THE BATTLE OF OLUSTEE

UNION VICTORY IN FLORIDA

 Yankees love Florida in the winter.  They invariably flock to the “Sunshine State” like migratory birds annually fly south.  One hundred and thirty seven years ago, Florida wasn’t the place the Yankees wanted to be.  They would have rather been at home with their families in the Merrimac Valley of Massachusetts, ice skating on the Mystic River in Connecticut, or building snowmen in upstate New York.  The Battle of Olustee, Florida  on February 20, 1864, on a per capita basis, was the deadliest battle in the history of the Civil War - more deadly than Gettysburg, more deadly than Antietam, and more deadly than Chickamauga.

Early in February of 1864, Gen. Q.A. Gilmore, commanding the Union forces surrounding Charleston, S.C. asked for and received permission to launch an invasion into northern Florida.  The invasion was an effort to  gain a strategic foothold south of Savannah, the intended target of Gen. William T. Sherman’s juggernaut later on that year.  By February 8th, the Union force was at full strength at Jacksonville, preparing for a march westward toward Lake City.  On the 13th, General Finegan moved his Confederate forces to the rail station of Olustee to block their advance.

Just before dawn on the morning of the 20th of February, the Union army broke its  camps on the St. Mary’s river and began a quick paced march.  Federal cavalry units in advance of the column moved too far ahead.  The Union soldiers, oblivious to any attack so soon, marched with their weapons empty.  Security on their flanks was nonexistent.  The Federal column halted about two o’clock in the afternoon.  Meanwhile, the Confederate forces had left their entrenchments and moved east in search of the west bound enemy force.

Col. George Harrison, commanding the 32nd Georgia Infantry, gave the orders to march at ten o’clock that morning.  Harrison, a direct descendant of Benjamin Harrison, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was in overall command of the 2nd Brigade.  The 32nd Georgia was made up of units from various parts of the state.  Company G was made up of men who primarily hailed from the Old Savannah Road in eastern Laurens County, northern Montgomery County, western Emanuel County, and southern Johnson County.  Among those Laurens County soldiers who served in the company were Lt. Morris Dawson, and privates Ira H. Hilbun, Dennis Kea, Wesley Kea, William D. Martin, and Thomas Miller.  Two other companies of the 32nd were attached to the 64th Georgia and ordered to engage the enemy lightly and fall back.  

The 28th Georgia was given the order to drive the Union cavalry from the railroad.  The 28th Georgia was composed of several companies from Washington County.  Some members of these companies moved to Laurens County after the war.  Among those serving in Company A were  Simeon Bland, B.H. Bryan, James Z. Bush, Joshua M. Everett, and B.H. Wood.   William T. Bedgood, Asbury Crabb, Augustus L. Rogers, T.A. Wood, and James J. Young served in Company H.  A. Pridgen and P.A. Wood served in Company B, while J.A. Beatty was a member of Company E.

The remaining companies of the 32nd moved out of their entrenchments at 1:30 p.m. to support Colquitt’s forces.  The battle would be fought in a pine forest on firm and level ground.  There was little undergrowth. Visibility among the trees was good, unlike the dense forests of the Wilderness.  At the northern end of the two-thirds of a mile circular battle field was an old plowed field, where most of the fighting would take place.  The first contact came when the 7th Connecticut ran headlong into the 6th, 8th, 19th, and 64th Georgia regiments.  At first, the Spencer carbines of the 7th Connecticut were overpowering.  The 28th Georgia moved to shore up the flank of the 64th, which lost all of its field officers in a few minutes.  The battle had begun.  Neither side had selected the battle field.  There was no planning - no organization.

The Confederates reorganized at the railroad crossing.  They pressed the attack against the 8th U.S. Colored troops.  The 8th had marched twenty four miles that morning and were at the point of exhaustion.  The 28th and 19th Georgia relentlessly poured fire into the Union left.  In a short while, the 8th lost 300 of its 550 men.  Confused and dazed, the 8th moved back toward the main Federal force.  The 19th pressed the Union center, where  five successive company color bearers were shot down in attempts to raise their colors.  The 28th was engaged with the 47th New York, while the 32nd was attacking the 115th New York regiment.  Just as the battle began, the 6th Florida and 23rd Georgia regiments were thrown into the fray.  The 32nd Georgia moved swiftly to the Confederate left, which was under the overall command of Col. Harrison.  Once in position, Harrison ordered the Confederate left to advance and press the attack.

The battle raged for three hours, without a solitary lull.  The 115th New York lost seven officers and two hundred and eighty-nine men - killed, wounded and missing.  Confederate sharpshooters posted in trees and in the tall grass and reeds picked off one blue coated Union soldier after another.  The Federals were being routed with both direct and oblique fire.  Barton’s Brigade lost more than eight hundred men.  The 6th Florida was placed at the far Confederate right and was able to turn the Union left, which allowed the 28th Georgia to become even more effective with their fire.  The 54th Massachusetts Colored Regiment, the subject of the movie “Glory,” fell victim to the flanking fire of the 28th Georgia and 6th Florida.

Gen. Finnegan ordered all units to advance. The 32nd Georgia, on the Confederate left, executed a pinwheel move turning to envelope the Union right.  About four o’clock in the afternoon, the 32nd viciously struck the Union right occupied by the 1st North Carolina Colored Troops.  Reports began to come into Harrison that his men were about to run out of ammunition.  The ordinance trains were back at Olustee and had not been moved up to the battle.  Harrison, not waiting for couriers and any further delay, ordered his staff officers to go back to the rear of the line and bring up the badly needed rounds.  The rounds came.  The 32nd routed the 1st North Carolina, which lost ten officers and two hundred and twenty men.

Darkness fell over the battle field.  The combatants retired for the evening.  The Confederates remained on the battle field.  The defeated Union army retreated toward Jacksonville.  During the night and the next day, the Confederates buried their dead and picked up the bounties of war. Five cannon, sixteen hundred small arms, four hundred accouterments, and one hundred and thirty thousand rounds of ammunition were abandoned on the battlefield by the retreating Federals, who returned to Jacksonville on the 22nd.  Gen. H.W. Mercer recalled some of the Confederate forces back to Savannah.

The Battle of Olustee was a complete Southern victory.  The Federal army made no further attacks on Florida.  Of the fifty one-hundred Union soldiers engaged in the battle, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, or thirty six percent, were killed, wounded or missing.  While the Confederate force was of nearly equal size and possessed no superior advantage, their losses were almost half that of their opponents, percentage wise, on the bloodiest day in the Civil War.