Florida During the Civil War
A Sparsely Settled State at the Edge of a Great Conflict
Florida was a small state, but the war reached nearly every part of it.
On January 10, 1861, sixty-nine delegates in Tallahassee voted 62 to 7 to take Florida out of the Union, and crowds at the capitol celebrated. Florida was the third state to secede, after South Carolina and Mississippi, and it entered the Confederacy as one of the smallest and least developed. The war that followed brought only a few large battles to Florida, but it reached nearly every part of the state.
Why Florida Seceded
Florida in 1860 had roughly 140,000 people, and about 61,700 of them were enslaved. Wealth and political power centered in Middle Florida, the plantation country around Tallahassee, where enslaved labor produced most of the state’s cotton. Historian Ralph Wooster counted fifty-one of the convention’s sixty-nine delegates as slaveholders.
The ordinance adopted on January 10 states the withdrawal but gives no reasons, so the evidence of motive lies elsewhere. According to the National Park Service, convention president John C. McGehee, himself a slaveholder, argued that slavery was central to property in the South and warned that the incoming Republican administration threatened it. Taken together, these records point to the protection of slavery as the central motive, as in the other seceding states. Support was not universal. Former governor Richard Keith Call, a prominent Unionist, opposed secession, and Unionist feeling persisted along the St. Johns River and in Key West and Pensacola.
A Coastline Too Long to Defend
Florida had roughly 1,300 miles of general coastline, more than any other Confederate state, and no Confederate force could defend it. Stephen Mallory, a Floridian and the Confederacy’s secretary of the navy, led a navy stretched thin along the whole Southern coast, and Robert E. Lee favored defending the interior instead.
The Union never lost Fort Taylor at Key West, Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas or Fort Pickens at Pensacola. They gave the navy secure bases for the blockade, and Key West became a key station for the East Gulf Blockading Squadron. The result was a divided war: a Confederate interior, contested but largely unbroken until the final weeks, and a coast that Union ships could approach and raid almost at will.
The State That Fed the Confederacy
Florida’s greatest contribution was food and supplies rather than battle. As the Union gained the Mississippi River, the Confederacy lost much of its western beef and turned to Florida’s herds, which the 1860 census counted at about 388,000 head. Florida also became a leading source of salt, the essential preservative, produced at Gulf Coast salt works that may have employed as many as five thousand people. Many cattlemen and salt makers received exemptions from conscription because their work was considered too valuable to lose.
Battles on Florida Soil
The largest was Olustee, fought February 20, 1864, east of Lake City. Florida Memory records Union losses of 1,861 and Confederate losses of 946. The Confederate victory ended any near-term hope of a loyal Union government in Florida. At Natural Bridge on March 6, 1865, a force that included cadets from the West Florida Seminary helped keep Tallahassee the only Confederate state capital east of the Mississippi River never captured.
Most of the fighting was smaller. The gunboat Sagamore shelled Tampa in June and July 1862, and on February 20, 1865, Confederate cavalry attacked the Union garrison at Fort Myers and were repelled.
Divided Loyalties
Florida was less united than the secession celebrations suggested. Some residents along the St. Johns River and around Tampa Bay changed their professed loyalties with the nearest army, and some men hid in the woods and swamps to avoid conscription. For enslaved Floridians the war opened a path to freedom. Beginning in 1862, many fled toward Union lines, especially near Key West and Fernandina, and after the Emancipation Proclamation roughly a thousand formerly enslaved Floridians enlisted in Union service. By common estimates about 15,000 Floridians served the Confederacy and about 2,000 the Union.
The War’s End
By early 1865 the Confederacy was collapsing on every front. Confederate military resistance in Florida ended in May 1865, and Union authority was established at Tallahassee that month. The U.S. flag was raised over the capitol and the Emancipation Proclamation was publicly announced there, an observance Florida still marks as Emancipation Day. Reconstruction, a separate and difficult chapter, was just beginning.
Quick Facts
Secession
January 10, 1861; convention vote of 62 to 7
Order of secession
Third state, after South Carolina and Mississippi
Population, 1860
About 140,000; about 61,700 were enslaved
Coastline
Roughly 1,300 miles of general coastline
Union-held forts
Fort Taylor, Fort Jefferson and Fort Pickens, held throughout the war
Cattle, 1860 census
About 388,000 head
Major battles
Olustee (February 20, 1864) and Natural Bridge (March 6, 1865)
Soldiers
About 15,000 Confederate and about 2,000 Union
Union enlistment
Roughly 1,000 formerly enslaved Floridians
War’s end in Florida
Confederate military resistance ended in May 1865
Did You Know?
- Florida’s coastline of roughly 1,300 miles was the longest of any Confederate state.
- Tallahassee was the only Confederate capital east of the Mississippi River never captured.
- The secession ordinance gave no reasons for leaving the Union, so historians look to the delegates and their statements.
Vocabulary
Secession: the formal withdrawal of a state from the United States.
Blockade: the use of warships to stop ships from entering or leaving ports.
Unionist: a Southerner who stayed loyal to the United States.
Discussion Questions
1. Why might a state with few major battles still have been important to the Confederate war effort?
2. Why do historians look at who the delegates were, and not only at the ordinance, to understand why Florida seceded?
Related Articles
- FLH-0099 — The Battle of Olustee
- FLH-0235 — The Battle of Natural Bridge
- FLH-0100 — Florida’s Cow Cavalry
- FLH-0101 — Salt Makers of the Gulf Coast
- FLH-0102 — Florida’s Blockade Runners
- FLH-0103 — Florida’s Unionists
- FLH-0104 — Key West: Florida’s Union Island
- FLH-0305 — Before Texas: Florida’s First Cattle Empire
Sources
Florida Memory. State Library and Archives of Florida. “Ordinance of Secession, 1861”; “Distant Storm: Florida’s Role in the Civil War”; “A Guide to Civil War Records.” floridamemory.com
National Park Service. “Florida Secession.” nps.gov
Museum of Florida History. “Florida in the Civil War” exhibit pages. museumoffloridahistory.com
Florida Humanities. “A Salty Story.” floridahumanities.org
American Battlefield Trust. “The Role of Florida in the Civil War.” battlefields.org (supplementary)
Copyright © 2026 Wm. E. McMullen II. All rights reserved. Published by Florida Learning Hub.