Fenigan's Florida Brigade

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https://www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2019/04/author-interview-caroline-janney/

This is from a longer interview with Caroline Janney who is exploring and writing about what happened to Federals and Confederate soldiers immediately after Appomatox when everyone started to go home. I had never heard of Fenigan's Florida Brigade before. I can't say I'm surprised by the behavior but I had never heard of it. Can anyone speak to these incidents? Or to the interview? Agree or disagree with her?

You offer some fascinating stories of specific soldiers and regiments, including one that highlights how racial tensions between Confederate parolees and USCT soldiers escalated in the war’s immediate aftermath. What happened with Fenigan’s Florida brigade, and what makes that story significant?

After receiving their paroles at Appomattox, several members of Fenigan’s Brigade made their way to City Point where they hoped to take a steamer south to Florida. While waiting for a ship, they embarked on what would be the first of several murders of United States Colored Troops during their trip home. Each time, they managed to avoid getting caught. I argue that these murders underscored the degree to which wartime atrocities by Confederates against the USCT continued after April 9, 1865. The Confederate army had often disregarded and, in numerous instances, sanctioned the killing of African American soldiers. It should therefore come as no surprise that even after surrendering, these rebel soldiers continued to behave as they had prior to Appomattox.
 
Florida was represented in the Army of Northern Virginia for most of the War by a small brigade composed of the 2nd, 5th and 8th Florida regiments. They were commanded by BG Edward A. Perry. Perry was incapacitated by wounds suffered in the Battle of the Wilderness in May, 1864, shortly before the Florida Brigade was reinforced with the addition of the 9th, 10th and 11th Florida regiments and their commander BG Joseph Finegan (note spelling). Finegan remained in command until mid-March 1865 when he was transferred back to Florida. Colonel Thomas W. Brevard was place in command and promoted to BG, a position he held for about two weeks when he was captured at Sailor's Creek. Colonel David Lang who had commanded the brigade at Gettysburg while Perry was suffering with typhoid fever, surrendered the remains of the brigade (about 460 men) at Appomattox.

Edit: Changed mid-March 1864 to mid-March 1865.
 
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I like how she mentions several soldiers and then makes it sound commonplace. As we all know a few soldiers is not an entire company, regiment, or brigade. She should be ashamed of herself for this pathetic attempt at smearing an entire group of men for the sins of a few.
 
Yeah they couldn't even spell his name right in the article. To add to what ErneiMac posted the brigade was better known as Perry's Brigade or simply the Florida Brigade. Finegan wasn't their brigade commander for too long. He brought fresh troops up from Florida for the Overland Campaign that he had led at the Battle of Olustee to reinforce the existing brigade consisting of the 2nd, 5th, and 8th Fl. which had been with the ANV since 62. His fresh troops became the 9th, 10th, and 11th Fl.
 
@ErnieMac I appreciate you correcting the spelling. I didn't get a chance yesterday (on my phone) to say that. I do feel bad when a scholar doesn't get the spelling right because then it makes me wonder, unfortunately, how much else is right (or wrong) with the article. But can someone speak to the murders/hostility they felt to the USCT troops? That's unfortunate that they carried on with that.
 
I like how she mentions several soldiers and then makes it sound commonplace. As we all know a few soldiers is not an entire company, regiment, or brigade. She should be ashamed of herself for this pathetic attempt at smearing an entire group of men for the sins of a few.

I'm sorry @Greywolf, I didn't see your post before I posted mine. Yes, I thought it sounded like the entire company were killing USCT troops on their way back to Florida and that's what was bothering me and I wanted to know more about that. Not that it makes the other right but I didn't understand (from the article) if it was a few renegades venting their spleen or was a company wide thing and how that was allowed.
 
@ErnieMac I appreciate you correcting the spelling. I didn't get a chance yesterday (on my phone) to say that. I do feel bad when a scholar doesn't get the spelling right because then it makes me wonder, unfortunately, how much else is right (or wrong) with the article. But can someone speak to the murders/hostility they felt to the USCT troops? That's unfortunate that they carried on with that.
I understand the fact that typo's occur. What bothers me is when the error occurs when describing the central premise of the author's arguments. That makes me wonder, as you put it so well, about the quality of the remainder of the work. Without access to the publication I have no way to evaluate further.

I think the main premise of the article is that Grant's lenient terms contributed to the idea the Confederates had not been defeated, but overwhelmed by superior quantities of men and supplies. I would state that IMO the Appomattox terms reinforced an opinion that existed in the Army of Northern Virginia for most of the War. Lee, Longstreet and Jackson had built an esprit de corps in that Army that caused the soldiers to think they were invincible in a fair fight. If they lost there had to be other reasons. Jubal Early and the others who espoused the "Lost Cause" did not invent the idea, they verbalized what most of the soldiers had been thinking for years.

With regard to the murder of the USCT soldiers, this again is not surprising. There were all too many cases of black troops being murdered by their captors after they surrendered. If you read accounts about USCT troops stationed in the South during reconstruction you will find accounts of some of them being murdered and the murderers, when identified, never being held to account. It's an unfortunately sad part of our history, but considering how blacks were viewed in the antebellum South why would one expect those views to change in the aftermath of Appomattox. I view the crimes described in Janney's article as being symptomatic of the environment in the U.S. at the time, not something specific to Finegan's Brigade or Florida troops.
 
Excellent post @ErnieMac, thank you! Did that attitude, about "being invincible in a fair fight" only apply to the Army of Northern Virginia?
 
Excellent post @ErnieMac, thank you! Did that attitude, about "being invincible in a fair fight" only apply to the Army of Northern Virginia?
I can't say for certain, but I think it only applied to Army of Northern Virginia. The western armies didn't have a track record of victory that the ANV had nor were most of their leaders able to inspire that spirit in their commands or a record of more that an occasional victory (think Bragg, Kirby Smith, Pemberton, Hood). Richard Taylor - possibly in the corps in he commanded in the Trans-Mississippi. Joseph Johnston had the personality to build that kind of spirit, but his tenure in command of the Army of Tennessee resulted in the retreat of that army from Dalton to the outskirts of Atlanta.
 
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