A Guide to Civil War Records

The purpose of this guide is to identify and describe the state, federal, and private records pertaining to Florida’s Civil War era (1860-1865) housed at the State Archives of Florida. We hope this guide will assist and promote research into this time period.

Published and Unpublished Works

• Allen, Alexander A. Allen’s Journal: A Trip Along the Georgia-Florida Boundary June 14-July 22, 1854. Eds. Christy T. Trowell and Frances R. Trowell. Occasional Paper from South Georgia No. 6., 1984.
• Bearss, Edwin. “Civil War Operations in and Around Pensacola.” Florida Historical Quarterly 36 (October 1957).
• Bearss, Edwin. “Civil War Operations in and Around Pensacola Part II.” Florida Historical Quarterly 39 (January 1961).
• Bearss, Edwin. “Civil War Operations in and Around Pensacola Part III.” Florida Historical Quarterly 39 (April 1961).
• Bickel, Karl. “Robert E. Lee in Florida.” Florida Historical Quarterly 27 (July 1948).
• Bittle, George Cassel. “In the Defense of Florida: The Organized Florida Militia From 1821-1920.” Phd Dissertation: Florida State University, 1965.
• Bittle, George Cassel. “Florida Prepares for War, 1860-1861.” Florida Historical Quarterly 51 (October 1972).
• Black, Hugh. Letters of Captain Hugh Black to His Family in Florida during the War Between the States, 1862-1864. Compiled by Elizabeth Caldwell Frano. Newbury, 1998.
• Blakely, Arch, Ann Smith Lainhart, and Winston Bryant Stephens, Jr. ed, Rose Cottage Chronicles: Civil War Letters of the Bryant-Stephens of North Florida. Gainesville: University of Press of Florida, 1998.
• Boyd, Mark F. “The Joint Operations of the Federal Army and Navy Near St. Marks.” Florida Historical Quarterly 29 (October 1950).
• Boyd, Mark F. Federal Campaign of 1864 in East Florida. Tallahassee: Florida Board of Parks and Historical Memorials, 1951.
• Brackett, John Matthew. “’The Naples of America,’ Pensacola During the Civil War and Reconstruction.” MA Thesis: Florida State University, 2005.
• Breeze, Lawrence. “The Battle of Olustee: Its Meaning for the British.” Florida Historical Quarterly 43 (January 1965).
• Broadwater, Robert. The Battle of Olustee, 1864: The Final Union Attempt to Seize Florida. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2006.
• Brown, Canter, Jr. “The Civil War, 1861-1865” in The New History of Florida. edited by Michael Gannond, Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996.
• Buker, George. Blockaders, Refugees, & Contrabands: Civil War on Florida's Gulf Coast, 1861-1865. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
• Burdett, Susan. “The Military Career of Brigadier-General Joseph Finegan of Florida.” M.A. Thesis: Columbia University, 1930.
• Carlson, Charlie. The First Florida Cavalry Regiment. C.S.A. Luthers: New Smyrna Beach, 1999.
• Cash, William T. “Taylor County History and Civil War Deserters.” Florida Historical Quarterly 27 (July 1948).
• Chipley, W.D. Pensacola: The Naples of America. Pensacola: Pfieffer Printing, 1962 Originally published 1877.
• Cleveland, Mary Ann. “Florida Women in the Civil War,” in Florida Decades—A Sesquicentennial History, 1845-1995. edited by James Horgan and Lewis N. Wynne. St. Leo: St. Leo College Press, 1995.
• Coles, David. “’A Fight, a Licking, and a Footrace’: The 1864 Florida Campaign and The Battle of Olustee.” MA thesis: Florida State University, 1985.
• Coles, David. “Ancient City Defenders: The St. Augustine Blues.” El Escribano (1986).
• Coles, David. “Far From Fields of Glory: Military Operations in Florida During the Civil War, 1864-1865.” PhD dissertation: Florida State University, 1996.
• Coles, David. “They Fought Like Devils: Black Troops in Florida During the Civil War,” in Florida’s Heritage of Diversity—Essays in Honor of Samuel Proctor Tallahassee: Sentry press, 1997.
