force’s advance element was within 5 miles of Knoxville, where they were met by some 37 Confederate cavalry troops dispatched by Colonel Trigg, all that was available for service. A hot skirmish ensued at Mrs. Lomis’ house, lasting about an hour before the Confederate cavalry broke contact. The Federal force remained in position.

Colonel Trigg used the time bought by this desperate delaying action wisely, allowing his force consisting of the 7th Florida and 54th Virginia Regiments and various citizens and convalescing soldiers, to fortify the town’s streets “with cotton bales”. Lieut. Col. Haynes placed artillery at College Hill, McGee’s Hill, and Summit Hill. That evening, Col. Trigg repositioned the artillery from College Hill to a point near the asylum. About the same time that Col. Trigg was moving artillery, Lieut. Col. Haynes undertook a reconnaissance, passing through the Federal lines in the guise of a farmer, advising all who asked his knowledge of the state of defenses at Knoxville and making a point that he “… saw Colonel Haynes about sunset moving some cannon toward the depot, about four in all – drawn by mules.” He returned to Knoxville about midnight and visited all of the artillery crews, advising them that the enemy would attack; he also ordered the artillery at the asylum hospital and on McGee’s Hill to consider themselves as reserves, to be moved wherever needed.

Once the sun set, Sanders pushed several Kentucky companies forward toward the city to occupy the Confederates; while a hot skirmish ensued, Sanders shifted the remainder of his force to the north side of the city. The Union commander’s Kentucky companies performed their diversion well, occupying Captain William E. June’s 7th Florida company and convincing one Floridian that June’s soldiers had “prevented a night attack, which they doubtless had in contemplation.”

At 7 o’clock on the morning of the 20th, four guns detached from General Buckner’s force arrived at Knoxville and were placed in reserve. Shortly after the guns arrived, the Federal force was observed advancing at the double quick where neither artillery nor infantry were positioned to oppose them. Colonel Trigg ordered Colonel Finley’s 6th Florida and 2 guns to take Temperance Hill to counter the threat; Lieut. Col. Haynes advanced two guns immediately in front of the advancing column and engaged them with spherical case. The Federals took shelter behind houses and fences, then threw sharpshooters forward to 200 yards of Lieut. Col. Haynes’ position, who had no infantry to support the position. As this occurred, Federal 3-inch guns engaged the position, killing some of the crews and several horses. Lieut. Col. Haynes ordered the guns to advance with orders to engage the infantry; the Federals forming column and rapidly advancing. Lieut. Col. Haynes personally sighted the guns and, expending two rounds, broke the Federal advance; the guns on Temperance Hill, on McGee’s Hill, and on Summit Hill, joining in to hasten the Federal’s retreat.

During the fight the 6th Florida soldiers, according to Lieutenant Hugh Black, “would yell as if playing a game of town ball instead of fighting a battle. When a ball would go to high they would holler at the Yankees to shoot lower and when it struck the hill below us the[y] would say to the Yankees they were shooting too low, and when a ball not come near they would cry out ‘lost ball.’” The Federals finally found their aim and a solid shot killed Lt. Bert Snellgrove of the 6th Florida. Lt. James Hays also saw a Federal round kill three Confederate cannoneers, describing “I was but a short distance when three fell, all killed by the same ball, it cut two of them nearly in two. It took off both the other mans legs – it was a bad looking sight.”

Two weeks after Sanders’s East Tennessee Raid the campaign season in Tennessee began in earnest, with General Rosecrans’s Army of the Cumberland beginning a series of maneuvers meant to flank Bragg from his position at Tullahoma.

Tullahoma Campaign
The Tullahoma Campaign (or Middle Tennessee Campaign) was a military operation conducted from June 24 to July 3, 1863, by the Union Army of the Cumberland under Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans, and regarded as one of the most brilliant maneuvers of the American Civil War. Its effect was to drive the Confederates out of Middle Tennessee and to threaten the strategic city of Chattanooga. The Confederate Army of Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg occupied a strong defensive position in the Highland Rim mountains, with his headquarters at Tullahoma. But through a series of well-rehearsed feints, Rosecrans captured the key passes, helped by the use of the new seven-shot Spencer repeating rifle. The Confederates were handicapped by dissension between generals, as well as a lack of supplies, and soon had to abandon their headquarters at Tullahoma and move to Chattanooga.

