On July 10, 2008, I, Spessard Stone, gave the following address to the DeSoto County Historical Society in Arcadia, Florida:

Thank you for inviting me to speak today. Although not a resident of Arcadia, I have a connection. I am a grandson of Rev. James Madison Hendry, commonly known as Boss Hendry. He was a cattleman, farmer, merchant and Baptist preacher. In 1883 he moved his sawmill from the New Zion community near present-day Ona to a place then known as Tater Hill Bluff or Waldron’s Landing, which he renamed Arcadia. My mother, 95, is his last surviving child.

Some years ago (November 1996) I wrote an article, “Tories of the Lower Peace River Valley,” for the Sunland Tribune of Tampa. Chapter 3, “Civil War In The Peace River Valley,” of my history, Hardee County Its Heritage and People, is an expanded version of that article. I will read extracts from it.

In 1860 Manatee County, which included today’s Manatee, Sarasota, Hardee, DeSoto, Highlands, Glades and Charlotte counties, had only 854 people. The families living in present-day Hardee and DeSoto counties numbered about 63 households, comprising about 300 whites and 20 slaves.

By April 1861, when the Civil War began, modern Hardee and DeSoto counties were populated largely by yeoman farmers, few of whom had slaves, although owning slaves did not preclude Union allegiance. Many had served in federalized companies during the Seminole wars and had a strong attachment to the national government. Most, however, appeared just not to want to be involved and "layed out" to tend their farms and cattle. Cattlemen, furthermore, had a financial incentive as the Union garrison at Fort Myers paid in gold, not worthless Confederate paper money. This state would be tried with the conscription acts of 1862, tested in the interval by actions of local Confederate agents and end with the conscription act of February 17, 1864.

Most citizens ardently supported the Confederacy in the war's early stages. The Bartow-organized Company E, 7th Florida Infantry was mustered in April 1862 with Nathan Snow Blount of Bartow as captain and John Wesley Whidden of Fort Hartsuff as 1st Lieutenant. Lower Peace River enlisted men included: David Brannon; Reuben and Wright Carlton, sons of Daniel Wilson Carlton; John W. and James M. Hendry, sons of Robert Hendry; William J. and Stephen P. Hooker, sons of Jane Elizabeth Smiley Hooker Parker and stepsons of John Parker; and their half-brother, Lewis H. Parker; William C. and David H. Platt, sons of John Platt; E. W. Thompson; Maxwell Whidden; John A., James W. and Nathan K. Williams, sons of Rowland Williams. William N. Hair enlisted on May 14, 1862 in Company E, 8th Florida Infantry.

Soon after being mustered in, the Seventh was sent to join the Army of Tennessee, with which they took part in all its campaigns, under General Braxton Bragg, General Joseph E. Johnston, and General John Bell Hood. John W. Whidden’s service provided a history of the company. He was promoted to the captain of Company E on June 2, 1863 after Capt. Blount became major of the 7th Florida Infantry. The company muster roll of April 30 to July 13, 1863 did not cite Co. E's location, but a clothing requisition by Capt. Whidden was received on July 8, 1863 at Knoxville, Tennessee. Captured on August 31, 1864 near Jonesboro, Georgia, he was exchanged by order of General W. T. Sherman at Rough and Ready, Georgia on September 19 or 22, 1864. On December 15-16, 1864, Union General George H. Thomas, at Nashville, attacked, crushed and drove south in retreat the Army of Tennessee, then commanded by General John Bell Hood.

Capt. Whidden was captured on December 16, 1864 at Nashville. Nearly 43 years later on October 8, 1907, James H. Murphy, a veteran of Co. F, 4th Florida, put it simply in an affidavit for Capt. Whidden's Confederate pension application, “The Yankees flanked us on all sides and captured Capt. Whidden, but I escaped." After temporary confinement at the military prison at Louisville, Kentucky, Capt. Whidden was transferred on December 20, 1864 as a prisoner of war to Johnson's Island, Ohio. After giving an oath of allegiance, Capt. Whidden was released on June 17, 1865 and returned to Fort Hartsuff. Optional: This is not included in the book, but after the war, John Wesley Whidden married Ellen Hendry, sister of Rev. Boss Hendry. In the early 1870s, they moved to Joshua Creek and later to Arcadia where Capt. Whidden was one of the founding fathers of Arcadia and DeSoto County. He was also a cattle king, state representative and senator and father of a prominent family here in Arcadia.

