by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
Monday was Flag Day so the Rotary Club of Jacksonville started its program with two choruses of “It’s a Grand Old Flag” followed by “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
A few minutes later, Clayton Bromberg introduced fellow club member Tim Tyler’s presentation about the Florida Brigade during the Civil War with a rendition of “Dixie.”
Before the meeting, Tyler said he has been interested in the Civil War since he was a child. “My mother’s mother was who whetted my appetite for history and my parents kept reinforcing it,” he added.
Tyler said on Jan. 10, 1861, Florida became the third state to secede from the Union and then he shared the story behind the Florida Brigade, particularly the unit’s actions in the Battle of Gettysburg.
Tyler said state brigades were established by President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis and three were started in Florida with about 900 men. By the end of the Civil War, their ranks had diminished greatly.
The Florida Brigade marched out of the state on June 14, 1863, and arrived in Pennsylvania 12 days later. “Before the Florida boys arrived at Gettysburg, there had already been 16,000 casualties,” he said, in what he described as “the greatest battle ever fought on the North American continent.”
About 4 p.m. on July 2, a wave of two divisions of Confederate infantry “piled into Union forces,” said Tyler. “The Florida Brigade was under heavy artillery fire while covering 650 yards of open ground, but they maintained their ranks just as they should.”
Eventually, the Union forces got the upper hand and drove the Confederates back to their original positions, but not before the Florida brigade had lost 40 percent of its strength to casualties.
On the second day, Gen. Robert E. Lee amassed more than 100 cannons on the field of battle and Tyler said history records the tactic as “the greatest artillery barrage in American history” with more than an hour of continuous cannon fire. “It must have been hell on earth,” said Tyler, but that didn’t stop the Florida Brigade from charging again. “They did what they had to do,” he added. “History records that the charge of the Florida Brigade ended the Battle of Gettysburg.”
After the battle, there were 22 more months of Civil War before the South surrendered at Appomattox.
“Nine hundred men left with the Florida Brigade. By the time the Confederates surrendered, there were only seven officers and 59 men remaining,” said Tyler.
“Florida was a small state, but gave 15,000 of its men to the cause,” he said. “The perseverance of the Florida Brigade is a tribute to the sacrifice and boldness of Americans. History sometimes hides the greatest valor.”
Club President Steve Bacalis said, “The Civil War was a horrible war, but I think it had a lot to do with shaping our nation for the better. It resulted in the united nation that we have, which is the strongest nation in the world.”
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