Chickamauga Campaign
Although Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee contained about 52,000 men at the end of July, the Confederate government merged the Department of East Tennessee, under Maj. Gen. Simon B. Buckner, into Bragg's Department of Tennessee, which added 17,800 men to Bragg's army, but also extended his command responsibilities northward to the Knoxville area. The Confederate War Department asked Bragg in early August if he could assume the offensive against Rosecrans if he were given reinforcements from Mississippi. He demurred, concerned about daunting geographical obstacles and logistical challenges, preferring to wait for Rosecrans to solve those same problems and attack him. He was also concerned about a sizable Union force under Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside that was threatening Knoxville. Bragg withdrew his forces from advanced positions around Bridgeport, which left Rosecrans free to maneuver on the northern side of the Tennessee River. He concentrated his two infantry corps around Chattanooga and relied upon cavalry to cover his flanks, extending from northern Alabama to near Knoxville. On August 16, 1863, the Army of the Cumberland, which had lain idle six weeks following its successful Tullahoma Campaign, moved yet again. With General Ambrose Burnside marching on East Tennessee in conjunction with General Rosecrans’s advance against Chattanooga, the Confederates could not hope to defend against both thrusts successfully. The objective was to maneuver Bragg out of Chattanooga. On August 21, Rosecran ordered a brigade to shell Chattanooga from the western side of the Tennessee River and skirmish with the main Confederate force in the city to divert attention away from the flanking column sent southwest of the city; other Union units were deployed along the river to the east. The diversion was successful, with Bragg concentrating his army east of Chattanooga. After concluding that his position was untenable, Bragg abandoned the city on September 6 and retreated into northern Georgia.

After spending a monotonous July in the northeastern corner of East Tennessee, Colonel Trigg’s Brigade bivouacked on August 25 at Loudon with the remainder of Buckner’s III Corps. Bragg chose to concentrate his soldiers against Rosecrans thus forsaking East Tennessee in the process. In early September, Bragg ordered Buckner’s troops to Charleston, Tennessee to watch the Tennessee River’s upper reaches for any sign of Union activity. Lt. Hugh Black who knew nothing regarding events in northwestern Georgia confessed “what caused our authorities to evacuate East Tenn is more than I am able to say but think that it was done for prudential reasons.”

Evacuating Chattanooga on September 8, the Army of Tennessee’s three corps, commanded respectively by Leonidas Polk, Daniel Harvey Hill, and Simon Bolivar Buckner, marched southward to intercept Rosecrans. Colonel Trigg’s Brigade tramped along under the divisional command of Brigadier General William Preston. During the second week of September, this division was to participate in an attack on an isolated Federal division in a valley near the headwaters of Chickamauga Creek. Timidity among the Confederate commanders charged with leading this advance prevented any battle. As Dr. Henry McCall Holmes wrote of September 11, “got into line of battle on mt. ridge, sides in front almost perpendicular, very strong position. We advanced for awhile but found no Yanks except one dead one, they had left, got away from us…”

Battle of Chickamauga


At the Battle of Chickamauga, the 6th Florida Infantry (Col. J. J. Finley) was brigaded together with the 1st Florida Cavalry dismounted (Col. G. T. Maxwell), the 7th Florida Infantry (Col. Robert Bullock), and the 54th Virginia Infantry (Lieut. Col. J. J. Wade) under the command of Col. Robert C. Trigg. The brigade was part of General Preston’s Division, General Buckner’s Corps, which was a part of the Army of Tennessee’s left wing, commanded by Lieutenant General James Longstreet.

On September 18, Bragg’s advance cavalry and infantry fought with Union cavalry and mounted infantry and seized several of Chickamauga Creek’s bridges and fords; the general planned for an overwhelming attack to take place the next morning. What resulted was a confusing series of isolated attacks in which the gray-clad soldiers, rather than finding Rosecrans’s flank, ran into several Federal divisions. Robert Watson wrote that on September 19, Trigg’s Floridians “fell in and marched off at 5 A.M.,” crossed Chickamauga Creek at Thedford’s Ford as daylight broke, then formed the left flank of Bragg’s forces west of the creek. General Preston positioned Colonel Trigg’s regiments in line behind his other brigades commanded respectively by Archibald Gracie and John Kelly. Trigg’s four regiments formed their lines of battle in a corn field tucked into a bend of Chickamauga Creek. For a time there was peace, and the men “built fires to warm ourselves,” and “ate. . . breakfast of sour cornbread and water.”



The numerous blazes drew the attention of General John Palmer's divisional artillery, located southwest of the Chickamauga Creek bend. Soon the Confederates lay flat to avoid the rounds that were, in the words of Colonel Jesse Finley “passing over, and near, diagonally in many places from right to left, frequently striking in front and ricocheting over my men,. . .” Not long after the barrage began, a shell exploded over the 6th Florida’s Company D, showering the troops with fragments. A single splinter passed through Lt. James Hays and First Sergeant Samuel Staunton killing them both. Hays and Staunton, along with Sergeant William R. F. Potter became the first 6th Florida soldiers killed that day. After taking these casualties, Trigg’s Brigade moved forward slightly to the east slope of a ridge where they found cover from the deadly missiles.

