Manatee County played key roles in Civil War

April is a month full of Civil War history. The first shots of the war were fired in South Carolina on April 12, 1861. General Lee surrendered the last major Confederate army in Virginia on April 9, 1865. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865.

In honor of April’s ties to the war, Manatee Village Historical Park will host a talk on April 20 by journalist Jim Robison about the Lincoln assassination conspiracy. This may seem like an unrelated topic for a Florida history museum, but the conspirator tasked with killing the Secretary of State was a Florida Confederate infantryman.

Florida Confederate infantryman Lewis Thornton Powell conspired with John Wilkes Booth and others to assassinate leaders in the United States government. Powell was tasked with killing Secretary of State William H. Seward, who survived the attack. Powell was executed in Washington in 1865 alongside other captured conspirators.

Despite that Florida is not often thought of as a key state in the Civil War, it did play a role. Manatee County, in fact, has a Civil War history. Here are five brief highlights from the county.

Florida’s secession from the Union

Florida was the third state to secede. South Carolina seceded on Dec. 20, 1860, followed by Mississippi on Jan. 9, 1861, and then Florida on Jan. 10. One of the founding members of the Village of Manatee, Ezekiel Glazier, was part of this decision.

Florida Gov. Madison Perry called for a convention in Tallahassee to decide the question of secession. Ezekiel Glazier and 68 other delegates attended. Debates were heated and went on for several days. Florida was a divided state. Northern transplants were loyal to the Union, while native southerners were sympathetic to the Confederacy.

Ezekiel Glazier had moved from Massachusetts and was an abolitionist. He did, however, eventually vote in favor of secession. There were a total of 62 votes in favor and seven votes in opposition.

Glazier is buried in the 1850 Manatee Burying Ground at Manatee Village Historical Park. Other members of the convention are also buried here, including James Gignilliat Cooper, a large plantation owner who voted in favor of secession, and John Cooper Pelot, who was chairman pro tem of the Secession Convention.

Becoming Confederate Troops

The Confederate States of America formed in February 1861, and the first call for Florida troops came in March. Ten volunteer companies organized as the Fourth Florida Regiment, including Company K of Manatee County under John T. Lesley. Men from around the county joined, among them Hiram McLeod, the assistant lighthouse keeper of Shaw’s Point. Company K was assigned duty in Tampa.

Supplying Confederate Troops

Florida’s key role in the Civil War was supplying goods to Confederate troops. Florida’s best cattle country was Manatee County, which at the time extended from Tampa Bay to Charlotte Harbor to Lake Okeechobee. The Confederate “Cowboy Cavalry” drove cattle north to supply troops. Legendary cow hunter Jacob Summerlin, “King of the Crackers,” supplied an estimated 25,000 head between 1861 and 1863.

Blockade Running

Florida was strategic to the Union because closing the state’s ports would isolate the South from trade with foreign allies. Confederate blockade runners smuggled goods past the Union’s Gulf Blockading Squadron; for example, Archibald McNeill, who lived in Gamble Mansion, smuggled sugar and other goods to Confederate troops.

Egmont Key was strategic in this area. The Union Army used the island as a lookout for blockade runners. The lighthouse keeper, George Richards, smuggled out the lighthouse’s lens and other machinery pieces shortly after Union occupation, disrupting their ability to see Confederate blockade runners.

Judah B. Benjamin

At the end of the war, Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin fled. Leroy Lesley, John T. Lesley’s father, had raised a company, as well. Lesley assisted blockade runners and drove cattle. He accompanied Benjamin through Hernando, Hillsborough and Manatee counties. He arranged for Benjamin to stay with McNeill at Gamble Mansion. McNeill arranged for the Egmont Lighthouse Keeper, Frederick Tresca, to ferry Benjamin to the Bahamas.

These are just brief highlights of the Civil War in Manatee County. To learn more, read “Edge of Wilderness” by Janet Snyder Matthews.

This story was originally published April 12, 2017 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Manatee County played key roles in Civil War."