Florida Crackers

[Major 2]

placed here at the request of St. George 

Florida Frontier life was just as rip roaring as many stories & legends out west...

I would like to offer several reads for those who might find the stories interesting

Guns of the Palmetto Plains A Cracker Western By Rick Tonyan ( thanks to WT I got to read this one again )
a Novel set in the Civil War, Yankee raiders VS Confederate home guard VS vicious outlaws over cattle for the staving South.
Based on true facts and locations.

Florida Cow-hunter The Life of Bone Mizell by Jim Bob Teinsley
a light and humorous true life read of Bonaparte Mizell , circa 1890's


Thunder on the St. Johns by Lee Gramling
Set in the 1850's  Homesteaders , trappers VS Outlaws


Riders of the Suwannee by Lee Gramling
1870's  the fight to save a Homestead of a young widow and her children from outlaws...

And perhaps my favorite....

Florida Frontiers ,"the Way Hit Waz"   by Mary Ida Bass Barber
The life of Mose Barber & many others .... Circa 1855- 1870's 
Fighting Seminoles, the CW , Cow-hunting & Rustling , Barber- Mizell Feud , ambushes , lynchings.
and the best part is I live right where most of it all happened .
The book describes these locations in such detail & maps one can go right to the sites...
in many cases they have little changed.
Highly recommend it... In fact I just bought a copy ( again many thanks WT  )
previously I had to used the library's copy

[Delmonico]

Very interesty part of cowboy history that few know about.

Also few realize the oldest cattle ranch in the US is the Parker Ranch in Hawaii.

[Cutter Carl]

A lot of Florida history is just like that, known to a few.  There's lots of history, the Spainish in the 1600 and 1700's, Civil War history - including some Federal Naval landings in the Tampa Bay area and a couple of gunfights that acompanied them, some ship wrecks to keep vessels for the Federals during the blockade.  The 1st and 2nd Seminole Indian Wars.  All the sunken frieghters topedoed during WW2 along the Atlantic coast and Florida Straits.  The burial mounds along the coasts dating back 5000 years and more.  The good thing is some, mostly reenactors (scubadivers in the case of the wrecks) are seeking to preserve and starting to make this history known. 

Major 2, a part of that cowboy history is just down the road from me in Plant City,  railroad tycoon H. B. Plant built a rail line from the Polk County cattle country to Tampa.  Plant City was a holding area for the cattle until they were transported to Tampa for processing and shipping from the Port of Tampa.  The rail line is still in use today. 

[Major 2]

Hey Carl... was beginning to think you'd gone under 

David Levy Yulee built railroad also , Fernandina on Amelia Island north of Jacksonville on the Atlantic side to Cedar Key on the Gulf.
Second Florida Cavalry (US) was stationed at Cedar Key.
It interesting to know there were several cavalry clashes, in Florida during the war.

Capt. JJ Dickinson ( Ol Dixie ) was a Company commander of Second Florida Cavalry (CS)
He is famous in the these parts for his exploits, never lost a fight.
One of his, most famous was the sinking of the USS Columbine... Cavalry VS a US Navy Gunboat !
His wife's Book  JJ Dickinson & His Men is a great read...

[Cutter Carl]

Still here, just been very busy since I changed jobs. 

There is a University project (I think the U of F) is conducting in Tampa.  They found 2 boats scuttled in the Hillsborough River in downtown Tampa during the Civil War to prevent ther capture by Union forces.  There also was a small reenactment in South Tampa by the Ballast Point fishing pier were Union and Confederate forces clashed during a Union landing to damage shipping in Tampa.  So maybe some are finally starting to figure out that we need to preserve some of this history.

[Major 2]

Glad to hear it 

If you'll have a hankering here is the oldest still running Hotel in Florida.

Built by David Yulee in 1857 ....http://www.floridahouseinn.com/History.htm

[Captain Lee Bishop]

I'm not a big fan of historical fiction as most authors make a lot of errors. Real historians who know a subject rarely write fiction, if you've ever noticed. Still, these books sound interesting, I might just give one a try.
Yep, lots of good history in Florida that most people don't know about. I was born and raised in Tallahassee, and my Dad retired after 30+ years working for the state. The man knows about everything about the state's history. We used to re-enact Civil War events all over the northern part of the state for a very long time. There were a few land battles fought in Northern Florida during the Civil War. The largest was at Ocean Pond, West of Jacksonville. It's now called, "Olustee" for the nearest railroad flag stop: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Olustee I lived very close to the site of much smaller battle that was fought outside of Tallahassee at Natural Bridge, where Union Landing force pressing to burn a couple of small ports, was stopped cold at the only crossing of the St Marks river, by mostly wounded veterans, old men and cadets from the Seminary (now Florida State University): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Natural_Bridge I went through Army ROTC at Florida State, and we had the battle streamer on our flag for the battle. Most places the Yankee invaders trod on my home state, they were soundly thrashed.  Tallahassee was the only CSA capitol city east of the Mississippi that was never captured during the war.
Even though I no longer live in Tallahassee (my folks still do), I have spent a lot of time researching and collecting items for the military bases in that area in WW2. Lots of training was done in the state due to the climate. Nearby there were several airfields and an amphibious training base at Carrabelle. In fact, Dale Mabry Army Airfield had a survival school at Silver Lake, less than 3 miles from the house I grew up at. Speaking of WW2, anyone interested in U Boats needs to read "Operation Drumbeat" about the German sub attacks along the East coast early in the war. There's a great segment on the sinking of the tanker, Gulfamerica, which was sunk well in sight of the people living off of Jacksonville beach: http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/1523.html Another U-boat sunk the Empire Mica off of Panama City beach: http://homepage.eircom.net/~gordonsteele/intro.html
I've been working on a book about Tallahassee and Mabry Field during WW2, probably still years away, but I have a darned good collection of memorabilia from the area now.