At noon, General Preston ordered Trigg’s Brigade to the front of his divisional line. Positioned on Gracie’s right flank, Trigg aligned his regiments and shook the entire 1st Florida Cavalry into a skirmish line that covered his brigade’s front. While Colonel Troup Maxwell’s regiment had yet to become engaged in a fierce battle, they had experienced the dangerous thrust-and-parry work of skirmishing both in Florida and along the Tennessee River. The line cautiously moved forward several hundred yards through thick woods, and a portion of the line emerged into the Viniard Farm’s eastern acreage. To the west, across the cornfield lay other cultivated plots; owned by a farmer Viniard, this land would see some of the battle’s most ferocious fighting. The cleared land was bisected by the north-south running LaFayette Road, which proceeded along the length of the battlefield and provided both an avenue for reinforcement and retreat for Rosecrans’s army. At 12:00, only Colonel John T. Wilder’s mounted infantry brigade protected this vital location against any Confederate threat.

The 1st Florida Cavalry troopers soon found themselves trading shots with Wilder’s pickets. While Lt. Col. Stockton explained to his wife that his soldiers “had things pretty much our way,” Colonel Troup Maxwell described a different situation in his official report, confessing “after the deployment was effected we became hotly engaged with the enemy’s sharpshooters (under very great disadvantage, as my regiment was armed chiefly with short-range guns of inferior quality.)” Indeed, Wilder’s mounted infantry were armed with the potent seven-shot Spencer Rifle, allowing them to make life uncomfortable for the 1st Florida Cavalry’s skirmishers. This uneven contest continued, according to Colonel Maxwell for nearly two hours, even after one of General Jefferson C. Davis’s artillery batteries unlimbered and began firing at the Floridians. Stockton wrote “a battery opened on us at about 300 yards in a corn field & hurt us badly.” The 1st Florida’s troopers fortunately avoided taking many casualties during this sharp engagement, and only when General William Carlin’s brigade of Davis’s division formed and moved across the field toward Trigg’s Brigade, did they break for the safety of their brigade.

General Jerome B. Robertson’s Texas Brigade formed the extreme left of General John Bell Hood’s line, and “as soon as Robertson came under fire,” Hood “asked Bragg for reinforcements to protect his left.” Bragg relayed the order to Buckner who in-turn commanded Preston to enter the fray. Preston dispatched Trigg’s soldiers to support the Texas Brigade. Bragg relayed the order to Buckner who in-turn commanded Preston to enter the fray. Preston dispatched Trigg’s soldiers to support the Texas Brigade. Casmero Bailey wrote “we were ordered forward which we did in quick time. . . .” Colonel Trigg’s regiments, following the sounds of the firing, soon reached the eastern boundary of the Viniard Farm and came under the same artillery fire that earlier pestered the 1st Florida Cavalry troopers. The Floridians arrived at the right time for their advance placed them on the flank of a fresh Union brigade which was crossing the Viniard cornfield.



Colonel Trigg’s regiments quickly moved into position along a split-rail fence just to Robertson’s right, soon unleashed a volley into the newly-arrived Federals’s flank and in Trigg’s words, they “broke in confusion to the left and rear.” One Floridian later confessed that because of the smoke “I stood some time without firing looking for something to shoot at, but I could not see anything and the boys kept shooting so that I thought I would shoot too, so I shot right ahead of me. . . .” With the Federal brigade in retreat, Colonel Trigg ordered his regiments to the pursuit. The order was, according to a 6th Florida soldier, “executed with enthusiastic gallantry and success.” Colonel Finley, proud of his soldiers, wrote “the regiment moved forward through the open field at a double-quick to the crest of the ridge, the distance of about 300 yards. . . .” Colonel Trigg, who accompanied the 6th Florida, discovered at this juncture that the remainder of the brigade had not heard Colonel Trigg’s order to advance.

Realizing the error, the remainder of Trigg’s brigade soon crossed the eastern fence and was moving at the double-quick to reinforce the 6th Florida. 1st Sergeant Robert Watson of the 7th Florida Infantry described his regiments’ movement as a charge into a corn field, when, “within about 400 yards of their battery we were ordered to right flank and marched at the double quick to the right.” The occasion for this sudden turn of events came because the Texas Brigade had encountered new resistance and Robertson dispatched a staff officer to commandeer Trigg’s regiments. Another 7th Florida soldier, Casmero Bailey, would later write his father that, “the grape and shell came thick and fast we kept on until we came to the woods where we were ordered to lie down which we did in a hurry.” With the 1st Florida Cavalry, 7th Florida Infantry, and 54th Virginia to the north, the 6th Florida remained alone and exposed in the cornfield.

