Celebration of Marianna Day in the 20th Century

Coinciding with last year’s 145th anniversary of the Battle of Marianna, the town of Marianna and Jackson County revived the celebration of Marianna Day. The commemoration of the Battle of Marianna has a long history and, early in the twentieth century, many Florida communities observed the anniversary. The events were typically organized by United Daughters of the Confederacy chapters and were refined affairs, involving recitations, musical performances and readings. Local veterans and children were invited to participate. The following accounts are probably representative:


“Wednesday afternoon at two-thirty, Mrs. Jos. E. Wilson entertained the veterans and Daughters of the Confederacy at the beautiful home of her father, Col. W. T. Weeks, on Cherry street.

The house was elaborately decorated with large and small flags, ferns and roses. On the front veranda was placed a large punch bowl and Mrs. J. M. Brownlee served the arriving guests with this refreshing beverage.

The chapter historian, Mrs. J. M. Alvarez, arranged a program suitable to the occasion, which was the anniversary of the Battle of Marianna, and was as follows:

Invocation, Rv. W. G. Law
“A Medley of Southern Airs” – Played by Victrola
Solo, “Somewhere a Voice is Calling” – Mrs. A. Z. Adkins
A paper on the Battle of Marianna by Mr. H. Robinson, of Jacksonville, sole surviving Confederate participant, read by Mrs. R. A. Weeks.
Paper, “Wrongs of History Righted” – Mrs. J. M. Alvarez
Song, “Silver Threads Among the Gold” – Victrola
Solo, “Mother McCree” – Mrs. A. Z. Adkins

The approach of refreshments was announced by white paper napkins being distributed among the guests . . .

The veterans thoroughly appreciated the occasion and were enthusiastic in the praise of the honors shown them.”

Bradford County Telegraph, Sept. 29, 1916.

Pensacola was disorganized in 1908 but then held two Marianna Day events in 1909:

“At eight o’clock this evening there will be special services at Christ church in celebration of the anniversary of the battle of Marianna, Rev. P. H. Whaley conducting the services. All the southern organizations are extended a special invitation to attend. The crosses of honor for the veterans will not be presented at this time, owing to the fact that the order for them could not be filled immediately.”

Pensacola Journal, Sept. 27, 1908

“The United Daughters of the Confederacy held a very interesting exercise at the armory hall Monday at 10:30 a.m., to commemorate Marianna Day and Raphael Semmes’ birthday. The president, Mrs. W. R. Snead, presided. The following program was rendered:

Prayer – Rev. Clyde Johnson
Suwanee River – Chapter
Report of Chapter – Miss. M. F. Milton
Instrumental Solo – Miss Gussie Whitaker
Recitation, 'Marianna' - Miss Clara Lorley
Poem of 'Battle of Marianna,' written by Mrs. F. B. Chapman, read by Mrs. B. S. Liddon.
'Dixie' – By children of Confederacy"

Pensacola Journal, Sept. 29, 1909

At the Hotel Escambia, a reception, given “in honor of Marianna Day… and also in compliment to the Confederate Veterans…proved a success in every particular.” At this event “Members of all the Confederate associations in the city together with many of their friends were present.” The program was similar in format, although different in content, from the armory hall event. The evening concluded with the presentation of “crosses of honor.”

Pensacola Journal, Sept. 28, 1909

Also in 1909, Gainesville’s Kirby Smith UDC Chapter gathered for a “meeting of historical nature” that was “well attended” at the residence of the chapter’s president, Mrs. H. H. McCreary. This event included music and readings, featuring the recitation of a paper titled “The Battle of Marianna and Reminiscences of the War” by the chapter’s historian, Mrs. F. M. Prewitt.

Gainesville Daily Sun, Sept. 28 and 30, 1909

In 1913, the Miami UDC chapter held a picnic to commemorate Marianna Day and marked the occasion by unveiling a “handsome monument” to Confederate soldiers at the courthouse.

Orlando Daily Sentinel, Sept. 19, 1913

One account of an early Marianna commemoration suggests a less formal and, perhaps, one hopes, a less sedate event: “S. M. Robertson, J. B. Locky, D. C. Buie, W. H. Waldon and J. Baxley attended the meeting of Confederate Veterans at Marianna Friday. The occasion was a celebration of commemoration of the Battle of Marianna. They say they had a most enjoyable time and were treated royally.”

Chipley Banner, Oct. 3, 1912

A journalist reported a poignant moment during the 1927 observance. That year, the Florida division of the United Confederated Veterans held their reunion in Marianna to coincide with Marianna Day. For the first time, the elderly veterans in attendance rode the parade route in automobiles rather than march on foot. An official explained that this change was necessary because the “cost” for these aged veterans of walking “was too high in past years…invariably the task has overtaxed a man and we have lost a part of the precious few.” The 1927 event also saw the participation of Union army veterans who returned the flag of Gen. Finley’s Florida brigade captured at the Battle of Franklin.

Atlanta Constitution, Sept. 28, 1927

As can be seen from the above accounts, the observance of Marianna Day was often the preserve of the UDC. The role assumed by the UDC and the popularity of these early twentieth century Marianna Day celebrations may have been spurred, to some degree, by Mrs. Fannie B. Chapman. Mrs. Chapman, the widow of Washington Chapman, lived in Marianna during the war years and Reconstruction before moving to Pensacola. She became very involved in the UDC, rising to leadership positions. Around 1908-10, Mrs. Chapman wrote a series of articles for the Pensacola newspapers recollecting ante-bellum and war-time Jackson County. Her account of the Battle of Marianna is an important source. Interestingly, during the chaos of the fall of 1869, Mrs. Chapman displayed her implacable courage when she probably saved the life of her servant’s friend, a young African American named Joseph Nelson, who had been seized by the Regulators taking control of the town. Mrs. Chapman marched up to the chief of the Regulators and declared Nelson’s innocence from involvement in violence and then demanded and obtained Nelson’s release from custody. The Chapmans may also have played a role in 1869 in protecting other persecuted African American families.

The commemoration of Marianna Day, at least as a public event, slowly faded over the course of the twentieth century as the last individuals with memories of the War passed away. Also, as Florida’s population changed rapidly during the mid and late twentieth century, the explicitly nostalgic “Lost Cause” nature of the programs greatly limited their appeal. We do have an account, however, of the centennial celebration held at Marianna in 1964, featuring an appearance by U.S. Senator (and former governor) Spessard Holland:

“The Celebration of the Centennial of the Battle of Marianna, was held in Marianna at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, on Sunday afternoon, September 27, at two o’clock, with the William Henry Milton Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in charge.

The services began with a religious service held in the main body of the church, and then the assembly filed out to the Parish House for the main program with Senator Spessard Holland as speaker. Mrs. Wilson L. Baker of Tampa, president of the Florida Division of the U.D.C. presented Senator Holland to the assembly, after the singing of “Dixie” by the group and a choral number by a group from Chipola Junior College.

Senator Holland gave a resume of the battle, stating that it was fought on the grounds where the first Episcopal Church stood, that it was burned during the battle, along with two fine residences, that there were casualties on both sides, that the Federals retreated to Pensacola with their wounded. The Federals were trained militia, sent to take the territory as a valuable farming source of Confederacy supplies along with the salt works on the coast, and the Confederate forces doing the defending were of “The Cradle to Grave,” being boys under fifteen and men too old for army service, who were at home farming. They only had old fire arms, no military weapons, but made a brave effort to defend their homes.”

Gadsden County Times, Oct. 1, 1964

The organizers of Marianna Day in 2009 preserved the historical origin of the celebration - to commemorate the valiant defense of the town and remember the fallen – while broadening its scope to encompass a festival with music and events that welcomed the entire community. Hopefully, with such an inclusive program, Marianna Day will continue be a great success and the precedent for an annual celebration.

Charles Hamilton and the 5th PA Reserves at Antietam

Corporal Hamilton and his Company A of the 5th PA Reserves fought in a sharp, fierce action charging up steep, rocky terrain at South Mountain. They then marched along with the rest of Seymour's First Brigade of Pennsylvania Reserve regiments in Meade's 3rd Division of Hooker's I Corps to Sharpsburg. On the early evening of Sept. 16th, they came down the Smoketown Road to the East Woods, bordering on the north east and east side of the cornfield to be become infamous the next day.

(The edge of the East Woods)

The 5th PA Reserves formed the extreme left of the I Corps.  There was heavy skirmishing that night, and Col. Fisher reconnoitered the ground to the east of the woods, coming into contact with the 4th Alabama in the darkness. Early the next morning, Sept. 17th, the 5th advanced through the east edge of the East Woods, driving out any Confederates and supporting the left of the 13th PA (the "Bucktail" regiment).  Moving just to the east of the Smoketown Road, the 5th emerged at the south-east corner of the East Woods.

(South east area of the East Woods from the Smoketown Road)

 According to Ezra Carmen, the 5th PA Reserves "lining up behind the fence, opened fire upon Trimble's Brigade, in line across the plowed field near the Mumma grave-yard, 300 yards distant. The fighting was severe, the Confederates suffering most, being on open ground, while the Pennsylvanians had the cover of trees."

(Fence along original fence line at bend in the Smoketown Road where it emerges from the East Woods, the Mumma graveyard in a brick enclosure in front of the trees in the center).

At this point the Bucktails ran out of ammunition and pulled back to be relieved by the 2nd Reserves. Col. Fisher saw the 13th pull back but not the 2nd coming into the line.  Apparently, believing his right was gone, leaving the 5th exposed now on the right as well as left, Fisher led his regiment back through the East Woods and out of action for the rest of the day.

August 1870: Debacle - Hamilton and Purman return to Marianna

Facing a serious challenge for the Democratic nomination for the congress, Hamilton planned to rally his support base by campaigning in Jackson County. The dedication of a new schoolhouse in Marianna in early August provided the occasion for a public rally and Hamilton’s first visit to Jackson County in nearly two years. Hamilton arrived accompanied by Purman, and a small band of supporters. From the start, this visit was a disaster. Hearing rumors of a planned assault, they fortified their lodgings, posted armed guards at the windows. The night was full of "great excitement" with the "running of horses and blowing of horns."

