Florida Historical Quarterly Volume 29 Number 4 Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol 29, Article 3 Issue 4 1950 The Battle of Marianna Mark F. Boyd Part of the American Studies Commons, and the United States History Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Article is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Florida Historical Quarterly by an authorized editor of STARS. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Recommended Citation Boyd, Mark F. (1950) "The Battle of Marianna," Florida Historical Quarterly: Vol. 29 : No. 4 , Article 3. Available at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol29/iss4/3 Boyd: The Battle of Marianna THE BATTLE OF MARIANNA By MARK F. BOYD Hiistol-iaq Plw~da Board of Parks and Historic Nemorids Subsequent to the military operations about Pensacola in the first year of the Civil War, most of West Florida remained remote from the struggle. Its main contribution to the Confederacy was salt produced from numerous evaporating establishments along the coast, which were frequently demolished by raiding parties from vessels of the Federal blockading squadron. It was also an impor- tant source of agricultural produce. The scarcity of good agricultural lands and distance from markets had re-’ stricted plantation farming to limited areas of Jackson, Washington and Walton counties. Although sparsely inhabited, the widely separated communities contributed’ heavily to the man-power of the Southern armies. On the other hand, the very wildness of much of the region af-’ forded harborage both to deserters from the Confederate army and evaders of conscription, who, from their law- less conduct, occasioned much disorder, in which they were encouraged by Federal authorities in Fort Barran- cas on Pensacola Bay.