Several Federal artillery batteries concentrated their fire on the 6th Florida. Federal infantry also added their small-arms fire to the inferno. Lt. Hugh Black, who suffered a broken arm during the disastrous assault wrote from an Atlanta hospital “I never was in just such a place before it is strange to me how any one escaped for I assure you that the bullets seemed to search every nook and corner of the field that we were in.” John R. Ely, the 6th Florida’s Adjutant proudly informed The Florida Sentinel’s readers that the West Floridians, “outnumbered by overwhelming odds, at least five to one - fought with a coolness and determination, which has covered with glory and shed a new lustre upon the arms of gallant little Fla.” Finally, Colonel Trigg ordered Colonel Jesse Finley, described by 7th Florida soldier Casmero Bailey as being “as brave as a lion” during the fight, to relinquish the field.

By sunset, the Confederate attacks in the southern portion of the field had ended. Trigg’s Brigade settled in for the night in the woods just east of the Viniard Field. The temperatures dropped and Robert Watson complained that “I scarcely slept a wink all night but lay shivering with cold all night. The groans and shrieks of the wounded and volleys of musketry and falling of trees made it impossible to sleep.” Casmero Bailey stood picket that night along the rail fence on the eastern edge of the Viniard farm and grew sick looking at “men shot in every place and form.”

Many of the dead seen by Bailey and the wailing wounded heard by Watson belonged to the 6th Florida. That regiment was decimated on the afternoon of September 19, suffering 35 killed and 130 wounded in a short span. The 6th Florida Regiment’s Adjutant, John R. Ely, proclaimed “Napoleon’s ‘Old Guard’ never fought harder that did the representatives of our gallant little State on that memorable field.” Colonel Finley could not share in his adjutant’s jubilation and bitterly reported that his soldiers “purchased whatever reputation they may have won upon the sanguinary field at a fearful cost of life and blood.” Colonel Finley reported that the 6th took 402 officers and men into the fight, and lost 2 officers and 33 enlisted killed, with 11 officers and 119 enlisted wounded or missing.

On September 20, Federal General George Henry Thomas, commanding at Kelly field, clamored for reinforcements during the late morning hours. What resulted was “not only an organizational mess and the confused movement of many units, but also the further weakening of the center and right.” When General Rosecrans dispatched a unit to fill a gap created by a division supposedly on its way to assist Thomas, a real breach opened in the “handle” portion of the Federal line. At 11:15 A.M., General James Longstreet’s wing rushed forward to the attack and the Army of the Cumberland’s right disintegrated. While numerous Federals, including General Rosecrans fled the field, a patchwork line formed a new right flank on a series of hills, collectively known as Horseshoe Ridge, just to the west of the Kelly Field and LaFayette Road. Throughout the afternoon, Longstreet’s wing made numerous, yet disjointed attacks against the new Federal position.

By 4:00 P.M., General Preston’s Division had yet to become engaged. Colonel Trigg’s Brigade, after getting little sleep during the cool and loud night, awoke that morning as veterans, built fires for warmth, and ate breakfast. Though General Longstreet had ordered Preston’s Division to lend its numbers to the Horseshoe Ridge fight, the Kentucky general only committed Gracie’s and Kelly’s unbloodied brigades. Trigg’s brigade was dispatched to the southern flank to guard against a possible cavalry attack. After Gracie’s and Kelly’s Brigades had launched vicious, yet unsuccessful assaults, against the Union position, Preston called once again on Colonel Robert Trigg’s tenacious unit. While Colonel Finley led the 6th Florida and 54th Virginia toward the fighting on Horseshoe Ridge, Trigg kept the 1st Florida Cavalry and 7th Florida Infantry on guard for the supposed threat.

Colonel Finley’s two regiments formed on the Confederate left flank and joined in the assaults to take Horseshoe Ridge. These units’ attacks came late in the fight as the Union forces were attempting to disengage. Nevertheless, the fighting was still ferocious and deadly. In later years, two veterans remembered the 6th Florida was repulsed twice in its attempts to reach the top; on the third try amid “shot and shell” that “fell like rain,” the 6th Florida lost one of its most promising and respected officers, Lieutenant John Wilson. One of the soldiers recalled “scarcely had we started up the hill when a cannon ball struck the Lieutenant. . . on the leg, shattering the bone.” Wilson died while being transported to a hospital in southern Georgia. The 1st Florida Cavalry and 7th Florida were finally summoned to the scene of action; on the way the 1st Florida Cavalry became lost and somehow made their way to ridge, though opposite of where the 6th Florida was then fighting. The mistake occurred near the Union line and this carelessness caused several casualties, and the 1st Florida Cavalry withdrew from the enemy’s fire.