The rally was a catastrophe. To Hamilton’s complete surprise, J. C. Gibbs, Florida’s Secretary of State and a challenger for the Democratic nomination, appeared and attacked Hamilton, blaming him for the recent violence. This denunciation from Florida’s most prominent African American office-holder delighted the audience filled with the former Bureau Agents’ white antagonists.

After the meeting ended, Hamilton and Purman faced the daunting prospect of leaving Jackson County alive. Reliable information indicated their lodging would be stormed, but that all the routes heading east toward Gadsden County were picketed by waiting assassins. Purman and Hamilton upped the ante by proposing to raise a posse of several hundred armed blacks to escort them out of Jackson County. News of this proposal alarmed leading Marianna citizens who assembled to negotiate with Hamilton and Purman over measures to ensure their safe and swift exit from Jackson County. Hamilton and Purman prepared a list of twenty prominent white citizens and announced that if ten of the proposed men would escort them over the Apalachicola River, they would retract their call to raise a posse of blacks. The ten men gathered and the party left Marianna, selecting an unfrequented road northward toward the Georgia border and Bainbridge, rather than one of the main roads leaving east to Quincy.

Upon their safe arrival in Bainbridge, Purman and Hamilton thanked their escorts, treated them to champagne, and released them. Marianna Courier editor Frank Baltzell later accused the leading citizens who provided the escort as having "tarnished their honor and contaminated their characters" by consenting to protect Hamilton and Purman.

"Bloody Settlement of an Old Feud in Jackson County"

Recent studies have shown that Florida was among the most violent states during the nineteenth century. Prior to the War, however, Jackson County held the reputation of one of the most peaceful regions in that state. The post-war period quickly ended that. Although occuring at the beginning of the Reconstruction era, the remarkable confrontation recounted in the following newspaper extract seems to have arisen from a personal dispute, not some political cause. This story is not directly pertinent to The Jackson County War, but gives a fascinating depiction of extra-legal dispute resolution:

"A serious shooting affair occurred at Neely's Store, in Jackson county, on Wednesday, 29th ult. [ed. Nov. 29, 1865]. The parties concerned were two men by the name of Williams, and one named Clare, on one side, and two Hams, father and son, on the other. The cause was an old feud existing for sometime. For the purpose of settlement they met at the precinct on election day, armed with rifles and double-barreled guns. At the first fire, one of the Williams was killed, and Ham, Sr., firing at the other brother, Newton Williams, missed his aim, the ball unfortunately taking effect on the body of a Baptist preacher, named Grantham, and inflicting what is believed to be a mortal wound. Meanwhile, the younger Ham was shot down, and his father, standing over him, defended his body with clubbed, but empty gun. While thus engaged, Newton Williams approached, and firing one barrel with fatal effect, into the breast of the father, turned and discharged the other through the head of the prostrate and disabled son. This ended the difficulty. Newton Williams remained on the ground nearly all day, assisted in the burial of his brother, and defied arrest. Next day, Captain [ed. Charles C.] Rawn of the Seventh Infantry, in command at Marianna, with a rifle of men, proceeded to the spot, and arrested Williams at his own house. Clare, at last accounts, was still at large.  - Quincy Commonwealth,"
quoted in the Richmond Daily Dispatch, Dec. 28, 1865. [recovered from http://dlxs.richmond.edu/d/ddr ]

3 men face off against 2 to settle "an old feud," and 3 of them, and possibly a 4th man, a bystander, are killed!  Some searching around on the census records gives information about the individuals involved. Newton Williams, also referred to as Jasper Newton Williams (not to be confused with a man born in 1847 in Jackson County with the same name) was about 31 at the time of this incident.  Williams was allegedly to have killed Green White and Sancho Turner during their botched attempt to seize Sgt. Bond described in the Aug. 1869 post.  In addition, Williams is said to have shot his friend Sgt. Bond in the leg during a drunken card game, giving him a total of 5 men shot and 4 murdered.  Williams had two brothers, James Williams, about one year older, and William Williams Jr., 5 years younger.  I'm not sure which brother was killed by the Hams, but I'm guessing it is James since the Williams brothers' father, William Williams Sr., was living with James in the 1860 census, but lives with Newton's family in the 1870 records.
The Hams are most likely William Ham, about 53 at the time of his death, based on the 1860 census, and his son is possibly Patrick, who, again according to the 1860 census, would have been about 19 when Newton Williams shot him in cold blood.  William Ham was fairly prosperous, listed as owning 120 acres of land in the 1860 records. The only Grantham who is plausible as a victim is Daniel, about 40 in 1865, but listed as a farm laborer, not a minister.
I cannot find any information about Williams brothers ally, Clare.

The Fourth of July during Reconstruction days

For a description of Fourth of July celebrations in Jackson County during Reconstruction, refer to my post from last year:

http://www.thejacksoncountywar.com/2009/06/excellant-barbecue-celebration-of-4th.html

May 1870: A Grand Tournament

The image of the old South as a society role playing the chivalrous world of a Sir Walter Scott novel is not entirely Hollywood myth. Riding skill competitions and feasts with fanciful medieval-like pageantry and ritual had been common in the South since the 1850s. In the post-war years, these events became even more popular. Jackson County held a particularly "grand tournament" in May 1870:

The field of play was set up midway between Marianna and Greenwood where a ring was suspended from an arch and a rostrum erected for the judges. In a nearby grove, a throne and dinner table were assembled. Captain Joseph Barnes of Greenwood commanded the band of twenty knights, dressed in "tasty and attractive costumes," who rode "their noble and beautifully caparisoned steeds with an ease and grace that challenged the admiration of all." John M. F. Erwin, serving as "Field Marshall," read the program and William D. Barnes addressed the audience. After tilting for the suspended ring, the champion, Robert Hearn, crowned Miss Lizzie Bryan the Queen of Love and Beauty. Other successful Knights chose four Maids of Honor. After a sumptuous dinner, the crowd returned to Marianna for a ball held across three large halls, and dancing lasted until dawn."

Such festivities must have been cathartic after the violence of the previous fall. Black citizens, however, did not attend, except for members of the "delightful band which discoursed sweet music the while." At least for a few hours, some Jackson County residents could pretend that nothing had changed.

This account is adapted from the forthcoming book, The Jackson County War.

Recognition for the "Samuel Fleishman" article

Serendipitously, I discovered yesterday that "Samuel Fleishman: Tragedy in Reconstruction-Era Florida" Southern Jewish History 8 (2005), 31-76, is listed among 36 articles nominated by the Organization of American Historians for its Best American History Essays of 2008 competition. Fleishman didn't make the final cut of ten essays chosen for reprint in the OAH's annual book, but apparently it was culled from among thousands of essays to receive the honor of nomination.

The Sound of the Rebel Yell

John Quincy Dickinson wrote that on Oct. 2, 1869, Marianna men pursuing Calvin Rogers through the town's streets let loose the clarion call of the Rebel Yell. A Union army veteran of combat in the Louisiana theater, Dickinson was certainly familiar with the Rebel Yell from battlefield exprience. From my brief research, I've found contradictory statements about the sound of this legendary battlefield call. The Museum of the Confederacy staff think they've confirmed its sound. Check out these fascinating videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfHylwlq9Ow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buZ1M3iN-UE

[credit to Ken Levin's excellent www.cwmemory.com blog for finding these videos]

Remembering Calvin Rogers (c. 1831 - Jan. 26, 1870)

This African American farmer, a former slave, first entered the historical record when he signed a petition in March 1867 addressed to Florida Bureau chief Col. John T. Sprague asking that William J. Purman be reassinged to Jackson Co. after the Bureau had tranferred Purman away from Marianna. By the following year, Rogers was serving as president of Jackson County's newly formed Republican Party. Under his leadership the county party ratified the new state constitution and issued public messages offering reconciliation with white neighbors allied with the Democratic-Conservative opposition. In the elections in the spring of 1868, Rogers became the first African American elected to public office in the history of Jackson County when he was elected Constable.

A noted "stump speaker," Rogers spoke at mass public gatherings, such as the 4th of July picnic hosted by the county's African American community in 1869. Henry Reed, a free-born African American active in public affairs during the early years of Reconstruction in Jackson Co., testified that Rogers was "a good man and as true a man as ever there was in the world." Rogers made a memorable impression on twelve-year-old T. Thomas Fortune, who, years later, memorialized Rogers in his poem "Bartow Black." Fortune recalled Rogers as "far above the average of his race in intelligence and courage."

Jackson County whites, however, viewed Rogers quite differently. They bristled at the unprecedented situation of a black man holding a law enforcement position with the authority to arrest whites. They resented Rogers's "domineering manner" and accused him of "repeated acts of oppression in his office of both white and colored." White opinion regarded him as "a bad, bold and dangerous man." The country board of commissioners tried to discourage his service as constable by imposing the onerous obligation of posting a $1,500 bond for guarantee of his performance of the official duties. By the fall of 1869, the Regulators had targetted Rogers for assassination.

The story of Calvin Rogers's role in the terrible events of the fall of 1869 are told in detail in previous posts on this blog. After being wounded at the picnic shooting in late September, Rogers was accused, on very thin evidence, of culpability in the murder of Maggie McClellan. He was hunted relentlessly until finally cornered in Marianna on this day, 140 years ago. If Rogers was responsible for the reprisal shootings on Oct 1, 1869, when intended targets were clearly James McClellan and James Coker, he showed gravely poor judgment. He may have hoped to forstall his own inevitable murder by decapitating the Regulators' leadership. Instead, recklessness merely compounded the tragedies.

January 1870: Closing the Circle

After the reimposition of order and the arrival of the troops, normal life resumed in Jackson County. The circuit court judge finally deemed it safe enough to travel to Marianna and Calvin Rogers, still in hiding, was charged with Maggie McClellan's murder. Aleck Dickens was charged with being an accessory to murder after the fact. Murder charges were also brought against Jack Myrick, who was safely far removed from Florida and justice. Judge Anderson's county criminal court charged Myrick with assault with intent to kill and resisting an officer. Billy Coker, long since disappeared, was accused of only assault and battery. Quiet was not complete, however, as evidenced by some unidentified gunman's taking pot shots at the guard posted in front of the troops' quarters and the unexplained murder of Lassiter Shadrach, an African American farm laborer, in December.