• Coles, David. “Florida's Seed Corn: The History of the West Florida Seminary During the Civil War.” Florida Historical Quarterly 77 (Winter 1999).
• Coles, David and David Hartman. Biographical Rosters of Florida's Confederate and Union Soldiers, 1861-1865. Wilmington NC: Broadfoot Publishing, 1995.
• Coles, David and Richard J. Ferry. “ ‘The Smallest Tadpole’: Florida in the Civil War.” State Archives of Florida, Tallahassee, Florida.
• Confederate Muster Rolls Survey. Introductory Chapters from Florida in the War Between the States. 1938.
• Cortada, James. “Florida's Relations with Cuba During the Civil War.” Florida Historical Quarterly 59 (July 1980).
• Coski, John M., Ed. “I Am In Anything For Success: The Letters of Sergeant Archie Livingston 3rd Florida Infantry.” North and South VI (April 2003).
• Cushman, Joseph. “The Episcopal Church in Florida During the Civil War.” Florida Historical Quarterly 38 (April 1960).
• Cushman, Joseph. “The Blockade and Fall of Apalachicola, 1861-1862.” Florida Historical Quarterly 41 (July 1962).
• Dancy, James. “Reminiscences of the Civil War.” Florida Historical Quarterly 37 (July 1938).
• Davis, Horance Gibbs. “Florida Journalism During the Civil War.” M.A. Thesis: University of Florida, 1952.
• Davis, William W. The Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida. New York: Columbia University, 1913.
• Davis, William C. Look Away!: A History of the Confederate States of America. New York: Free Press, 2002.
• Dickison, John J. Battle of Olustee. Lake City: Columbia Publications, 1986.
• Dickison, John J. “Military History of Florida.” In Confederate Military History, vol. 11, part 2, edited by Clement Evans. Atlanta: Confederate Publishing Company, 1898 (reprint: Wilmington: Broadfoot Publishing Company, 1989).
• Dickison, Mary Elizabeth. Dickison and his Men: Reminiscences of the War in Florida. Louisville, KY: Courier-Journal Job Printing Co., 1890.
• Dillon, Rodney E., Jr. “South Florida in 1860.” Florida Historical Quarterly 60 (April 1982).
• Dodd, Dorothy. “The Manufacture of Cotton in Florida Before and During the Civil War.” Florida Historical Quarterly 13 (July 1934).
• Dodd, Dorothy. Florida in the War, 1861-1865. Tallahassee, 1959.
• Doherty, Herbert. “Union Nationalism in Florida.” Florida Historical Quarterly 29 (October 1950).
• Doty, Franklin. “The Civil War letters of Augustus Henry Mathers, Asst. Surgeon, Fourth Florida Regiment, CSA.” Florida Historical Quarterly 36 (October 1957).
• East, Omega. “St. Augustine During the Civil War.” Florida Historical Quarterly 31 (October 1952).
• Farley, Charlotte. Florida's Alamo: The Battle of Marianna. 1981.
• Ferry, Richard. The General's Tour: The Battle of Olustee Columbus, Ohio. Blue & Gray Enterprises, Inc., 1986.
• Fleming, Francis P. Memoir of Capt. C. Seton Fleming, of the Second Florida Infantry, C. S. A.: Illustrative of the History of the Florida Troops in Virginia During the War Between the States, with Appendix of the Casualties. Jacksonville: Times Union Publishing House, 1884.
• Florida. Dept. Of Military Affairs. Civil War in Florida: Confederate History Series. St. Augustine, 1992.
• Fretwell, Jacqueline K. ed. Civil War Times in St. Augustine. Port Salerno: Florida Classics Library, 1988.
• Futch, Ovid. “Salmon P. Chase and Civil War Politics in Florida.” Florida Historical Quarterly 32 (January 1954).
• Gammon, William Lamar. “Governor John Milton of Florida, Confederate States of America.” M.A. thesis: University of Florida, 1948.
• Gannon, Michael. New Florida History. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996.
