Brigadier General Alexander Asboth left Fort Barrancas on September 18, 1864, with a force of 700 mounted men on a raid that would culminate in the Battle of Marianna. General Asboth was the commander of the Federal Military District of West Florida. His goal on the raid was to capture Rebel forces in Washington and Jackson Counties, liberate Federals prisoners that he was told were being held in Marianna, collect new recruits, and capture horses and mules. His force consisted of three battalions of the Second Maine Cavalry, Lieutenant Colonel Spurling commanding, one battalion of the First Florida Cavalry (Unionists) Major Ruttsiag commanding, and two regiments of mounted infantry from the 82nd and 86th USCT commanded by Colonel L.L. Zulavszky. Marianna was the headquarters of the Confederate military organization in West Florida commanded by Colonel A.B. Montgomery. Asboth had been led to believe there were 300 infantry and 100 cavalry there. He would not be facing anywhere near that number and there were no Union prisoners in Marianna. Asboth’s path to Marianna can be difficult to discern from records because many of the modern day towns in the area did not exist during the war. He crossed Pensacola Bay to Navy Cove (Gulf Breeze), to the Narrows of Santa Rosa Sound (Fort Walton Beach), to Four Mile Point (Freeport), to Four Mile Bayou (Eglin Air Force Base), to Lake DeFuniak by the 22nd (DeFuniak Springs), to Eucheeanna Court House on the 23rd, to Douglas Ferry which they destroyed, to Ponce de Leon Spring, to Cerrogordo where they crossed the Choctawhatchee River on the 25th, to Holmes Creek (Tri County Airport), and on to Galilee and Campbellton on the morning of the 27th.

By the 26th Colonel Montgomery was aware that a Federal force had crossed the Choctawhatchee River and might approach Marianna from either Vernon or Campbellton 18 miles to the northeast. Montgomery sent couriers to his scattered companies in the area to report to Marianna. Citizens were summoned to a meeting at the Court House and a home guard company was formed of youths under age 16 and men over age 50 referred to as the Cradle and Grave Company, totaling about 100 people. They were self armed with old weapons and led by Captain Jesse Norwood. The rest of the force available consisted of the Club Company of Home Guards from Greenwood led by Captain Henry Robinson, a few additional home guards from Campbellton, and six to eight regular Confederate soldiers home on sick leave. On the morning of the 27th Montgomery had the Home Guards construct a barricade of old wagons and logs across Lafayette Street on the western edge of the city at Ely Corner (the intersection of Lafayette and Russ Streets). It was designed more to block a Union cavalry charge straight down the road than to act as a defensive barrier. The Federals would be coming down that road but they had also discovered a road that diverged to the east that entered the center of town from the north about two blocks to the east (behind) Ely Corner down which they would send a flanking force. This road would turn out to be unguarded. Asboth’s advance force of a battalion of the 2nd Maine cavalry reached the edge of town around noon. They charged the barrier but were repulsed with 2 casualties. Asboth arrived on the scene and would lead a second charge of the barricade himself. It was around this time that Montgomery made the decision to retreat to the Chipola River with a group of mounted men but the order does not seem to have been transmitted to the Home Guard. By this time the flanking Federal force was at the Court House square and Montgomery and his men would have to fight their way through them. About 30 of the Confederates made it through but Montgomery was unhorsed and captured.

Asboth and his men broke through the first barricade as the Federals moved west down the street under heavy fire. A cannonball passed through the attic of the Ely-Criglar House and the house was hit multiple times with bullets. Indentations from the bullets can still be seen in the wall of the front of the home. Captain Norwood ordered his men to fall back toward the center of town unaware that they had been flanked.

The Confederates had established a second barricade in the front of the Holden House. Members of the Home Guard were arranged on opposite sides of the street to catch the Federals in a crossfire. Thirty two Federals were wounded here including General Asboth who was shot in the jaw and shoulder.

The Confederates continued to fall back toward St. Luke’s Church and cemetery where a fierce fight ensued. Here the Home Guard would be surrounded on three sides and the 82nd and 86th USCT launched a bayonet charge. A Union officer tried to persuade the hopelessly surrounded and outnumbered Confederate force to surrender but was shot. The church and surrounding homes were set on fire. When the Confederates eventually did surrender some of them were shot by Union soldiers in retaliation. Four Confederates, including 76 year old Francis Allen, died in the church basement when the burning building collapsed on them.

Text from the sign above (link)- Here at high noon on September 27, 1864, a Federal raiding force of 900 men under Brigadier-General Alexander Asboth fought a Confederate home guard of 95 old men and boys under Captain Jesse J. Norwood. Entering Marianna from the west, the main body of Federals encountered unexpected resistance at Ely’s Corner, fell back, rallied, and charged, driving the home guard back to this churchyard. Flanked by other Federals moving in from north of the church, the defenders engaged the invaders in fierce combat. By Federal order St. Luke’s Episcopal Church was destroyed by fire, and the bodies of five Confederates were burned almost beyond recognition. The West Florida News reported total Confederate losses of 9 killed, 10 wounded, 54 captured, and estimated Federal losses of 15 killed, 40 wounded.

The Federals decided to quickly return to Pensacola given General Asboth’s injury. With General Asboth in a carriage the Federals departed after dark for Point Washington via Vernon which they reached on the 28th. There Asboth turned over command to Colonel Zulavszky and headed back to Fort Barrancas on the USS Lizzie Davis arriving on October 1st. In Asboth’s after action report he stated he captured 81 Confederates, over 200 horses and mules, 17 wagons, over 400 head of cattle and over 600 contrabands. He did not list his losses numerically but did mention by name 2 officers that were killed and six that were wounded. All of the Union wounded were carried off except for six that were left behind. Two of the officers, Major Cutler and Lieutenant Adams, were cared for in the home of Thomas White. Adams died of his wounds and is buried in Riverside Cemetery, grave shown below. The wound in General Asboth’s cheek never healed. He died on January 28, 1868 his cause of death listed as a malignancy in the cheek from wounds received at Marianna and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Sources

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion Series I Volume XXXV Chapter XLVII pages 443-445.

The Battle of Marianna by Dale Cox

The Battle of Marianna by Mark F. Boyd Florida Historical Quarterly Volume 29, Number 4, pages 225-242, 1950