bumblebee
01-10-2006, 07:44 AM
On January 10, 1861, delegates to the Florida Convention in Tallahassee voted to secede from the United States of America. The following month, Florida was one of seven Deep South states to form the Confederate States of America.
The least populous state below the Mason-Dixon line, Florida played an active role in the Civil War. An estimated 16,000 Floridians fought in the conflict and the state's coastline provided safe harbor to blockade runners. Florida products—sugar, pork, molasses and salt—proved essential in feeding Southern soldiers.
Just a year into the conflict, Confederate forces abandoned Fort Marion in St. Augustine. On March 11, 1862, the Union gunboat, U.S.S. Wabash, took the fort without firing a shot. Local officials agreed to surrender the historic city, founded by the Spanish in 1565, in an attempt to save it from destruction. The garrison, built by the Spanish and completed in 1695, is preserved as the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument.
Compared to other Southern states, Florida saw little military action. Strategically important coastal cities, such as Jacksonville and Saint Augustine, switched hands between the North and South but the interior of the state remained under Confederate control. When Lee surrendered in 1865 Tallahassee was the only Southern capital held by rebel forces.