When Florida seceded in February 1861, it was a sparsely populated backwater with little military significance. Traded several times between Spain and England and purchased by the United States in 1821, it had only become a state less than 20 years ago, in 1845. During the war, it supplied a few regiments to the Confederate armies, but its primary contribution was its cattle-ranching industry, which, especially after Texas was cut off from the Mississippi River, was the major source of beef for the troops.
But by 1864, Florida looked vulnerable. The Union Navy had bottled up all the ports, and only a small militia force defended the state. In February 1864, Lincoln decided that a quick strike into Florida would disrupt the Confederate supply lines and cut their food supply, and the state’s slave population, once freed, could be counted on to join the Union Army. If things went well, an expedition might even be enough to capture Florida and return it to the Union in time for the 1864 elections.
The operation was assigned to General Truman Seymour, who placed 5500 men on boats (including the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the 8th United States Colored Troops, and the 35th United States Colored Troops–all newly-trained African-American regiments composed of former enslaved people) and landed at Jacksonville virtually unopposed.
But then, on his own initiative and without orders, Seymour decided to launch an overland expedition towards Tallahassee. He probably thought it would be an easy conquest: the only force available to oppose him was a collection of Confederate militia under General Joseph Finegan, who had been quickly reinforced by regular troops from South Carolina and Georgia. Now numbering about 5000, Finegan’s men gathered at Olustee.
Finegan, knowing he was outnumbered, hoped to fight from behind his defensive works along a railroad embankment. But as Seymour’s Federals approached on February 20, they were unexpectedly stopped by the Confederate advance force, and Finegan quickly rushed his men out of their breastworks and formed a skirmish line in the open pine woods in front of the stalled Federals.
The fighting now grew fierce. Because of the swampy terrain, both forces were hampered in their movements and could only be fed piecemeal onto the battlefield. But the Confederates had the better tactical position and began to push the Federals back, and only a spirited assault by the 35th and 54th African-American regiments prevented a full-scale rout, giving the beaten Federals enough time to withdraw. Seymour, his invasion of Florida a failure, retreated back to Jacksonville.
In terms of the number of troops involved, the Battle of Olustee was one of the bloodiest conflicts in the war: the Confederates lost about 900 of their 5000 troops, almost 20%, and the Federals lost 1800 out of 5500—almost one third of their entire force. But not all of the Federal casualties died during the battle: the three African-American regiments became the target of Southern vengeance. Confederate policy was to regard any captured Black soldiers as “rebellious slaves”, not as enemy combatants. As the Union Army withdrew, leaving its wounded and most of its equipment behind, the Confederates fell upon the injured former slaves and massacred them, summarily executing an estimated 500 disarmed African-American prisoners.
In 1909, the state of Florida purchased three acres next to the battlefield and put up a stone memorial to commemorate the battle. In 1912, the state legislature obtained most of the field and established it as Florida’s first State Historic Site.
Today, the battleground is preserved as the Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park, located inside the Osceola National Forest. The battleground is maintained in its natural state, much as it was at the time of the fighting. A walking trail winds around the site, with interpretive signs. There is a small Visitors Center with some Civil War artifacts on exhibit: there are plans to replace this with a larger museum.
Photos from a visit:
