Florida Thunder: The Marion Light Artillery 1861-1865

By Mike Evans

When people think of Florida, what comes to mind are sandy beaches, alligators, and Mickey Mouse. Few realize that Florida was the third state to secede from the Union. It was also the smallest in population, being referred to as the "smallest tadpole in the dirty pool of secession."

This work does not concern itself with the politics, issues of slavery, economics, or military strategies of the Civil War. Instead, it focuses directly on the history and service of one Florida unit: The Marion Light Artillery. Raised in North Central Florida, this unit would be the only Florida artillery battery to see active combat outside the state, beginning from Richmond, Kentucky, through most of the campaigns of the Army of Tennessee, until their surrender in May of 1865 at Meridian, Mississippi.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: May 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781639857388

Mike Evans

A musician on the Sixties rock scene, Mike Evans began writing about popular music in the 1970s while a broadcaster in local radio, his work appearing in a variety of publications including Sounds, Cream, the Guardian, Elle and as a regular contributor to the UK's top music weekly newspaper Melody Maker. He wrote the much-acclaimed The Art of the Beatles in 1984, and the bestselling Elvis: A Celebration, which he researched and wrote in collaboration with the Elvis Presley Estate in Memphis and The Art of British Rock in 2010. Fleetwood Mac: The Definitive History was published in 2011, and in 2012 Neil Young and Ukulele Crazy. He lives and works in Hastings, on England's south coast.

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Preface

This work does not concern itself with the politics, issues of slavery, the economics, or military strategies of the American Civil War. Instead, it focuses directly on the history and service of one Florida unit: the Marion Light Artillery. It is a story of common men of the time, with all the vices and virtues of men during wartime, who faithfully served their state and a cause in which they believed. I consider this book a rough unfinished history. It’s a continuous and ongoing project, a puzzle comprised of literally hundreds, if not thousands, of bits and pieces of information, conflicting sources, and incomplete or missing records and reports. Hopefully, future historians will, as time passes, uncover more pieces of the puzzle, in order to fully complete the history of the Marion Light Artillery.

Introduction

During the battery’s approximately three and a half years of service, the Marion Light Artillery would be the only Florida artillery unit that would see active combat service outside of the state during the war. Service would be in the Western Theater and most with the Army of Tennessee. At different times, it was referred to as Martin’s, McCants’s, and finally, Perry’s Battery, depending on who was in command at the time. This is their story, a story that needs to be told, for Florida owes them no less.

They died far from the home that gave them birth.

—Inscription on the Confederate monument in St Augustine, Florida

Removed by the city from the public square in 2020

Chapter 1

The Beginning

On January 10, 1861, Florida’s session convention, by a vote of 62–7, approved an ordinance of secession, which stated:

We the people of the State of Florida, and Convention assembled, do solemnly ordained publish and declare: that the state of Florida here by withdrawals herself from the Confederacy of States exist under the name of the United States of America, and from the existing government of said States, and that all political connection between her and the government of said States ought to be, and the same is hereby totally annulled, and said Union of States dissolved, and the State of Florida is hereby declared a sovereign and independent nation, and that all ordinances heretofore adopted, insofar as they create or recognize said Union, are rescinded, and all laws or parts of laws in force of this state, insofar as they recognized or assent to said Union be and they are hereby repealed.

With this, Florida became the third state to secede from the United States, following the path of South Carolina and Mississippi. In Washington, they haughtily referred to the State of Florida as the smallest tadpole in the dirty pool of secession. Florida’s economy was almost based entirely on agriculture. Her population in 1860 stood at approximately 140,400, making Florida the least populated of all the soon-to-be Confederate States. Of this number, 78,699 were white, and of that number, approximately 15,000 were between the military age of eighteen to forty-five. The rest of the state’s population of 63,000 were slaves, in addition to a small population of free blacks and a variety of persons of color.

Even before Florida’s decision to secede, volunteer companies were formed throughout the state. In North Central Florida, Marion County was no exception. The county was Florida’s sixth largest and was one of Florida’s most prosperous, with Ocala being the county seat. In 1844, Marion County had a population that consisted largely of settlers who had relocated from South Carolina and Georgia during the cotton boom of 1850. By 1860, sixty-five thousand bales of Sea Island or upland cotton were harvested, along with sugarcane, oranges, corn, cattle, and hogs being the major agricultural products.

The population of Marion County at this time consisted of 3,295 white and 3,593 slaves for a total of approximately 6,880. Marion County was one of the first Florida counties to call for secession as early as November 1860. The citizens raised in the town square a white flag with a lone blue star with the lettering under the star stating, Leave us alone. Marion County leaders drafted an urgent appeal to the state legislature to summon a convention to act upon the question of secession of Florida from the United States. On November 26, 1860, three weeks before South Carolina left the Union, Marion County leaders passed a resolution supporting secession.

Chapter 2

The Battery Is Formed

One of the most prominent political leaders and vocal advocates of Marion County was John Jackson Dickison. The forty-two-year-old planter, originally from South Carolina, and owner of one of the largest plantations in the area, began forming a company of cavalry. Before the company was completed, he was approached by John M. Martin, twenty-nine, a graduate of the Citadel, also from South Carolina, and another prominent land and property owner. Martin had supported Breckenridge in the 1860 election but supported secession after Lincoln was elected. He asked Dickison if he would convert his cavalry company to an artillery unit. Dickison agreed, only if Martin would agree to be the company’s captain. A mutual agreement was reached in October 1861, and the Marion Light Artillery was organized in Ocala. John M. Martin became the captain. John Jackson Dickison became the first lieutenant. Robert