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224. The Union Raid on Milton's Eagle Hotel 1862

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Updated: Mar 29, 2022


Following the Confederate evacuation of Pensacola in May 1862, most of the citizens of Milton and Pensacola packed up their belongings and headed for Alabama. Many of them moved to such towns as Greenville, Evergreen, Sparta, Brewton, Brooklyn, and Pollard. Their hasty departure left the Santa Rosa County communities of Bagdad and Milton as virtual ghost towns. Even Pensacola claimed less than a hundred citizen’s remaining in the coastal town. The few citizens that remained faced constant raids by Union cavalry or were arrested and imprisoned as Confederate sympathizers. Upon the reoccupation of Fort Barrancas and the Navy Yard, the Union forces wasted no time in launching armed incursions in hopes of ridding the surrounding countryside of the pesky southern cavalry.


On June 14, 1862, the 6th New York Infantry Regiment sailed up Blackwater River with 220 men under the command of Lt. Colonel Michael Cassidy. Their plan was to attack a southern force of supposedly 100 Southern cavalrymen who were gathering up supplies and deserters in the Milton area. The Union expedition left Pensacola aboard the steamer “General Meigs” and disembarked at Bagdad at 2:00 AM the next morning. Most of the remaining 16 Confederates in the area were already bedded down at the Eagle Hotel in Milton, totally unaware of enemy troops moving toward them under the blanket of darkness. However, one of the alert Southern pickets saw an empty steamer coming up river toward them and gave the alarm to his comrades in the hotel. As the Union soldiers on foot rushed the front door of the hotel, the aroused Confederate cavalrymen fired on them with their horse pistols and carbines. One of the Federals was wounded before the Rebels fled out the back door.


Upon recovering from the unexpected fusillade, the Federals rallied and were able to capture the livery stable along with nine horses plus three slow moving Confederates. Encouraged by successes such as this, the enemy commander at Barrancas launched further raids over the next several months for the purpose of obtaining livestock and other supplies. (Cited resources; War of the Rebellion Official Records; Brian Rucker's "Blackwater and Yellow Pine", and Kevin McKinley's "Shadows and Dust"),


Cavalry Picket Line 1862


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