Company B was not detached from the 8th Florida Infantry Regiment to any considerable extent for any length of time, so the broad outline of history of the Company is that of the Regiment.

10 May 1862 - Company B of the 8th Florida Regiment, one of several units which were raised in Gadsden County, Florida, and known as the "Quincy Young Guards", was mustered into Confederate service in Quincy, Florida, under the command of Captain R.A. Waller.  Some 75 men from Decatur County, Georgia, including Captain Waller, were enrolled in Company B.  The regiment was initially commanded by Colonel Edward Aylsworth Perry, a native of Massachssetts and graduate of Yale University who survived the war and became Florida's 14th governor (1885-1889).
 
30 August 1862 - Company B, commanded by Captain R. A. Waller saw its first action at the Second Battle of Manassas (Second Bull Run) with Lt. Colonel Robert F. Floyd serving as regimental commander as a part of Brigadier General Roger A. Pryor's Brigade, Brigadier General C. M. Wilcox's Division, Major General James Longstreet's 1st Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia.  Pryor reported that, " the 5th and 8th Florida Regiments, though never under fire before, exhibited the cool and collected courage of veterans".

17 September 1862  - Company B fought at the Battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam), as part of Brigadier General Roger A. Pryor's Brigade, Richard Heron ("Fightin' Dick") Anderson's Division, Longstreet's 1st Corps. They held a position along the famous sunken road known as "Bloody Lane", to the left of Bondurant's Battery.  Captain Waller was killed at Sharpsburg and command of Company B passed to Thomas R. Love, who was promoted from lieutenant to captain.  Pryor's Brigade was reported to have had 48 killed, 285 wounded and 49 missing at Sharpsburg.

11-13 December 1862 - The 8th Florida was detailed as "pickets" in the town of Fredricksburg alongside Barksdale's Mississippi Sharpshooters and was separated from the rest of the brigade during at least part of the Battle of Fredericksburg.  It helped slow the Union's attempt to build bridges across the river fronting the town and to defeat the Union Army's attempt to take Marye's Heights.  The 8th Florida entered this battle under the command of Captain David Lang, who was wounded during the course of the battle, and Captain Thomas R. Love of Company B then assumed command of the regiment.  General Perry officially reported that "the Eighth Florida Regiment lost 7 killed, 37 wounded, and 43 missing" in this battle.

1-3 May 1863 - The 8th Florida Infantry Regiment took part in the Confederate victory at Chancellorsville.  Brigade commander Richard H. Anderson report spoke of, "Brigadier General Perry and his heroic little band of Floridians who showed a courage as intrepid as that of any other in their assaults upon the enemy in his entrenchment on the third and their subsequent advance to Chancellorsville".  The 8th Florida's casualties at Chancellorsville were listed as 11 killed and 28 wounded.

2 & 3 July 1863 - The 8th Florida Infantry Regiment participated in the Battle of Gettsyburg as part of Major General Richard H. Anderson's Division of Lieutenant General Ambrose P. Hill's 3rd Corps.  Col. E. A. Perry was ill and Lt. Colonel David Lang commanded the Florida Brigade throughout this battle.  The 8th Florida was commanded by Lt. Colonel William Baya.  It arrived too late to play a role on 1 July, but assaulted Cemetery Ridge twice in the following two days.  On the afternoon of the last day of the battle (3 July 1863) Company B took part in an assault by the Florida Brigade up Cemetery Ridge shortly after Pickett's charge failed. This was intended to provide support for a successful assault by Pickett's men, but met the same disasterous fate and was essentially the concluding event of the battle.  The regiment lost its colors on 2 July when the entire color guard was killed, and it is believed that only 6 men of Company B who participated in this battle were not killed, wounded or captured.  Lt. Colonel Lang's official report stated:

"Since the battles, I have had no staff at all, except David Wilson. The adjutant of the 8th has been acting adjutant-general for me. There are now but twenty-two line officers, and two hundred and thirty-three enlisted men, for duty in the brigade.

"Our loss has been four hundred and fifty-five, aggregate, killed, wounded and missing. I think a large number of the missing are men who have been captured unhurt, as there were a large number of men exhausted by the rapidity with which the first charge was made, who were unable to keep up on the retreat.

14 October 1863 - The 8th Florida Infantry Regiment fought in the Battle of Bristoe Station where it reported 3 killed and 21 wounded.

5-21 May 1864 - The 8th Florida Infantry Regiment was swept into the unrelenting fury of Grant's continuing series of attacks known as the Wilderness Campaign, followed by Spotsylvania.  May 6th - the Battle of the Wilderness, May 8th - Laurel Hill, May 10th - Spotsylvania Courthouse, May 12th - Bloody Angle.

4 June 1864 - The new Florida Brigade took part in the indecisive battle of Cold Harbor near Richmond.  The 8th Florida Infantry Regiment under Col. David Lang's command had been reorganized into the new Florida Brigade under General Joseph Finegan, a native of Clones, Ireland, who had overall command of Confederate forces at the Battle of Olustee near Lake City, Florida, in February 1864.  The formerly existing Florida Brigade had wasted away to strength of less than 300 and additional regiments, led by Finegan, had been rushed up from Florida to bring the it back to a semblance of brigade strength.  The Union attack briefly broke through in only one place, Colonel George S. Patton's position directly in front of the Florida Brigade; but the Florida Brigade successfully counter-attacked and sealed the breach.

June 1864 to April 1865 - The 8th Florida Infantry Regiment was beseiged in defensive trenches around Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia.  Finegan continued in command for awhile and then the Florida Brigade came under the 8th Forida's original commander, E.A.Perry, now a brigadier general, and the 8th Florida Regiment was commanded by Col. David Lang.  As part of the Florida Brigade it held the extreme right of the Confederate line and helped the Brigade to repulse General James Wilson's flanking attack at Reams Station on the Weldon Railroad in late June, 1864.  By 1 March 1865 continuing casualties, extremely short rations, endemnic illness, and desertions particularly among the troops newly arrived from Florida, had brought the Florida Brigade's reported strength down to 574.

1 April 1865 - A.P. Hill's Corps with a strength of 10,000 men spread over 11 miles was overwhelmed and collapsed under an attack by 65,000 troops.  Hill was killed early in the attack, and the Army of Northern Virginia began a desperate and disorderly fighting retreat.

6 April 1864 - Much of the 8th Florida Infantry Regiment, including its colors, was captured by Union cavalry under the command of General George Armstrong Custer at Sayler's Creek near Farmville, Virginia.

9 April 1865 - A tiny remnant of the 8th Florida Infantry Regiment, 4 officers and 28 enlisted men, surrendered with the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House.

Richard White
26 January 2001