The Regulators still had one score left to settle. On January 26, 1870, Calvin Rogers was finally tracked down. "Several citizens" cornered him at the home of a black resident of Marianna. The Courier reported that Rogers "in attempting to break arrest was killed by the constable and posse." Thus, the life of Jackson County's first black law-enforcement officer ended in a vigilante lynching. No evidence was ever put forth to prove Rogers's responsibility for the murder of Maggie McClellan other than James Coker's claim that he recognized Rogers's voice calling "fire" in the darkness.

The same day that Calvin Rogers was slain, the murder that had initiated the year of terror was remembered in Tallahassee. In the Florida legislature, Senator Purman had introduced a bill calling for state financial support of Dr. Finlayson's two orphaned children. The state assembly approved the proposal and awarded John and Sallie Finlayson, sheltered by their grandparents in Mobile, a grant of three hundred dollars per year to be paid out for ten years.

This account is adapted from my forthcoming narrative history, The Jackson County War.

December 1869: President Grant

At the end of December, Florida Congressman Charles Hamilton and Florida Secretary of State Jonathan C. Gibbs called upon President Grant and Secretary of War William Belknap to appeal for help in preventing future violence in Jackson County. They argued that recently "a bitter spirit" prevailed in West Florida, and the formation of a militia to keep the peace required a nucleus of United States soldiers. They asked that three or four companies of soldiers, preferably colored troops, be sent to "overawe the lawless element." President Grant and Secretary Belknap reportedly responded with great interest to this presentation and assured the Florida Republicans that the federal government would assist in the preservation of law and order. No additional troops were sent, but the soldiers who arrived in Marianna in late October stayed there until the following April (1870). This would not be the last time President Grant showed personal interest in the situation in Jackson County.

William J. Purman biography blog

William James Purman may not be my favorite Florida Carpetbagger, but he is the most interesting and, perhaps, the most controversial of his peers. He is a fascinating subject for a biographical article. I considered writing a "formal" article for a scholarly journal, such as the FHQ, but past experience has proven that journal articles about long-forgetten Reconstruction Era figures garner little, if any, attention. The blog format is appealing because of the informality which encourages revisions, digressions, and copies of long quotations. Furthermore, more readers will stumble across a blog page, either through google searches, or just accidentally, than will ever see an article in a local history journal. I've assembled quite a lot of information about Purman, and I'll be posting over at www.williamjpurman.blogspot.com over the next few months.

Speaking of baseball.... an 1874 game in Jax between the Fat Men and the R.E. Lee Club

From Jacksonville's The New South newspaper dated July 25, 1874:

"Fat Man's Club
There will be a contest between the above named Club and the R.E. Lee's second nine. The name and weights of the Fat nine are as follows:
Captain - Peter Jones, Catcher, 190.
F. E. Little, Pitcher, 195.
M. S. Littlefield, Short Stop, 205.
J. H. Dove, 1st Base, 177.
R. P. Moody, 2d Base, 179.
J. J. Holland 3d Base, 215.
H. Vandolen, Centre Field, 282.
H. A. Pattison, Left Field, 200.
Charles Fridenberg, Right Field, 185.
P. Bettelini, Lieratary, 265.
T. W. Osborn, Umpire, 230.
J. J. Finley, Scorer, 200.
R. L. Wood, Long Stop, 195.
Total 2,718.
The above named members of the Fat Man's Club, will be promptly on hand on the ground known as the R. E. Lee grounds, at the head of Hogan street, at 3 o'clock P. M., Tuesday the 28th of July. The public are invited to attend, especially the Phat ladies.
J. H. Dove, Secretary.
Peter Jones, Captain."

Notice that the svelte short stop, M. S. Littlefield, was the culprit in the most infamous railroad financing scandal in Florida's history. Former U.S. Senator Thomas W. Osborn, no stranger to railroad schemes himself, was the umpire. The scorer, J. J. Finley, was a former Confederate general and later U.S. congressman from Florida. Surprising that he didn't play with the R. E. Lee's. What is a Lieratary? This may be only baseball team fielded in history where the first baseman was the lightest and the center fielder the heaviest. No wonder a "long stop" was needed.

Oct. 26, 1869: U.S. Troops enter Jackson County

After demands for intervention from the Internal Revenue officials were finally joined by Florida's indecisive Gov. Reed, the War Department dispatched a detachment of twenty soldiers from the 8th U.S. Infantry stationed in Atlanta. The troops arrived in Marianna on Oct. 26. By this time, however, the violence had largely died down. Frank Baltzell, the young editor of the Marianna Courier, vehemently opposed to the entry of soldiers in Marianna, angrily pointed out that "peace and harmony" had already been restored. Baltzell feared that, instead of ensuring calm, the arrival of the soldiers would only serve to embolden the few remaining Republicans in Jackson County.

The arrival of the troops on October 26 certainly did not quiet James Coker. Coker announced that anyone who claimed a reward for the arrest of his son for the murder of Nichols family would not live to benefit from it. At a dinner a few nights later, Coker insulted and menaced Sheriff West and "damned" Hamilton, Purman, Assessor Lowe, Dickinson, "and any man that would take an office to 'boot-lick' these fellows." He regaled anyone who would listen about his past plots to kill Hamilton and Purman.

Mid-October, 1869

On October 12, Dickinson learned that the dead man on the road was Fleishman, but he was warned not to retrieve the body. Dickinson held an inquest and the jury quickly returned the usual verdict of "killed by unknown." Only the next day was Fleishman's body recovered and his identity confirmed.

After Billy Coker, Jack Myrick, and Edward Alderman disappeared, violence continued only sporadically. A few freedmen's houses were shot at or broken into. A black woman, Lucy Griffen was "attacked three times on the street and frightened." Warnings were circulated that "a crowd had determined to kill" Matt Nickels's surviving daughter. Dickinson remained vigilant. Once, he reported seeing someone at his windows around midnight. Another time, he received a warning that Jack Myrick was on his track.

By mid-October news of the horrific events in Jackson County had begun spread. From Washington, both Congressman Charles M. Hamilton and State Senator William J. Purman reacted to Dickinson's letters reporting the violence. Purman confided to Dickinson that his "remedy" for the "bloody ills" of Jackson County was to dispatch "a battalion of colored militia." Then, he wrote, "the vermin and demons would leave for Texas and Hell" and "all good people would then find safety for their lives and property." Hamilton gave a statement to the press representing "a bad condition of affairs" with "eleven attempted or successful assassinations of prominent men since last spring." He feared going back to Jackson County since, he believed, there was a "strong probability" should he return "that his life will pay the penalty of his politics."

At the same time, an IRS assessor visiting Marianna, who had been threatened by Coker, reported to his supervisor that Jackson and Washington counties were "under the control of an armed mob" that prevented "the execution of the internal revenue laws." This report was printed in newspapers across the country. With a federal official fearing for his life and prevented from carrying out his duty, pressure begin to build for the dispatch of federal troops into Jackson County.

This account is adapted from my forthcoming narrative history, The Jackson County War, to be published shortly.

Oct. 11, 1869: The murder of Samuel Fleishman - 140 years ago

During the week following his expulsion, Fleishman had not been idle. After being ejected across the Georgia border, he proceeded to nearby Bainbridge. There he encountered Marianna merchant Louis Gamble who, on his return to Marianna, reported that Fleishman had informed him that he intended to go first to Quincy and then back to Marianna. Fleishman traveled to Quincy, where his relatives lived, but he soon departed for Tallahassee.

Fleishman was undaunted and determined to return to his family, home, and property. He was next spotted at the Chattahoochee penitentiary where he asked Malachi Martin for protection. Martin responded that he had no power in Jackson County and advised Fleishman not to cross the river. Fleishman, Martin later testified, insisted that he must return to Marianna as "all he had in the world was there...his family,... his store and stock of goods and all his interests." The two men proceeded to the village where they learned that communication with Jackson County had been cut and all were afraid to go there except those who were "one of the white people who belonged to the party there." Disregarding these warnings, Fleishman set off for Marianna. After crossing over the Apalachicola River, Fleishman encountered Martin's employee, Sims, who stold Martin he had warned Fleishman that he would be murdered should he proceed on his route and offered to drive him in his buggy back to Chattahoochee. Fleishman insisted on continuing his journey. Sims was the last person to report seeing Fleishman alive.

On Monday night, Fleishman's bullet-riddled body was spotted about a half mile from the place where he encountered Sims.

The story of the Fleishman family in Jackson County ended abruptly at this point. Fleishman's burial site is unknown and the county records contain no file of his estate. Shortly after the murder of her husband, Sophia Fleishman and her children left Jackson County for New York City. Unconfirmed stories suggest that the Altman store was ransacked. A final inquest held two months after the murder reiterated the previous inconclusive verdict. Despite the extreme likelihood that Fleishman's slaying was an orchestrated ambush, no suggestion as to the identity of the murderer was ever publicly offered.

Oct. 5 - Oct. 9, 1869

On Tuesday morning, Oct. 5, while Reed hid under the Ely house fearing for his life, Fleishman returned to Coker's store where found an "organized meeting" of "persons of influence in the county" in progress. Coker spoke first and informed Fleishman the attendees were a committee that represented the whole community and that it was their desire that Fleishman "should leave for the good of said community." If Fleishman did not leave, Coker announced, he would "be killed on account of certain expressions" he allegedly made on the day of the picnic shootings. The committee hoped that Fleishman would comply, and they would not to have to kill him. They were concerned, Coker continued, that Fleishman's death would lead to twenty or thirty more killings. His departure, they believed, would "save bloodshed."

Before this large gathering, Fleishman stood his ground. He insisted that he was not leaving. Fleishman now bargained with Coker and the committee over the terms of his banishment. He was informed he had two hours to leave. This deadline was pushed back until 5 p.m. and then sundown. Fleishman still refused to agree to exile. He declared that he would "rather die than leave." If he was accused of a crime, he argued, he should stand trial and accept the punishment. At the very least, he demanded that he be given until January to wrap up his business. With some exasperation, the committee members repeated that they had no desire to take his life, but rather "wished to save it, and to do the best thing they could for the safety of the community." Exasperated, the committee finally declared that Fleishman would be carried off at sundown, "willing or unwilling."

