By JAN HOLLINGSWORTH, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 20, 2008

PLANT CITY - Grazing in a pasture off Old Hopewell Road, a herd of speckled cattle sporting splendid horns and distinguished bloodlines serve as a living monument to 400 years of Florida history.

Their ancestors - known as Andalusians - arrived aboard Spanish galleons in the 1500s.

They fed the Conquistadors and, centuries later, the state's pioneers, who discovered the hardy Spanish stock had evolved into wild beef adept at surviving in the Florida scrub.

Eventually, those cattle and the men who knew how to catch and herd them were the only things that stood between Confederate soldiers and starvation in the waning months of the Civil War.

The cattlemen, known as crackers for the whips they cracked to extract the cattle from the wild scrub, had been exempt from military service for most of the war. Suddenly they found themselves inducted into a unique brotherhood known as the Cow Cavalry.

"They looked at it that they were holding together their families, their land, their heritage," said Martha Sue Skinner, former president of the Plant City chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Skinner, also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, spent the better part of a decade spearheading a memorial to honor the men who served in the area's Company B 1st Battalion - Florida Special Cow Calvary, one of nine companies charged with collecting the wild "cracker" cattle and driving them north to the troops starved out by the Union blockade.

About 200 people turned out in November when the Cow Cavalry memorial exhibit was unveiled at Plant City's 30th annual Pioneer Heritage Day.

The names etched in the granite base reads like a who's who of old-line eastern Hillsborough families, the same names memorialized on road signs, schools and parks in the area: Sparkman, Alderman, Brandon and Moody, to name a few.

It was Mary Noel Moody who served at the first president of Plant City's United Daughters of the Confederacy chapter when it was organized in 1927.

The current members of the chapter sold cookbooks filled with old family recipes and organized three balls and dinners to raise money for the memorial.

Brick pavers surrounding the exhibit also helped finance the $20,000 project. More than 150 have been purchased by descendants of the cattlemen.

Patricia Sparkman Ratcliff bought two bricks in the names of great-grandfather Simeon Lewis Sparkman and his father, Stephen, members of the Cow Cavalry.

"I just wanted to honor my ancestors," she said.

Skinner purchased six to recognize five brothers that are great-great-uncles from the Collins line of her family and one for John Wesley Hawkins Sr., her great-great-grandfather. All served in Company B.

Hawkins, who also served in the third uprising against Florida settlers that became known as the Seminole Wars, is buried at Bethlehem Cemetery in Dover.

His grave bears the Iron Cross that designates his service to the Confederacy. To his family, however, his life was defined by the lifelong occupation his descendents had etched on a tablet installed beside his headstone in the 1980s: "Was a farmer until his death."

Hawkins Corner, at Trapnell Road and State Road 39, has remained in the Hawkins family for seven generations. Skinner's home stands where her great-great-grandfather's original Cracker homestead once stood.

In many ways, the Civil War was far removed from the howling Florida wilderness, where area pioneers were preoccupied with battling climate and predators. Encounters of the military kind often meant fending off marauding Union soldiers and Confederate deserters.

"They were trying to protect their families," Skinner said.

That ultimately extended to serving in the Cow Cavalry.

Most of the members were too old or too young for regular military service, she said. Some were wounded veterans too disabled to fight.

The Cow Cavalry memorial is topped by a bronze relief that stresses the nonmilitary aspect of the unit's mission, depicting an armed cowboy guarding his horse and cattle.

"It was a humanitarian effort," Skinner said. "They had sons and brothers and fathers at the front."

Great care was taken to design the memorial in a way that would not offend anyone, said Shelby Bender, president of the East Hillsborough Historical Society.

However, days before it was unveiled at the historical society's headquarters at the city-owned 1914 Plant City High School Community Center at 605 N. Collins St., a city commissioner raised strenuous objections.

Mary Yvette Thomas Mathis said her heart was "troubled" by the memorial. "This is a Confederate soldier we're putting on city property," Mathis said.

The unveiling went forward as planned. The city, however, passed a resolution stating that no permanent monuments or displays would be allowed on the community center grounds without prior city approval.

Larry Rivers, a black scholar who has written extensively about Florida history, said he doesn't see anything inappropriate about the memorial.

"It's simply of piece of history that occurred in our development as a nation. I don't think it's demeaning in any way as long as it's done tastefully with a clear interpretation of what it all means," said Rivers, who is president of Fort Valley State College in Georgia.

The monument includes the history of the Cow Cavalry and its role in the war.

The historical society has recently completed a bound account of Plant City's Company B titled "More Than Just Cowboys."

The publication was co-edited by Bender and Roberta Jordan. A hardbound reprint that includes historical photos is next on the agenda.

"We're looking for photos," Bender said.

Anyone who would like to contribute family photos of Cow Cavalry members can e-mail the historical society at qcenter@tampabay.rr.com.

"We can't pick and choose what parts of history we want to talk about and what to leave out, even if it's something we don't agree with," Rivers said. "It's part of history and not something that should be hidden."

PART OF HISTORY

The East Hillsborough Historical Society is looking for photos to include in the hardbound edition of its history on the Cow Cavalry, "More Than Just Cowboys."

To contribute family photos, contact the society at qcenter@tampabay.rr.com.

Anyone who would like to purchase a brick paver to be included in the Cow Cavalry memorial at the 1914 Plant City High School Community Center can contact Richard or Martha Sue Skinner at (813) 752-4938. The brick pavers are $50, including a three-line inscription.

MEMORIAL INSCRIPTION

Here's the inscription on the memorial to Company B 1st Battalion - Florida Special Cow Calvary:

"By 1863, the Confederate Army was suffering severe food shortages. Capt. John T. Lesley was commissioned to recruit from Ichepucksassa (Cork area of Plant City) a company of pioneer men to round up and drive the wild cattle of Florida north to railroad stations. Many were too young or too old for regular military service. With great effort, along with eight other companies in Florida, these men successfully completed their mission overseeing drives as far north as Charleston."

Reporter Jan Hollingsworth can be reached at (813) 865-4436 or jhollingsworth@tampatrib.com.