Colonel Robert Bullock’s 7th Florida Infantry fared better reaching Snodgrass Hill with Colonel Trigg just as twilight settled over the bloody ground. After a quick conference, Trigg and Kelly decided they could bag the few Yankees remaining on the west slope of Horseshoe Ridge, and the V.M.I. graduate proceeded to position his brigade so as to take the Federals by the flank. Robert Watson described the advance: “We went in at double quick and got to the foot of the hill at dark. The enemy seeing us sent a man towards us to see whether we were their own men or not with directions to fire if we were enemies, but we took him before he could fire his gun, therefor the Yankees took it for granted that we were their own men. We then proceeded to the top of the hill within 50 yards of them and halted and took 30 prisoners. . . They tried to escape by running but they ran into the 6th Florida and were all captured.”

Casmero Bailey wrote home that his regiment “took. . . one stand of colors the Flag was a beautiful thing it belonged to the 21st Ohio.” The 21st Ohio, armed with Colt Revolving Rifles, had held the right flank of the Horseshoe Ridge position all afternoon, and had, in Steven Woodworth’s estimation “fought one of the most heroic defensive battles of the war that day.” In addition to the hard-fighting 21st Ohio, Trigg’s Brigade captured portions of two other Union regiments that evening; the exact number of prisoners though varies from source to source. The Floridians and Virginians also seized five stands of colors and among the spoils of war also were numerous rifles and accouterments.

The sun was beginning to set behind Missionary Ridge, an imminence that overlooked the western edge of the battlefield. The 7th Florida soldiers looked forward to trying out their new weapons, for as Casmero Bailey recalled “we went in on Saturday with muskets and when we went in on Sunday we had either springfields or enfields we captured them all on the field guns and cartridge boxes were strewn an the boys threw away their old muskets and got a gun to suit themselves.”

That night the 6th Florida slept with the rest of Trigg’s brigade upon the battlefield among the dead and wounded. They received cooked rations, which brightened the soldiers’ already jubilant spirits. Yet Jacob Yearty of the 7th Florida seemed to speak for all when he penned, “I hade heared talk of batles and have bin in too small ingagements before this one but I cold not draw eny ideas untill now I have a ful understanding of what it means.” The losses suffered by the 6th Florida on the September 19 served to sober the entire command.

On September 21, the soldiers in Colonel Robert Craig Trigg’s Brigade of William Preston’s Division found the aftermath of their first major battle appalling. Jacob Yearty, wrote that his regiment “bured [sic] the dead too days and did not get half of them bered and they are getting to smell so bad that it is impossible to bury the rest of the them we could not get neare all of our men bured.” Robert Watson described spending September 21,   “…carrying off the wounded and burying the dead all day. It was a terrible sight, friend and foe lying side by side.” Preparing a peaceful rest for the dead remained low on the Confederates’s list of priorities though and on September 22, Trigg’s troops marched to the western base of Missionary Ridge, where they engaged in constructing breastworks.

Chattanooga Campaign
Following the retreat from Chickamauga, a portion of the defeated Army of the Cumberland maintained a defensive position at Rossville, southeast of Chattanooga, ready to contest the jubilant Rebels. However, due to “the bold maneuvering of Forrest’s cavalry. . . and the unfounded rumor of the impending arrival of additional large Confederate reinforcements, Rosecrans had given up a key defensive perimeter and withdrawn his army into the immediate environs of Chattanooga. . . .” By retreating into Chattanooga the Federal general placed his army in a stranglehold, for with the Army of Tennessee commanding Lookout Mountain, the Union force could rely only on a few rough wagon roads, including a trace over Walden Ridge. With his opponent in a difficult position, Braxton Bragg determined to starve the Union army into submission while waiting for an opportunity to strike at one of the Federal flanks. From the last days of September through October, Bragg refused to take any further action as the Union forces there were reinforced by Ulysses S. Grant and reopened a tenuous supply line. Many of Bragg's subordinates, including General Buckner, advocated that Bragg be relieved of command. Thomas L. Connelly, historian of the Army of Tennessee, believes that Buckner was the author of the anti-Bragg letter sent by the generals to President Jefferson Davis. Bragg retaliated by reducing Buckner to division command and abolishing the Department of East Tennessee. General Buckner’s division (with Trigg’s brigade) would be assigned to Major General Benjamin F. Cheatham’s Corps.