• Garrell, Allen. The Civil War In and Around St. Marks, Florida. 1993.
• Garrell, Allen. Kilcrease Light Artillery. 1998.
• Gaske, Fred. Florida in the Civil War, 1860-1865: a Bibliography of Sources. 1981.
• Gibbs, B. F. “Account of the Epidemic of the Yellow Fever Which Visited the Pensacola Navy Yard in the Summer and Autumn of 1863.” American Journal of Medical Science 51 (April 1866).
• Green, Elna. “Protecting Confederate Soldiers and Mothers: Pensions, Gender, and the Welfare State in the U.S. South, a Case Study from Florida.” Journal of Social History 39 (Summer 2006).
• Groene, Bertram. “Civil War Letters of Colonel David Lang.” Florida Historical Quarterly 54 (January 1976).
• Hadd, Donald R. “Irony of Secession.” Florida Historical Quarterly 41 (July 1862).
• Hartman, David. Biographical rosters of Florida's Confederate and Union soldiers, 1861-1865. Wilmington: Broadfoot Publishing Co., 1995.
• Haulman, C.A. “Changes in the Economic Power Structure in Duval County, Florida, During the Civil War and Reconstruction.” Florida Historical Quarterly 52 (October 1973).
• Havard, William C. “The Florida Executive Council, 1862.” Florida Historical Quarterly 33 (October 1954).
• Higginson, Thomas Wentworth. Army Life in a Black Regiment. Boston: Fields, Osgood & Co., 1870.
• Hillhouse, Don. Heavy Artillery & Light Infantry: A History of the 1st Florida Special Battalion & 10th Florida Infantry Regiment. Rome, GA: 1992.
• Holland, Keith V, et al. The Maple Leaf: An Extraordinary American Civil War Shipwreck. Jacksonville: St. Johns Archaeological Expeditions, Inc. 1993.
• Hodges, Ellen and Stephen Kerber. "'Rogues And Black Hearted Scamps': Civil War Letters of Winston and Octavia Stephens, 1862-1863.” Florida Historical Quarterly 57 (July 1958).
• Inglis, John L. “Commander, Florida Division UVC,” in Confederate Veteran XXII. Reprinted, Wilmington: Broadfoot Publishing Co., 1987.
• Johns, John Edwards. “Florida in the Confederacy.” M.A. Thesis: University of North Carolina, 1958.
• Johns, John Edwards. Florida in the Civil War. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1963.
• Johnson, Dudley. “The Florida Railroad after the Civil War.” Florida Historical Quarterly 47 (January 1969).
• Jones, Allen. “Military Events in Florida During the Civil War , 1861-1865.” Florida Historical Quarterly 39 (July 1960).
• Jones, James P. “Lincoln’s Courier: John L. Worden’s Mission to Fort Pickens.” Florida Historical Quarterly 41 (October 1962).
• Kenneson, Claude. Civil War Camps in Leon County, Florida. Tallahassee, 2004.
• Latona, David J. “Florida’s Civil War Home Front and the Deficiency of Confederate Nationalism.” M.A. thesis: University of Central Florida, 2004.
• Loderhouse, Gary. What's in a Name?: The Attack on Fort Myers. Cape Coral: Posterity Press, 1998.
• Loderhouse, Gary. Far, Far from Home: The Ninth Florida Regiment in the Confederate Army. Carmel, Ind.: Guild Press, 1999.
• Loderhouse, Gary. Way Down Upon the Suwannee River: Sketches of Florida During the Civil War. San Jose: Authors Choice Press, 2000.
• Lonn, Ella. “The Extent and Importance of Federal Naval Raids on Salt-Making in Florida, 1862-1865.” Florida Historical Quarterly 10 (April 1932).
• Lucas, Marion. “ Civil War Career of Colonel George Washington Scott.” Florida Historical Quarterly 58 (October 1979).
• Macomber, Robert N. Honorable Mention: The Continuing Exploits of Lt. Peter Wake, United States Navy. Sarasota: Pineapple Press, 2004.
