Shawn,
By 'recent book about Pensacola', are you talking about the Driscoll book? What are your friend's main objections about the research?

Getting back to the general question about Florida books, there are also the multi-book (6 huge books in 4 'volumes'--something around 5000 pages!) history by Lewis G. Schmidt. However, prepare yourself for perhaps the strangest format you will encounter. His books are more of a shotgun blast of sources on the page; not easy to read.

Martin's recent regimental history of the 4th Wisc Inf/Cav provides a nice, detailed summary of the West Pascagoula Raid.

Drew