Battle for Olustee

Greetings, this week I will be reviewing the National Park Service (US Dept. of Interior) essay  From Necessity to Honor: The Evolution of National Cemeteries in the United States by Kelly Merrifield.   Bodies gathered for burial after the Battle of Antietam. Collection of the New York Historical Society Just like Memorial Day, National Cemeteries were initially created to honor the Union soldiers killed during the Civil War. These cemeteries would eventually become gravesites and memorials for all United States veterans. The first few National Cemeteries - including Alexandra and Antietam - were established in 1862 around a year after Confederate forces first started firing on Fort Sumter. But by the 1870s, "almost 300,000 Union soldiers and sailors were buried" across seventy-three national cemeteries. Today, we have more than 175 cemeteries or lots designated for our war dead or past veterans and are managed by the National Cemetery Administration of the Department of Vete

Greetings, this week we analyze more of Daniel T. Penton's original comments about the Olustee battlefield in 1994 and add new first-hand accounts to the Olustee narrative. Pictured: the site of the battle at Olustee. Photo courtesy of the Author, 2021. The full reconnaissance level survey was a cumulative endeavor by Penton and the  Olustee Battlefield Citizens Support Organization (CSO). Many historical documents from private collections, artifacts, funding, and relevant secondary sources stemmed from the members of the CSO. In fact, the CSO prides itself as the "watchdog" organization of Olustee; to both protect and improve for future generations. As such, both Penton and Leigh sought to include whatever they could from the CSO when undertaking their massive field survey. One aspect of the project saw the archaeologists canvassing more than the "site" of the final battle (where the Park is today). Instead, they also included substantial subsurface testing of

Greetings, this week we are examining the history of the landscape prior to the battle and the 1994 archaeological survey of the Olustee Battlefield as it relates to the missing Union dead.  The origin of the survey is credited to the Olustee Battlefield Citizens Support Organization (CSO), with financing provided by the Bureau of Historica Preservation, Division of Historical Resources, Florida Department of State, along with early CSO support (Penton and Leigh III, 4). Daniel T. Penton, the Principal Investigator, stressed in the report that the survey was primarily focused on properly denominating the battlefield and assisting in the long-range interpretation of the site (Ibid). Initially, the report summarizes the location and physical setting of the battlefield. The principal survey area was south of Ocean Pond and east of the actual Town of Olustee (Ibid, 6). The geological range varies between "Central Highlands" elevations greater than 100 feet, mean sea level (msl),

Greetings, today we explore some witness testimonies at the Battle of Olustee and its aftermath. As was described in previous posts, the combatants that met at Olustee consisted of roughly the same number of Confederate and Union men. Just over 5,000 soldiers made up the Union forces and consisted of segregated regiments. The Confederates had roughly the same without segregated units. The US Colored Troops (USCT), a now historical term that is indicative of the social dilemmas plaguing freedmen and black veterans at the time, were largely represented by the 54th Massacheussats, 35th USCT, and the 8th USCT at Olustee.  Unlike its more famous partner, the 54th Mass., the 35th USCT had not seen combat before battling at Olustee. Most of the unit's men were ex-slaves from Virginia and the Carolinas while its officers came primarily from the North (35th USCT letter from Col. Beecher).  "I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of communications 9th inst directing me to assume comman

 Greetings, this week we are reviewing the trip to Olustee and the maintenance of the Lost Cause narrative in Florida. Prominently positioned in the viewing room, this First National/Stars and Bars flag signifies the reign of the Confederacy and was first employed by the CSA on March 4, 1861. Olustee's small museum features the memory of the Confederate forces as the main attraction. Hanging on its wooden, paneled walls are numerous educational boards that tout Confederate successes amid Union (northern) aggression.  Florida was seen as culturally similar and economically tied to the other southern states. As a result, Florida withdrew from the Union January 10, 1861 and was determined to defend the right to enslave people while resisting Federal intervention efforts. Initially, Florida was an independent state which formed its own militia to overcome Union fortifications. However, money soon drained from the state's coffers and Florida could only maintain its troops with assis

Greetings, this week we will continue exploring race relations and black labor during Florida's reconstruction period, the use of convict labor in southern states, and segregation.  The attitudes of Southerners would be a determining factor in a successful relationship between white men and freedmen (Day 2004, 3). Ultimately, the end of slavery caused numerous problems both for former confederates, as well as freedmen and abolitionists. Initially, the maintenance of status was of key importance to race relations in Florida: the dominant class did not want to relinquish control over resources, of which one was slavery (Ibid, 8).  In Florida, white businesses and landowners sought to maintain the pre-War status quo and were the dominant enactors of legislation. Dr. Christopher Day describes this as the "Holy Trinity" of race relations: political control, labor [and] property control, and violence (Ibid, 9).  The legalization of race relations may have been a result of fear-