Continuing: In 1862 and 1863 four men serving in Co. E, 7th Florida from now Hardee County died. David Brannon, 31, died on July 5, 1862 at Atlanta, Georgia. David Hamilton Platt, 22-year-old son of John and Alice Platt, died about July 6, 1862 at Chattanooga, Tennessee. In 1863 the Hooker brothers, Private Stephen Poleman Hooker and 2nd Lt. William John Hooker, sons of Jane Elizabeth Smiley Hooker Parker and stepsons of John Parker, died. Stephen, 25, died on January 7, 1863 at Morristown, Tennessee. Survivors included his widow, Sallie Hooker, daughter of Alderman and Martha Maria Carlton, and his infant son, William Henry Hooker. Stephen left an estate, which included: 1 mare; 300 head of cattle, $2,100; 200 head of hogs, $400; cash, $395; notes, $1,125. William Hooker, 31, was killed while serving as 2nd lieutenant of Co. E., to which he had been promoted on November 28, 1863. Parker And Blount in Florida related: “William J. Hooker was killed in battle during the war. One story says that he was fighting side by side with Wright Carlton when he died. Wright later married William’s widow Charlotte. Another story relates that after he was shot, Capt. John Whidden got off his horse to give him a drink of water. William told the Captain he was dying. His last words were, ‘Tell Charlotte…’ but died before he could finish.” His widow, Charlotte would later marry on March 1, 1866 Wright Carlton.

For some the cow cavalries, which gathered and drove beef cattle north and acted as home guard units, offered an option of Confederate service. Capt. F. A. Hendry's Company A, Florida Special Cavalry, active since September 1863, drew into its ranks: William Green Collier, son of John Collier; William Smith of Fort Hartsuff; and from the Fort Meade area (all of whom later moved into now Hardee County): Albert J. Hendry, Eli English, Everett S. Parker and John L. Skipper. Fort Myers, which had been abandoned at the end of hostilities in 1858, was reoccupied by Union forces in January 1864 and used as a base to make raids into the interior to gather cattle and recruit men. Capt. Hendry later estimated that 4,500 head of cattle was taken. Hendry's Co., headquartered at Fort Meade, was credited with helping to turn the tide in Southwest Florida with Union troops and sympathizers no longer able to operate at will or with impunity. In December 1864, his company numbered 131 men. Major C. J. Munneryln, from Brooksville on December 10, 1864, wrote to Brig. Gen. Miller, Commander of the Dept. of Florida: “Capt. F. A. Hendrys Co is at Fort Meade. This Co is the most efficient of all. It has done active scouting & has so punished the enemy on several occasions that Cattle stealing from Fort Myers has been stopped. Capt Hendry is a most valuable Officer. I have detailed him from his Co & placed him in command at Brooksville. All the companies except the first two being subject to his authority."

Elected to the Manatee County Commission on November 9, 1863 were L. P. Johnson, John Henry Hollingsworth, Jesse Alderman of Fort Green and Henry Langford of Fort Hartsuff. Alderman and Langford deserted to the Union while Hollingsworth was believed to have been captured but later managed to resume his office. Also elected as a justice of the peace was James Dopson Green, who qualified on February 1, 1864.

On December 2, 1863, Enoch Daniel of the Charlotte Harbor area disembarked at Key West where he proceeded to engage in talks with federal officers to raise a volunteer force among refugees to conquer the country between Charlotte Harbor and Tampa Bay, a supplying area of beef cattle for the Confederate Army. General Daniel P. Woodbury was receptive and on December 14 informed the Federal commander at New Orleans that rebel army deserters and conscription evaders hiding in the woods between Charlotte Harbor and Lake Okeechobee were estimated from 200 to 800, many of whom would join if a military post was established in the area. He hence established the Florida Rangers with nineteen refugees in Key West.

Soon the Union men were back on the mainland. On December 17, a slightly supplemented troop under Lt. James F. Meyers of the 47th Pennsylvania, with Enoch Daniel as guide, proceeded to Useppa Island. Daniel with fifteen men thereafter moved inland to the Myakka River and Horse Creek, with a dispatch of four of the men to Fort Hartsuff. The mission was thwarted when six Rangers deserted and guided a Confederate attack which forced the Rangers to retreat offshore.

Union authorities were not dissuaded by the setback. On January 5, 1864, Gen. Woodbury was authorized to commission Henry A. Crane, then serving in the U.S. Navy and former publisher of the Tampa Herald and editor of the Florida Peninsular, as captain of the Second Florida Cavalry, heretofore the Florida Rangers. With the occupation of Fort Myers on January 10, the forcible removal of all inhabitants to the north side of the Peace River and repeal of the draft exemption for cattlemen on February 17, 1864, Union activity in the region intensified.

