The Mountain Lioness: Olustee Battlefield - The Largest Civil War Battle Fought in Florida

Olustee Battlefield - The Largest Civil War Battle Fought in Florida

FL State Parks Quest: Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park - 24/175

Olustee, FL

15 March 2018

Florida joined the Union in 1845 as the 27th state. Only sixteen years later, on January 10, 1861, they seceded from the Union and became one of the founding members of the Confederate States of America. It is important to note that the vote to secede passed by 62-7, and the Unionist minority grew as the Civil War went on. Florida had a small population with about half of it being slaves. They could only send 15,000 troops to the Confederate Army so the main importance of the state was in food supply.

There wasn't too much fighting in Florida itself. The Union retained control of multiple seaports, while the Confederacy seized many army camps. As the war went on, slaves could escape more easily where some became informers to Union commanders. Florida became a refuge for deserters on both sides. While there were some small skirmishes in Florida (Natural Bridge, Gainesville, Fort Brooke, etc.), the battle here at Olustee was the biggest and bloodiest. Just a few weeks earlier, I went to the Natural Bridge battle reenactment [Link Coming Soon].

Good things happened in Florida in May 1865 which include:

A Union division led by General McCook was assigned to re-establish Federal control in Florida
Florida's Governor Milton did not want to submit to Union occupation and committed suicide
The last active Confederate troops surrendered to the McCook
McCook read the Emancipation Proclamation in Tallahassee, which officially ended slavery in Florida
Union troopers raised the United States flag over the capitol building

Florida was completely restored to the United States on July 25, 1868.

Park Profile

Park Name: Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park
Region:
Physical Address: 5815 Battlefield Trail Rd Olustee, FL 32087
Fees: Olustee is free!
Hours: 09:00 - 17:00, Daily
FL State Parks Website
FL State Parks Brochure
FT Ranger on Duty: No
Passport Stamp Location:

The Visitor Center

This old building is the visitor center. It had very dated displays on the American Civil War. You could also watch the film on repeat in an odd looking room where there are two benches facing a tiny TV.

The Memorial

The Memorial was built in 1909 to commemorate the Battle of Olustee.

Memorials for Confederate generals. I didn't realize there was a United Daughters of the Confederacy.............

The Interpretive Trail

The interpretive trail winds through the pine forest where there are occasional signs explaining the various stages of the battles. The trail briefly has a view of the field where they have a reenactment every year. In the following section, there is a little more history and a lot of pine trees.

The Olustee Battle occurred on February 20, 1864 towards the end of the Civil War. In summary - The events started at 06:00 when Brigadier General Truman Seymour of the Union Army headed West from Barber's Plantation across St. Mary's River with 5,500 men and 16 cannons.

Brigadier General Joseph Finegan, the Confederate commander, waited in Olustee for the Union arrival with 12 cannons and 5,000 men. He ordered cavalry and finantry to advance and skirmish with the Union forces in order to draw them towards the Confederate earthworks. As it all grew more intense, Finegan ordered General Colquitt to feel out the strength of the Union forces. They immediately took control of the scene and drew additional regiments from Olustee Station to form a battle line a few miles ahead. It resulted in a very short range fight in an open pine barren, as you will see in this post with lots of pine tree pictures.

Longleaf pinecones - the size of my feet!

06:00
Union forces left Barber's Plantation going West with the expectation of defeating the Confederates in Lake City 32 miles away. If that was successful, they planned to cut off railroad communications between East and West Florida by destroying the railroad bridge over the Suwannee.

Early afternoon
The Union cavalry drove the Confederate cavalry West for several miles; however once they got close to Olustee Railroad Station, the Confederate's resistance grew stronger. This is when the bloody, 4-hour battle started.

Follow the arrows!

The Union troops had a very disadvantaged location when the battle began. There were two swamps - one stopping them from advancing and another blocking a retreat. They had almost no cover to hide. Just to the North was a cleared field where the battle's severity would occur. No one expected this to become such a major battle. Neither side was familiar with the area in which they were fighting, and they kept sending more and more troops forward keeping an even match.

14:00
Union troops reached a railroad crossing east of Olustee. They (7th Connecticut) opened up heavy fire from their Spencer repeating rifles catching the 64th Georgia off guard. All of the Confederate's field officers were killed. General Colquitt's reinforcements made a timely arrival unfortuantely for the Union and kept the 64th from being destroyed. The Union kept advancing and ended up in a cross fire. They had to withdraw several hundred yards when their ammunition ran low.

15:00
The 7th New Hampshire deployed on the Union's right flank. They had issues from the beginning where they had been ordered to exchange their Spencer repeating rifles for old, defective muskets. Then Colonel Hawley either gave a wrong command or it was misunderstood, so the 7th scattered due to confusion.

On the Union left flank was the 8th U.S. Colored Troops who had no battle experience and little training. 310/575 men in this troop were killed or wounded.

Also 15:00
Colonel Harrison arrived with Confederate reinforcements. Ceneral Colquitt ordered the troops to advance. Colonel Barton's brigade for the North was subjected to concentrated fire when they relocated to the area that was just vacated by the 7th New Hampshire. The battle kept going for three more hours without a pause.

The Union had five of their cannons captured and the others were practically useless. A train arrived bringing more reinforcements for the Confederate troops. There was a large cannon on one of the railroad flatcars that shot a large shell every five minutes. This was devastating to the Union troops.

It seemed that at this point the Union was going to lose, but the 54th Massachusetts and the 1st North Carolina U.S. Colored advanced which momentarily staggered the enemy.

17:00 Low ammunition on both sides slowed down the fire. They searched their fallen comrades' pockets in hopes of desparately finding more ammuniton. More ammo arrived for the Confederates allowing them to move forward and force the Union out of their positions. The battle kept raging on.

After three hours of fighting, 115th New York was the only Union regiment remaining on the field. They alerted their defiance and retreated. Over half of the men were killed or wounded.

Union casualties - 1,861 killed, wounded, and missing

Confederate casualties - 946

This defeat ended the Union's efforts to organize a loyal Florida government before the 1864 Presidential election. Even though the Confederates won the Battle of Olustee, they would lose the American Civil War

Florida National Scenic Trail and Osceola National Forest

I broke away from the interpretive trail as I neared the Florida National Scenic Trail.

Here is a weather station.

President Roosevelt approved a plan to recruit thousands of unemployed young men into the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the Great Depression. The CCC from 1933-1942 employed over 3 million Americans where they completed construction, planted trees, developed caves into a public tourist attraction, fought forest fires, etc.. The fire tower here is named Olustee Tower and was manned by the CCC. In conjunction with other towers, it served as an observation station for directional detection of forest fires in the Osceola National Forest.