The Marshall Plantation Raid occurred in the last days of the Civil War. It was unique in that is was planned, led and carried out by Black Union soldiers. They would travel deep into enemy territory west of the St. Johns River into Marion County, destroy a sugar cane plantation, and carry off a large group of slaves back to Union lines. The Google satellite image below shows the enormous area over which the raid occurred. The raiding party would travel over 200 miles in 3 days with no food. The Union raiding party left Jacksonville, traveled south on the St. John’s River past Palatka to the white circle above Lake George. That is where they left the river near the modern day Fort Gates Ferry for an overland journey on foot to the Marshall Plantation, the red dot at the bottom of the image. They would return to the river the same way, cross on a flatboat, and from there head to Union lines at St. Augustine. The Confederate pursuit would start on horseback from Waldo, the white circle northeast of Gainesville, and head almost to the Marshall Plantation. Here they tried to cut off the Union column before it could reach St. Augustine by heading to Palatka where their flatboats to cross the river were located, and cross the St. John’s River there for the chase to St. Augustine.

The marker below interprets the raid.

The sign, shown below in a close up view, has two errors. The Home Guard did not catch the Union caravan until they were about 10 miles east of the Ocklawaha River not on the west side of the river. Second, the statement that all the property was recovered makes it appear that the raid was a failure. Of the 90 or so slaves the Federals left the plantation with 71 made it back to Union lines and freedom. They did abandon many, but not all, of the horses, mules and wagons in order to speed up the trip from Fort Gaines to St. Augustine.

The raid would be led by Sergeant Major Henry James of the 3rd USCT. They would leave Jacksonville on the evening of March 7th on three pontoon boats headed south on the St. John’s River. The raiding party consisted of a total of 30 men, sixteen soldiers from Company B of the 3rd USCT (US Colored Troops), six men from the 34th USCT, 7 Black “citizens”, and one white soldier from the 107th OH. The “citizens” were likely scouts. Two of the scouts were Israel Hull and Henry Brown. The white soldier is thought to have been a flatboat pilot who would be responsible for ferrying the party back across the St. John’s River at the crossing site on the return trip. The pontoon boats proceeded south on the river in darkness. Pontoon boats were used so the men could move in secret up the river. A gunboat would have been easy for Confederates to spot given the noise and smoke its engine would generate. As they approached Palatka on the West Bank about 60 miles from Jacksonville a small party was put ashore on the opposite bank of the river just to the north (Orange Mills) to reconnoiter the town. In this region the primary Confederate defense force was Company H of Captain John Dickison’s Cavalry, based in Waldo. The Federals needed to make sure Dickison was not in Palatka because they would pass it on their return back to Union lines at St. Augustine. Once south of Palatka the scouting party reboarded and the same process was repeated a little further south at Horse Landing. From there they continued on to Fort Gates an old abandoned Seminole War fort where they disembarked for the overland trip to Marion County and the Marshall Sugar Plantation on the evening of the 9th. Hiding the pontoon boats in the swamp they checked to make sure that the flatboat, which the scouts had prepositioned there, was still in its hiding place. They then headed on foot west toward the bridge over the Ocklawaha River and the Marshall Plantation, a distance of some 30 miles. Two Google views are shown of this part of the trip.

On the evening of the 10th they arrived at the bridge one mile from the plantation. There were three Rebels stationed there who were shot and killed. The Marshall’s owned two large plantations in Marion County, the second one was further north at Wetumpka and grew cotton. The raiders chose this particular time to raid the sugar plantation because the scouts had learned that a large amount of sugar cane was being processed and the slaves from the Wetumpka cotton plantation would be traveling south to help. As a result over 90 slaves would be at the Marshall Sugar Plantation. The raiders quickly moved the one mile from the bridge to the plantation where they burned the sugar mill containing 85 barrels of sugar and 300 barrels of syrup, as well as a whiskey distillery with a large amount of whiskey and rice, captured 25 horses and mules, and brought off over 90 slaves.

They now headed east where they crossed the Ocklawaha River and burned the bridge. In Ocala, 8-10 miles to the west of the plantation, the Home Guard’s commander Colonel Owens received word of the raid and ordered Captain Hawes to organize a group to respond. He then telegraphed Captain Dickison in Waldo. By this time the raiding party had already crossed the Ocklawaha River and burned the bridge. A small group of Federals, six men and three scouts under Sergeant Joel Benn of the 3rd USCT, split off from the main column for the nearby Holly Plantation. Those at the plantation were ready for them and as the small party neared, they were fired upon. Sergeant Benn was killed, Israel Hall was captured and two scouts were wounded and the Federals fled back to join the main group. Dickison, in Waldo, notified of the burning of the plantation headed for Silver Springs east of Ocala with about 50 cavalrymen a couple of hours before midnight.

The Home Guard unit arrived at the burned Ocklawaha River bridge, forded the river, and caught up to the Union caravan about 20 miles from the St. Johns River. Seventeen of the raiders confronted the Confederates while a small group kept the column moving toward the river. A firefight in the dark ensued which ended when the Home Guard fled suffering 4 men killed. Two men from the raiding party were wounded, one would subsequently die of his wounds. The column continued on to the river abandoning one broken down wagon along the way. When Dickison and his men arrived in Silver Springs he was met by a courier with the news that the raiding party had burned the Ocklawaha River bridge and were headed for the St. Johns River. There were very few places to cross the very wide river and in order to move with horses a flatboat was required. Dickison’s closest flatboat was 50 miles away in Palatka. In the early morning hours of the 11th Dickison and his men headed there as the raiding party was in the process of moving their large caravan across the river on one flatboat. They had all crossed except for 9 horses, which had to be left behind when the Home Guard reappeared on the West Bank of the river. With no way to cross the Rebels took the horses and sent a courier back to Ocala to notify Dickison that the Federals had crossed the river. The paths of the two forces are shown below.

On the 11th Dickison was in Palatka and the Union raiding party was on the opposite bank of the river further east about 25 miles from St. Augustine. A wind storm came up and delayed Dickison’s crossing for about 10 hours. The crossing was difficult and Dickison crossed 50 men leaving several behind along with the artillery. About 7 miles outside St. Augustine, near an old abandoned fort (Fort Peyton), Dickison caught up to a group of about 19 slaves, a wagon, and six horses that were behind the main column on the evening of the 11th. The capture of this group delayed the pursuit of the Confederates. A small force was left with the captured group and the pursuit resumed but by this point the column was only a mile from St. Augustine and very close to Union picket lines. Dickison decided to break off the pursuit in the early morning hours of the 12th. Sergeant Major James and his men would return with 71 of the 95 slaves that left with them from the Marshall Plantation, 1 wagon, 9 mules, and 5 horses.

Sources

To Succeed Where Others Failed The Untold Story of the Marshall Plantation Raid by Bruce Seaman

Sergeant Henry S. Harmon’s letter published in the Christian Recorder on April 22, 1865. Link