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Dinner with Mrs. Grace
On Saturday, September 22, 2007, at 09:00 am, members of the Theophilus West Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans dedicated a new memorial in Marianna to soldiers who served in Jackson County during the War Between the States. The ceremony recalled, in part, the Battle of Marianna where local men and boys from throughout the county tried to hold back attacking Union troops.
While many area residents have at least heard of the battle at Marianna, few
are aware of a fascinating series of events that took place in northwestern
Jackson County at the same time.
The
Union soldiers who fought at Marianna came from Pensacola, riding overland
on horseback in what is now known to have been the deepest penetration of
Florida by Northern troops during the entire war. On their way to attack
Marianna, they passed just south of what is now Graceville. Having crossed
the Choctawhatchee River on September 25, 1864, they splashed across Holmes
Creek near today’s Tri-County Airport the next day. Pushing up the road to
Campbellton, they did as much damage as they could to homes and farms along
the way.
The
stated purpose of this was to destroy anything that might be used to support
the Confederate army. In reality, much of what was destroyed was material
that local families depended on for their survival. At the Nelson Watford
farm south of Graceville, for example, they destroyed hay, killed livestock
and even poured molasses out onto the ground. The same scene was enacted at
numerous other homes along their route.
The
city of Graceville had not yet been founded, but one of the homes targeted
by the soldiers was that of Captain Henry Grace. One of the men who later
founded Graceville, Captain Grace then lived on the road followed by the
Union troops. He was away in the army then, but his wife and father-in-law
were home when the Union troops passed through. Although food and other
items were taken or destroyed, the family members were not harmed and the
soldiers soon moved on, proceeding to Campbellton where they briefly battled
the local “Home Guard” before camping for the night. The next day, September
27, 1864, they rode on to Marianna.
While the Battle of Marianna was underway, however, a second group of
soldiers came across Holmes Creek and started up the road to Campbellton.
They were dressed in Confederate uniforms and their leader, a man with dark
hair and a strange accent, introduced himself as “Lieutenant Clark.” They
reached the home of Captain Grace and were invited in to dinner.
“Lieutenant Clark” told Mrs. Grace and her father that he was a member of
the 15th Confederate Cavalry and was on the trail of the
“Yankees.” Their story seemed strange, but the family went along with it.
They treated the visitors with courtesy, giving them a good dose of Southern
hospitality and even told them that a sick Union soldier could be found in
bed at the next house up the road. Stunned by this news, “Lieutenant Clark”
and his men quickly mounted up and rode to the next house to capture this
unfortunate “Yankee.”
In reality, “Lieutenant Clark” was
neither a lieutenant nor a Confederate. He was actually Lieutenant Colonel
Andrew B. Spurling of the 2nd Maine Cavalry, part of the Union
force that had come from Pensacola to attack Marianna.
While in Walton County, the raiders had attacked a small camp of Confederate
cavalrymen hoping to capture them before they could get away and alert the
countryside. The attack went well, but a few of the Southerners escaped.
Believing they had taken the road up the west side of the Choctawhatchee
River to Geneva, Alabama, Spurling and some of his men confiscated the
Confederate uniforms of the prisoners they had taken in Walton County.
Disguising themselves as Southern soldiers from the 15th
Confederate Cavalry, they rode to Geneva hoping to capture the Confederates
who had escaped them. They reached the town and spent a day and night there
enjoying the hospitality of the local citizens. One member of the group
wrote to his hometown newspaper in Maine that they enjoyed meeting the
ladies of the Geneva and making gentlemen friends. They even accepted
invitations to come back for a hunting expedition after the war.
Finally deciding that the missing Confederates weren’t coming, however,
Colonel Spurling decided he had best catch up with the rest of the Union
troops and headed back across the line into Florida. In Holmes County they
learned that the Northern soldiers had already crossed the Choctawhatchee on
their way to Marianna, so they followed along their path. After stopping for
the night at the home of Bethel Mattox in eastern Holmes County, they
crossed the creek into Jackson County and arrived at the Grace home in time
for dinner.
After being told there was a sick Union soldier at the next house up the
road, they quickly moved on to “capture” him. The soldier had become ill and
was left in the care of a local family. He was probably already dreading the
thought of spending the rest of the war in a Confederate prison when he
looked up and was shocked to see his commander walk through the door, decked
out in the gray uniform of a Confederate officer.
The
soldier who described the bizarre little expedition in a letter to his
hometown newspaper remembered that the sick soldier was so stunned to see
his comrades that he almost gave away their identities to the local
residents by profusely apologizing to Colonel Spurling for being there in
the first place.
Quickly quieting him, they placed him in the back of a “borrowed” wagon and
headed out for Marianna. They arrived too late to participate in the battle
there, but succeeded in rejoining the rest of the Union force. They seem to
have had an enjoyable time telling the story of their adventure and probably
went to their graves believing they had pulled off a great trick on the
Southern families they visited. They could not have known, however, that
their disguises hadn’t really worked.
For
years a small group of families in Northwest Jackson County has told the
story of how, while the Battle of Marianna was underway, a dozen or so
“Yankees” passed by, wearing Confederate uniforms and pretending to be
Southern soldiers. Their phony accents gave them away. But, since most of
the men of the neighborhood had gone to Marianna to fight, there wasn’t much
that could be done about them. So the people were polite, gave them some
food and sent them on their way.
Editor’s Note: Writer and historian Dale Cox is a native of the Jackson
County community of Two Egg. The son of Clinton and Pearl Cox, he attended
Malone High School and Chipola College before beginning a twenty-five year
career as a journalist and newsroom manager. He recently retired from The
New York Times Company. He is the author of the new book,
The Battle of Marianna, Florida,
and divides his time between the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas and the piney
woods of Jackson County.
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Theophilus West, M.D. Camp No. 1346 © 2007 | All Rights Reserved |
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