Bruce,

It was a fascinating episode of history. I don't know if you ever stumbled across them, but there was also a corps of cadets in Jackson County, Florida, at the Greenwood Academy. This was a private institution.

This school was a "standard" school prior to the war, but in 1863 organized its male students into a company and began providing them with military training. Their instructor was Henry Robinson, who had served briefly in the 6th Florida Infantry before providing a substitute so he could return to teaching.

I have been able to learn very little about their curriculum, other than that they drilled daily as a cavalry company called the "Academy Club Cavalry."

In July of 1864, when Governor Milton ordered the formation of the state militia, they were enrolled as a company in the 1st Florida Militia (same regiment as the West Florida Seminary Cadets), although they continued their studies.

They fought as a cavalry unit and sustained casualties at the Battle of Marianna (augmented by some of the older men from their community) on September 27, 1864, and were among the units responding to Natural Bridge in March of 1865, but did not reach the battlefield there in time to fight.

Dale