John Jackson Dickison

Civil War Confederate Army Officer. Known as the "Swamp Fox", in 1862, he personally raised Company H of the 2nd Florida Cavalry, and was named its Captain and commander. In May 1864, he and 50 of his cavalrymen captured the Union steamer "Columbine", a maneuver which resulted in not a single loss to the Confederates. Days later, at Palatka, Florida, he and 30 troops pushed an invading 280-man Union battalion six miles back to the St. John's River, with casualties amounting to 72 on the Federal side, and only 2 on the Confederate side. In August 1864, John Dickison, 175 of his men, and two very small companies of Confederate cavalry routed 380 Federal cavalrymen at Gainesville, capturing 150 Union prisoners and killing 30, with a Rebel loss of one man killed, 5 wounded. He himself was never wounded, but his son Charles was killed in Palatka while fighting under his father's command. He received his commission to Colonel in May 1865, just a few days after the surrender of all CSA troops. After the war, he was six times elected as Commander of the Florida Division of United Confederate Veterans. He wrote the Florida volume of "Confederate Military History", a 12-volume series written by distinguished men of the South.