All Wars are Extensions of Politics

Greetings, this week we examine Florida's role in the Confederacy, its limited battlefield memory, and Olustee during Reconstruction.

Florida's support of the Confederacy is often an overlooked aspect of the Civil War. As part of the original secessionist troupe, Florida joined Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas as part of the first wave of secession from the Union. While the State legislature and a majority of the White Male population of Florida supported secession, some 2,000 people (both White and African) fled to join the Union. Aside from four regular contingents of men and two cavalries, Florida mostly supplied the Confederacy with salt, beef, and timber throughout the war.

Salt was the best way to preserve the meat harvested from the vast cattle farms in the state. Enslaved Africans and other workers extracted this precious mineral from Florida's coastal waters with large metal boilers right on the beach. After evaporating all of the water, the salt was gathered and packed or used as a preservative. These essential rations were heavily supplied out of Florida late in the Civil War due to successive defeats in the Western theatre, primarily Vicksburg and Chattanooga. 


The Eastern and Western theatres of the Civil War never largely affected or disturbed local life in Florida. The safety of its southernmost location and proximity to other deep-south states meant that Confederate forces did not need to focus on protecting Florida. Instead, troops were pushed out to Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia in an attempt to stall Northern advancement. However, Florida's status shifted as the Union provided key victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. 


After a 47-day siege, Union General Ulysses S. Grant succeeded in wresting Vicksburg from the control of Confederate General John C. Pemberton. The town was situated at the top of a 200-foot tall bluff, overlooking a hairpin curve in the Mississippi River, which made it highly defensible. Grant succeeded by running his flotilla past the Confederate defenses and landing forces directly on the plateau. This choking maneuver forced a confrontation and was costly to both sides. The loss of Vicksburg for the war effort was devastating and effectively cut the Confederacy in half. Vicksburg's location over the Mississippi River offered opportunities to transport men and food supplies as it grew into a successful port. 

For the Confederacy, the Mississippi River was used to transport meat from Texas to other southern states. Additionally, it allowed for troops to be quickly dispatched from the Confederate heartland to the frontlines. But for the Union, it would choke off the large state of Texas from supporting other southern states and flood the South with the Union's armies - previously preoccupied in the Western theatre. This Confederate defeat at Vickburg came a day after the Union victory at Gettysburg reduced Confederate strength by the thousands. Now in a desperate situation, being squeezed by two armies, Florida enters the scene as a battleground. 


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