William Peter Baya

From St. Augustine, he was First Sergeant of a Company forming for local defense in January 1861. He was appointed Lieutenant of a Company of Marines in Charleston, SC, in June 1861 and commanded the commerce raider CSS Jefferson Davis. They captured 9 enemy merchant ships, but ran aground and abandoned the ship near St. Augustine on 16 August 1861. On 18 November 1861 he was made Captain of a Company of artillery, which became Company D, 8th Florida Infantry, in May 1862.

He was in command of the Regiment on the Maryland Campaign as senior officer present after Lieutenant Colonel Coppens and senior Captain Waller were killed.

He was promoted to Major later in 1862, and was wounded and captured at Fredericksburg. After release in early 1863 he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, led the regiment at Gettysburg in July 1863, and was again wounded - in action at Bristoe Station, VA 14 October 1863 (while in command of the regiment) and at the Weldon Railroad, VA in 1864. He was captured at Saylers Creek, VA in April 1865, held at Johnson's Island, OH, and released in July.

He moved to Jacksonville, FL and ran a grocery business. He was also alderman of the city and Chief of the volunteer fire department. He served in the Florida Militia, becoming Brigadier General by 1880.

Bio details from Goellnitz1, Robert Redd's St. Augustine and the Civil War (2014), and Colonel John Master's research, posted on Findagrave by Raymond B. Military dates from the State of Florida.2 There is another view of his gravesite on Findagrave: the stone pictured there has his birth date as 5 February 1842, which is not correct. There is a copy of a standing, 3/4 length portrait of him in uniform in the collection of the St. Augustine Historical Society Research Library.

1/23/1834; St. Augustine, FL

7/1/1903; Jacksonville, FL; burial in Saint Mary's Cemetery, Jacksonville, FL