Florida's Militia and State Troops 1865 - 1898

In Florida the post-Civil War period began inauspiciously. Martial law had been declared. Federal troops were in widely scattered garrisons around the state; there was considerable political chaos and bands of outlaws infested the countryside. Early attempts to establish a state militia by former Confederate military and political leaders was disallowed by presidential and congressional Reconstruction authorities. It was to be an era of economic expansion, the "Guilded Age", dominated by state governments with no interest in the military and even less for appropriating money for military expenditures. By 1898, however, in spite of parsimonious periodic assistance from the state, Florida would have an all-volunteer militia system comprising 20 companies, each moderately well armed, uniformed, and drilled. Although lacking the field training necessary to perform a national military role, these units were already successful as keepers of domestic peace. They had performed very well on those occasions when called upon to intercede in civil disturbances. This, considering the circumstances of the era, was a quite remarkable achievement.

In 1866 a new and, as it proved, temporary government in Florida passed a new state militia law. It was virtually identical to pre-war laws, establishing an enrolled militia system which recognized volunteer units. The militia was to arm itself and reinstitute the rural patrols of the pre-war era. The law made no provision for blacks in the state and was controlled by former Confederate military and political leaders. It was totally unacceptable to the national government. Congress refused to recognize Florida’s elected officials as most were former Confederates. Congress had other plans for the Southern states. The Reconstruction Era was about to begin, and in Florida, it would last until 1876.

In 1868, Florida’s politicians finally managed to organize a government based on a constitution acceptable to Washington. In that same year, the new Florida legislature passed a new militia bill. As in the past, this new bill continued to reflect the national Militia Act of 1792. This identified the militia as the aggregate total of all male citizens of the appropriate ages, black or white, as the enrolled militia. Under Florida law, the enrolled militia was to form companies under officers appointed by the governor. These enrolled militia companies, once organized, were to hold periodic drills and could be equipped by the state on the rare chance the state legislature would provide funds. It rarely did. The law also allowed the formation of volunteer militia companies and extended them access to such state and federal monies as might become available. In practice, the volunteer companies received most of the allotted money and equipment, and were to be called to active duty first in instances of civil disturbances. All militiamen on state active duty were to receive the same pay as regular soldiers. Finally, should a volunteer unit be understrength when called to active duty, additional men could be drafted from the enrolled militia.

The new law was an important first step toward the establishment of a modern state militia in Florida. Unfortunately, for most of the period preceding the Spanish-American War, the Florida state legislature proved quite unwilling to provide adequate funds for the development of the militia. Prior to 1887, annual military expenditures averaged just over $1,000 a year. That was not much, even then. As a result, very little was accomplished toward organizing the enrolled militia. Local enrolled militia officers rarely performed any useful militia function, apparently quite satisfied with the uniform and social prestige attendant to their rank. Without adequate state support, and with an unenthusiastic general population, the enrolled militia was never truly organized. With few exceptions, the units formally associated with the enrolled militia never became functional. Lists were kept and periodically updated but in practice, the volunteer militia units assumed the state’s military burdens. The enrolled militia would eventually evolve into the selective service manpower pool.

Efforts to create an effective state militia began to show results in 1870 after Adjutant General A.G. Varnum placed attractive ads in newspapers around the state. His advertising campaign, and the fact that Varnum actually had some muskets to distribute, led to the establishment of more then two dozen new volunteer militia companies.

Varnum shifted all his efforts, and such equipment as he had, in supporting volunteer units while ignoring the official enrolled militia. This, too, was the attitude of the federal government. In 1873, the national government decided to increase its aid to all state militias, especially volunteer, and for the first time, included the former Confederate states in their plans. To ensure all new volunteer units were capable of performing their militia roll, Varnum insisted that new units have a suitable armory, uniforms, and be will drilled in the school of the soldier before he would authorize the issuance of weapons and official state recognition.

Florida’s Adjutant Generals had a difficult job. Not only were they directors of the state’s military establishment, they were also in charge of the coastal quarantine and the state’s prison and insane asylum. The state legislature’s reluctance to spend money on military development made efforts to create an effective force quite difficult. Members of militia units had to provide their own uniforms and equipment, received no pay for drill, and, frequently, none for active state duty. That the Adjutant Generals were able to create a state military force at all is a credit to their dedication and to the sense of public duty among the men who volunteered for militia service.

In 1879, Adjutant General J.J. Dickison, former Florida Confederate Cavalry leader, reported that the state had two divisions of enrolled militia. Based on the 1874 and 1876 surveys, the enrolled militia listed 32,775 men, black and white. (Under the Reconstruction Constitution, blacks were counted in the enrolled militia and were eligible for service in volunteer units. Volunteer units were not forced to accept them. Blacks could, and did, form their own volunteer companies but received little encouragement and virtually no funding or equipment from the state.) In addition, the state military establishment contained 26 companies of volunteer infantry, four of cavalry, and a company of light artillery, all equipped and drilled. In 1880, the federal government greatly increased its aid to state militia organizations. This aid wasn’t much by modern standards, but entirely welcome in Florida where state support remained almost nonexistent.

