There were other wars which directly affected Florida's fate, and I am proud to say I had ancestors who fought battles in these previous conflicts. I don't know much about these conflicts, but I'll share a little of what I do know.

Many of my ancestors came to Florida from Virginia and the Carolinas. Henry Parrish and Solomon Osteen, ancestor and namesake of Solomon Osteen of the CSA 1st FL Special Cavalry and their friend Theophilus Weeks (unrelated to me directly) fought for the North Carolina Continental Line. Henry's father, Joel Parrish also fought in the Revolution for Virginia.

In early 1776, the Carolinas were in turmoil. Patriot rebels had burned Fort Johnston and the Royal Governor had been forced to flee to the safety of a British Warship. He spent most of his time there issuing edicts and exciting the local Loyalists. He gathered a force of Scottish Loyalists to resist the rebels and this army of Highland Scots set off to rally with the British forces in order to retake Lower Cape Fear for the crown.

The plan came to a halt February 27, 1776, when 1,600 Highlanders, bagpipes in tow,  met 1,000 dug in patriots, one of whom was Sol Osteen, at Moore's Creek Bridge.
I'm going to take a little more time to explain what "dug in" really meant in this instance. The patriots had anticipated the meeting and decided to make preparations. Many of the planks were removed from the Moore's Creek bridge, and then the entire bridge was greased with fat to make it nice and shiny for the guests of honor, oh, and a little slippery. They also used the woody terrain and natural cover to their advantage, and awaited the advance of the Loyalist Scotts. The veteran Loyalists marched forward during the night to "surprise" the patriots and came down  the road towards the bridge early the next morning. A cheer went out as they began to cross the bridge, but the cheers turned to cries as the Patriots rose from their cover and opened fire on the skirted Scotts. A fortunate few slipped from the greased bridge, falling into the creek with only broken bones. Those who managed to keep their feet were cut to ribbons, and those who escaped were rounded up in the days following and imprisoned. The first major battle of the Carolinas, in the Revolution, was won.

Over all, Sol spent a total of approximately 15 months in the service of the Army of North Carolina, and participated in other battles, i.e. the Battle of Crab Point, but he eventually paid a mercenary to take his place (an accepted practice of the time) and returned to his family and farm.

Sol eventually left the Carolinas and became one of the three first white men (Theophilus Weeks was one of the others) to settle his family in Alligator Town (now Lake City), FL. Incidentally, his home was not far from the site of the largest Civil War battle of Florida- Olustee.

 



Hesse-Kassel Jaeger Korps

Now here is another interesting bit for you to chew- not necessarily related to Florida history, but related to my Revolutionary ancestry in an unexpected way, and definitely worth the telling. It seems that my father’s ancestor Christian Martin originally came to the Americas on the side of the opposition. He was one of many Hessian mercenaries sent by Germany to assist the British in fighting the colonists. 

Christian Martin was born between 1757 and 1758 and came over with the Jaeger Corps from his home in Sand, Hesse-Kassel, Germany in late 1776 or early 1777. Most of the men in this unit were originally huntsmen and gamekeepers, and all were skilled men-at-arms. They were known as fierce fighting men with their unusual straight swords and short carbines, and often described as giants with fearsome rows of teeth by the colonists (i.e. the villain of the recent movie Sleepy Hollow was the ghost of a Hessian soldier, and seemingly created directly from this depiction). They were also known, as were the American patriots, for their raucous ways and heavy drinking. Now, the first of these reports can probably be attributed to the tall brass mitre caps/helmets worn by Hessian grenadiers. The standard uniform for the Hessian musketeer was the tricorn cap, or the more common fatigue hat (which looks very much like a green and red Santa Claus hat, even with a red puff ball at the point), but the tall brass caps seem to stand out in history now even as they did back then. The latter was an exaggeration by the ever-so-prim-and-proper, and ultimately professional British, who actually were one of the smartest looking and best-trained armies of the eighteenth century world.

Christian was wounded in September 1777---perhaps during the Battle of Brandywine, but we haven’t been able to nail that down---and deserted with several other hunters soon after the war’s end in May 1783, choosing to stay in America. He later began to use the more “American sounding” name “Christopher”-- after Christopher Columbus.

As an added note… Christian’s grandson, Christopher Columbus Martin, later served the Confederate States for the state of Missouri. How you like them apples?  

I have added the story of the Battle of Wahoo Swamp.  Please visit my new page, if you are interested!

 As I've said before, if you know anything that will help me with my little quest for knowledge here, please contact me. 

 

©Ty Starkey, 1998-2001