page_title: 1st Florida Infantry
section_title: 1861 and 1862
hierarchical_section_title: 1st Florida Infantry / Service history / 1861 and 1862
caption_attribution_description: English: William Miller, Confederate General.
context_page_description: The 1st Florida Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment raised by the Confederate state of Florida during the American Civil War. Raised for 12 months of service its remaining veterans served in the 1st Battalion, Florida Infantry from April 1862 on. In August the depleted battalion was consolidated with the 3rd Battalion into the reorganized 1st Florida Infantry Regiment again. In December 1862 it merged with the 3rd Florida Infantry Regiment and received the form it kept till the war's end as the 1st and 3rd Consolidated Florida Infantry Regiment. Fighting as part of the Army of Tennessee in the Western Theater of the American Civil War it was surrendered on April 26, 1865.
context_section_description: In June the regiment received its tenth company, the local Pensacola Guards. Now the regiment was part of the Army of Pensacola under command of Brigadier General Sam Jones. On October 9, 1861, a detachment of 180 men from all companies of the regiment participated in the unsuccessful attempt to capture Fort Pickens. Under command of Colonel Anderson, leading a column with his Floridians and men from Louisiana and Alabama, the regiment lost 7 dead, 8 wounded and 12 men captured.  The regiment joined General Braxton Bragg on his westbound journey in March 1862, and went to Corinth. When the service time of the regiment came to its end it failed to reorganize in early 1862 when only 300 of the remaining 600 men, enough for four companies, reenlisted. Those were organized into four companies under the command of Major McDonnell, as Lt. Col. Beard was appointed Inspector General of  Bragg's II Corps. The 1st (McDonell's) Florida Infantry Battalion, as it was now known, and its 328 men were just in time for the Battle of Shiloh.
  Patton Anderson, the regiments former Colonel, was commanding the brigade since October 1861 and was promoted to brigadier on February 10, 1862. The brigade was part of Ruggles' division. On April 6, 1862, the 250 present men participated in the morning advance as part of the second line. Advancing along the Pittsburgh-Corinth Road the regiment suffered heavy fire from Ohio troops and artillery. When Major McDonell fell, wounded by an artillery fragment to the tight, the command advanced on Captain William G. Poole. Anderson's brigade, and the 1st Florida, belonged to the force that stormed the Hornet's Nest. The exhausted troops were periodically bombarded through the night by Union gunboats; and retreated with the rest of the army on April 7. Poole, turning over command to Captain W.C. Beard on the 7th, was cited by Anderson for his gallant leadership throughout the two-day battle.
  Afterwards the battalion, that lost 14 dead and 57 wounded at Shiloh, was consolidated with the Confederate (Louisiana) Guards Response Battalion under overall command of Major William Clack. The consolidation proved to be only temporary as the Guards Battalion was transferred in August 1861. Going north in the Confederate Heartland Offensive the 1st Battalion fought in the Battle of Perryville, suffering 12 dead, 54 wounded and 6 missing from a total of 167 men. The depleted battalion was consolidated with the 3rd (Miller's) Florida Battalion. Miller's 6 companies and the veterans of the 1st Battalion were reorganized as 1st Florida Infantry Regiment again. William Miller was elected Colonel, McDonell became lieutenant colonel and Glover A. Ball became major. In December 1862 the regiment, now part of the brigade of Brigadier William Preston, was loosely paired with the 3rd Florida Infantry, under the overall command of Miller. The 531 men of the 1st and 3rd Regiments fought distinctively at Stones River, taking high losses including Colonel Miller, who was wounded on the last day of the battle. Overall command then went to Colonel William S. Dilworth of the 3rd Florida. Due to the casualties both regiments took before, this consolidation became permanent; Dilworth stayed in command for the rest of the war while Miller commanded reserve forces (becoming a brigadier general in 1864).
caption: William Miller, third commander of the 1st Florida
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