In 1885 Florida got a new constitution. The following year, Adjutant General David Lang, he who had led the Florida Brigade at Gettysburg, asked the legislature for changes in the militia law and increased funding to support summer training encampments. Surprisingly, the legislature responded favorably. The new law provided U.S. Army pay scales for militiamen on active duty, instituted modifications in the regulations governing officer appointments, established tougher administrative controls and procedures over militia units, and established the Florida State Troops as the official state military force. This force was composed of all recognized volunteer units and a few enrolled units that had managed to become truly organized, drilled, and equipped. All other militia units in the state no longer had official standing and their members were encouraged to join units of the Florida State Troops.

The new law, and the modest appropriations that came with it, allowed for summer training camps for all state troops. The need for formal training encampments had been obvious for years. Unofficially, some volunteer units had been holding summer encampments since 1884. There were summer training encampments every year between 1886 and 1898, even during the two years when the state legislature provided no funds. The railroads provided transportation at reduced fares, later for free. Local citizens’ groups in the areas selected for training generally provided facilities, some food, even ice for hot summer days. The first official statewide summer encampment for the Florida State Troops at Pablo Beach in 1886 (today’s Jacksonville Beach) was a success- although the men were poorly uniformed and equipped and only moderately well drilled. They would get better, and soon.

The summer encampments, each only an average of five to nine days long, in addition to greatly increased federal aid, seem to be responsible for the rapid improvement in the proficiency and skill of Florida’s State Troops after 1891. Another major contribution was the presence and assistance given the troops by regular army instructors and inspectors during encampments. Unofficially, regular officers had attended every summer encampment since 1884, but only in 1896 and afterward was their position and function formally established and recognized. Summer encampments were devoted to basic training in normal close order drill, field craft, and some musketry. Usually, on the last day of the encampment, large-unit maneuvers were held and a mock battle staged for the entertainment of the local citizens and soldiers alike.

Between 1873 and 1897, Florida’s state military was called upon to perform active duty on 12 occasions. Most of these were to help protect jailed blacks, accused of murder, from unruly mobs bent on lynching. No one was lynched where the Florida State Troops guarded. On one occasion, in Jacksonville during July of 1892, local authorities waited almost too long before requesting military assistance. Seven full companies of state troops had to be deployed before the situation could be brought under control, but that was unusual. Generally, the mere presence of well disciplined and drilled troops was sufficient to quell, or at least prevent, most incidences of civil disturbance. For example, when a murder provoked a widespread violence in a transient labor camp at Titusville during July of 1892, the swift deployment of State Troops calmed the situation within hours.

Lynch mobs and rioters were not the only civil disturbance which required state troops during this period. Once, in 1894, troops were deployed to curb the illegal enthusiasm of a Duval county deputy sheriff trying to manipulate a local election, and twice troops were called on to intervene in labor disputes. In both these instances, at Fernandina in 1888, and Key West in 1889, the troops’ intervention prevented violence and their mediation helped settle the disputes. Since the Florida State Troops received no special training in riot control, were rarely paid for their stints on active duty, and frequently shared the bias of members of the mobs or strikers, their absolute devotion to duty and orders is a tribute to their individual honor and espirit de corps.

Between 1894 and 1898, the Florida State Troops came of age. It was not an easy passage. The state still refused to provide adequate funds for equipment, or pay for summer encampments, and contributed only $50 a year towards individual armory upkeep. During the same period, Adjutant General Patrick Houston asked the state legislature to provide more funds for training and to purchase a permanent state military campsite. He also wanted to adopt the regimental organizational system for the state troops and to change their name to the Florida National Guard. Further, he considered it reasonable and desirable to provide each volunteer a complete uniform at state expense for each three year enlistment. The legislature demurred on all requests except the uniforms, and then only in time for mobilization for the Spanish-American War. All the other requests would be granted in the next century.

Still, by 1897, with hard work and increased federal assistance, Florida’s soldiers had achieved a level of professional proficiency not seen in the state since the Civil War. One of the Regular Army inspector-instructors, Lieutenant Hunter Liggett, (a future commander of an American Army in France during the First World War,) could report that Florida’s soldiers were well drilled and disciplined, demonstrated great enthusiasm and espirit de corps, but were only satisfactory with regard to uniform and weapon maintenance and field sanitation. Surprisingly, for men from a rural state, Florida’s soldiers, although now armed with relatively modern breech-loading Springfield rifles, were accounted poor marksmen. However, since funds from the state allowed only 25 rounds of ammunition per man per year, perhaps this wasn’t surprising at all.

On the eve of the war with Spain, Florida’s soldiers were not ready to assume an active military role with the Regular Army. They had proven their ability to perform peacekeeping state active duty functions, and as a military formation , they were better than they had been in several decades, and were improving every year. But they were still lacking proper uniforms, equipment, and field training. What was needed was a new national militia law, increased funding, better organization, and perhaps, a spell of federal active duty to help them create a truly efficient, modern National Guard organization. Everything needed would come during the decade starting in 1898, and from this would emerge the modern Florida National Guard.