Leaving Coker's store, Fleishmen went straight to Dickinson, "the only officer of the law in the town," to protest the threatened eviction. Dickinson transcribed Fleishman's account and Fleishman signed the resulting statement in the form of an affidavit. A few hours later, Coker entered Fleishman's store and demanded that Fleishman turn over all the arms in his stock "for the men in defense of the town during the present excitement." When Fleishman hesitated, Coker assured Fleishman that he would take responsibility for returning his property. Wilbur Jenkins, Fleishman's clerk who had joined the earlier meeting at Coker's store, handed Coker the key and Coker left with eight guns, eleven pistols, powder, shot, and caps. Fleishman ran back to Dickinson and swore out another affidavit to report Coker's appropriation of his merchandise. At sundown, Fleishman still had not complied with the committee's order, stubbornly remaining in his home. After 9 p.m., four men came to take him from his wife and six children and carried him off to the Georgia border, about twenty-five miles from Marianna.

The night riders continued to terrorize the black community. By now, however, some likely targets took precautions by hiding and were not found in their homes when the anticipated knock came in the middle of the night. Richard Pooser, who had been shot the previous spring, did not show such foresight. Edward Alderman and E. Butler drew him out of his house in Marianna and ordered him to march down a street leading into the countryside. Pooser broke and ran, evading shotgun and pistol blasts, and found refuge under Dr. Theophilus West's dining room. Joseph Nelson, who was Henry Reed's step-son, saw how the Reeds had narrowly escaped with their lives and made his own plans to leave for Jacksonville. He arranged to escape by accompanying Washington Chapman to Gadsden County. Nelson joined a train of Chapman's wagons and managed to get out of Jackson County alive, despite being stopped several times along the way by groups of armed white men. Together with his dog, Sherman, Nelson continued on his journey until he arrived at the railroad in Quincy, where he boarded the train to Jacksonville.

By Thursday, Oct. 7, divisions began to emerge in the white community. At a meeting of white citizens, William D. Barnes, William H. Milton, and James C. McLean "favored peace on all sides" and spoke out against "drunkenness and abuse of power." James Coker, however, took offense at these comments and protested against this abuse of "our young men who had taken a little too much, or had acted a little irregularly." An appointed committee resolved to "use every lawful effort in our power to arrest and punish the guilty parties." They further condemned "all acts of violation of the laws by whomsoever committed," called for exertions "to restore peace and quiet to our distracted county." The committee closed by offering "a reward of One Thousand Dollars for the apprehension of Calvin Rogers, one of the perpetrators of the deed." As an afterthought, a motion was passed offering a one thousand dollar reward "for the apprehension of the murderers of Wyatt Scurlock and child."

On Thursday afternoon, Billy Coker's band committed their most barbaric atrocity. Matt Nickels may have dodged their bullets previously, but Billy Coker, "Pete" Alderman, and Jack Myrick were determined to finish him off. The Courier provided chilling details. The three young men came to Nickels's house and "conversed several minutes, pretending to have an order [from] an officer." They marched Nickels, his wife, Mariah, and his sixteen year old son, Matt Jr. "forward to town but changed their course after getting a short distance from the house." The family was led to a lime pit in the woods about one half-mile away. There, the family was brutally murdered, their throats slit. Only a daughter escaped death.

The slaying of the Nickels family was deemed excessive even by previously silent whites. On Friday, Oct. 8, Justice of the Peace Adam McNealy issued a warrant for the arrest of the suspected murderers. This time an inquest into the killings was held, and after one minute the jury returned a verdict indicting Myrick, Coker, and Alderman. By the next day, all three men were reported missing and were presumed to have fled the county. One legend placed them in France where Myrick's sister lived with her husband, the Comte de Lautrippe. Other rumors located Myrick in Texas years later. The departure of these young men facilitated the reestablishment of calm.

This account is adapted from my forthcoming narrative history, The Jackson County War, to be published shortly.

Oct. 3 & 4, 1869

The next two days were comparatively calm. Dickinson continued to be frustrated in his attempts at initiating legal proceedings into the McClellan and Granberry murders. It would be best, he reluctantly concluded, to "await the return of quiet."

On Monday, the 4th, prominent white citizens drafted an account of the past week's events, which they sent to Governor Reed and the Weekly Floridian newspaper. The letter's authors insisted that Rogers had shot the McClellans and strongly suggested that Granberry was complicit in that murder. They "felt compelled to state" that Rogers was to blame for "much of our troubles" because of his "domineering manner" and "repeated acts of oppression" as constable. The letter's authors advised, however, that the situation was now under control and that "[o]ur people are doing all in their power to keep down further violence, and we expect to be able to do so."

On the same afternoon Samuel Fleishman was summoned to a meeting at Coker's store with leading citizens, which was then adjourned to the next morning. Fleishman was one of the few openly Republican whites remaining in Jackson County. In the days following the picnic shootings, a rumor spread in Marianna that Fleishman had advised blacks gathered at his store to avenge the slaying of Stewart Livingston and Wyatt Young by murdering whites. Various versions of this story circulated.

After dark fell, the night riders again set out. Their target that night was Henry Reed, a freeborn black carpenter. At one o'clock in the morning, Reed heard a knock on his door. A voice told him that Dickinson was waiting for him at the courthouse. Reed saw through this ridiculous ruse and replied that he was too sick to go out and Dickinson would have to wait until morning. The besiegers insisted he come out. When Reed announced he was getting his coat and hat, he was told he would not need them and to come out immediately. Reed's fifteen-year-old son, William, jumped out of a window and, as he ran past the garden gate, a blast of buckshot missed him except for nicking his ear. Reed peeked outside and seeing a double-barreled shotgun pointed at him, quickly closed the door. Now the night riders were more insistent, yelling that they would bring more men to tear the house down and would blow out Reed's brains if he didn't comply. Reed's wife, Harriet, began to cry, fearing that her son was already dead and her husband was to be murdered momentarily. Reed observed the men guarding the back of his house move around to the front and he quickly leapt out the back-window. He ran in the darkness toward the Ely house where he hid underneath until the next afternoon.

Oct 2, 1869: A small hell on earth

The morning after the slaying of Maggie McClellan, fifty to sixty armed white men patrolled Marianna’s streets. John Q. Dickinson’s diary records the events of this terrible day and his frustration at being shut out from information. Calvin Rogers appeared and was immediately pursued by Coker’s son, Billy, and his friends. For the first time since the Battle of Marianna, and perhaps the last time, the hoots of the rebel yell resounded in Marianna as the young men chased Rogers through the town. Rogers escaped but Billy Coker, Jack Myrick and another man seized two black men, Oscar Granberry and Matt Nickels, ordering them to help track down Rogers. After the two men were instructed to march ahead, Granberry was shot down dead, but Nickels managed to escape into the woods.

Throughout the morning, white men continued to stream into Marianna from the countryside. By noon, Dickinson estimated that at least two hundred men, most armed with double-barreled shot-guns and many mounted, roamed the town and scoured the surrounding area. Dickinson found "wild excitement" with young men "drunk and desperate" and "elder and better men" afraid and keeping out of sight.

Dickinson pleaded for the restoration of the rule of law and proper procedure, but he was threatened by Coker and ignored by everyone else. Eventually, James McClellan agreed to swear to an affidavit and Dickinson issued a warrant for the arrest of Calvin Rogers for the murder of Maggie. Dickinson, however, was warned not to hold an inquest over the killing of Granberry.

The rest of that Saturday, "drunkenness and misrule and excitement abounded" in the streets. In Dickinson's words, Marianna had become "a small hell on earth." After dark, the night riders ventured forth, for the first time since the spring, to terrorize black families in their isolated homes in the countryside.

This account is adapted from my forthcoming narrative history, The Jackson County War, to be published shortly.

Oct 1, 1869: Revenge gone astray

On the afternoon of Friday, Oct. 1, the grand jury that convened two days earlier after the slaying of Wyatt Young and two-year-old Stewart Livingstone abandoned its deliberations and returned the verdict of "shot by unknown person." Tempers that had simmered with anger since the Finlayson murder the previous spring now exploded. Some Marianna African Americans plotted to settle accounts once and for all. The targets for their vengeance were not the rumored shooters at the picnic, but the leadership of Jackson County's Regulators - the secretive, organization of whites determined to resist Reconstruction policy and Republican control.

At about 9 p.m., merchant James P. Coker and attorney James F. McClellan stood on the porch of Marianna's hotel, speaking with some other men. McClellan's eighteen-year-old daughter, Maggie, sat beside the two leaders of Jackson County's Regulators. Shots burst out from the darkness, apparently from quite nearby. Tragically, the assailants blundered just as badly as the ambushers who botched the attempted assasination of Calvin Rogers earlier in the week and another child suffered the consequences. Maggie, "a beautiful and amiable girl," fell dead, and her father was wounded in the shoulder. Coker, unhurt, fired back with his pistol into the night. McClellan or Coker, depending on the account, claimed to have recognized the voice of Calvin Rogers giving the command to fire.

Coker sprung into action, summoning all men from his organization to gather in Marianna. His Regulators immeidately seized control of the town and detained any black men who dared venture out of their homes. A number of riders galloped out into the countryside to sound the alarm. Decades later, Joseph Barnes told historian William W. Davis that he had ridden that night "almost to the Choctawhatchee" River to rouse the white men of Jackson County.

Maggie McClellan's tombstone (pictured above) with its faded inscription can be found in the graveyard of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Marianna. The burial location of Stewart Livingstone is unknown.

This account is adapted from my forthcoming narrative history, The Jackson County War, to be published shortly.

