The American Civil War divided the country between the industrialized northern states and the agricultural southern states that depended upon slave labor to support their economy.
Disagreement over the issue of whether or not individual states had the right to decide if slavery should be legal within their borders led to the War Between the States.
Florida was the third state to secede from the Union, in January 1861, behind only South Carolina and Mississippi. As the largest supplier of beef and salt to the Confederate army, Florida played a vital role in the Civil War.
For those interested in learning more about this conflict, the Rossetter House Museum and Gardens in Eau Gallie is hosting “Civil War Living History Day” on Saturday, April 16, from 10 am to 4 pm. Admission is $2.00 for adults, with no charge for students.
Representatives from the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War will have an encampment on the northern lawn of the Rossetter House, while members of the Confederate Sons Association will be based on the south lawn.
“We are the Indian River Camp 47, of the Confederate Sons Association based in Brevard County,” says Commander Tom Mills. “We have two types of members. Compatriots, male members with proven genealogy documentation link to his Civil War ancestor. Legionnaires are male and female members whom have a love of history and Civil War history in particular.”
At the Civil War Living History Day, CSA members will be dressed in period attire. Civil War style tents will show what camp life was like for soldiers. Tables will be set up with displays of authentic CSA muskets, swords, and related equipment and clothing. Soldiers will march and fire their weapons.
“Ladies table displays focus on the importance of a lady’s role and life experiences thrust upon them during the War Between the States and the support and struggles they endured maintaining the homeland in the absence of their husbands, sons, and family structure,” says Mills.
“At least two camps of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War will be participating in the Civil War Living History Day,” says Captain Jim Ward.
Lucius L. Mitchell Camp 4, SUVCW is based in St. Cloud, but covers a six-county area. A small rural town until well after the Civil War, St. Cloud experienced significant growth after being designated as a retirement community for Union veterans of the Civil War.
Camp 7 of the SUVCW will be coming from Pembroke Pines to participate in this Saturday’s event at the Rossetter House Museum.
“Displays will range from authentic muskets and rifles, tents, uniforms, other artifacts or replicas, and writing from or about the time,” says Ward. “Members will be available for discussion and demonstration, and to help answer questions.”
Remnants of the divisiveness of the Civil War can still be seen today.
Debates continue over whether or not battle flags from a vanquished rebel army should be displayed on government owned flagpoles. Some communities are beginning to look more critically at Confederate monuments and statues on public property. Discussions about race relations continue.
Descendants of both Confederate and Union soldiers agree that we must continue to learn from our difficult past.
“We live in the fast lane where too many people, and young people in particular, have not been taught first by their families and foremost by our schools, all of this nation’s struggles, conflicts, and battles,” says Mills. “The focus should be on people’s heritage, factual history accounts, and not try to change one’s history because it was not pretty or in one’s perception, not correct.”
Mills adds that events like the Civil War Living History Day are an excellent way for people of all ages to learn about our shared past, and Ward agrees.
“People benefit from learning about and better understanding the Civil War because parts of those experiences inform our current experience,” says Ward. “For example, the phenomenon of the ‘wide awakes’ appears similar to the ‘99%’ activities not long ago. Another benefit, perhaps better understood as an obligation, is to remember the individuals comprising the large number of American casualties in this effort to bring us from antebellum times to today.”
At 4:00 a.m. on April 1, 1864, an explosion disrupted the still waters of the St. Johns River as a Confederate mine ripped through the hull of the steamship Maple Leaf. The ship was transporting Union supplies during the Civil War.
“It was participating in the Southeast Atlantic Blockade as a troop transport,” says Keith Holland, founder of St. Johns Archaeological Expeditions, Inc.
“After the Battle of Olustee, which was a major Union defeat, all troops were called from surrounding areas, especially Charleston, to come to Jacksonville immediately. They had camped on Folly Island, an entire brigade, for about 20 months. It took the Quartermasters approximately a month to break down the entire camp, and load up all of the thousands of soldiers personal effects into boxes. They were all placed into the Maple Leaf.”
Before the Union supplies could be unloaded from the Maple Leaf, the ship was ordered to go to Palatka and deposit some provisions there, including a group of horses. The ship went to Palatka, but never made it back to Jacksonville.
“They were ordered to travel at night with no lights, only the binnacle light was allowed in the pilot’s house,” says Holland.
“It was a full moon, no wind, the river was as clear as the surface of a mirror. Romeo Murray, the pilot, was heading north. He saw nothing on the water, but there was a contact explosive mine submerged under the water. He struck that directly under the hull, approximately at the foremast, and it imploded a huge hole into the bow of the boat.”
The front deck of the Maple Leaf caved in and the pilot house fell forward. The ship’s whistle started to blow as its wire was stretched. The pilot turned the boat in an attempt to get to the east bank of the river, but it was too late.
After five or six revolutions of the paddle wheel, the Maple Leaf sank to the bottom of the St. Johns River.
