Guide to Military Records and the Wartime Experience

State Library of Florida: A Select Bibliography

This bibliography lists books available at the State Library of Florida relating to United States military history with an emphasis on Florida’s participation and the experiences of Floridians. In addition to the resources listed here, scholarly journals, subject-based periodicals, doctoral dissertations and masters’ theses, and genealogy holdings are available through the electronic databases on the computers in the State Archives/State Library reference room.

The State Library also maintains biography files on Floridians; federal and state military maps, reports and statistics; and numerous works on a variety of subjects published by state and local organizations.

This is a select bibliography and is not meant to be comprehensive.

Seminole Wars

Belko, Stephen. America’s Hundred Years’ War: U.S. Expansion to the Gulf Coast and the Fate of the Seminole, 1763-1858. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2011. 

Carter, Clarence Edwin, ed. The Territorial Papers of the United States. New York: AMS Press, 1956. 

Carter, Clarence Edwin, ed. The Territory of Florida. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1956. 

Cohen, M. M. Notices of Florida and the Campaigns. Charleston, SC: Burges & Honour, 1836. 

Florida Department of Military Affairs. Florida Militia Muster Rolls, Seminole Indian Wars. Saint Augustine, FL: Florida State Arsenal, 1980. 

Giddings, Joshua. The Exiles of Florida. Columbus, OH: Follett, Foster & Co., 1858. 

Hatch, Thom. Osceola and the Great Seminole War: A Struggle for Justice and Freedom. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2012. 

Homans, Benjamin. Army and Navy Chronicle. Washington, D.C.: Benjamin Homans, 1835. 

Knetsch, Joe. Florida’s Seminole Wars, 1817-1858. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2003. 

Mahon, John K. History of the Second Seminole War, 1835-1842. Rev. ed. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1967. 

Missall, John, and Mary Missall. The Seminole Wars: America’s Longest Indian Conflict. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2004. 

Missall, Mary Lou. “A War of Wills: The Social, Political, and Economic Forces That Caused and Prolonged the Second Seminole War.” Ph.D. Dissertation, California State University, Dominguez Hills, 1999.

United States House of Representatives. Debate on the Seminole War, January and February 1819. Washington, D.C.: National Intelligencer, 1819.

Civil War

A Forgotten Front: Florida During the Civil War Era. Edited by Seth A. Weitz and Jonathan C. Sheppard. Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 2018.

Abbott, John S. C. Heroic Deeds of Heroic Men: Florida, Her Crime and Punishment. New York: Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, 1866.

Browning, Robert M. Jr. Lincoln’s Trident: The West Gulf Blockading Squadron During the Civil War. Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 2015.

Collins, Toni C. Civil War Blockade Running on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Chiefland, FL: Suwannee River Publishing LLC, 2016.

Davis, William Watson. The Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 1964.

Dickison, Mary Elizabeth. Dickison and His Men: Reminisces of the War in Florida. Louisville, KY: Courier-Journal Job Printing Co., 1890.

Fleming, Frances 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. Alexandria, VA: Stonewall House, 1985.

Florida’s Civil War: Exploration into Conflict, Interpretation and Memory. Edited by Irvin D.S. Winsboro. Cocoa, FL: Florida Historical Society Press, 2007.

Florida. Governor Milton. Circular. Scarcity of Arms in Florida and Reimbursement to Troops. Tallahassee, FL: The Governor’s Office, circa 1863.

Revels, Tracy J. Florida’s Civil War: Terrible Sacrifices. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2016.

Taylor, Paul. Discovering the Civil War in Florida: A Reader and Guide. Sarasota, FL: Pineapple Press, 2001.

Wynne, Nick. On This Day in Florida Civil War History. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2015.

Spanish-American War

Bean, Mabel C. Williams. My Service in the Spanish-American War, 1898. Jacksonville, FL: Historical Records Survey, 1937.

Florida Department of Military Affairs. Mobilization Lists Florida State Troops and Naval Militia, Spanish-American War 1898-1899. St. Augustine, FL: State Arsenal, [198-].

Knetsch Joe. Florida in the Spanish-American War. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2011. 

Knetsch, Joe. The War Spirit is Abroad in the Land: Tallahassee in the Spanish-American War of 1898. Tallahassee, FL: Tallahassee Historical Society, 2005.

Long, John Davis. The New American Navy. New York: The Outlook Company, 1903.

Ruple, Rodney S. The People of Florida and Spanish Cuba and Their Integrated and Complementary Historical Inter-Relationship From Prehistory up to the Spanish-American War of 1898. M.A. Thesis, California State University, 2000.

Shellings, William J. “The Role of Florida in the Spanish-American War, 1898.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Florida, 1958.

The Spanish-American War: The Events of the War Described by Eye Witnesses. Chicago: Herbert S. Stone and Co., 1899. 

Through the War by Camera: An Artfolio of Current Events, on Land and Sea, in the Spanish-American War of 1898. New York: Pearson Publishing Co., circa 1898.

Mexican Punitive Expedition

Miller, Roger G. “A Preliminary to War: The 1st Aero Squadron and the Mexican Punitive Expedition of 1916.” Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program, 2003.

