Civil War era stories of Lafayette County

By Starr Munro: Riverbend News The following is history told from Sylvanus M. Hankins, Private Company D, Florida Reserve Regiment, of America's Confederate soldiers. Initially written in longhand in an old account ledger, it was typed up for future generations to read. The original account was given to his nephew, also a S.M. Hankins, of Tampa It is unknown what year "My recollections of the Confederate War" was written. Private Hankins begins his account in the year of 1861, the year Florida succeeded from the Union. "It was then that men began making fiery speeches, and the drum and fife could be heard night and day." Being merely 14 years old, he writes first about a visit to Madis