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| Florida Secedes |
Florida Secedes
| As the possibility of secession grew throughout the South, Florida had taken a particularly aggressive stance in the movement. When Governor William Gist of South Carolina asked the Southern states where they stood with regard to secession, Florida’s Governor Madison Starke Perry provided the most forceful answer. Perry assured Gist that Florida would “follow the lead of any single Cotton state” that deserted the U.S. and was “ready to wheel into line.”
In early January of 1861, Federal troops seized the arsenal at Apalachicola, as well as Fort Marion in St. Augustine. The Army was initially hesitant to provoke confrontations, but was forced to open fire on a group of Florida men who advanced on Fort Barrancas in Pensacola. The troops guarding this fort were then transferred to Fort Pickens on the day Florida left the Union, and refused to surrender under pressure from the state. A civil war was now inevitable. Mort Künstler painted this portrait of a cavalryman with the Florida state flag. |
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