Approximately twenty years ago, my aunt decided to undertake a dark and frightening enterprise - a history of the Waters family. Knowing my interest in history, she asked me to outline the service of my ancestors during the War Between the States. I quickly discovered two facts – a) all of my great grandfathers fought for the Confederacy and b) that almost nothing had been written about Florida’s Rebel soldiers. I determined to remedy that oversight. After twenty years of research (and making some amazing friends among the small cadre of Civil War historians), I am still trying to fill the gaps in this neglected area of American history.

Listed below are a few of the articles I have written which detail the battles and trials of the Florida Confederates.

“ ‘Tell Them I Died Like a Confederate Soldier’: Finegan’s Florida Brigade at Cold Harbor,” Florida Historical Quarterly, 69 (1990), 156 – 177.

“ Florida’s Confederate Guerrillas: John W. Pearson and the Oklawaha Rangers,” Florida Historical Quarterly, 70 (1991), 133 – 149.

“ Tampa’s Forgotten Defenders: The Confederate Commanders at Fort Brooke” Sunland Tribune, 17 (1991), 3 – 12. Reprinted by Pineapple Press in Paul Taylor, Discovering the Civil War in Florida: A Reader’s Guide ( Sarasota, 2001), 168 – 182.

“Line of Battle: Maj. Gen. William B. Bate’s Partial Reports of the Atlanta Campaign,” The Campaign for Atlanta & Sherman’s March to the Sea, 1 (1992), 169 – 188.

“ ‘Through Good and Evil Fortune’: Robert Bullock in Civil War and Reconstruction,” The Proceedings of the 90 th Annual Meeting of the Florida Historical Society at St. Augustine, May 1992 ( Tampa, 1993) , 135 – 149.

“ ‘All That Brave Men Could Do’: Joseph Finegan’s Florida Brigade at Cold Harbor,” Civil War Regiments, 3 (1994), 1 – 23.

“Forgotten Sacrifice: The Florida Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg,” Apalachee, 11 (1996), 36 – 49 (co-author with David J. Coles).

“Indian Fighter, Confederate Soldier, Blockade Runner and Scout: The Life and Letters of Jacob E. Mickler,” El Escribano, 34 (1997), 35 – 69 (co-author with David J. Coles).

Death Was Feasting in our Midsts: William B. Bate and the Battle of Dallas, Georgia( Dallas, 2003). Brochure available through Pickett’s Mill Battlefield Park, Dallas, Georgia.

I am still collecting material relating to the soldiers of Florida (1861 – 1865). If you have information which you think may help in writing the history of these troops, please contact me.

Zack C. Waters Rome, GA