Sept 29 & 30, 1869

The morning after the picnic shootings, the investigation of the picnic site continued, but no new evidence turned up. The same morning, Dickinson convened a grand jury in Marianna. Amid speculation about the identity of the shooters, one young white man affiliated with the town's Regulators was named. In the meantime, another shooting was reported. About nine miles outside of Marianna, Columbus Sullivan, a white preacher, and George Cox, black, were hauling cotton when they were riddled with buckshot. Cox was lightly wounded. Sullivan's face was mutilated and he died from his wounds about a week later. The gunman escaped. Dickinson wrote to his friend Congressman Charles M. Hamilton about the need for "a first-class detective" in Marianna or, alternatively, "a few Henry rifles" which, he wrote, "would have an excellent moral effect here." During these tense days, rumors began to spread in the white community that dry goods merchant Samuel Fleishman had made some kind of statement advising a group of African American men gathered in his store to avenge the picnic shootings.

September 28, 1869: the War erupts

The most tumultuous, and tragic, events in Jackson County’s history have taken place in the autumn, including the Battle of Marianna in 1864, and the infamous Claude Neal lynching seventy years later. The shootings and assaults of the Jackson County War lasted more than two years, but the most virulent phase came during several weeks beginning in late September 1869.

On the morning of Sept. 28th, five years and one day after the Battle of Marianna, a party of about twenty African American women and children set off on a picnic outing. Their destination was the Natural Bridge, a few miles outside of Marianna. A few men, including Constable Calvin Rogers escorted the group. Rogers, an African American, had long been resented by Regulator elements and, after the shootings of Purman, Finlayson and Constable Pooser the previous spring, an assault on Rogers seemed inevitable. At about 9 a.m., assailants concealed behind thick bushes fired thirteen or fourteen shots in "rapid succession." Rogers, sitting in an ox cart, had his clothes and wallet torn by three or four shots, but suffered only a grazed arm. Rogers fired back in the direction of the shooters with the one round in his gun. He called out to Wyatt Young, who had gone on ahead, to bring ammunition. Meanwhile, confusion and fright overcame the party of picnic-goers. An ox pulling a cart carrying two-year-old Stewart Livingston panicked and bolted. Wyatt Young grabbed the little boy from the cart just as a bullet passed through the boy's skull and into the left side of Young's chest, killing both of them instantly.

As abruptly as it had begun, the firing ended. Within ninety minutes, news of this tragedy reached Marianna. John Quincy Dickinson, the senior law enforcement authority remaining in Jackson County, organized a posse of thirty men to search for the killers. They scoured the area around the site of the shooting for evidence. "A mysterious buggy-track" leading from Marianna to the Natural Bridge and out toward Greenwood was discovered, but nightfall ended the investigation.

This account is adapted from my forthcoming narrative history, The Jackson County War, to be published shortly. Updates to thejacksoncountywar.com will be more frequent over the coming weeks as the 140th anniversary is remembered.

August 1869: A Plot Foiled

After the Finlayson/Purman shootings, Florida's Governor Reed posted a two thousand dollar reward for the arrest of Dr. Finlayson's murderer. The leading suspect, Sergeant Thomas Bond, was supposed to have fled to Texas, but in August, rumors spread that Bond had appeared in Jackson County. Green White, a Jackson County freedman, decided to take advantage of Bond's return to claim the money. White devised a plot seemingly taken straight from the Bible. Bond was known to visit a house of prostitution on Jackson Co. side of the Chattahoochee River. White enlisted a woman at the House in his plan. On Bond's next visit, the woman was to grab Bond's guns, presumably while he was in a vulnerable state, and White, waiting outside the House, would then enter and seize Bond. White recruited two black soldiers stationed as guards at the Chattahoochee penitentiary to join this conspiracy.
The result was a complete debacle. Instead of Bond's capture, the attempt ended in the shooting deaths of two of the conspirators: Sergeant Sancho Turner and Green White, and the wounding of a bystander.
Despite the murder of one his soldiers, Malachi Martin, the prison's warden, feared provoking Bond and his friends. Martin tried to convince his guards to accompany him without their weapons to investigate and recover the bodies. Naturally, the soldiers refused to disarm themselves. Instead, Martin and a Mr. Sims hired the ferry to carry them and two coffins across the river. Martin found the corpses about twenty paces apart with their loaded guns at their feet. Because the bodies were too decomposed to be moved, he buried them where they lay. No one was ever brought to account for the murder of Green White and Sgt. Turner.

This account is adapted from my forthcoming narrative history, “The Jackson County War,” to be published shortly.

"Excellent Barbecue": Celebration of the 4th of July in Jackson County during Reconstruction

During the Reconstruction years, the commemoration of the Fourth of July in Jackson County reflected not just the turmoil of the era, but also hinted at the possibility of racial and community reconciliation. There is no record of celebration of the nation’s birthday in 1865 when the county was still recovering from the shock of both defeat and emancipation while under military occupation. The next year, however, after the arrival of Freedman’s Bureau’s agents Charles Hamilton and William Purman, dramatic developments ensued.

In late June, 1866, Hamilton was approached by a delegation of African Americans who sought permission to organize a parade through Marianna to be followed by a barbecue to celebrate the Fourth of July. The marchers intended to carry the stars and stripes and portraits of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
Hamilton gave his tentative approval, but immediately dispatched a message to Tallahassee requesting the consent of Florida's Governor David S. Walker and Maj. Gen. John G. Foster, commander of both the Bureau and the military Department of Florida. The general and governor approved, but warned Hamilton to take precautions to avoid disorder and ensure that no arms were carried at the parade. Meanwhile, Jackson County whites, learning of the proposed event, angrily objected, insisting that the freedmen had no right to celebrate. The sheriff asked General Foster to reconsider his approval. Dr. Ethelred Philips reflected the suspicions of many when he remarked in a letter to his brother that the "pest" of a Bureau agent had "put up the negroes to celebrate the 4th." Anger was inflamed by rumors that Hamilton had ordered the freedmen to attend the event bearing arms. With more than one thousand freedmen expected to take part, Philips admitted that whites felt "a little uneasy." It was now hinted that some white men were ready to stop the celebration by force and shoot anyone who dared carry the banners and United States flag in Marianna.
Hamilton next consulted attorney William H. Milton, who served as Marianna's mayor and judge of the county court. Milton did not object to the celebration on principle but advised that it was not a wise idea. Parading Lincoln's portrait would appear, he warned, as though the blacks were "flaunting defiance in our faces." Hamilton took it upon himself to bargain terms and agreed to persuade the freedmen to abandon the plan of bearing the portraits. Hamilton insisted, however, that the stars and stripes must be carried. "The time had passed," he declared "when the American flag could not be unfurled anywhere within the National domains."
Hamilton became increasingly anxious and confessed that he feared for his personal safety. He requested that General Foster dispatch U.S. troops, but the response from Tallahassee was less than reassuring. Because of illness, the only soldiers available to send to Marianna were the 82nd U.S. Colored Troops. Instead of sending in black soldiers, Foster advised that it would be better to let "matters take their natural course...to test the feeling prevailing" in Jackson County.
In a welcome anticlimax, the Fourth of July celebration of 1866 was a complete success. The event passed "with remarkable quietness and good feeling on all sides." Not only did they not interfere, but most white males of the area came to partake of the "excellent barbecue." At first, Hamilton was at a loss to explain this surprising outcome. He surmised that the approvals of General Foster and Governor Walker had proved decisive in persuading the whites to relent. After further thought, he supposed that the threats had been mere bluster and that he and the freedmen had called their opponents' bluff by insisting on holding the celebration regardless of intimidation.

The following year’s festivities were not preceded by the same tension and near hysteria. More than 5,000 people, including many local whites and visitors from neighboring counties and states, attended a peaceful celebration that was even more successful than the previous year's event. The day began with a long procession through Marianna led by the Stars and Stripes and, this time, the parade included portraits of Washington and Lincoln. A speaker’s stand was erected by the Chipola River, and the barbecue was opened with a prayer and a recitation of the Declaration of Independence. Resolutions venerating the memory of fallen patriots were read along with addresses advocating the Republican party. The speeches were followed by an "excellent & abundant barbecue."

The murder of Dr. John Finlayson and the other killings and shootings early in 1869 did not discourage Jackson County blacks from continuing their new tradition of hosting a mass Fourth of July celebration. Once again bringing together both races, the 1869 event was a success. The day was beautiful as was the setting "upon the slope of an extensive hill that was covered with grand and massive oaks." The festivities were presided over by Jesse Robinson, one of Jackson County’s African American state assemblymen. Robinson was followed by a diverse list of speakers, including Democrats William H. Milton, William E. Anderson, Dr. West, and Republicans Calvin Rogers and Purman, who had returned to Marianna for the occasion despite narrowly escaping assassination just over three months earlier. All orators were met with "the ringing applause of the large assemblage."

With this triumphant celebration, however, ends the record of grand Fourth of July barbecues organized by the black community for the enjoyment of both races. It may well be that such events continued to occur but became so routine that they did not merit reports in newspapers. It is more likely that as the Republican Party weakened and collapsed under the pressure of white resistance and redemption during Reconstruction, the capability and willingness of African Americans to sponsor such celebrations faded along with their freedoms.

This account is adapted from my forthcoming narrative history, “The Jackson County War,” to be published shortly.

June 1869: Secession (to Alabama) Agitation

With the heat of summer, violence waned. The races settled into simmering, but peaceful, co-existance. Meanwhile, the attention of the Jackson County political leadership and business community turned toward renewed discussions between the states of Florida and Alabama over a proposal for Alabama to annex the Florida Panhandle in exchange for financial assistance. Purman, who left Marianna as soon as he recuperated from the February shooting sufficiently to travel, had been appointed by Governor Reed as a commissioner to negotiate on behalf of Florida.

Jackson County residents had long been frustrated by the state's inability to support the building of a railroad to Marianna. The most desirable plan was the extension of the tracks that ended in Quincy to Chattahoochee and over the Apalachicola, thereby finally connecting Marianna by rail with Tallahassee and Jacksonville. Plans included extending this line west from Marianna to Pensacola to traverse the entire state. Democrats already predisposed to despise Gov. Reed's Republican "carpetbagger" administration found further cause for outrage in the state's continuing financial crisis and the backroom deals with politically-connected speculators that later erupted into the Swepson-Littlefield scandal.

