Outdoors
Published: Jan 26, 2007
ST. MARKS - It was to be a surprise attack, and, for a few minutes, it was. Confederate naval forces had been harassing the Union navy in the waters near Cedar Key and Fort Myers. The Union generals suspected the ships were operating out of the Confederate-held port of St. Marks. On that March night 141 years ago, the naval and army forces of the United States had come to seize the port town and put an end to the Rebel raiders.
They sent 1,000 troops to get the job done, including elements of the Florida Union Cavalry, home-grown Floridian soldiers that sided with the North. Supporting this army was a flotilla of Union warships. They set sail for St. Marks.
St. Marks was more than a vital seaport. It was the coastal gateway to Tallahassee, Florida's state capitol 20 miles to the north. Standing between the Union attackers and Tallahassee was a Confederate militia consisting largely of young boys, old men and two battalions of artillery.
Oft-repeated among warriors is that "no plan survives contact with the enemy." Another, more recent truism of battle is that "Murphy is ALWAYS along for the ride." This has never been more true than it was for Union forces under Brig. Gen. John Newton on March 6, 1865.
The lighthouse at St. Marks was 25 years old when the Union army landed near its tower. Things already had begun to go badly for the flotilla that landed them. Several of the ships ran aground in the treacherous shallows of Apalachee Bay and the St. Marks River, stalling the naval assault.
The coastline of Florida was lightly manned by the Confederacy. The late winter of 1865 was relatively late in the war, and many of the state's trained, able-bodied soldiers were serving with the Confederate armies to the north. When the Union landed, the handful of Confederate defenders withdrew, but not before attempting, unsuccessfully, to blow up the lighthouse in order to deny its use to the Union as a lookout point.
Vastly outnumbered, the Confederate forces regrouped upriver in the one-time shipyard town of Newport, just a few miles northeast of St. Marks. By this time, Confederate Brig. Gen. William Miller had been apprised of the landing and had called for reinforcements from Georgia. The militia under Newton's command was a cobbled-together force of a few regular cavalry and artillery soldiers, an infantry militia of farmers and children and teen-aged cadets from the West Florida Seminary (now Florida State University).
The skirmish at Newport yielded no victor. Both sides fell back and regrouped. Newton burned the bridge at Newport, forcing the Union to probe farther north in order to cross the St. Marks River and finish their attack on the port of St. Marks. While the Union busied with a new plan, the Confederate forces fell back to Natural Bridge and awaited their reinforcements.
Woodville is a small lumber town that lies midway along the Tallahassee-St. Marks Railroad line. It is east of Woodville that the St. Marks begins its southward course. Spring-fed, the river emerges from the measureless depths of the aquifer and flows south for a couple of miles before disappearing underground. It reemerges from the ground 40 yards farther south, resuming its freshwater flow to the Gulf of Mexico.
That 40-yard-wide strip of limestone and clay under which the St. Marks momentarily disappears is known as Natural Bridge.
It also was the only river crossing option left to the Union. The land surrounding the natural bridge is low, swampy and thick with foliage, a difficult hike in the brightest light of day. Because time was not on the side of the Union forces, whose opponent was receiving reinforcements by the hour, Newton decided to march his troops toward the natural bridge in the dead of night, hoping to cross it before the ragtag southern militia could mount a capable defense.
At the point of this movement were two units of what was then called "Colored Infantry." These were units of black soldiers who fought for the Union. The Second U.S. Colored Infantry and the 99th U.S. Colored Infantry, a force of about 500 men, slogged through the night toward Natural Bridge. The following account was penned by one of the Louisiana-born veterans of the 99th in a letter to the Secretary of War:
"The 99th regiment landed At forte Jefferson Florida And we lef it and went to the battle of Natchar Bridge and while on that Experdition as we were Going we had sixty rounds of Carchage and Two Days Ration in harvest Sack and our Robber Blanket woolen Blank and two pece artillery to hall Through all that Mud and water ..."
Unknown to the march-weary horde of mud-mired invaders, Confederate scouts had observed their movement and reported it to Miller. With no doubt about the Union army's strategic objective, Miller positioned his riflemen and artillery on the west side of Natural Bridge, dug in and waited.
It was 10 a.m. before the Union troops were in position to attack. They had covered 50 miles in 44 hours, spending much of it under sniper fire and with only five hours of rest. By this time, the number of defenders had grown to that of the assaulting force. The defenders were entrenched, rested and supported by several artillery pieces. Every Confederate gun sight was trained on that narrow strip of dry land upon which the Union army depended for the success of its mission.
The battle raged for 3 1/2 hours, filling the swamps with the sound of battle and the trees with errant musket balls and canister shot. The Union army attempted multiple charges across the bridge. Each was repulsed by withering fire, resulting in mounting casualties. Miller, the commander of the Confederate forces, described the battle in his report:
"The fire was now rapid and continuous, and four successive efforts were made to pass the narrow defile formed by the sinking and rising of the river. The fact that the fire of our whole line could be concentrated on this point rendered the enemy attack hopeless."
In his after-action report, Union commander Newton gave this account:
"It had now been demonstrated that the enemy position was too strong in numbers and strength to be carried, and as our position was in low salient in the marshes and exposed to his crossfire, of which he was not hesitant to avail himself, it was determined to withdraw …"
The battle inflicted 148 casualties on the Union forces, six times that suffered by the Southern defenders. But the Union action was not a total failure. In their march to the battlefront they managed to damage or destroy the salt works, bridges and mills upon which the South depended for survival.
The young students of the West Florida Seminary emerged from the battle with light casualties, thanks to the watchful eyes of teachers who accompanied the fuzzy-chinned soldiers into battle. Wrote Cadet 2nd Lt. Byrd Coles:
"No doubt many of our cadets would have been struck if our teachers had not watched us constantly and made us keep behind cover."
As a result of the Battle of Natural Bridge, Tallahassee would remain in Confederate hands until the end of the war. It is the only Southern capital east of the Mississippi River able to claim that distinction.
Keyword: Florida Trail to read Mike DeWitt's blog, see photos and videos and pinpoint his current location while he continues his three-month hike along the Florida Trail from the Alabama-Florida border to the Everglades.
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