Joshism
Captain
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2012
- Location
- Jupiter, FL
"This Suwannee country has always borne a hard name. . . . During the [Civil] war it was a favorite retreat for Confederate deserters. Its inhabitants defied the conscription. They virtually seceded from the Confederacy, and ravaged adjacent territory with impunity. They had repeated raids into Madison county, Georgia [sic]*, murdering and plundering the inhabitants without mercy. So outrageous was their depredations that the rebel government was compelled to send an expedition to punish them. It was commanded by Col. Canfield, a brave South Carolina soldier. He swept the district with fire and sword. Drumhead courts-martial met almost hourly. Over a score of the most notorious desperadoes were hanged, and the country was restored to law and order. Canfield's name, however, became a terror to the inhabitants, and to this day they curse him as bitterly as the Irish curse Cromwell."
-Amos Jay Cummings aka Ziska in the New York Sun on June 4, 1874 (reprinted in Frolicking Bears, Wet Vultures, and Other Oddities pgs 184-185).
* Madison County, Georgia is next to Athens, far from Florida. Cummings surely means Madison County, Florida which borders the Suwanee River on its east side and Lafayette County on part of its south side.
The accompanying annotation (Frolicking Bears pg 264):
"In a newspaper article apparently from the Mayo Free Press [Mayo is the seat of Lafayette County] entitled 'Lafayette County History, Seven of a Series' author Holmes M. Melton Jr., quoting from the diary of a soldier living in the Suwanee country, writes that the raiders were led by Major Campfield from Alabama." Melton's articles were subsequently published in 1974 as Lafayette County: History and Heritage (a short booklet).
Can anyone shed further light on anti-Confederate resistance in Lafayette County and/or the Suwannee River valley of Florida? Cummings' second- or third-hand stories tend to be of dubious reliability so I'm not sure how much fire is behind the smoke here.
-Amos Jay Cummings aka Ziska in the New York Sun on June 4, 1874 (reprinted in Frolicking Bears, Wet Vultures, and Other Oddities pgs 184-185).
* Madison County, Georgia is next to Athens, far from Florida. Cummings surely means Madison County, Florida which borders the Suwanee River on its east side and Lafayette County on part of its south side.
The accompanying annotation (Frolicking Bears pg 264):
"In a newspaper article apparently from the Mayo Free Press [Mayo is the seat of Lafayette County] entitled 'Lafayette County History, Seven of a Series' author Holmes M. Melton Jr., quoting from the diary of a soldier living in the Suwanee country, writes that the raiders were led by Major Campfield from Alabama." Melton's articles were subsequently published in 1974 as Lafayette County: History and Heritage (a short booklet).
Can anyone shed further light on anti-Confederate resistance in Lafayette County and/or the Suwannee River valley of Florida? Cummings' second- or third-hand stories tend to be of dubious reliability so I'm not sure how much fire is behind the smoke here.