The Olustee Museum

 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 assistance from the Confederacy. As a result, Florida troops were often sent to fight on the fronts of Tennessee and Virginia, leaving Florida lightly defended.

Educational Board displaying all flags of the Confederate States of America.

Indeed, the only board that was prepared from the Union's perspective regards the Federal troop management of Ft. Pickens (Pensacola Bay), Ft. Taylor (Key West), and Ft. Jefferson (Dry Tortugas) in which Lincoln ordered a blockade of all southern ports. Union troops were able to successfully hold these Forts throughout the war but were met with stiff resistance upon trying to embark into mainland Florida. 

Just by looking inside, you can tell that the museum is not meant to convey an objective perspective or equal effort in describing both sides of the conflict. The use of emotional language to defend Confederate sentiments (sentiments of slavery and white supremacy) is hidden in titles like "Why We Fought" and constantly using the term "Federal" (versus Union) in an effort to make the conflict about state's rights and the expansion of government. Honestly, the Florida campaign was not the Sherman-sized invasion of 100,000 Union troops that most Confederates believed would becoming. Instead, it started as a naval blockade and bombardment while skirmishes motivated the Union to amass troops at their coastal fortifications to severe the state's meat and salt supply.

Occasionally, there are excerpts of letters from veterans of the battle. Additionally, when the battle, its losses, and opposing forces, are discussed there is great effort to stifle the existence of the US Colored Troops (USCT). Instead, you are provided only the number of killed, wounded, and missing on each side. This lack of contextualization is deeply convicting. Union presence is so minimal in the museum that you have to walk outside on the trail in order to access boards describing the battle from the Federal perspective.

Confederate Uniform, bullets, and other artifacts are the centrally featured exhibit.

In fact, the onus of our research is that the Union forces listed upwards of 150 missing troops, presumably pursued and slaughtered, after the battle's main confrontation had ceased. In comparison to those numbers, the Confederate tally listed only 6 of their own missing and over 500 Union troops. Instead, the panel at the museum explicitly states that there was "absolutely no pursuit of the defeated party until the next day." This is demonstrably false and will be the subject of next week's blog as we explore the Confederate forces present at the battle and witness/veteran accounts from the Union side.