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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 93/340

Events of the Civil War
until he was busted to private. He was later promoted to second
lieutenant.12
The Fourth Florida Infantry Regiment was another group in
which Columbia County was well-represented. It was organized in
the spring of 1861 with ten companies of volunteers and went into
Confederate service on July 1, 1861. Edward Hopkins of Jackson­
ville served as colonel; M. Whit Smith, a 46 year-old Lake City
attorney, served as lieutenant colonel. Smith resigned when the
regiment was reorganized in May 1862. He moved to Jacksonville
and became the editor of the St. Johns Mirror. The Fourth Florida
Infantry served in Florida during the latter part of 1861. Company
D, a Columbia County group, was assigned at Tampa Bay while
other companies were garrisoned at Cedar Keys, St. Marks, and
Fernandina.13 *
The Fourth Florida Infantry fought their first major battle at
Nashville in the fall of 1862. In May of 1863 they assisted General
Johnson’s force in the attempt to relieve the siege of Vicksburg. On
September 20, 1863, they took part in the battle of Chickamauga,
one of the bloodiest battles of the war. The Fourth Florida fought
in the battle of Missionary Ridge late in the war. When the Fourth
Florida Infantry was organized its strength was 926 men and 47
officers. On April 26, 1865, when it surrendered, death, disease,
injuries, completion of enlistments, captures, and desertions had
thinned its ranks to 23 men. John P. Goodbread entered Company
D as fourth sergeant. He was elected to third Lieutenant on May
15, 1862, and was captured in the fighting around Nashville in
November 1862. He was imprisoned at Johnson’s Island, Ohio,

12 Robertson, Soldiers of Florida, pp. 99-118; Confederate Muster Rolls, Vol. I,
n.p.n.
13Robertson, Soldiers of Florida, pp. 118-19; Confederate Muster Rolls, Vo. I,
n.p.n.; Franklin A. Doty, ed., “The Civil War Letters of Augustus Henry Mathers,
Assistant Surgeon, Fourth Florida Regiment, C.S.A.,”Florida Historical Quarterly
36 (October, 1957), p. 14.

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