January 19, 2011 HISTORICAL MOMENT #6

As the battle reached its 3rd hour of conflict, the Union faced a desperate situation.  They pressed Confederate lines but the Rebels had dug in.  As they resisted the Union, their enthusiasm elevated and carried them through the battle. A Captain from the 2nd Florida Cavalry noted that at this point, “The enemy pressed us quite hard but our artillery and infantry opened up and the boys yelled and went to work as men can only work who are in earnest.”
The Union brought in 2 fresh groups of soldiers late in the conflict, including the 54th Mass which contained African American soldiers.  This was around 4:00 p.m.  Despite these fresh troops, the Confederates held their ground. At one point a Confederate unit was pinned back, with no ammunition, and fixed bayonets to go hand to hand against the Union forces. Just at this moment, they received re-enforcements and supplies. Confederate luck and timing held so the Union began an orderly retreat back to Baldwin and ultimately to Jacksonville.
The Confederates did not pursue the Union troops on the retreat and this has sparked some debate.  One account from the time noted that Confederate troops did begin to pursue the retreating Union soldiers, but the onset of darkness halted their quest.
The Union wounded were loaded onto train cars and carts and moved to Baldwin, a very tough journey for some of the men.  Heroically, the black soldiers of the 54th Mass pulled some cars themselves to Baldwin where they could then be routed by train to Jacksonville.
In Baldwin, Union soldiers burned or destroyed much of their supplies.  So any further action in Florida would be limited.
Confederate officials also dealt with wounded soldiers.  Some 30 train cars of wounded soldiers arrived in Lake City between February 21 and 22nd.  The Confederate troops occupied Ocean Pond and maintained their hold on North Central Florida.
All Union troops were back to Jacksonville by February 22nd, officially ending the Battle of Olustee.

January 5, 2011 - Historical Moment Part 5

The Battle of Olustee started with the Union “feeling out” Confederate positions while troops continued to march in. Confederate troops, meanwhile, were dug in and proved difficult to move.
The Union troops decided on a frontal approach which proved to be disastrous. This “old school” approach was consistent with Napoleon’s tactics a half—century earlier. But tactics as well as technology had made great advances since then. The Union also suffered from a lack of veteran leadership.
One bright spot as the battle wore on was the 8th U.S. Colored Regiment, which stood near the front and fought very bravely. There had been some question as to the bravery of African American troops before this battle. But the gallantry of the 8th U.S. as well as the 54th Mass. Proved that African Americans made fine soldiers.
The Confederates meanwhile enjoyed an advantage of being entrenched. They did not need to move very much so they unloaded artillery and small arms fire onto Union forces. As the Confederates started to gain ground the Union resisted and the battle dragged on.
The surgeon for a Union regiment summed up this part of the battle: “The leaden messengers of death hailed down in increasing torrents.  Grape and canister swept by with hideous music, and shell after shell tore through our ranks and burst amid heaps of our wounded heroes.”

History Minutes

HISTORICAL MOMENT – Dec 8^th, 2010

By Saturday, Feb 20^th, the North and South were in position for battle at Olustee. Union soldiers arrived from Barbers and had marched with great speed. They were used to Confederate troops retreating so the Union soldiers had few security measures to protect their ranks. They were not prepared for an entrenched, dug-in force like they would face at Olustee.

One group ate lunch in Sanderson where a local woman told them, “You will come back faster than you go.” The Union soldiers thought the woman was “saucy” and were surprised at this “brag” from a local Floridian.

Confederate troops meanwhile were well entrenched. One group of reinforcements had taken the train from South Georgia into what is now northern Madison County. They marched south to Madison and then took the train eastward through Lake City and out to Olustee.

One Confederate group arrived very tired from a long march out of Gainesville. Overall the troops needed some motivation.  So the unit’s commanding officer gave a pep talk, as one soldier remembered: “He rode down to the middle of the regiment and faced us.  He pulled of his hat, raised himself as high as he could in his stirrups and spoke loudly and distinctly saying ‘Comrades and soldiers of the 2^nd Florida cavalry: we are going into this fight to win.  Although we are fighting five or six to one, we will die but never surrender.  The Union army has come here to steal, pillage, run over the state and murder, kill, and rape our wives, daughters, and sweethearts.  Let’s teach them a lesson.’

