Page 112 - a-history-of-columbia-county-florida-(1996)-edward-f-keuchel

A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 101/340

Events of the Civil War
Lieutenant Bull was in the drawing room of the Cathey House
on North Marion Street in Lake City waiting for a table for dinner
when Pickett burst into the room with a pistol in one hand and a
cow-hide whip in the other hand. He cursed the officer and told
him he had come to get satisfaction for being forced off the train.
When Pickett raised his whip, Lieutenant Bull grabbed his chair as
a weapon since he was unarmed. Pickett then shot him five times
and kicked the body before walking out and riding his horse back
to his plantation at White House.29
Pickett was arrested and ordered to be tried in a military
court in Lake City. The trial was never held. Pickett was able to
delay proceedings by hiring a civilian attorney and claiming that
he had been personally insulted. The Florida troops in Dunham’s
battery, meanwhile, went on to the war in Tennessee.30
For the most part events in Columbia County during the war
followed other “home front,” non-combat areas. As clothing was in
short supply old spinning wheels were brought out of storage and
put into use to make cotton or wool knitting yarn. Slaves too old for
the field were used to knit the yarn into socks for military and
civilian use. Wood looms were constructed to produce cotton and
woolen cloth. By the end of 1862 many households, large and small
alike, were involved in some aspect of clothing manufacturing.
Ladies’ sewing societies performed herculean efforts in meeting
clothing requests by the military and received special recognition
from Governor Milton.31
Some goods were still brought in from England, but running
the Union blockade was a hazardous enterprise. The Suwannee
River was one landing area for blockade runners. If they could
evade the Federal warships in the Gulf in the Cedar Key area the
blockade runners would move up the Suwannee and unload in the

*>Ibid.
™Ibid., pp. 72-74; Robertson, Soldiers of Florida, pp. 303-07.
31 Johns, Civil War in Florida, pp. 170-71.
99

www.LakeCityHistory.com LCH-UUID: 02905885-C4E0-4A35-9DAE-804ED8349EC9