The enlistment of two prominent men, William McCullough and James Dopson Green, signified the changing of the status quo. McCullough, a veteran of the Seminole wars, had lived southwest of Fort Meade, but had laid out to avoid conscription before finally seeking refuge in Key West. On February 22, 1864, he was enlisted by Capt. Crane as 1st Lieutenant of Company A, Second Florida Cavalry. Green, whose home site in 1856 had become known as Fort Green, was the political leader of eastern Manatee County. He, subsequently, became 1st Lieutenant and Captain of Company B, Second Florida Cavalry. The new volunteers brought helpful information to Union officers. Green and William McClenithan of Fort Meade, on arriving at Fort Myers on March 10, 1864, informed Capt. Crane "That since the battle near Lake City, & great loss of provisions the Confederates were compelled to have cattle, and had stored supplies for that purpose at that point (Ft. Meade). That the forces or most of them had been ordered to Gainesville." Union Capt. Henry A. Crane, formerly of Tampa, on April 2, 1864, in recommending a commission for him, described James D. Green as having "the dash & daring necessary for a leader in this peculiar kind of warfare which is different from almost any other—nothing but skulking Guerrillas to encounter."

In response on March 13, Crane dispatched troops led by Green to Fort Meade where on March 21 they proceeded to the homesteads of Confederates Willoughby Tillis and Thomas Underhill where at the former they confiscated supplies and at the latter killed Thomas Underhill. A second raid with over 100 men was ordered by Capt. Crane, in which he in part instructed Actg. Lt. Green: "Let your whole energies be exerted to Capture (or kill if necessary)--Tillis, Parker, Henry, Summerlin, Durrance, Tillman, Boggess, & Seward, as these are the leaders of the Guerillas -- this being done, South Florida is ours...To those families who may wish to accompany you, advise them one & all to remain at home...I cannot tax our government further in receiving families...At Ft Meade you will know from our spies the true state of affairs in Tampa.--Old Capt. Mizzell will meet you there, & if he thinks you strong enough, move upon that point & capture it." The Fort Meade men “to Capture (or kill if necessary)” included: Willoughby Tillis, Streaty Parker, Francis A. Hendry, Jacob Summerlin, Francis M. Durrance, F. C. M. Boggess. On April 7 at Bowlegs Creek, Green and McCullough's troops skirmished with James McKay, Jr.'s forces, killing Confederates James Lanier and wounding Henry Prine, but the Union's drive to Fort Meade was checked. The departing Second Florida proceeded to the Willoughby Tillis' place where they seized supplies and then burned his homestead.

Green and McCullough's commands, thereafter, participated in the May 6-7 occupation of Tampa. The Confederate response to the Fort Meade incursions had been an order on May 11 to "drive the deserters and tories before you." Receiving intelligence of the mistreatment of Union families and to secure beef cattle, Capt. J. W. Childs of the 2nd U.S.C.T., with the advice of Capt. Crane and Capt. Green, ordered an attack at Fort Meade. A 212-man troop, with Capt. Green commanding 100 men of Co. A and the others, colored troops of companies D, G and I, crossed the Caloosahatchee River on May 14. After avoiding an ambuscade by crossing Peace River below the mouth of Bowlegs Creek, Capt. Green with fifty men went in advance and took possession of the fort without meeting any resistance on the night of May 18. Sixty mounted Confederates an hour later presented themselves, but retreated. After seizing considerable forage and supplies and destroying the barracks, the Second Florida left. Accompanying them included seven prisoners of war, seventy women and children and over one thousand head of beef cattle. Among the contraband were the slaves of the Crews family. They returned to Fort Myers on May 27. On May 26, 1864, Lt. Green received a provisional commission as Captain, 2nd Florida.

Representative of the refugees were two men from now Lily, John M. Bates and Thomas H. Albritton. Bates, who had two brothers, Robert J. Bates and Thomas L. Bates in the Confederate Army, to avoid Confederate conscription, had “laid out” in the woods before going with Nathan C. Platt to Fort M`1yers in 1864. There Bates was employed tending horses until Fort Myers was abandoned when he was sent to Sea Horse Key where his family joined him. He suffered losses in 1864 of 1 horse, 25 cattle and 100 hogs taken, respectively, by John Collins, Confederate agent, and William Collins. Albritton, who had opposed secession, after being threatened with death, had, about January 1865, sought protection at Fort Myers where he worked as a teamster in the Quartermaster Department. While gone, the Confederate authorities drove off his beef cattle, tore up his place and injured his orange trees. Other loyalists included Enoch E. Mizell and Henry Messer.