The Confederate mine that sunk the Maple Leaf was about a yard wide. The center looked like a small barrel, but tapered wooden points on both sides made it resemble a torpedo.
The mine blast killed four people, but the rest of the crew was able to escape in life boats.
“The officer in charge said that he thought it would be ‘the better part of valor’ to get out of there before the Confederates approached,” says Holland. “They spent the rest of the night, from four o’clock in the morning, rowing to Jacksonville, and arrived there about 8:30 in the morning.”
Today we view the materials left aboard the ship as having great cultural significance, but the artifacts remained undisturbed and forgotten for more than 125 years.
In 1984, Jacksonville dentist and diving enthusiast Keith Holland became aware of the Maple Leaf story and formed St. Johns Archaeological Expeditions, Inc. to research, locate, and excavate the ship.
Years of research led Holland to the conclusion that 800,000 pounds of personal items belonging to Union soldiers would still be aboard the Maple Leaf, preserved in an anaerobic environment.
Holland and his team of divers dragged a metal detector across the bottom of the river, looking for the exact location of the ship. It snagged on a shrimp net, which in turn had been caught on the paddle wheel axel of the Maple Leaf. It was the only part of the ship sticking up from the river floor.
“The main deck was buried under seven feet of St. Johns River mud,” says Holland. “This was going to take a very big deal to get to.”
Holland’s team was able to clear away enough mud to gain access to the ship and begin recovering artifacts from the Maple Leaf. Much of that material is on display for the first time at the Mandarin Museum and Historical Society in Jacksonville along with a detailed model of the ship, a replica of the mine that sank it, and a diving suit worn by one of the excavators.
Only a very small portion of the Maple Leaf cargo has been recovered. Most of the ship’s contents remains buried in the St. Johns River.
Dr. Ben Brotemarkle is executive director of the Florida Historical Society and host of the radio program “Florida Frontiers,” broadcast locally on 90.7 WMFE Thursday evenings at 6:30 and Sunday afternoons at 4:00, and on 89.5 WFIT Sunday mornings at 7:00. The show can be heard online at myfloridahistory.org.
The loud booming of cannon fire ripped through the north Florida pine forest fifteen miles east of Lake City as startled cavalry horses whinnied. Repeated rifle fire rang through the trees as more than 10,000 soldiers confronted each other on February 20, 1864, near Ocean Pond.
The Battle of Olustee was the largest conflict of the American Civil War fought on Florida soil.
Each side began with about 5,000 troops. When the three hour battle was over, 1,861 Union soldiers and 946 Confederate soldiers were dead.
“It is significant because it comes at a time when the United States is attempting to swing Southern states back into the Union,” says Sean Adams, associate professor of history at the University of Florida.
“There was an attempt, for example, to reconstruct Louisiana in 1863. The notion is that you’re also, then, going to swing Florida into the Union.”
Three new U.S. Colored Troop Regiments bravely fought as Union soldiers at the Battle of Olustee, some even before they had an opportunity to complete their training.
“This is after the Emancipation Proclamation had made it possible for African American soldiers to serve,” says Adams. “So the combination of those factors, the presence of black soldiers, but also the idea of reconstructing Florida creates the impetus for this campaign to secure Florida.”
The Union lost this battle, but won the war 14 months later.
Florida was the third state to secede from the Union, in January 1861, behind only South Carolina and Mississippi.
“Florida was very significant to the Confederate war effort in that it supplied beef, it supplied salt,” says Adams. “It was an area where supplies could come in. The United States sets up a blockade of Confederate coasts, but of course Florida has a massive coast, so there’s no way that those Union ships are going to be able to keep all activity away from Florida.”
The Olustee Battlefield Historic Site is Florida’s first State Park, established in 1909. Since 1977, an annual reenactment of the Battle of Olustee has been staged at the park.
“Typically we plan for about 2,000 reenactors,” says Gary Dickinson, president of the Olustee Battlefield Citizen Support Organization. The CSO is the not-for-profit group that presents the reenactment. “We have 21 cannons, those are full-size artillery pieces. We’ll have between 50 and 75 mounted cavalry units.”
Authentic Union and Confederate camps are part of the reenactment weekend. Food vendors are on hand, along with informational displays, and people selling Civil War era costumes and other memorabilia. Period music is presented along with a variety of public programs addressing various Civil War topics.
Joel Fears is a long-time participant in the Battle of Olustee annual reenactment weekend. Fears says he had graduated from college and was nearly “an old man” when he first discovered that African Americans were not just slaves, but actually fought and died in the Civil War. He wants to share this information with the public.
“I’m representing James Henry Gooding. He was one of the people who fought here. He wrote dispatches to the New Bedford Mercury newspaper, and he also was writing the story of this battle,” says Fears. Gooding was wounded and captured at the Battle of Olustee, and died from his injuries.
Brevard County resident Mitch Morgan would not miss the Battle of Olustee reenactment weekend. Participating in the annual event has special meaning for him.
