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Florida had joined the Confederacy in advance of the American Civil War, as the third of the original seven states to secede from the Union, following Lincoln's 1860 election. With the smallest population, nearly half of them slaves, Florida sent only 15,000 troops to the Confederate States Army. Its chief importance was in food-supply to the south and support for blockade-runners along its long coastline full of inlets that were hard to patrol.
At the outbreak of war, the Confederates seized many United States facilities in the state, though the Union retained control of Key West, Fort Jefferson and Fort Pickens throughout the war.
There was little fighting in Florida, the only major conflict being the Battle of Olustee, near Lake City in February 1864. However, wartime conditions made it easier for slaves to escape, and many of them became useful informers to Union commanders. As southern morale suffered, deserters from both sides took refuge in Florida, often attacking Confederate units and looting farms.
In May 1865, Federal control was re-established, slavery abolished, and the state governor John Milton committed suicide by gunshot.
Blockades
As Florida was an important supply route for the Confederate army, Union forces operated a blockade around the entire state. The 8,436-mile coastline and 11,000 miles of rivers, streams, and waterways proved a haven for blockade runners and a daunting task for patrols by Federal warships.
Governor John Milton, an ardent secessionist, throughout the war stressed the importance of Florida as a supplier of goods, rather than personnel. Florida was a large provider of food (particularly beef cattle) and salt for the Confederate Army.
Union troops occupied major ports such as Apalachicola, Cedar Key, Jacksonville, Key West, and Pensacola early in the war. USS Hatteras had blockade duty in Apalachicola, and, in January 1862, was part of a Union naval force which landed in Cedar Key and burned several ships, a pier, and flatcars.
The Union blockade of Confederate ports forced blockade runners to use smaller and more innocuous ports such as Bayport. As the Civil War progressed, Bayport became a haven for blockade runners operating between Florida's gulf coast and Cuba, providing numerous critical war commodities for the Confederate war effort.
One in ten southern soldiers deserted. Usually the local people where this soldier returned to, would burn down the desert's home, leaving the whole family homeless. These men gathered together and formed their own military camps and lived there with their families. In Florida, these camps were usually found in the swamps throughout Florida.
Most supplies were scarce in Hernando County during the war. because of the Yankee embargo, but the Cuba ships managed to get their rum through the blockage. Residents had plenty of rum when they didn't have food.
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