Prieto, Julie Irene. The Mexican Expedition, 1916-1917. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, United States Army, 2016.

Stout, Joseph Allen. Border Conflict: Villistas, Carrancistas, and the Punitive Expedition, 1915-1920. Fort Worth, TX: Texas Christian University Press, 1999.

World War I

Cassanello, Robert. “Violence, Racial Etiquette, and African American Working-Class Infrapolitics in Jacksonville During World War I.” Florida Historical Quarterly 82.2 (2003): 155–169.

Davis, Fred H. “Leon County During the World War.” Tallahassee Historical Society Annual 3 (1937): 27–52. 

Florida Department of Military Affairs. Florida Fatal Casualties (All Services) World War I, World War II. St. Augustine, FL: Florida State Arsenal. 

Florida Department of Military Affairs. Florida Veterans of the First World War, All Services, 1917-1919. St. Augustine, FL: Florida State Arsenal. 

Florida Department of Military Affairs. Foreign Service Decoration, POWs, Citations: Floridians, World War I. St. Augustine, FL: Florida State Arsenal, 1991. 

Florida Department of Military Affairs. Summary Statistics: Florida Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, World War I. St. Augustine, FL: Florida State Arsenal, 1992. 

Florida Department of Military Affairs. World War I Mobilization Lists, 1st Florida, 1917. St. Augustine, FL: Florida State Arsenal. 

Flynt, J. Wayne. “Waging War and Peace in Florida.” Cracker Messiah: Governor Sidney J. Catts of Florida. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1977. 162–194. 

Gavin, Lettie. American Women in World War I. Niwot, CO: University Press of Colorado, 1997.

Ortiz, Paul. "Echoes of Emancipation: The Great War in Florida." Emancipation Betrayed: The Hidden History of Black Organizing and White Violence in Florida From Reconstruction to the Bloody Election of 1920. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005. 142-170. 

Pearce, George F. “The Air Station During World War I and the 1920s.” The U.S. Navy in Pensacola: From Sailing Ships to Naval Aviation, 1825-1930. Pensacola, FL: University Presses of Florida, 1980. 148–179.

Ripley, C. Peter. “Intervention and Reaction: Florida Newspapers and United States Entry into World War I.” Florida Historical Quarterly 49.3 (1971): 255–267.

World War II

Billinger, Robert D. Hitler’s Soldiers in the Sunshine State: German POWs in Florida. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2000.

Camp Blanding Report. Camp Blanding, FL, 1944.

Craft, Stephen G. Embry-Riddle at War: Aviation Training During World War II. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2009.

De Quesada, A. M. The Royal Air Force Over Florida. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 1998.

Dusenbery, Eric. Veteran Voices: WWII Veterans in Florida, a Photographic Essay. Orlando, FL: Dimensions Photography, 2003.

Evans, Jon S. Weathering the Storm: Florida Politics During the Administration of Spessard L. Holland in World War II. Ph.D. Dissertation, Florida State University, 2011.

Florida Department of Military Affairs. Camp Blanding, Florida: Three Unofficial Histories. St. Augustine, FL: Florida State Arsenal, 1988.

Florida Department of Military Affairs. Florida National Guard Killed or Died: World War II Biographical/Service Abstracts. St. Augustine, FL: Florida State Arsenal, 1988.

Florida Department of Military Affairs. Roster of Officers, Warrant Officers and Enlisted Men, Active and Inactive National Guard, Inducted into Active Military Service: World War II With the National Guard Units. St. Augustine, FL: Florida State Arsenal, 1988.

Gillis, Susan. Palm Beach County During World War II. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2015.

Latina/os and World War II: Mobility, Agency, and Ideology. Edited by Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez and B.V. Olguín. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2014.

Wynne, Lewis Nicholas. Florida at War. Saint Leo, FL: Saint Leo College Press, 1993.

Wynne, Nick. Florida in World War II: Flying Fortress. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2010.

Post-World War II

A Piece of My Heart: The Stories of 26 American Women who Served in Vietnam. Edited by Keith Walker. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1986.

Florida Department of Military Affairs. 159th Fighter Bomber Squadron, Florida Air National Guard: 1951-1952. St. Augustine, FL: State Arsenal, circa 1988.

Florida Department of Military Affairs. Florida Fatal Casualties (All Services) Korean and Vietnam Wars. St. Augustine, FL: State Arsenal.

Florida Department of Military Affairs. Florida National Guard Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm: Selected Unofficial Documents and Media Reports. St. Augustine, FL: State Arsenal.

Nardo, Don. The Persian Gulf War. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books, circa 1991.

Natty, Bernard C. Long Passage to Korea: Black Sailors and the Integration of the U.S. Navy. Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy: For Sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 2003.

Phillips, Kimberly L. War! What Is It Good For?: Black Freedom Struggles and the U.S. Military from World War II to Iraq. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, circa 2012.

Rid, Thomas. War and Media Operations: The U.S. Military and the Press From Vietnam to Iraq. New York, NY: Routledge, 2007.

Smith, R.B. An International History of the Vietnam War. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1983.

Whelan, Richard. Drawing the Line: The Korean War, 1950-1953. Boston: Little, Brown, circa 1990.

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