The Battle of Marianna, Florida

After receiving rather specific
information on the status of
Confederate defenses in Northwest
Florida, Brig. Gen. Alexander Asboth
outlined plans for an extensive raid in
a letter to superiors dated Sept. 12,
1864:

...I am to start a cavalry raid in the
northwest portion of West Floirda.... My
objective is to capture the isolated
rebel cavalry in Washington and
Jackson Counties, and to liberate the
Union prisoners confined at Marianna,
to collect white and colored recruits,
and secure as many horses and
mules as possible.

Asboth's intelligence regarding Union
prisoners at Marianna appears to
have been faulty, but the rest of his
information was remarkably detailed
and generally accurate.

Accordingly, he assembled a strike
force of 700 men consisting of three
battalions from the 2nd Maine
Cavalry, one battalion from the 1st
Florida U.S. Cavalry and two mounted
companies of picked infantrymen
from the 82nd and 86th U.S. Colored
Troops (79 men total).

With assistance from the steamer
Lizzie Davis, this force began
crossing Pensacola Bay to Deer Point
(present-day Gulf Breeze) on
September 16, 1864. Asboth himself
crossed over on the morning of the
18th and advanced that same day
with a portion of the command to
Rodger's Gap on the Narrows of
Santa Rosa Sound (near present-day
Mary Ester).

Here he waited for for the rest of the
command to come up and spent the
next day preparing for the inland
portion of the raid.

The Lizzie Davis, a former
Confederate blockade runner that had
been captured by the U.S. Navy,
shadowed the force as it moved east
along Santa Rosa Sound.

Establishing a temporary camp at Rodger's
Gap, Asboth offloaded supplies from the
Lizzie Davis and prepared to move inland
on the morning of the 20th.

His original plan, as outlined to superiors
on September 12th, called for a rapid
march inland from Point Washington on
Choctawhatchee Bay to Marianna - via
Vernon in Washington County - and then
back by way of the St. Andrews Bay
saltworks. At some point, however, he
altered this plan to expand the scope of his
movements.

His new plan called for an inland march on
the 20th via the old Ridge Road through
what is now Eglin Air Force Base in
Okaloosa and Walton Counties to the cattle
ranching areas along the Shoal River.
From there he planned to turn east into the
populated areas of Walton and Holmes
Counties, before crossing the
Choctawhatchee River at Cerrogordo and
advancing on Marianna from the northwest.

Such a line of march would allow his
troops to range over a much larger area
and would impact virtually all of
Confederate-held Northwest Florida. In
addition, an approach on Marianna from
the northwest would be unexpected and
might prove of strategic value.

Many of the men who would
oppose Asboth's raid had
seen earlier service in an odd
little affair called the "Calhoun
County War."

A long-standing dispute in
Calhoun County erupted in
gunfire during the fall of 1860
when a party of "regulators"
attacked and wounded
members of the Durden and
Musgrove families near the
Abes Springs community.
Other members of the two
families fought back and the
county was quickly plunged
into all out war. Circuit Judge
(and future Confederate
general) Jesse J. Finley
declared that an insurrection
was underway in the county
and ordered in the Jackson
County militia, headed by
Brig. Gen. William E.
Anderson. The militia
campaign was effective and a
number of prisoners were
taken.