February 24, 1862 (Monday): Florida Defenseless?

Old Florida State Capital

WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A.,

Richmond, Va., February 24, 1862.

General R. E. LEE,
Savannah, Ga.:
    SIR: The recent disaster to our arms in Tennessee forces the Government to the stern necessity of withdrawing its lines within more defensible limits, so as to enable us to meet with some equality the overpowering numbers of the enemy. The railroad line from Memphis to Richmond must be defended at all hazards. We can only do this by withdrawing troops from the seaboard. You are therefore requested to withdraw all such forces as are now employed in the defense of the seaboard of Florida, taking proper steps to secure the guns and munitions of war, and to send forward the troops to Tennessee, to report to General A. S. Johnston, by the most expeditious route.
   The only troops to be retained in Florida are such as may be necessary to defend the Apalachicola River, as the enemy could by that river at high water send his gunboats into the very middle of the State of Georgia. Let General Trapier put that river and harbor in a satisfactory state of defense, and then further orders can be given to him; but I beg that there be no delay that you can possibly avoid in forwarding to Tennessee the troops now at Fernandina and on the eastern coast.
     I am, your obedient servant,



       J. P. BENJAMIN,

Official Records, Series I., Vol. 6, Part 1, Page 398.

It is interesting to consider Robert E. Lee did not start the momentus year of 1862 with a major command.  He was in charge of the defense of the South Atlantic coast, including Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.   Due to the devastating defeat at Fort Donelson and the rapid retreat of Confederate forces in Kentucky and Tennessee, it became essential to defend the rail line from Memphis to Richmond.  So dire was the state of affairs, Secretary of War Benjamin ordered away most of Lee's forces in Florida to provide reinforcements to Albert Sydney Johnston's Army of the Tennessee.  With too much territory to defend and too few soldiers, the Confederates were faced with hard choices.