Battle for Olustee

The goal of the Republican party after the Civil War was to ensure political stability and maintain Reconstruction laws in Southern states.  Florida was one of several formerly Confederate states to be occupied by Union forces well after the end of the Civil War. Southern White attitudes about Black Freedman were not positive. Wealthy and influential Democrats often sought to prevent Freedman from owning land or establishing themselves permanently.  Northern policy initially encouraged Unionism among the southern population. At the time, Republicans believed that reintegrating rebellious states into the Union would be easy. Union loyalists were installed in Florida to support sectional reintegration. Military rule was supposed to end July 4, 1868 but then-Governor Harrison Reed requested Union troops to stay fearing intense White resentment. The presidential election of 1876 marked the end of Reconstruction. Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina disputed the election between D...

Greetings, this week we examine the Federal government's role in Reconstruction, how embittered Southerners resisted, and the implications of "ending" Reconstruction.   By April of 1865, many remaining Confederate forces under the direction of General. Robert E. Lee surrendered at the Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia; although occasional cells of white rebels would continue to resist Union occupation, the Confederacy had essentially exhausted its wartime capabilities. General Lee's surrender staunched the hemorrhaging of raw materials and men from the South. Nonetheless, those disgruntled Confederate veterans survived and returned home. Frequently these officers and veterans became statesmen, lawyers, plantation owners, and farmers after returning home.  Before the Civil War, Florida was on a trajectory to have booming cotton, lumber, and meat markets; all supported with the use of slaves as laborers. Union efforts to recruit Africans and sympathetic Whites were only...