Florida’s grievances against the Union states to the north were much the same as the rest of the south: high tariffs, a Chicago-based president who was reaching beyond his constitutional rights, and the conflict over slavery. Just a day after Mississippi joined South Carolina as the second state to secede from the Union, Florida voted to join what would eventually become the Confederate States.

On this day, January 10th, 1861, Tallahassee voted to take up their cause in the most forceful way, and secede from the Union. It was hardly a unanimous decision: the minority pro-union Constitutional Union Party agitated for negotiation with the north, and when war did break out, several thousand Floridians took up arms for the Union.

As Florida at the time of the civil war was mainly an agricultural state, relatively unimportant strategically, it saw little in the way of battle, save an occasional union ship bombardment. Nevertheless, a group of Floridian cowherds living deep in the state organized a militia to protect their land in case of an invasion – calling themselves the “Cow Cavalry.”