In an unique confluence of both Republicans and Democrats, Jackson County residents supported secession of Florida counties west of the Apalachicola to Alabama. Hopes for the eastern route abandoned, plans were floated and companies incorporated to build a rail line north to Dothan and south to St. Andrew's Bay. In the pages of his Marianna Courier, Frank Baltzell enthusiastically endorsed the plan negotiated by Purman, the man he detested most.

Frank Baltzell gave voice to the frustration of his fellow citizens:

"The whole railroad scheme is a sham and humbug, and instead of commencing a road they are squabbling over precedents of incorporations, rights of franchise and other stuff of like nature to postpone beginning until after the election in November. The bills making the appropriations were framed in such a manner that a subterfuge can be sought and obtained, in case extension to the Apalachicola river will better conserve the interest of the Middle and East.
The only hope for facilities and improvement lies in annexation, and we appeal to our citizens to abandon the irretrievably indebted State of Florida, that is unwilling to give them their rightful part of the internal improvement fund and would deceive them in the last breath of connection, and rally to the annexation and Alabama, and our long neglected section will soon see the smoky signals of prosperity and happiness hovering over our valleys and the echo of its pulses throbbing among our lonely hills.
If our aprehensions are unfounded it would behoove our friends to vote for annexation that would at least, make these companies develope their pretended intended intentions."
[Pensacola West Florida Commercial, July 16, 1869]

A public meeting was held in Marianna in August attended by one of Alabama's negotiators, and a referendum was scheduled for the Panhandle counties for October. With the endorsement of both Republican and Democratic leaders, Jackson County residents were certain to approve annexation by a wide majority. In the fall, however, other events intervened to draw attention away from annexation. Marianna did not get its railroad connection to the east until early 1883. [Greg Turner, A Short History of Florida Railroads, 85]

May 1869: Return of Frank Baltzell's Marianna Courier

From the Tallahassee Sentinel of May 15, 1869:

SALUTATORY- The first number of the resuscitated Courier, published at Marianna, is before us, with the salutatory address of the Editor, from which we extract the following:
With this number we resume the publication of the Marianna Courier, suspended in December last.
It is customary on such an occasion to open with an elaborate editorial article setting forth the interests to which it will be devoted, the opinions to which it will adhere, the doctrines it will advocate, the political party it will support, and at the same time showing up the wants of expectant readers with a prospectus or bill of fare of the interesting articles to be introduced. But we will deviate from this honored custom, let our bastling speak for itself, and make our dissertation brief.
To advance the interests of Jackson county and West Florida, to have a local expositor of the opinions of the town and county, and to disseminate information important to the advancement of the farmer and mechanic are the objects to which the Courier aims it efforts.
FRANK BALTZELL

Frank Baltzell was still a teenager when he joined his brother George A. as editor and publisher of the Courier newspaper which they had founded in 1866 with their father George F. Baltzell, the prominent jurist. An 1870 newspaper directory listed the Courier as consisting of four pages, appearing each Thursday, with a circulation of 850. It was described as the "only paper publshed in the five eastern counties of west Florida, where it has an extensive circulation and commanding influence" (The Men who Advertise, Geo. Rowell & Co., NY, 1870, p. 627).
Frank Baltzell had already gained reknown for his feats as a boy during the Battle of Marianna. A committed Democrat and opponent of Reconstruction policy, Baltzell soon gained attention for his caustic and eloquent editorials and became a favorite of Charles Dyke, editor of the Tallahassee Weekly Floridan, the state's leading Democratic newspaper. Baltzell can be blamed for inciting hatred of Hamilton and Purman, but his views apparently accurately reflected the opinion of most of Jackson County's white community towards the Bureau agents and their allies. Baltzell did not reserve his criticism solely for Republicans, but also attacked the young "chivalry" who failed, in his view, to adapt to the post-war situation through economic industry and initiative. As conditions deteriorated in Jackson County, however, Baltzell came increasingly to rationalize inexcusable offenses committed by local whites. Unfortunately, no intact copies of the Courier remain from the years that Frank edited the newspaper. Numerous extracts in other Florida papers, however, give a strong impression of Frank's powerful and influential, and sometimes irresponsible, writing style and opinions.

April 1869: Aftermath of the violence

There are no records of arrests - and certainly no convictions - for the shootings of the spring of 1869. The circuit court grand jury, led by foreman John M. F. Erwin of Greenwood, expressed with "deepest regret...[its] utter inability to obtain evidence sufficient to bring to justice a large number of the guilty." Erwin commeneded the "hearty cooperation" of the county's civil officers and citizens, but, conveniently or not, conceded that "crime of the deepest die goes unpunished." Erwin was a prominent merchant and sometime politician who bitterly opposed the Bureau and its aims. His stately home stands in Greenwood today.

The violence of the spring terrified Jackson County African Americans. T. Thomas Fortune later recalled the extraordinary efforts of his father, state assemblyman Emanuel Fortune, to fortify and defend their home. Fortune wrote that white men stalked the home day and night and vividly recalled tripping early one morning over a man sleeping beside a shotgun at a position overlooking their homestead. Emanuel Fortune sensed his "life to be in danger at all times." Finally, Fortune heeded the counsel of his friends, white and black, to leave. He distributed his property among his relations and neighbors and packed up his family, settling in Jacksonville. His son rued that his father received almost no compensation for the farm, business, and chattel he had assiduously built and accumulated since Emancipation.

March 1869: violence following the Finlayson/Purman shooting

The Finlayson/Purman shooting initiated a period of violence that left an additional five Jackson County men dead and six more wounded during the spring of 1869. The first of these victims was James T. Colliette, a forty-two-year-old white farmer and father of five children, shot to death in his house. There was speculation that Colliette had been involved in the Finlayson/Purman shooting, although his role may have been limited to his "sanctioning the foul deed." A few weeks later, a young white man named Swain, staying at the McGriff farm near Chattahoochee, "was decoyed out...after night by a noise made about the stables...shot and killed." In the same neighborhood, two weeks later, two black men were shot and wounded. On the night of April 3, Richard Pooser, an African American county constable was severely wounded by a load of buckshot.

Meanwhile, Jackson County's leadership responded to the violence. James. L. G. Baker, one of the county's largest land-holders, presided over a meeting of Marianna citizens, which condemned the Finlayson/Purman shooting and arranged for resolutions to be printed in Florida's major newspapers. The committee, however, defeated any movement toward reconciliation by asserting that Purman had confessed, on his presumed deathbed, that the shooters' motives had been personal, rather than political. Purman, gradually recovering, insisted from his sickbed in Marianna that the assassination "was entirely political" and contended that the committee had misrepresented him. John Q. Dickinson, the Jackson County Bureau Agent who succeeded Purman, took upon himself the task of promulgating Purman's position and sent letters to several Florida newspapers and even to his native Vermont. Dickinson's letters immediately provoked a letter writing campaign accusing him of disparaging Jackson County's white citizenry.

Feb. 27, 1869: the (almost) sack of Marianna

Jackson County's African American community was outraged by the assault on their two friends. The next day, Feb. 27th, a committee representing the black community visited Purman who lay in his bed, clinging to life. The committee men - "armed to the teeth" - informed Purman that they had assembled six hundred to eight hundred men ready to "come in and sack the town that night." (This "assembling of an unlawful mob of armed citizens" was confirmed by the circuit court grand jury's presentment later than spring). Purman later testified that he had begged the delegation to desist from their threatened plan, and coaxed them to swear that they would call off their men and order them to return to their homes. A Marianna resident confirmed that "but for Major Purman's influence, the town would have been destroyed by the excited colored population, over whom the Major has complete control." The town was spared that night and, for the moment, open racial warfare in Jackson County was averted.

An investigation at the shooting scene found tracks of two men leading from the site of the shooting. Although no further evidence was discovered and no witnesses came forth, the names of the shooters were openly discussed in Marianna during the following days.

The opening salvo of the Jackson County War: The murder of Dr. John L. Finlayson and wounding of William J. Purman

Late in the evening of Feb. 26, 1869 in Marianna, FL, - 140 years ago this day - Dr. John L. Finlayson and state Senator William J. Purman were peppered by buckshot fired by a hidden assailant. Finlayson, struck through the forehead, died within mintues while Purman was more lucky and survived the shot that passed through his neck and jaw, although his life was in doubt for several weeks. The two young men were returning from a minstrel performance by the small garrison of U.S. troops periodically stationed in town when they were ambushed close by the Davis-West home that stands in Marianna today. Dr. Finlayson, about thirty years old at the time of his death, was a native of Jackson County and the oldest son of a fairly prosperous planting family that lost much property during the Battle of Marianna. Although a Confederate army veteran, Finlayson befriended Hamilton and Purman - the Bureau agents stationed in Jackson County - and, by 1867, had become active in the Republican Party, drawing the resentment of his neighbors. Purman had served as Bureau agent in Jackson County from early 1866 until his election to the state senate in May 1868 and was detested as a carpetbagger by Jackson County's white population although highly esteemed by its African American citizens.

The consequences of the shooting were severe: long simmering tensions exploded into violence and terror that lasted, with varying degrees of intensity, for almost three years. Finlayson's death left an enormous void: he was the only Marianna medical doctor willing to attend to the region's black population, whose many poor he treated gratis. He also had recently been appointed county clerk of court. Almost immediately after Finlayson's murder, his wife, Sarah Jane Bond, left Marianna with her two small children, John and Sallie, to mourn at the home of her parents in Mobile. Within two months Sarah Jane died, falling "an innocent victim to grief in devotion to her husband."

[Photo: Dr. John L. Finlayson - from the Florida State Archives collection]

ADDED 5/1/2012:  Link to image of grave of Sarah J. Finlayson at Mobile's Magnolia Cemetery:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=25611558&PIpi=33662332

Jackson County War - Anniversary

2009 marks the 140th anniversary of the nearly three years of sporadic violence known as the Jackson County War. The estimated total number of murder victims ranges from 80 to 180 - of whom at least 90% were Republicans and, of these, 90% were African American. The full story of the Jackson County War will be told in my forthcoming book to be released by Dale Cox's publishing house later this year. In anticipation of the release of the "Jackson County War," and to memorialize the events of the terrible period, I will periodically post information about key dates as their anniversaries come up in the course of the coming years. The shooting that signaled the start of this conflict will be described tomorrow.

