[FHStoday] TODAY IN FLORIDA HISTORY FOR AUGUST 22

[Nick Wynne]

TODAY IN FLORIDA HISTORY
AUGUST 22
1814            United States troops under the command of Andrew Jackson 
entered Florida in pursuit of Creek and Seminole Indians, while Jackson 
occupied the City of Mobile.

1840            At the request of Territorial Governor Robert R. Reid, the 
U.S. War Department allocated funds for 3,000 horsemen to defend East 
Florida against attacks by marauding Seminoles.

1862            The C.S.S. Florida was reported in port at Cardenas, Cuba, 
for repairs.  Union officials suspected that the real purpose of its visit 
was to recruit seamen for future raiding voyages.

1864            An excerpt from the civil war diary of Hiram Smith 
Williams, who settled in Rockledge in 1872 and who served two terms as a 
state senator in the 1880s.  Williams was a member of the 40th Alabama 
Regiment and was a combat engineer during the Atlanta Campaign.
         "Yesterday we received orders about 2 ocl[oc]k to report to Corps 
HQ, for which I was not sorry as we were at work in the rain on breastworks 
for another Div[ision].  Camped at Utoy Church half a mile in rear of our 
line of battle, to the left of our Div[ision].  This morning we were 
ordered to make a lot of cheaveau-de-frize's for the protection of our 
line.  They are made something like a horse rack, consequently the boys 
have christened them by that name.  Worked hard at it all day."
         Lewis N. Wynne and Robert A. Taylor (Editors), This War So 
Horrible:  The Civil War Diary of Hiram Smith Williams 
(Tuscaloosa:  University of Alabama Press)

1992            This morning, Floridians were informed that Tropical Storm 
Andrew was now Hurricane Andrew, with winds of 76 mph.  At 11:00 p.m., 
meteorologists reported that Hurricane Andrew sported winds of 110 mph, was 
located about 500 miles east of Miami, and was still moving west toward the 
Florida coast.