Around 1:30 p.m. the Union advanced on the Confederate trenches and received fire. They continued into a circular battlefield area. Phase one of the battle was what military historians call a “meeting engagement” – where each side felt each other out on the battlefield. For about the first thirty minutes, until about 2:30 p.m., the battle was an even match.

It is mid-February 1864. The Union is on the march from Jacksonville. They are preparing for a short, intense raid on the Lake City area. They encountered a brief skirmish at Baldwin. A few Confederates fought back fiercely before retreating. Union soldiers found provisions and supplies in the Baldwin area and they were surprised at how Spartan the Confederate conditions were there. Afterward, the New York press called locals in the area “crackers” and “clay eaters” who were “living in filth.”

As the Union got to Sanderson they found a few buildings burning. The Confederates set fire to supplies rather than let them fall into Union hands. They actually advanced close to Olustee in early February but then retreated. It was raining heavily and they needed re-enforcements, which did not come. At this time, morale was low and many officers had doubts about their mission. Although they found material that had been destroyed, they were ordered not to destroy any property. One officer complained that they were being told to use “kid gloves” on the Confederates. One Union officer killed a pig to feed his men but he was threatened with dismissal from the military for his actions.

Meanwhile for the Confederates a few groups had mobilized to defend North Florida. Company C, 6th Georgia marched southward into Madison, where they enjoyed a delicious dinner prepared by a group of local women. On February 10, Governor Milton wired Confederate Secretary of War that all available troops needed to come to Lake City to defend the area against a Union assault.  “Save Florida or all is lost” he wrote. There were Union rumors that Lake City was being evacuated and that city officials were being removed to Madison. This was untrue, but the city was in a bit of a panic in mid-February.

The Confederate army responded over the next 2 weeks to Governor Milton’s plea. During that time, 5000 troops and 3 batteries (with a total of 12 guns) were mobilized to Lake City. Both sides prepared for a showdown at Olustee.

September 15th Meeting - History Minutes

Starting with the September meeting Sean McMahon will bring us closercloser to the battle itself, with Historic tidbits that lead up to the Battle of Olustee.

Sean began with the situation in late 1863/early 1864. At that time, the Confederacy was in retreat from the losses at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. In Florida, there were fears that the Union was making Jacksonville as an outpost. The industrial city had a busy port. The Union had been recruiting blacks to serve as soldiers in other cities and where beginning to do this in Jacksonville, also. Lincoln thought the state could be “turned” Republican to help him in his 1864 bid for re-election.

The east/west railroad ran from Jacksonville to the Panhandle and took beef and salt to the battlefield. Another important railroad ran from Fernandina to Cedar Key. Although the Union controlled both ends of the line, Confederates still used the interior.

So by early 1864 the Union was hatching a plan to seize the railroad west towards Lake City. North Central FLA became a military objective for the Union army.

October 6th Meeting – History Minutes-

By the beginning of 1864, the Union had won battles in, or controlled parts of, every Confederate state except Texas, South Carolina, and Florida. So the state definitely became a target for the North by the beginning of that year.

The Confederate Army now depended heavily on shipments of Florida beef cattle, raised in Florida and shipped out by boat or by rail. Fort Myers and Fernandina were major cattle transport centers.

Calls went out at the beginning of the year to muster Union fighting and support groups for an attack on Florida. Regiments from as far away as New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and New York were called. The 54th Massachusetts, an African- American group, received the call to fight in Florida.

The Union supplies requested indicated a short-term engagement. Few horses were called up, so the men would march during the campaign.

Union soldiers began landing in Jacksonville on February 4, 1864. Soldiers’ diaries recall a cold, wet morning. The first soldiers to land were black troops from the 54th Mass. They encountered a quiet town that put up little resistance to them. Some soldiers saw handkerchiefs flying in windows as they marched past – a silent show of support to the soldiers as they marched into enemy territory.

Union soldiers encountered light resistance as they continued to march to the south and west, out of Jacksonville. Near the railroad works in Baldwin (not far from the overpass at I—10 and Highway 301 today) the Union marched into a Confederate camp that still had fires burning and food cooking. The Rebel soldiers had just fled into the woods.

Confederate General Finegan was in Lake City when he received word that 6000-7000 Union soldiers had landed in Jacksonville. He had about 1200 men and 89 officers available to counter this offensive, and they had to be brought up quickly.