Purman biography at ANB.org

My biographical sketch of William J. Purman for Oxford Univ. Press's American National Biography site is currently viewable at the update section at http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00815.html . I had also written a similar piece about Hamilton early in 2008.

143 Years Ago Today: Charles M. Hamilton arrives in Marianna

On Jan. 29, 1866, Charles M. Hamilton arrived in Marianna, Florida to establish the Freedmen's Bureau office for Jackson, Calhoun, Washington and Holmes counties. Hamilton, then twenty-five years old, remained an officer in the Veterans Reserve Corps. With no practical experience, other than brief service as a judge advocate general staffer, Hamilton now found himself responsible for promoting the welfare and defending the rights of more than 5000 recently freed slaves in his district.

John Quincy Dickinson's Grave - Old Cemetery, Benson, Vermont

Publications Update

Short biographical sketches I have written about Hamilton and Purman are available at Oxford University Press' American National Biography website www.anb.org

T. Thomas Fortune's "After War Times" with my introduction and annotation will published sometime in 2011.

The Jackson County War should be published in late 2010.

UPDATED: April 2010

Purman-Finlayson Wedding Account

The Tallahassee Sentinel reprinted an item from the Washington Chronicle, dated Oct. 20, 1871, describing the wedding of W.J. Purman and Leadora Finlayson:

"FASHIONABLE WEDDING - The wedding of Major William J. Purman, of Florida, and Miss Leadora P. Finlayson, of the same State, at the Metropolitan Church in this city, yesterday morning, was a brilliant and fashionable affair. A large number of political and personal friends of the bridegroom, together with many friends and acquaintances of the lovely bride, who, during her brief residence in Washington, had formed many warm friendships in our fashionable circles, were present on the occasion. The bride was attired in a neat and attractive traveling costume of brown silk, of a delicate shade, richly trimmed, and with hat and gloves matching to a charm. The bridegroom wore a black cloth coat and vest, pearl-colored pantaloons, and gloves of the same. The nuptial ceremonies, Rev. Dr. Newman officiating, were beautiful and impressive, as will be appreciated by all who have ever been present on similar occasions at the church of this eminent divine. The happy couple left on the noon train for a wedding tour to Niagara Falls, New York, and Boston, whence they will proceed to their residence in Tallahassee, Florida.
Major Purman is one of the representative men of his State, and has rendered valuable services in its reconstruction, having been a member of the Constitutional Convention, and subsequently held other important offices. He is at present United States assessor of internal revenue, and also ably fills a seat in the Florida Senate. His talents have won for him an unusually successful public career, and those who know him well have naught but words of praise for him as a gentleman of sterling integrity and honor in his personal relations. His bride is the daughter of the late Colonel Angus Finlayson, a native, and during life one of the most prominent citizens of West Florida; a staunch Unionist during the war, and whose family ever professed the firmest principles of loyalty. A brother of the bride, who was clerk of the Circuit Court of Jackson county, of which Major Purman was then judge, lost his life in an attack made by ex-rebels upon Major P. and himself, a year or two ago - an instance of the perils to which Union men are exposed in the far South. - Washington Chronicle, Oct. 20"
[Tallahassee Sentinel, Nov. 4, 1871]

Editor Walton of the Sentinel confirms that "Handsome Charley" Hamilton is handsome

As I wrote in the FHQ paper, Hamilton's Democratic opponents attacked him viciously, including mocking his pompous word-choice ("gassy Hamilton") and his poor oratorical skills. They also chose to taunt him as "handsome Charley." This backhanded compliment was not intended to be ironic. The critics emphasized Hamilton's good looks as though that were his only feature warranting attention. Walton, the editor of Florida Republican administration's "official" newspaper, chose to respond on Hamilton's behalf:
"'Handsome Charley' Here is another good illustration of the littleness of small minds. The Democratic editors having no other guilt to charge upon the Hon. C. M. Hamilton begin and quarrel with his physical appearance. Well, it should be a consolation to a man to know that he has some pleasing quality. We know several Charleys in this vicinity, two at least, who have not even the qualification of good looks to recommend them, much less any higher excellence. If the face is the mirror of the soul, what a deformity that arrangement of theirs must be!" [Tallahassee Sentinel 11/12/1870]
It should be recalled that this paragraph came out after Hamilton had been defeated by Josiah Walls in his bid to gain the Florida Republican Party's renomination for Congress at the August 1870 convention. Hamilton's graciousness in this defeat brought him much good-will. The Republican press, however, would turn against Hamilton the following year after he publicly exposed Senator Osborn's role in the Great Southern Railroad.
Regarding the Great Southern Railroad scandal, it is interesting to find that in Nov. 1870, Senator Osborn, his brother and president of the GSR, Rev. Osborn, and the GSR's agent, M.H. Alberger had dinner in Jacksonville with Florida's Chief Justice Randall and the reputedly impeccable Jonathan C. Gibbs. [Tallahassee Sentinel 11/26/1870]

Hamilton's Nov. 1868 Campaign Circular

A few days after Hamilton accepted the nomination as Florida's Republican candidate for Congress, he sent out the following campaign statement:

CIRCULAR

MY FELLOW-CITIZENS OF FLORIDA- As it may not be possible for your nominee (of the Republican party) to visit every part of the State during the present important canvass, it being necessary for him, your present Representative, to attend as soon as possible, the meeting of Congress in December – it is proper that he should address you some words of encouragement, defining briefly his position, and then commit himself and the success of the party to your earnest care and faithful keeping.
Having been a Republican from my youth – casting my first vote (a soldier's ballot) for the re-election of the revered Lincoln in '64 – it is but natural that my whole sympathies should be, as they are, radically Republican. But I claim no virtue because of this, for it is a solemn duty I owe both to our country and to her people. Seven years military service during the most eventful period, just ended, of her existence have made sacred the obligations I, with all the loyal people, owe to our regenerated Union, and to the now universally free institutions of our country. As Republicans, we have wrought this great national salvation – purging slavery and human inequality from her borders, and erecting in their room in the lasting temple of the Union, freedom and equal manhood for all! Now as Republicans it is incumbent upon us to vindicate our work, and in the same patriotic spirit which actuated us in accomplishing this high object, to preserve for all the future this priceless harvest of the seed sown in the land thrice enriched by rivers of the loyal blood of our countryman. We can fellow-citizens, we must do it.
The enemy, as hostile, as relentless, as treasonable as ever, are at our gates demanding the surrender of the Government their wicked rebellion failed to overthrow; still refusing to abide the decision of the sword to which they in acknowledged folly appealed; still heardless of the thundering voice of the Nation which has now made their military conquerer their civil ruler. Surrender not to them; heed not their insane appeals to your passions and your prejudices, for they seek to lead you as they did in '61- further on to your ruin.
Under the mantle of the people they plead for the miserable aristocracy who composed the Democratic party of the past, and who now compose the "Conservative" party of the present.
It is a sectional party, and a party of caste, and its object is to continue to favor this class at the expense of the poor, and to over throw the loyal Republican Governments which guarantee Equal Rights to all the people alike.
The Republican party is the part of the Union, the peoples' party and its object is to secure and maintain the Union and the Constitution of our fathers, and the Republican Governments established in the South under the wise and generous Reconstruction laws of Congress; to educate and elevate the laboring people on whose shoulder more than any other rest the burdens of the Governments to organize a system of free common schools, the fountain of popular knowledge that all the people may readily qualify themselves for the responsibility of citizenship. For education is the strong, grand pillar of a free Government – the sword in the hands of the people to protect their lives and property, and the shield of security to their liberties. During an hundred years this "Conservative" party in the South has stood in the way of the enlightenment and prosperity of the people and the progress and welfare of the Southern portion of our Union. Let us strike down this criminal barrier in this propitious moment, and the flood-gates of domestic happiness and prosperity will open wide, and welcome Peace flow in along.
With the glorious triumph of the Republican party in the election of Grant and Colfax still animating our hearts; with the assurance that this country will be the habitation of Republicanism forever; and with the encouragement given us by the harmonious action of the Convention on the 3d and 4th inst., which you rare called up on to approve by your votes on the 29th of December, I congratulate you, citizens, upon the bright auspices under which it is our privilege to enter this decisive campaign.
Do not rely wholly upon public meetings and speeches – battles are lost by too much parade. Victory is achieve only by sleepless vigilance and constant labor, and your standard bearer earnestly calls upon all who would vindicate the party which saved the Union, the Constitution and the flag, of the country, founded by Washington and saved by Lincoln, to rally under the victorious folds of the Republican standard, and vote to sustain it still.
With the firm belief that in times like the present, Conservatism is treason, and that Radicalism only is patriotism, I bid you God-speed,
Charles M. Hamilton
Marianna, Fla., Nov. 12, '68

[Sources: Jacksonville Florida Union 12/3/1868; (Tampa) The True Southerner 12/10/1868]

Hamilton accepts Republican party's nomination as candidate for Congress

One of my goals with this blog is to make available any materials related to my research that are not included in the published articles or that I discover at a later date. I recently found a few statements that Hamilton sent to Florida newspapers during his campaign to be re-elected to Congress in late 1868.