“My great-great-grandfather died on the battlefield here,” says Morgan. “I’ve been out here for about 18 years now, and for the first 10 years or so, I didn’t know that, until I got interested in my genealogy and family history. I always got one of those feelings here, that there was something more to this than just being in Florida’s biggest battle. I’m a native Floridian, but something else was going on.”
Through his genealogical research, Morgan discovered that his great-great-grandfather’s unit was the first on the field at the Battle of Olustee, and that his relative was killed.
“I don’t know where he’s buried. Possibly right where we’re standing, because they’re buried all over the area here. So it’s real personal for me, now even more so, because I have an ancestor here.”
Dr. Ben Brotemarkle is executive director of the Florida Historical Society and host of the radio program “Florida Frontiers,” broadcast locally on 90.7 WMFE Thursday evenings at 6:30 and Sunday afternoons at 4:00, and on 89.5 WFIT Sunday mornings at 7:00. The show can be heard online at myfloridahistory.org.
Moses Barber had simply had enough of his cattle going missing. He believed that David Mizell and his friends were periodically stealing from his herd. His rage reached a point where Barber publically declared that if David Mizell set foot on his property again, he would be shot.
On February 21, 1870, David Mizell became the first casualty of the Barber-Mizell Family Feud. He was shot and killed on Barber property near Holopaw, Florida, in Osceola County.
Moses Barber first settled in North Florida in the 1830s. As the Seminoles were pushed to the south, Barber expanded his cattle operation into Central Florida. Some members of the Barber family built homes on the south end of the cattle run, near Fort Christmas. By the time the Civil War began in 1860, Moses Barber was a prominent and successful cattleman.
During the Civil War, Florida was the primary supplier of beef to the Confederate Army, and the Barber family had one of the largest cattle businesses in the state. Once the war was over, some of Barber’s fellow cowmen were taking part in the Reconstruction government, which he saw as a betrayal.
David Mizell, who had fought for the Confederate Army, was named sheriff and tax collector of Orange County after the war. Moses Barber refused to pay what he believed were unfair taxes to the U.S. government. Mizell responded by taking some of Barber’s cattle to compensate for the unpaid debt. Tensions between the Barber family and the Mizell family escalated during the late 1860s, with other cattle families taking one side of the argument or the other.
Moses Barber believed that Mizell family friend George Bass had stolen some of his cattle, and confronted him about it. The Mizells controlled the sheriff’s office and the courts, so Barber and members of his family were charged with “false imprisonment” for holding Bass against his will. After decades of lawlessness on Florida’s frontier, Mizells charged Barbers with a series of crimes including arson, polygamy, and tax evasion. At the heart of the dispute was control over Florida’s cattle industry.
David Mizell ignored Moses Barber’s warning to stay off his land. Mizell, his son Will, and his brother Morgan ventured onto Barber property. As they crossed Bull Creek on their horses, shots were fired from behind some bushes, and David Mizell was killed.
As he lay dying, David Mizell asked that his death not be avenged. His brother John had other plans.
John Randolf Mizell, David’s brother, was the first judge of Orange County. Despite his position, Judge Mizell wanted swift justice for the men he was convinced were behind his brother’s death. Within weeks, Moses Barber’s son Isaac was shot and killed, allegedly while trying to escape arrest and Moses Jr. was drowned by vigilantes. Barber family friends William Yates and Lyell Padgett were shot and killed as fleeing suspects.
William Bronson, a family friend of the Mizells, was reportedly shot by Burrell Yates, a friend and relative of the Barbers. Allegedly, Yates was trying to prevent Bronson from burning evidence that would incriminate the Mizells and their associates in the wrongful deaths of the Barbers.
According to Barber family history, a total of thirteen Barber men were killed by the Mizell family during the Barber-Mizell Family Feud of 1870, but this claim can not be verified by public records.
No one is sure what happened to Moses Barber during and after the feud. Some records indicate that he died in 1870, while others have him alive and living in Texas in 1877.
Remnants of this colorful chapter of Florida history remain today. The Mizell family homestead is located in what is now Harry P. Leu Botanical Garden in Winter Park. The oldest grave in the small family cemetery there belongs to David Mizell. The Yates family homestead, originally located on Taylor Creek, has been relocated to Fort Christmas Historic Park. Needham Yates and William Yates were both killed in the Barber-Mizell Family Feud. The rural Volusia County town of Barberville was founded by James D. Barber, a descendent of Moses Barber.
Today, the Barber and Mizell families have merged through marriage. Several generations have blood from both sides of this bitter dispute.
For more information on the Barber-Mizell Family Feud of 1870, read the historical novel Florida’s Frontier: The Way Hit Wuz by Mary Ida Bass Barber Shearhart.
Dr. Ben Brotemarkle is producer and host of “Florida Frontiers: The Weekly Radio Magazine of the Florida Historical Society.” The show can also be heard online at myfloridahistory.org.