• Martin, Richard. “Defeat in Victory: Yankee Experience in Early Civil War Jacksonville.” Florida Historical Quarterly 53 (July 1974).
• Martin, Richard. “The New York Times Views Civil War Jacksonville.” Florida Historical Quarterly 53 (April 1975).
• Martin, Richard and Daniel Schafer. Jacksonville's Ordeal by Fire: a Civil War History. Jacksonville: Florida Publishing Co., 1984.
• McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
• Moylan, Majorie. Walton County and the War Between the States. San Rafael, Ca: 2002.
• Murphree, Ridgeway Boyd. “Rebel Sovereigns: The Civil War Leadership of Governors John Milton of Florida and Joseph E. Brown of Georgia, 1861-1865.” PhD Dissertations: Florida State University, 2006.
• Nichols, Richard S. “Florida’s Fighting Rebels: A Military History of Florida’s Civil War Troops.” M. A. Thesis: Florida State University, 1967.
• Nolan, Terence. History of Fort Clinch, Fernandina, Florida. Tallahassee: Division of Archives, History and Records Management, Bureau of Historic Sites and Properties, 1974.
• Nulty, William. Confederate Florida: The Road to Olustee. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1990.
• Paisley, Clifton. “Tallahassee through the Storebooks: War Clouds and War, 1860-1863.” Florida Historical Society, 51 (July 1972).
• Parker, Daisy. “John Milton, Governor of Florida, 1861-1865.” M.A. thesis: University of Virginia, 1940.
• Parker, Daisy. “John Milton, Governor of Florida: A Loyal Confederate.” Florida Historical Quarterly 20 (April 1942).
• Parks, Virginia. Pensacola in the Civil War. Pensacola: Pensacola Historical Society, 1978.
• Parks, Virginia. “The Relief of Fort Pickens.” Pensacola Historical Quarterly Volume IX (2000).
• Parks, Virginia, and Sandra Johnson, ed. Civil War Views of Pensacola. Pensacola: Pensacola Historical Society, 1993.
• Pearce, George. Pensacola During the Civil War: a Thorn in the Side of the Confederacy. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000.
• Porter, Kenneth. “Billy Bowlegs (Holata Micco) in the Civil War (Part II).” Florida Historical Quarterly 47 (April 1967).
• Price, Marcus. “Ships That Tested the Blockade of the Georgia and East Florida Ports, 1861-1865.” American Neptune 15 (1955).
• Proctor, Samuel. “Jacksonville During the Civil War.” Florida Historical Quarterly 41 (April 1963).
• Proctor, Samuel ed. Florida: A Hundred Years Ago. Coral Gables: Florida Civil War Centennial Commission, 1965.
• Reddick, Henry W. Seventy-Seven Years In Dixie: the Boys in Gray of 61-65. Santa Rosa, 1910.
• Reiger, John E. “Deprivation, Disaffection, and Desertion in Confederate Florida.” Florida Historical Quarterly 48 (January 1970).
• Revels, Tracy. “Grander in Her Daughters: Florida's Women During the Civil War.” Florida Historical Quarterly 7 (Winter 1999).
• Revels, Tracy. Grander in Her Daughters: Florida’s Women During the Civil War. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2004.
• Rick, Alan. Florida in the Civil War: 1860 Through Reconstruction. Pensacola: 1961.
• Robertson, Fred L. Compiler. Soldiers of Florida. Tallahassee, 1904.
• Robinson, Calvin. A Yankee in a Confederate Town. Sarasota: Pineapple Press, 2002.
• Rogers, William Warren “Florida on the Eve of the Civil War as Seen by a Southern Reporter.” Florida Historical Quarterly 39 (October 1960).
• Schafer, Daniel. “Freedom Was as Close as the River: African Americans and the Civil War in Northeast Florida,” in African American Heritage of Florida edited by David R. Colburn and Jane L. Landers. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1995.
• Schmidt, Lewis. The Civil War in Florida: a Military History. Allentown: L.G. Schmidt, 1989.