[Major 2]

Capt.
We must have crossed paths then. I commanded the Federal Cavalry at the Battle of Olustee for many years.
I was at the very first and did 25 consective Annual Olustee events till 2001 when I retired from active CW eventing.
I never attended Natural Bridge though no Horse Cavalry involved.

[St. George]

First - thanks for posting this - there's no such thing as too much reference material...

Second - remember that 'wikipedia' is a do-it-yourself 'reference' source, so verify your research with additional information, as what you find there isn't always 'real'...

Thanks again.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Captain Lee Bishop]

Small world, huh? I don't know if you ever heard of Gary Bishop, my father? I was in CSA artillery from the very first event up until we quite showing up in the late 80s/early 90s (I don't recall the exact year). For obvious reasons, we never dealt with the Cavalry folks much as they never got back to where we were. We had the ONLY gun at the first Olustee (a 3/4 scale M1841), as another gun there had been backed into by a truck I think that Saturday and had a broken axle and couldn't participate. I just stood there in uniform as I was seven at the time. I do clearly recall that Dad's crew was expected to switch sides halfway through the battle, to suggest the gun was "captured." Dad, who is way over 6 feet tall, removed his kepi to try not to be quite so obviously the same guy. I doubt it confused the spectators a little who noticed. Back then, we were paired with Tom Jesse and Don Bowman with their 5th Florida unit. Ah yes, the days when jeans, cowboy boots and John Wayne shirts were oh so common in re-enacting. I swear, it's just not the same hobby it was when I was a kid! Here's a link that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, showing a photo of our gun and a narrative I wrote about growing up doing Olustee events: http://extlab7.entnem.ufl.edu/olustee/olustee77.htm 
Here's the gun back in the olden days of the 70s, blasting Yankee invaders at Natural Bridge, my Dad is just off the photo to the left:

And here it is a few years later, when Dad replaced all the wood, made new wheels, and cast every part out of Bronze that could be made out of that metal:

Oh, by the way, I know wikipedia isn't set in stone, but it had basic, decent listings of the battles...

[Major 2]

HA ... I do remember the incident, the truck and the gun 
If I recall correctly, the gun was Mtn. Howitzer , of The Homestead Light Artillery,
We referred to them as The Homestead Light Beer Artillery 
I also remember The Marianna Light Artillery (Helen Larouax (sic) husband who passed away ) from the early years .
And I remember Gary Fishers Gun(s) we pulled a few times with our team & hitch.

I knew a Jim Bishop of the 5th Florida Cavalry CSA in the 90's...
Of course Tom Jesse & Don Bowman still attend and command all CAS troops. I recall Tom was Gen. Ordabellos (sic) aid to camp
at the first few events.
Ray Giron ran the events back then and retired after the 20th. annual event.
In those years , it grew from ( if I recall , about 200 rebs and 70 Feds and 3 sutlers to upwards of 1500 Rebs & 1100 Yanks 3 doz. sutlers )
During height of the 130th anniversary national events (1994 for Olustee) over 4000 troops attended.
With my 2nd Florida Cavalry & co unit 7 Ill Cavalry  we fielded 82 troopers.

I retired from active CW eventing after the 25 Annual Event in 2001.
After 28 years in saddle and attending events from Florida to Texas , Illinois , Pennsylvania, and about every state between them.
My last event was the 2001 Vicksburg canpaign at Raymond Miss. ( it was an event to remember in 1999 , but paled in comparison to the second event held two years later in 2001 )
Indeed, the hobby had changes for the better, from the early years through the late , 90's,  but seems to have regressed some of late.

[Captain Lee Bishop]

I can't imagine Olustee being that big. I'd imagine your guess for # of troops at the first one would be about right. Remember the first years of tromping around the Palmettos? It sure was nice the year they cleared off that part of the field for the event...
I know all of those people you named, and I'm sure they'd all recall my Dad, as for a long time, he was the guy to talk artillery with. Gary Fisher especially, I practically grew up with his daughter Michelle, we all acted like one big family at the shoots and events we'd all go to. It was a neat way to grow up, I can assure you of that! I doubt anyone would recognize me now, as I hadn't been to an events in over a decade. I did walk on to the Gettysburg event in 1998 when I was stationed in Maryland. I think I saw Gary Fisher go by, but he went by so fast I couldn't catch up to him and lost him in a crowd. Pity. Would have loved to say howdy and watch his shock to see "little Lee" all grown up!
So Ray Giron's not in it anymore huh? That comes as kind of a shock, but then again, he's got to be well beyond retirement age now. I keep forgetting all those guys are well up in years now, like my Dad. He's in his 70s now and hasn't fired the cannon in years.
Hey, you wouldn't happen to remember the wacky CSA cav guys from the early years, would you? Man, the sorties I could tell about the insane things I saw those folks do at Six Gun Territory at that first cheesy event we did there back when it was still open...

[Major 2]

 The 19th. Georgia (HELL's Angels  ) is the CSA Cav. you mention...

PM sent **********

OH ! yeah I remember them    , they turned up at the 120th. National Shiloh uninvited & unregistered, they were asked to leave & refused,
The organizer had them escorted out by the Tenn. Highway Patrol , Horses , trailers and all....

Ray is sill involved in a way, I see him on Film Shoots we work sometimes  ,  as a Prop master ....
I'm guessing he is about 65... I have not seen Gary in years, others have gone on to the big event in the sky....
Olustee is the biggest in the State probably 1500 -1800 annually.... followed closely by Brooksville and they are the oldest.
This last Olustee was the 30th. annual event. I think Brooksville is about 26 years running.