On June 18, 1864, Capt. Crane triumphantly wrote to Gen. Woodbury: "The intelligence from the interior is that the Rebs to the number of 150 are stationed near the Alafia River, having fallen back 25 miles from their former position, leaving all south of that River to our paternal care & affection. Small squads occasionally make raids towards us a few miles, and secure any one, whether friend or foe, for their special malediction. The last one was the person of the notorious “Jake Summerlin” the great cow-driver, Indian agent &c, & one who has done more for the confederates, & more injury to us, than any other in his position. They have actually driven him from his home, and threatened death & destruction to his family. This is as I would have it, & the poison works finely. Driven to desperation he will come to us. Another case is that of old Mr. Carlton, who drove his sons in the Rebel Army, with shouts of exultation. The Rebs have we hear, carried him off in Irons northward. One of his sons at home on furlough, seeing his father treated thus, came to us & I have the pleasure to-day of seeing him bear arms directly under our glorious old “Banner.” The Florida Cavalry are respected even by their bitterest enemy. To-day I shook hands with a man, who offered a $1,000, for a horse to meet me in battle, at Tampa last December -- his name is John Collier; he enters as a Soldier, under his old flag. In the ranks of our guard to-day stands the greatest Guerilla extant, “Frank Ivey” the despoiler of the whole Eastern Coast of Florida -- he is obedient, & I expect to make him a corporal.-- I feel an inward exquisite satisfaction in all this, without the smallest spark of resentment.

"Old Mr. Carlton" was Daniel Wilson Carlton (1823-1891) of Troublesome Creek whose family was illustrative of the changing status of the war. His sons, Reuben (1842-1917) and Wright (1843-1929) served in Co. E, 7th Fla. It was Reuben, home on furlough from Co. E, 7th Fla., who enlisted in Co. B, 2nd Fla. Cavalry. Wright served in Co. E until captured December 16, 1864 at Nashville and was a prisoner of war until released in June 1865. Albert Carlton (1845-1925), Daniel's third son, also served in Co. B, 2nd Fla. Cavalry. Martha Jane Carlton, Daniel's daughter, was married to James E. Whidden, another enlistee in Co. B, 2nd Fla. Cavalry. Daniel's brothers-in-law, Eli English and Stephen P. Hooker, respectively, served in Capt. F. A. Hendry's Co. and Co. E, 7th Fla., CSA.

This is not in my book, but Albert Carlton was the father of Governor Doyle E. Carlton, who served as Governor of Florida from 1929-33. His son, Doyle E. Carlton, Jr., served as State Senator and was runner-up to Farris Bryant for Governor in 1960.

Continuing: Joel J. Addison, Manatee County Sheriff, in July 1864 reported: "there is over half the Tax payers of this County gone to the Yankees and left no agent behind...one of our County Commissioners has gone to the Yankees two of the authers taken and Prisiners and disqualified from doing any business...we are in quite a critical situation in this County we dont know what day or hour the Tories will be on us and destroy all we got.. I think it would be a good idie for the Governor to appoint another County Commissioner in Jesse Alderman place." In March 1865, Addison bemoaned "the Yankees & Tories are strolling around trying to capture all level officers."

Those enlisting in the Second Florida Cavalry from December 1863 to March 1865 included from Fort Meade: Thomas J. Hilliard, Francis A. Ivey, William McClenithan Sr. and sons, Tobias, William, Jr. and Norman. Fort Green area enrollees included: Robert Hendry’s sons, James M., Charles F. and Robert C., and their cousin, Archibald W. Hendry. The Fort Hartsuff area enlisted: David J. W. Boney; John Collier’s sons, Calvin C. and John Collier Jr.; Dempsey D. Crews’ sons, William M. and Dempsey D. Jr.; William C. Hair’s sons, William N. and Streety A. Hair; Berryan Summerall; Edward Whidden, son of Maxfield Whidden; John L. Whidden; Willoughby Whidden’s sons, Maxwell, Jesse, James E. and William; Wade Hampton Whidden and his sons Charles H., David D., Dempsey N. and John H. From Troublesome Creek came: Daniel Wilson Carlton’s sons, Reuben and Albert, and from now Brownville, Simeon B. Williams. Lily was represented by Thomas H. Albritton’s sons, George W. and James A.; and the sons of John Platt, John W., Joshua A., Lewis B. and Nathan C.; and George C. Mizell at Horse Creek; Thomas Summeralls’ sons, Henry and Riley; and Thomas L. Thigpin from the Calvinia area on Horse Creek.