Reorganization of the Army of Tennessee
Bitter infighting and political intrigue among the Army of Tennessee’s high command caused Jefferson Davis to travel to southeastern Tennessee early that fall. Braxton Bragg’s conflict with his subordinates, having begun the previous year following Perryville, flared up once again in the aftermath of Chickamauga. President Davis had dispatched his aide, Colonel James Chesnut, to the army to determine the depth of the dissent. Chesnut “wired the president that the Army of Tennessee urgently demanded his personal attention and that he should make the trip if at all possible.”

On a cold October 10, Federal soldiers in and around Chattanooga heard prolonged, roaring cheers erupting from Confederate lines at the foot of Missionary Ridge. President Jefferson Davis’s arrival at the army and subsequent tour of the main line of breastworks brought forth the cries of jubilation from the soldiers.

President Davis, even after hearing corps and divisional commanders berate General Bragg, decided though to maintain Bragg in his position. The commanding general then, according to historian Wiley Sword, believed Davis’s confidence in him “was carte blanche to remove his most vocal and dangerous detractors.”

On October 17, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant received command of the Federal Western armies, designated the Military Division of the Mississippi; he moved to reinforce Chattanooga and replaced Rosecrans with Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas. All of the soldiers at Chattanooga, whether they wore blue or gray, suffered intensely during the autumn months. Freezing rain fell upon the Floridians huddled behind their entrenchments at the foot of Missionary Ridge, and upon the sentinels on the picket line; tents were a bygone luxury and overcoats were few. Throughout October, the primary enemy remained the annoying weather; no harm would come from yankee small arms fire, although artillery fire remained a danger throughout the “siege,”. Following a truce declared on September 27 for the purpose of exchanging the Chickamauga wounded, the pickets of both armies refused to kill while in the line of rifle pits that snaked between the two armies, separated by a distance of some 200 yards. Bragg’s Army subsisted on the supplies that a single rail line could deliver, and time was needed to distribute cooked food to the troops at the front. The general’s attempts to feed his soldiers were also hampered by the fact that Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia received favored status from the Confederate Commissary Bureau. The soldiers had reason to rejoice when when they received new winter uniforms, described as “jackets of kersey, Blue Cuffs, Pants,. . . Shoes, Caps, Shirts, etc.” and “…new English Blankets. . . A single one is large enough to cover a double bed and the texture is far superior to the blankets usually brought south with goods.”

By late October, the Confederate soldiers had further improved their chances against the elements by constructing crude cabins at the foot of Missionary Ridge. This was no easy task, as most of the available timber had been used for the entrenchments and firewood; 1st Sergeant Watson of the 7th Florida recorded in his diary that his mess created a “hut which is built of poles, corn stalks, straw, and dirt. It makes a warm and comfortable hut, but I don’t think it is healthy.”

As reported on October 31, the 1st Florida Cavalry dismounted (Col. G. T. Maxwell), the 6th Florida Infantry (Col. J. J. Finley), the 7th Florida Infantry (Col. Robert Bullock), and the 54th Virginia Infantry (Lieut. Col. J. J. Wade) were brigaded under command of Col. Robert C. Trigg, in Buckner’s division of Cheatham’s Corps.

In November, General Bragg began a wholesale shifting of various regiments and brigades throughout his force in an attempt to realign his army so as to “dissolve the anti-Bragg cliques” and reward his supporters. Bragg elevated Major General John C. Breckinridge to corps command on November 8; General William B. Bate was elevated to command of Breckinridge’s division. Bragg’s Special Orders No. 294, issued on November 12, brigaded together the Florida regiments from General Buckner’s and General Breckinridge’s Divisions and directed that “the Senior Colonel will take command until Brigadier is appointed.” The Senior Colonel, William Scott Dilworth of the 3rd Florida Infantry, was absent, having obtained a forty-day furlough after falling ill after Chickamauga. Dilworth’s departure resulted in the leadership of the Florida Brigade devolving upon Colonel Jesse J. Finley. In reality, Finley alone was regarded for command of the brigade. His performance at Chickamauga assured his promotion. Likewise, Colonel Troup Maxwell’s bungling on September 20, probably removed his name from any consideration. Four days after Bragg created the Florida Brigade, the Confederate Congress approved Finley’s promotion to Brigadier General. With Colonel Finley’s promotion, command of the 6th Florida Infantry was assumed by Lieutenant Colonel Angus D. McLean, who would be promoted to Colonel on November 16.; on the same day. Major Daniel L. Kenan was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel., Captain Robert H. M. Davidson, Commanding Company A, would be promoted to Major, and 1st Lieutenant Charles E. L. Allison would be promoted to Captain and command Company A.

General Finley’s Florida Brigade, formally established on November 12, would be composed of the consolidated 1st & 3rd Florida Infantry Regiments (Capt. W.T. Saxon), the 4th Florida Infantry Regiment (Lieut. Col. E. Badger), the 6th Florida Infantry (Lieut. Col. A. D. McLean), the 7th Florida Infantry (Col. Tillman Ingram), and the 1st Florida Cavalry dismounted (Col. G. Troup Maxwell).