Florida did not participate in the national election that Nov. as the state's new Republican administration decided the state wasn't stable or organized enough to vote that November. Instead, Governor Harrison Reed nominated Florida's three electors who, of course, delivered Florida to Grant and Colfax. Reed did, however, arrange for the election of Florida's Congressman to be held but not in November like the rest of the nation, but on Dec. 29. Hamilton was renominated as Florida's Republican candidate for Congress at the Republican state convention on November 3, 1868.
After being informed he had received the Republican party's nomination, Hamilton responded with the following acceptance statement which was published in several newspapers:

Marianna, FLA., Nov. 8th, 1868
E. M. Cheney, Esq.
Sec'y Rep'n State Executive Committee:
MY DEAR SIR – In formally acknowledging the receipt of your courteous communication of the action of the Republican Convention held in Tallahassee on the 3d inst., which resulted in my "unanimous renomination for the Forty-first Congress," it may be my duty to give utterance to more than the mere acceptance of the nomination.
It is truly gratifying to me to know that this result met with such cordial acceptance and that the convention closed amid the utmost harmony.
The issue which are presented for our earnest consideration in the coming canvass are few and clearly defined. They are: the successful accomplishment of Reconstruction upon the Congressional basis – the permanent establishment of free Republican Institutions in this State, and the earnest vindication and maintenance of the Republican "Carpet-Bag" State Government inaugurated upon that basis, with Loyalty, Intelligence, Universal Suffrage, and Equal Rights as the four cardinal cornerstones of its foundation; the extension of the great principle of uniform suffrage over all the States by amendment of the National Constitution; the speedy education and elevation of the laboring masses; the preservation of our country's credit inviolate by the payment of National securities and interest, in gold, or in greenbacks, according to the specifications of the bond; the reduction of taxation as pedial as the public necessity will admit; the acknowledgement of the present pressing necessity of the polity of free trade; the removal of political disabilities from disenfranchised ex-rebels as soon as this may be safely done; the strict and faithful adherence to the creed of the Union that loyal men shall protect and rule what loyal men have saved and made.
For each and all of these issues I take my uncompromising stand in the affirmative, and while, with modest diffidence, I tender my acceptance of the grateful thanks for the consideration bestowed by the nomination, I call upon those who have honored me with their confidence and support in the boisterous past to rally again under the Republican banner and bear it on to the third glorious victory awaiting it on the 29th of December.
The voter is as deeply interested in the success of the party as the candidate can be, for the victory of the one is the triumph of the other, and defeat is the overthrow alike of both.
Having just returned from a visit to every part of the State, and everywhere witnessed the happy earnestness of our host of Republicans, I congratulate the party upon this universal harbinger of success.
While it is unfortunate that at this time the attempted impeachment of our Governor – which unlooked for ever I sincerely deplor – has given rise to uncertainty and doubt, I trust and believe that this event will not disturb the unity of the Republican party, or be allowed to endanger its success in the upcoming election, and I trust that the party will stand by and sustain the present legally constituted authorities of the State until a competent tribunal has decided that they do not deserve our support, for in the united force of the party is our only hope of success.
Yours, very respectfully,
Charles M. Hamilton


[Sources: Jacksonville Florida Union 12/3/1868; (Tampa) The True Southerner 12/10/1868]

Current Project: The Book

The project I have been delaying for quite a period of time is finally moving along. The "Jackson County War" book is intended to be the definitive account of the years 1866-1871 in Jackson County starting from when the Bureau arrived, carrying through the murderous years after readmission and lasting until the violence quieted down with the reassertion of white control over most county posts and the intervention of the U. S. government under the Enforcement Act.

Hamilton's brawl in Walton County, Florida

Dale Cox, author of the authoritative "Battle of Marianna" brought to my attention John L. McKinnon's "History of Walton County." Published in 1912, "History of Walton County" is unabashedly sympathetic to the white southerners and critical of carpetbaggers and Republicans. Amazingly, McKinnon has a detailed account of Hamilton's the melee with Walton County whites while on a campaign to organize black voters prior to the election for delegates to the state constitutional convention. Emanuel Fortune describes this brawl in his testimony before the Congressional "Ku Klux Klan" committee that interviewed witnessed in Jacksonville in late 1871.

First is Fortune's account:
"I went with Colonel Hamilton to Walton County to inform the people there of the constitutional convention, and to get the republicans there to go in favor of the convention. He and I went into the court-house; the audience, of course, were generally back country people, very poor people. After the meeting, at which he and I both spoke, we were informed that while speaking there was some disposition for a disturbance. After the meeting we all dispersed, and in going to the hotel some colored men came to us, and we were advising them what to do on the day of election. After they came several more came, and there was a right good bunch around us, some eight or ten. The white fellows, who were off at a store not very far off, got very bitter about it, as they did not want us to communicate with them at all. They came hustling up toward us, and Colonel Hamilton, I suppose, got mad, for he spoke very abruptly to them. They pitched right in for a fight, and there was quite a scuffle. Men were going to cut him in the back, but I kept them off. One picked up a rail and it broke in two, and they turned and fled. It all ended by his tripping in the wild grass, and this fellow got on him and choked him. That ended the fight, because he considered that he had the best of it." [Source: Testimony Taken by the Joint Select Committee to Inquire Into the Conditions and Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States," House Report No. 22, pt. 13, 42nd Congress., 2d Sess (Washington 1972), 98-9.]

Next is McKinnon's version of the same event with some prefacing material:
[342] The carpetbaggers followed close behind us with their best speakers in negro precincts. W. J. Purman, Hamelton and Dickson, with their headquarters at Marianna, were the campaigners through Walton. They made extrava-
[343] gant, rash promises to the negroes, reminding themselves no doubt of the old rhyme:
“Much to promise and little to give Causes the fools in comfort in live.”
“The forty acres and the mule,” was their leading promise to the end. The whites attended all of their meetings when they knew of them, and would take them up on their rash, foolish promises; but they would hold secret, night meetings, and say things that they would not dare say in the presence of the whites. They were good speakers and educated as to books, but bankrupts as to character. They called an open advertised meeting at Euchee Anna in the open day time, pretty much every negro voter was there. This was called their “Grand Rally Meetings.” The white voters were there in force, the meeting was held in the old courthouse in the southern part of the town. They had to be checked up several times in their extravagant statements. They lead us to believe they wanted their opponents to reply when they were through. But when they finished, they had a tacit understanding with the negroes to meet them for private instructions, and they went out in a body in the direction of the hotel where they had stopped, not by the street way, but direct through a grove that intervened, and when they were well in the grove and near the hotel they stopped. Hamilton, a tall, stout, rawboney man of fair complexion, light hair and blue eyes weighing about two hundred pounds, 38 years old, a college athlete in appearance, stood talking to the negroes as they gathered around him in the grove. The white voters who moved on to the business part of town by the street way,
[344] saw that he had stopped and was talking with the negroes. Bill Bell, a farmer from Knox Hill, a full match in build, weight, and years, for Hamilton, with dark complexion, black hair and dark eagle piercing eyes, said, “Men we have had enough of this today, and those negroes have had enough, let’s go over there and send these rascals over the river and the negroes home, where they belong?” “All right” came from everybody. They walked up to the circle, Bell in the lead, while Hamilton was yet speaking. Bell with his right hand on the left shoulder of one negro, his left on the right of another, made a breach and enlarged at the circle, walked right up in front of Hamilton and said in loud unmistakable tones, using severe ugly adjectives, “See here, Hamilton, these negroes have had enough of this stuff today, you are fixing them up to be put under the ground. You were allowed to say too much in yonder building, you can’t sneak out here in these bushes and stir up the devil in them, and let me tell you right here, if you know what is best for you, you had better cross the river and crawl up in your hole.” Hamilton straightened himself up boastingly with an air of bravery, and he was brave with his big crowd of negroes around him and said, “I am a free born American citizen exercising the right of free speech and don’t want to be disturbed in this way.” “You are,” said Bell, “a free born American jackass risking the dangers of a free fight!” “You are more of a jackass than I am,” said Hamilton. As these words fell upon Bell’s ears, he dealt a blow with his right fist directly in Hamilton’s breast that staggered him. It was promptly returned and while these blows and fencings were flying swiftly there went up a cry from the white voters, “A fair fight, a fair fight!” They clenched each
[345) other then and went at it right. The negroes indiscriminately took to the woods, running pell-mell in every direction. Purman and their negro driver made for the hotel, got their horses and were ready on the ground a little while to go for the river. Bell proved more than his equal in a clenched wrestle. Hamilton realizing his situation cried out, “Am I left alone, have they all deserted me?” It was then the white voters laid hold on them, loosed their hold on each other, pulled them apart and there they stood unexhausted in front of each other with their faces scratched a little, the greatest damage done being to their Sunday clothes. Hamilton got into the carriage with Purman and the negro driver and they went down the Douglass Ferry road, the negro driving with such flying speed through the sand and dust that flew so thick and high above their heads, that they were hid from view. When they got to the ferry it was night. They urged Mr. Campbell to help them across that night, that they might be safe. When they had told him what had befallen them that day at Euchee Anna, he told them that it would not be safe to try crossing the river at night and that he knew all of those men and would guarantee their safety with him that night, that all they wanted was for them to let the negroes alone. They stopped until morning in security and passed over the river, and that was the last of carpetbaggerism in Walton. The most remarkable and creditable thing in this whole affair was, that there was neither knife or pistol drawn during the encounter, notwithstanding in these times, and on such occasions men went armed to the teeth. [Source: Florida Heritage Collection http://susdl.fcla.edu/fh ]

The versions are generally similar but with some different details. Fortune's account is an eyewitness testimony recited almost four years after the incident. McKinnon is unclear about whether he was present at the event or is relating an account he heard from others. Either way, McKinnon, publishing his book in 1911, McKinnon was presumably remembering events that took place more than forty years earlier. The major differences are McKinnon's placement of Purman at the scene which Fortune does not mention. Considering that Fortune was, if anything, closer personally to Purman, and mentioned both men repeatedly in his testimony, it is unlikely that Fortune forgot Purman's presence. Hamilton and Purman were so closely associated, particularly in the disdain of white Floridians, that McKinnon probably naturally assumed that Purman was also in Walton County that day. Also, McKinnon does not mention Fortune's role in the fight and instead dismissively refers to the "negro driver." Fortune, conversely, was an able speaker and a candidate for the convention and, according to his son, a fierce and courageous fighter. Fortune, however, does not refer to the desperate scramble to get out of the county and "across the river" that McKinnon describes with obvious amusement. The accounts do agree in the general nature of the fight and that Hamilton got the worst of it. Hamilton, of course, despite his height and youth, suffered from a disabling leg injury and may have already had the chronic respiratory ailment that tormented him for years. McKinnon's physical description of Hamilton conforms with other contemporary accounts, except that McKinnon overestimates Hamilton's age by 11 years.