On July 1, 1864, 120 men of the 2nd Florida Cavalry and 120 men of the 2nd U.S. Colored Troops, under the command of Capt. J. W. Childs, embarked from Fort Myers, Florida for Bayport. Landing at Anclote Keys, they on July 7 encountered pickets, and skirmishing commenced. The Federals, occasionally skirmishing with Capt. Lesley's troops, proceeded into the interior where they halted one mile from Brooksville. On July 10, the U. S. forces raided the plantations of prominent Confederates David Hope, Aaron T. Frierson, William B. Hooker and Leroy G. Lesley. Later that evening Capt. John T. Lesley was wounded by friendly fire. Lt. William McCullough observed: "It was now about 10 at night, and everything fixed for a fight if the enemy dared to show themselves. The party that was on the road proved to be the old Capt. Lesley, as we learned from some ladies who came in to see their sons we had taken the second morning after landing at Anclote Keys. Young [Lesley], the old Captain's son came up, and his father taken him for one of the yankees, fired into him wounding his own son...” On July 11, the Union invaders reached Bayport. They then returned safely to Fort Myers. The Union forces then redirected their energies to a raid at Manatee in August.

Illness and then internal dissension developed between the white refugee families and colored troops. In late 1864, Capt. Green's military service abruptly ended with arrest and confinement after he and Lt. McCullough made charges against officers, including, Capt. J. W. Childs, during whose command Green charged occurred "gross corruption and mock marriages were celebrated, gambling encouraged, beef cattel driven in and sold for the benefit of the officers, the Refugees deprived of their rations, and supplied with unwholesome flour"; the quarter master of the post Capt. Ames "kept a harlot in the commissary, sold hides for his own benefit and shared in the fraud of the Ration Department”; the surgeon of the post Dr. Carroll "neglected the Refugee families in their sickness nor would allow other doctors to attend them." Capt. Green and Lt. McCullough were placed under arrest; the former for fifty days, the latter forty days. After agreeing to a compromise, Lt. McCullough was released and returned to command. After a board hearing failed to resolve Green's case, General Newton (who had succeeded General Woodbury in July 1864), after he learned that Green had only a provisional commission and had never been mustered, ordered the revocation of Green's commission, which was done. General Newton further ordered that Capt. Doyle of the 110th New York Regt. relieve Capt. Childs of the command of Fort Myers and gave him instructions to arrange a compromise between Green and Childs, but Green, wanting an official investigation, refused.

Meanwhile, the cow cavalry had reasserted the authority of the Confederates in the Peace River Valley. In February 1865, Major William Footman led the companies of Francis A. Hendry, John T. Lesley and Leroy G. Lesley to an ill-advised attack on Fort Myers. Beset by a rain-soaked country, the expedition managed to capture eight men outside the fort and kill a black sergeant, but a demand for surrender was rejected and, after a brief skirmish on February 20, the Confederates withdrew. Captain Doyle, who had relieved Captain Childs, reported: "Mr. J. D. Green, formerly connected with the Second Florida Cavalry, took his rifle and went into the ranks, and from his actions I have every reason to believe him to be a loyal man.”

Capt. Lesley succinctly noted: "On the trip to Fort Myers, Major Footman in command. Carried one big gun and four big, fine horses. Lot of trouble encountered getting down. Arrived at night. Think Billy Wall wanted to surprise them in an immediate attack. Footman refused saying, 'It would be a fair fight or no fight at all. Every man will be given a fair chance for his life.' Next morning a flag of truce exchanged and a demand for surrender. Federals replies, 'surrender when you make us.' He backed it all up. On return trip all gave out and the tremendious cannon waggon was abandoned at the flat ford on 6 mile Creek." Thereafter, a holding order prevailed until the South's surrender. Having learned of General Robert E. Lee’s surrender on April 9, 1865, Lt. F. C. M. Boggess, returning to his Fort Meade home from Brooksville, rode up to the residence of Capt. F. A. Hendry, who came out to meet him and asked the news. Lt, Boggess informed him he was a prisoner of war. Capt. Hendry exclaimed, “Thank God it is over with one way or the other.”