• Sheppard, Jonathan C. “Everyday Soldiers: the Florida Brigade of the West, 1861-1862.” MA Thesis: Florida State University, 2004.
• Shepherd, D. William, ed. Florida Soldiers in the Civil War: A Reprint of Part II: Florida in the War Between the States, 1861-1865, Extracted from Soldiers of Florida Published by the State of Florida in 1903. Panama City, FL: Norfield Publishing, 1998.
• Shofner, Jerrell H. and William Warren Rogers. “Confederate Railroad Construction: The Live Oak to Lawton Connector.” Florida Historical Quarterly 43 (January 1965).
• Solomon, Irving D. “Southern Extremities: The Significance of Fort Myers in the Civil War.” Florida Historical Quarterly 72 (October 1993).
• Solomon, Irving D., and Grace Erhart. “Race and Civil War in South Florida.” Florida Historical Quarterly 77 (Winter 1999).
• Staudenraus, P.J. “A War Correspondents View of St. Augustine and Fernandina: 1863.” Florida Historical Society 41 (July 1962).
• Schwartz, Gerald “An Integrated Free School In Civil War Florida.” Florida Historical Quarterly 61 (October 1961).
• Strickland, Alice “Blockade Runners.” Florida Historical Quarterly 36 (October 1957).
• Taylor, Paul. Discovering the Civil War in Florida. Sarasota: Pineapple Press, 2001.
• Taylor, Robert. Rebel Storehouse: Florida in the Confederate Economy. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1995.
• Tebeau, Charlton. A History of Florida. Coral Gables: University of Miami Press, 1971.
• Turner, Shane “Rearguard of the Confederacy: The Second Florida Infantry Regiment.” M.A. Thesis: Florida State University, 2005.
• Uhler, Margaret Anderson. “Civil War Letters of Major General James Patton Anderson.” Florida Historical Quarterly 56 (October 1977).
• Waters, Zack C. “Tell Them I Died Like a Confederate Soldier: Finegan’s Florida Brigade at Cold Harbor.” Florida Historical Quarterly 69 (October 1990).
• Watson, Robert. Civil War Diaries: Robert Watson and Samuel Lowry. St. Augustine 1992.
• Watson, Robert. Southern Service on Land & Sea: The Wartime Journal of Robert Watson, CSA/CSN. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2002.
• Weinberg, Sydney J. “Slavery and Secession in Florida, 1845-1861.” M.A. thesis: University of Florida, 1940.
• White, Virgil. Register of Florida CSA Pension Applications. Waynesboro, TN: National Historical Publishing, 1989.
• Williamson, Edward C. “Francis P. Fleming in the War for Southern Independence: Letters from the Front.” Florida Historical Quarterly 28 (July 1949).
• Willis, Lee. “Secession Sanctified: Bishop Francis Huger Rutledge and the Coming of the Civil War in Florida.” Florida Historical Quarterly (July 2004).
• Wooster, Ralph A. “The Florida Secession Convention.” Florida Historical Quarterly 36 (April 1958).
• Works Progress Administration. Military Dispatches, Headquarters, District of Middle Florida, August 10, 1865-September 25, 1865. Jacksonville: Historical Records Survey, 1938.
• Wynne, Lewis and Robert A. Taylor. Florida in the Civil War. Charleston: Arcadia Press, 2001.

Civil War in Florida Web Resources

• National Archives Guide to Researching the Civil War
• Florida in the Civil War
• State Library of Florida Civil War bibliography
• National Park Service’s Guide to Civil War Battles in Florida
• Explore Florida in the Civil War (Office of Cultural Affairs)
• South Florida in the Civil War
• Florida’s Role in the Civil War (Exploring Florida)
• Civil War in Florida (PALMM’s Florida Heritage Collection)
• Civil War Military Units in Florida (FSU)
• Civil War in North Florida
• United State Civil War Center (LSU)
• The Civil War Homepage
• Civil War Archaeology at SEAC (NPS facility in Tallahassee)
• Maple Leaf Shipwreck
• Civil War Florida
• Florida Reenactors News Magazine