5th, 8th, 9th FL Inf

My ancestor, Henry Joseph Hale, was the son of Benjamin and Martha Hale, early settlers of Leon County, FL. Benjamin was from North Carolina and apparently moved to South Carolina where he married Martha, a South Carolina native. It appears Ben was a widower and already had several children at the time of his marriage to Martha. Henry Joseph was the first child of this second marriage.

The War of Aggression began April of 1861 with the capture of Fort Sumter. Henry's military records indicate he enlisted 12/30/61 at Monticello. He was assigned to the 5th FL Infantry, Co A. On September 17, 1862, he was severely wounded at the Battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam) in Maryland. He was one of 11,000 Confederate and 12,500 Union casualties that day on Antietam Creek---making it the bloodiest day of the entire war. The wounded Henry was captured but was paroled eight days later and hospitalized. He was furloughed but returned to his unit late in '63.

The 5th FL Infantry spent early 1864 defending Virginia's hallowed soil from Grant and his army and participated in the Battle of Gettysburg. The two armies fought for days in the Wilderness and clashed again at Spotsylvania Courthouse, a tiny village at a vital crossroads on the way to Richmond. Here Henry was captured, May 12, 1864.

From Spotsylvania the captives were marched to Point Lookout, where they were held until July. They were then loaded in the hold of a government transport ship and taken to New York. From New York City, they traveled by train to Elmira Prison. Formerly a Union rendezvous camp built to shelter 3,000 soldiers, it had been converted to a prison for 5,000 by building a twelve-foot-high stockade fence around it. Ultimately, the "prison"- I prefer to call it a death camp- would be filled with over 10, 000 Confederate prisoners. "A more unsanitary spot could not have been chosen. A one-acre lagoon of stagnant water, a backwash from the river, stood within the stockade and soon gave rise to several epidemics." An Alabama soldier wrote after the war, "Elmira was nearer Hades than I thought any place could be made by human cruelty." ("The Scourge of Elmira" by James I. Robertson, from the book Civil War Prisons) The 24-32 percent death rate even exceeded that of the notorious, and much more publicized (thanks to Atlanta scalawag T. Turner) Andersonville.

Henry Joseph Hale died in Elmira Prison of chronic diarrhea September 20, 1864. He is buried there in the prison cemetery far, far from home.

- - By the way, most of the above, with the exception of my own flourishes, I plagiarized from a brilliant paper written by my dear mother. I wish I had the space to print the paper here in it's entirety, but unfortunately I don't.

(5th Florida Infantry flag captured at Gettysburg)

Another g-g-great grandfather of mine was William A. Horton, b. 1830, Darlington Co., South Carolina. Regrettably, at this moment, I don't have a lot of information to put here about him, but my parents just made a trip to Fredricksburg where they found quite a bit of info on him, his participation in the Battle of Gettysburg, and even found his burial site! He is not on the muster rolls, but we have his other records, and I am waiting to learn more. I know, like Henry, he was in the 5th Florida Infantry, Co. E, called the Milton Light Infantry, and he was killed at the Battle of the Wilderness, May 6, 1864. You will be able to read more about this Confederate martyr, when I have a more complete picture to paint here.

Paul Hatch, brother of the aforementioned Silas Hatch, was a member of the FL 8th Infantry Regiment, Com C. He was mustered in May 13, 1862 under Captain David Lang. The 8th FL had already participated in the 2nd Bull Run and soon after Paul's arrival, they fought at Antietam alongside the 5th FL, and following that they fought at Fredricksburg. By the summer of '63, Paul had been promoted to Corporal, and while attached to Anderson's (Brig. Gen. George T.T.) Division, in Longstreet's 1st Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, the 8th FL joined the fray at Chancellorsville.

July 3rd, of 1863, Paul's direct participation in the war ended at Gettysburg. The 8th FL Infantry had been reassigned to Lieutenant General A. P. Hill's 3rd Corps, this time in Major General R. H. Anderson's Division. The man who had promoted Paul had also been promoted. Now, Colonel David Lang was placed in charge of Perry's Brigade, which included the 2nd, 5th, and 8th FL Infantry regiments.
On the third day of battle, Lee ordered a frontal assault that would have to cover over 1000 yds. of open ground, with a force spread almost a mile wide. Major General George E. Pickett was to lead the southern wing of the attack, while Anderson's Division, comprised of Brigadier General Cadmus M. Wilcox's 8th-11th and 14th Alabama Infantry regiments and Colonel David Lang's 2nd, 5th, and 8th FL Infantry regiments were held back on Seminary Ridge as reinforcements at the far southwestern end of the battlefield.

Col. David Lang

Some accuse A.P. Hill of costing the Confederacy the battle by, among other things, not committing the two brigades at the same time as Pickett's men made their infamous charge. Robert E. Lee felt differently and totally absolved Hill of any wrong doing, but the fact remains the lack of the FL and AL brigades who were positioned to charge the flank of the Union position on Little Round Top, left Union Br. Gen. George J. Stannard, and his inexperienced Vermonters, free to massacre Kemper's Brigade on Pickett's southern flank. After Kemper himself had been severely wounded and the majority of his Virginians were captured or killed, Lang and Wilcox were sent in to reinforce the exhausted Virginians. The two brigades came in from their position near the Rose House, too far south to be of any help to Kemper's Brigade, which sent them straight past the Devil's Den, up the face of Little Round Top directly in front of Stannard's Vermonters. They were met with a hail of fire from mere yards away, and in a terrible yet brief exchange, three regiments of Florida infantrymen and five regiments of Alabamians were almost completely decimated. Paul was wounded in the fighting and captured, along with most of the remaining survivors of his company, as the Vermonters finally left their cover in the rocks and charged down on the battered Confederates. He was sent to Ft. Delaware military prison for the remainder of the war.

I must also mention that Paul's and Silas' brother-in-law, William Slaughter, had joined the FL 8th, Co. C, a couple days after Paul and had fought side by side with Paul throughout the war. I only wish I knew more of what happened that fateful Friday of July 3, 1863. What I do know is that Silas' and Paul's sister became a widow during that awful battle, and one more Cracker was buried in Northern soil, never to return to his beloved home.

Three famous, yet, unidentified
FL infantrymen captured at Gettysburg.

The 8th FL Infantry went on to fight in the Wilderness, at Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbour, and eventually joined the Petersburg Siege. They were at Appomatox in the end.

Paul and Silas eventually returned to their homes on the west coast of Florida, and the town of Hatch Bend is named for their family.