In early 1864, the beginning of the Atlanta Campaign, the hardships of winter and constant marches took its toll. The regiment, commanded by Mashburn as Dilworth was on sick leave, was no exception.[23][24] Within months the command changed to Major Ball and in June to Cpt. Matthew H. Strain before Ball took command again.[25] At Resaca the regiment had to endure its worst artillery barrage during the war.[26] Later in the campaign, during the Battle of Marietta, the regiment was in position when corps commander General Leonidas Polk was killed, Col. Dilworth asking the General to search cover only seconds before he was hit by an artillery shell. By this time the 1st-3rd Florida had just 120 men ready for duty.[27]
When the 1st-3rd Florida went with General John Bell Hood into the terrible winter campaign of Franklin-Nashville the command quickly went to Cpt. Strain again, but later developed upon Cpt. A.B. McLeod.[28][29] When General Nathan B. Forrest and his cavalry were dispatched to raid the area it was accompanied by Bate's division, including the Florida Brigade. At the Third Battle of Murfreesboro the Floridians, who lost their acting brigade commander Colonel Robert Bullock, had to give way; and the numerically inferior and unsupported brigade were pushed back for nearly a mile before the Union troops stopped their advance.[30]
After the retreat from Nashville, the six small regiments were sent to North Carolina where they fought one more battle, the Battle of Bentonville, on 19 March 1865. On the same day General Lee surrendered in Virginia, April 9, 1865, Johnston reorganized his army. The Western Florida Brigade was consolidated and their six regiments were put into a single unit, being the last form of the 1st Florida Infantry Regiment. Under command of Lt. Col. Mashburn the 1st Florida marched in Brigadier James A. Smith's brigade in the division of General John C. Brown, who was their brigade commander at Perryville.[31] When Johnston surrendered at Bennett Place on April 26 the 1st Florida, and so all Floridian units in the Army of Tennessee, had fewer than 200 men present and fit for duty (with just over 400 total). The troops were paroled on May 1, 1865
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