[FHStoday] TODAY IN FLORIDA HISTORY FOR DECEMBER 20

[Nick Wynne]

TODAY IN FLORIDA HISTORY
DECEMBER 20
1840            Major Fauntleroy and his party continued operations against 
the Seminoles in the Everglades.

1841            A detachment of Company D of the 4th United States Infantry 
and Company I of the 8th United States Infantry were engaged in fighting 
with Seminole warriors today at Big Cypress Swamp.  A sergeant of the 8th 
Infantry and a private of the 4th Infantry were wounded.

1855            First Lieutenant G. L. Hartsuff was wounded today in action 
against Seminoles at Billy's Town, near Forty Myers.  Hartsuff was leading 
a detachment of 10 men from the 10th United States Artillery.

1862            Florida Commissioners J. M. Chambers and J. F. Bozeman 
reported the completion of underwater obstructions on the Apalachicola River.

1863            The Union steamer Fox attacked a Confederate steamer 
aground at the mouth of the Suwannee River.  The crew abandoned the ship 
after the Fox fired howitzers and dispatched an armed boarding party.  It 
is thought the Confederate steamer was the Little Lilly.  The Federals, 
unable to operate the engine, set fire to the vessel.

1864            Floridians watched the approach of General William T. 
Sherman's army on Savannah and the evacuation of that city by the 
Confederate army.  Some Confederate military officials feared that Sherman 
would now turn his attention to the State of Florida.

1865            David Shelby Walker, Florida's eighth governor (December 
20, 1865-July 4, 1868), took office today. Shelby was born in Russelville, 
Kentucky, on May 2, 1815.  After attending private schools in Kentucky and 
Tennessee, he settled in Leon County, Florida, in 1837.  Walker was a 
member of the first Legislature under statehood as a Senator from Leon 
County (1845) and a Representative from Leon County in 1848.  From 1849 
until 1854, he served as the Register to Public Lands and the State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction.  He was Mayor of Tallahassee, and in 
1860, became a Justice on the Florida Supreme Court, a position he held 
until he became governor.  Although Walker opposed secession, he supported 
Florida when it left the Union.  Walker's administration had the difficult 
task of restoring civil government during reconstruction.  He returned to 
the practice of law in 1868 and was appointed Circuit Court judge in 1876, 
a position he held until his death on July 20, 1891.

1879            Jacksonville's Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph 
Company was chartered today.

1908            Francis Philip Fleming, the 15th governor of Florida 
(1889-1893), died today.  Fleming, who was the son of Lewis and Margaret 
Seton Fleming, was born at Panama Park in Duval County.  Educated by tutors 
on his father's plantation, Fleming engaged in business prior to the Civil 
War.  He entered service and received a battlefield promotion to first 
lieutenant while on duty with the Army of Northern Virginia.  While 
convalescing in Tallahassee, Fleming commanded a company of irregulars in 
the Battle of Natural Bridge, which stopped a Union advance on 
Tallahassee.  Following the war, he studied law and became a widely 
respected attorney.  He died in Jacksonville.
                 The Francis P. Fleming Papers, covering much of his Civil 
War correspondence and the postwar years, is in the Florida Historical 
Society Collection at the Tebeau-Field Library in Cocoa.

1979            Floridians watched with mixed feelings today as the 
Congress voted to guarantee a loan of $1.5 billion to save Chrysler 
Corporation from bankruptcy.  Supporters of the measure argued that 
government action was necessary to save more than 700,000 American jobs, 
while opponents argued against a government bailout of a private company.