Battle of Missionary Ridge
On November 23, Grant ordered Thomas to advance halfway to Missionary Ridge on a reconnaissance in force to determine the strength of the Confederate line, hoping to ensure that Bragg would not withdraw his forces and move in the direction of Knoxville, where Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside was being threatened by a Confederate force under Lt. Gen. James Longstreet. Thomas sent over 14,000 men toward a minor hill named Orchard Knob and overran the Confederate defenders. Grant changed his orders and instructed Thomas's men to dig in and hold the position.

November 24 was dark, with low clouds, fog, and drizzling rain. General William T. Sherman's force crossed the Tennessee River successfully in the morning then took the set of hills at the north end of Missionary Ridge, although he was surprised to find that a valley separated him from the main part of the ridge. Alerted by Grigsby's cavalry that the enemy had crossed the river in force, Bragg sent Major General Patrick Cleburne's division and Wright's brigade to challenge Sherman. After skirmishing with the Confederates, Sherman ordered his men to dig in on the hills he had seized. Cleburne, likewise, dug in around Tunnel Hill. At the same time, Major General Joseph Hooker's command succeeded in the Battle of Lookout Mountain and prepared to move east toward Bragg's left flank on Missionary Ridge. The divisions of Major General Carter L. Stevenson and Major General Benjamin F. Cheatham retreated behind Chattanooga Creek, burning the bridges behind them. On the night of November 24, Bragg asked his two corps commanders whether to retreat or to stand and fight. Cleburne, concerned about what Sherman had accomplished, expected Bragg to retreat. Hardee also counseled retreat, but Breckinridge convinced Bragg to fight it out on the strong position of Missionary Ridge. Accordingly, the troops withdrawn from Lookout Mountain were ordered to the right wing to assist in repelling Sherman. After the conference, Bragg, ordered his troops to occupy the newly constructed fortifications atop Missionary Ridge. This line of entrenchments lay “along the physical crest rather than what is termed the ‘military crest’ - that is, along the top-most geographic line rather than along the highest line from which the enemy could be seen and fired upon. Breckinridge’s Corps defended the southern end of the ridge, with Stewart’s and Bate’s divisions aligned from south to north on the crest. ***ref wiki missionary ridge.

Later that night, General Jesse Finley led two regiments of his brigade into the entrenchments on the crest of Missionary Ridge. Some did not reach the trenches atop the formidable position until after midnight, yet at dawn on November 25, 1863, the [consolidated 1st and 3rd Florida] (hyperlink to wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Florida_Infantry) ( Lt. Col. Edward Mashburn) and the 6th Florida (Lieutenant Col. Angus McLean), stood ready to meet the enemy. Finley’s right flank rested on the Moore Road, with his left connecting with Colonel Randall Gibson’s Brigade. All told, these three regiments numbered roughly 750 effectives. Colonel G. Troup Maxwell commanded the three regiments, including his own 1st Florida Cavalry dismounted, that remained in rifle pits at the foot of Missionary Ridge. His small detachment also included Colonel Robert Bullock’s 7th Florida and Lt. Col. Edward Badger’s 4th Florida. This force of nearly 800 soldiers joined several thousand men in defending this advanced line.

On November 25, General William T. Sherman’s troops began their anticipated assault against the northern end of Missionary Ridge, while Grant ordered General Hooker’s soldiers to outflank the Confederates in the south. General Thomas’s Army of the Cumberland was to “charge and carry the rifle pits at the foot of Missionary Ridge. Nothing more was intended.” Grant’s plan began to falter though when Hooker’s advance started late and General Patrick Cleburne’s troops thwarted Sherman’s assaults to seize the northern end of the ridge.

As the day wore on, the Floridians would have heard the heavy volume of fire coming from the northern end of the ridge; at one p.m., Bragg ordered the Orphan Brigade, also serving in Bate’s Division to assist against Sherman. To fill the gap left by the Orphans, Bate shifted his line to the right, meaning the Floridians’s left flank would sit on the Moore Road, very close to the house that served as Braxton Bragg’s Headquarters. Samuel Pasco maintained that Colonel Robert Tyler’s men successfully completed this move, but Thomas’s attack began before the Floridians could complete the maneuver. As a result, Finley had to stretch his line uncomfortably thin to connect with both Tyler’s right and Gibson’s left. To confuse matters more, during the early afternoon hours General Breckinridge sent word to his troops holding the advance line of entrenchments to retire up the ridge after firing one volley. Unfortunately, William Bate had previously ordered his troops defending this line to “fight to the last resort,” and his soldiers never received Breckinridge’s revised orders.

