Late in December, 1861 orders were telegraphed from the commanding general to Brigadier-General J.H. Trapier to send ALL of the Florida troops to Fernandina Beach as an Union attack was expected at any minute. The two companies of troops stationed at Cedar Keys were sent immediately.
The inhabitants of Cedar Keys, which numbered between 80 and 100, sent a petition signed by a number of them, setting forth their fears that certain persons who had been arrested there as traitors, and released afterwards due to "lack of sufficent testimony to convict", would, prompted by motives of revenge, now that the Troops were withdrawn, use this opportunity to wreak their vengeance upon their accusers. Requested, therefore, that a guard of 20 or 30 men might be sent for their protection. Brig. Gen. Trapier promptly complied with the request and a small force belonging to Company F, Fourth Regiment Florida Volunteers consisting of Second Lieutenant William T. Weeks and 22 men to provost duty, acting as a sort of a police force with orders to guard against any disturbance from bands of marauders.
On January 16, 1862 a Union man-of-war, armed with five guns, steamed into the harbor and burned seven small vessels which were being loaded with cotton and turpentine (with the intention of running the blockade) and also the wharf of the Florida railroad and several flat cars. They also spiked three cannons that had been placed for coastal defense.
The Union force was, indeed , irresistible so the guard attempted to escape the island on a flatboat with only push poles for propulsion. This worked fine until they reached mid-channel and the water depth was too much for the poles to reach the bottom. They were left at the mercy of the tidal currents which carried them out to sea and they fell easy victims into the hands of the enemy aboard the U.S. steamer Hatteras. The lieutenant and fourteen privates were captured. The enemy subsequently released four of the latter for reasons that are still not clear.
Leroy (Roy) Leslie Langford and his brother Silas Taft Langford were among the privates taken prisoner. (Sons of William J. and Feraby Overstreet Langford). The rest of the men made good their escape L.L. Langford was sent to Fort Delaware, in the State of Delaware. After his release from prison, he served in the 2nd Florida Cavalry from November 1, 1862 to May 17, 1865 when he surrendered and paroled at Baldwin, East Florida. Leroy was originally in the 4th Florida Infantry , enlisting on September 14, 1861. On the company muster roll for June 30 to October 31, 1863, last on which his name is borne, he is reported, "Detained in Fla. by order Gen. Finigan." Silas Taft Langford was imprisoned nine months, exchanged at Richmond, Virginia, then served the rest of the war .