7th Florida Infantry Regiment

7th Florida Infantry Regiment
Regimental colors (from ca. March or April 1864 to April 1865)
Active	April 1862 - 1865
Allegiance	Confederate Florida Confederate States of America
Branch	Confederate States Army
Role	Infantry

The 7th Florida Infantry Regiment was a Civil War regiment from Florida organized at Gainesville, in April, 1862. Its companies were recruited in the counties of Bradford, Hillsborough, Alachua, Manatee, and Marion.

Organization and Service History

During the war it served in the Florida Brigade of the Army of Tennessee. The nucleus of Company K of the regiment was made up of men who served as a militia Coast Guard company before the war. One member of the unit described the diverse nature of the company by saying "it is composed of Yankees, Crackers, Conchs, Englishmen, Spaniards, Germans, Frenchmen, Italians, Poles, Irishmen, Swedes, Chinese, Portuguese, Brazilians...also Scotsmen, Welshmen, and some Half Indians." ^[1]

Former Governor of Florida, Madison S. Perry served as colonel of the regiment until April 1863. ^{[2] [3]}

The 7th took an active part in the arduous campaigns of the army from Chickamauga to Nashville, then fought its last battle at Bentonville. ^[4]

Companies

Company	County	Nickname	Commander
A	Alachua		Capt. Roland Thomas (resigned, replaced by Henry F York)
B	Hillsborough	South Florida Rifles	Capt. James Gettis
C	Alachua	Alachua Rangers [5]	Capt. Philip B. H. Dudley
D	Alachua	Alachua Rebels [6]	Capt. Simeon VanLandingham
E	Hillsborough	South Florida Bulldogs [7]	Capt. Nathan S. Blount
F			Capt. William W. Sloan
G	Marion		Capt. S. D. McConnell
H	Marion	Marion Hornets [8]	Capt. Wade H. Eichelberger
I			Capt. A. S. Moseley
K	Hillsborough	Key West Avengers [a]	Capt. R. B. Smith

^[10]

See also

• List of Florida Confederate Civil War units

Notes

1. Despite being raised from Hillsborough County, Company K was known as the Key West Avengers because many of the men in the unit were mariners and fisherman from Key West. ^[9]

Citations

1. Sheppard, Jonathan C. (2004). Everyday Soldiers: The Florida Brigade of the West, 1861-1862 (Masters of Arts, History thesis). Florida State University Libraries.
2. Waters, Zack C. (2023). "A wilderness of destruction": Confederate guerillas of east and south Florida, 1861-1865. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. p. 15. ISBN   978-0881468816.
3. Sheppard, Jonathan C. (2012). By the Noble Daring of Her Sons: The Florida Brigade of the Army of Tennessee. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. pp. 118–119. ISBN   978-0817317072.
4. "Battle Unit Details - the Civil War (U.S. National Park Service)".
5. Pickard & Morrison 2003, p. 10
6. Ferry 1983, p. 177
7. Harding, T. Sherman (September–October 1981). "Warriors in Grey: A Survey of Confederates in the Collection of T. Sherman Harding". Military Images. 3 (2): 18. JSTOR   44033262 . Retrieved 16 February 2023.
8. Ferry 1983, p. 183
9. Sheppard 2004, pp. 30, 48.
10. Hawk, Robert (1986). Florida's army: Militia, State Troops, National Guard 1565-1985. Englewood, Fla: Pineapple Pr. pp. 259–260. ISBN   0910923345.

References

• Ferry, Richard J. (1983). Soldiers of Florida in the Seminole Indian, Civil and Spanish-American Wars. Board of State Institutions. OCLC   1164678973.
• Pickard, Ben; Sally Morrison (2003). Dudley Farm : A History of Florida Farm Life. Gainesville, Florida: Alachua Press. OCLC   58458699.