The Raid on Enterprise: The Sugar Mill Raid - Enterprise, FL
Posted by: 
Janila
N 28° 52.185 W 081° 16.052
17R E 473909 N 3193584
The struggling little town of Enterprise enjoys an unbelievably exciting history.
Waymark Code: WMZ2M7
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 09/01/2018
Views: 7
When we first bought our condo in Deltona, I passed by the "Historic Enterprise" sign on a daily basis without knowing why it was actually historic. So, one day when I was in the Enterprise Post Office, I got to talking to the postmistress who told me she was a life long resident of Enterprise. I asked her why it was historic and she didn't know either. So, now, just from researching this one historic marker, I KNOW why Enterprise is historic.
Starting life as the a home to the Mayaca Indians, the land was taken over by the white man after Congress passed the Armed Occupation Act. This act gave 160 acres of land to anyone who would agree to stay on the land for five years and in that five years, they would need to clear and cultivate five acres. Two of the new citizens established a sugar mill and a wharf. Fast forward a few years later to the Civil War and Florida was a member of the Confederacy. In 1864, the Union captured a steamboat named after the wharf owner's daughter, the Hattie Brock which was hauling cotton which was being sold to help finance the Confederacy. After confiscating it, the Union soldiers took the steamboat back to the wharf, loaded it with wood and 2000 pounds of sugar and then burned the sugar mill along with other businesses.
This marker sits on the property owned by the historic All Saints' Episcopal Church and addresses the Sugar Mill Raid as well as this church's history.
THE RAID ON ENTERPRISE: THE SUGAR MILL RAID
On March 16. 1864 Acting Ensign Sanborn, commanding the USS Columbine of the Union fleet, which was patrolling the St. Johns River into Lake Monroe, landed at Enterprise and sent Mr. Davis and a squad of men from the 48th New York infantry to destroy a Sugar Mill, 2 miles from the town of Enterprise. They proceeded to destroy the greater part of the Mill, took sugar & molasses, and impressed slaves, cattle and wagons to transport the goods. Before their duties were complete, a Home Guard of 30 to 40 Confederates chased them back to their ship. The contraband was put aboard the captured Confederate States steamer General Sumter. No lives were lost. Two months later, on May 23, 1864, the USS Columbine was captured and destroyed at Horse Landing near Palatka by Capt. J.J. Dickison of the 2nd Florida Cavalry
ALL SAINTS EPISCOPAL CHURCH
All Saints' Episcopal Church was founded in 1881, and first met on this Lakeshore at the Brock House Hotel. The first Vicar rowed across Lake Monroe from Sanford to conduct services in the parlor. Baron Frederick Debary donated the lumber to build what is now Volusia County's oldest "Florida Gothic" Church in 1883. The church retains an active congregation and has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1973.