At 3:00 P.M., the soldiers on the crest of Missionary Ridge and at its foot watched 23,000 soldiers of the Army of the Cumberland deployed nearly two miles from the Confederates’ position. At 3:40 this force began its advance toward the ridge; Lt. Reason Jerkins of the 7th Florida, despite considering the Yankees his mortal enemies wrote, “oh, what a purity sight it was to see them charge in 3 solide colums across the old field as blue as indigo mud and their arms glittered like new.” While the artillery atop Missionary Ridge opened almost immediately, the soldiers in the rifle pits at the base of the ridge waited until the enemy closed to within 300 yards and then fired. Immediately after delivering their one volley, the soldiers to the left and right of Maxwell’s advance force began retreating up the ridge; at seeing the Rebels fleeing, the Federals of the assaulting columns broke into a run toward the advanced line.

In the trenches, Colonel Troup Maxwell looked in vain for the support, which he claimed General Bate had promised, all the while his soldiers loaded and fired until, he reported, the blueclad enemy had “reached the rile pits on my right and were close in my front,. . .” Robert Watson of the 7th Florida wrote that he and his comrades “mowed them down until they were within 30 yards of us and then we retreated up the hill. . . .” Washington Ives of the 4th Florida added that General Alexander W. Reynolds’s Brigade, in line to the right of Maxwell’s men, withdrawal allowed the Federals to “follow them partly up and getting higher up the hill. .. than the Floridians. The latter were compelled after firing several rounds at the advancing foe, to climb the ridge under terrible fire.

Robert Watson claimed that climbing up the hill was the “worst part of the fight for the hill was dreadful steep and the enemy kept up a continual fire and threw a continual shower of bullets among us, and I only wonder that they did not kill all of us.” Historian Peter Cozzens noted that when General Philip Sheridan’s Federals reached the rifle pits they discovered many Floridians for whom “surrender seemed preferable to trying to scale the sheer ridge with their backs to the oncoming Federals.” Others wanted badly to escape, but found themselves too weary to attempt to scale the 700-foot precipice. Lt. Col. William Stockton of the 1st Florida Cavalry dismounted was one of the latter, and wrote his wife from a Union prison camp, “I was unable from exhaustion, to leave the field, when all was lost in our part of it .. . Two of my men, were killed at my side, while successively attempting to assist me.” The Yankees seized Stockton in the rifle pits, and further up the heights, the bluecoats came across Colonel Robert Bullock (commanding the 7th Florida Infantry), who was, in the words of his biographer “a beefy man,” and quickly “became winded” in his attempt to reach the top. Lt. Reason Jerkins was one of those fortunate enough to reach the crest, and he recorded he “came through saff through a shower of shot and shell. . . I recon that I could hear a 1000 whistle at a time and bums bursting all. . . round and over us.

At the line of rifle pits, the Army of the Cumberland’s soldiers came under a heavy volume of fire from Missionary Ridge; it became obvious to these veterans that they could not remain in the captured entrenchments. “So, in every mind there arose one thought: get out of the rifle pits immediately. . . a continued advance to the base of the ridge. . .seemed the only alternative to slaughter.” Slowly, the soldiers began inching their way up the ridge.



1864
The Brigade was in the battle of Rocky Face in front of Dalton in February, when, after two days fight, General William Tecumseh Sherman fell back to Chattanooga to wait reinforcements. Having received reinforcements, he advanced again in May with superior numbers and, after a two days' battle and an attempt to flank General Johnston's army, the latter commenced the famous retreat under General Johnston to Atlanta.

The army then fell back to Resaca and deployed into line of battle in a strong position and, after a two days' battle (in which General Finley was wounded), again took up the line of retreat. And, not to be tedious—the Brigade was in all the battles of the Atlanta Campaign from Dalton to Atlanta, bearing itself with its customary intrepidity and bravery.

It was then that General Johnston was removed from the command of the Army and was succeeded by General John Bell Hood. The Brigade participated in the Battle of Atlanta and Battle of Jonesboro, in which last battle General Finley was again wounded.

The Brigade was with Hood in his unfortunate and disastrous Franklin-Nashville Campaign; and after the retreat of the Confederate Army from Nashville, it was transferred, with General Hood's command, to North Carolina and was in the Battle of Bentonville just before the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox.

1865
Col. Daniel Kenan, in the battle of Bentonville, was wounded in the leg so severely that amputation was necessary; and Col. Angus McLean was killed in the battle of Dallas on the retreat from Dalton to Atlanta.

The Florida troops in the Army of Tennessee conducted themselves with patriotism and gallantry.