McBride's Company of Florida Indian Scouts (CSA)

McBride's Company was a company of indian scouts raised in 1862 in the Black Dirt District of Levy County, Florida by Captain Andrew Hodges. The company was raised as a company of scouts originally known as Hodges' Company. It was raised by the State of Florida to assist in the defense of the interior of the state and to take advantage of the geographical knowledge of indians in the state. The unit was actually a multi-racial unit though composed of Native Americans, Whites, Hispanics, and Blacks. The unit was however predominantly Native American and saw members of the Choctaw, Cherokee, and Seminole tribes who stayed in Florida join it. Very few Confederate records of this unit remain other than the unit's membership roster of officers when Capt. Andrew Hodges first started the company in 1862 and then the full enlistment muster roll that was put together in 1864 when Capt. A. McBride took over and the unit became McBride's Company. There are however numerous reports in the accounts of Union black troops and a few whites in the Union forces that occupied Jacksonville that tell of the sniping and ambushing prowess of this unit during patrols that Union forces conducted into the interior. At the Battle of Olustee, Union Black Troops in the Union Black Phalanx (8th US Colored Troops, 54th Massachussetts, 1st North Carolina, 2nd North Carolina, and 55th Massachussetts) tell in their accounts of the battle of the prowess of the indian sharpshooters sniping their officers and NCOs from the trees as the battle began and continued over the course of the battle. These same troops testify of the intensity of the fighting indians they encountered on their patrols. These Union records give us some of the story of the brave exploits of McBride's Company in Florida.
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