By Margie Menzel, The News Service of Florida
State officials hoped to resolve a controversy about whether to add a Union memorial to the Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park before the 150th anniversary of Florida’s largest Civil War battle.
The sesquicentennial drew more than 25,000 people to rural Baker County this weekend, said parks officials — including 2,500 re-enactors who staged the battle just as it unfolded on Feb. 20, 1864.
But now, it’s looking more likely that the spring legislative session will arrive without a compromise about the proposed marker for Union combatants who fell at Olustee, a Confederate victory.
“It wasn’t possible to come to a final decision,” said state Rep. Elizabeth Porter, a Lake City Republican who has been working with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to honor Northern soldiers without offending Southern sensibilities.
That means lawmakers will try their hands at it during the session that starts March 4.
“I hope to have a reasonable discussion,” said House Judiciary Chairman Dennis Baxley, an Ocala Republican and the sponsor of a bill (HB 493) that would require the Department of Environmental Protection to get legislative approval before erecting historical monuments. “I’d like to make a commitment to help people find an appropriate way to memorialize an appropriate location. But also, let’s respect the history and the heritage of some of these sites and the monuments that are there.”
Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, filed the Senate version (SB 672) of Baxley’s bill. Each measure faces three committees but has yet to be put on an agenda.
Last year, the Department of Environmental Protection received the proposal to add a Union monument at Olustee from the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. The agency and the group were taken aback by the outcry that followed. On Dec. 2, when the department held a public hearing in Lake City about where to place the marker — normally a routine step — irate citizens turned out in droves.
The outcry was partly due to the department’s original plan to locate the monument on land acquired for the state by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1909. That piece of property already includes a Confederate monument, which is imposing and classical in style.
“We said we have absolutely no objection to placing a monument where their people are buried or where it would honor them in every way,” said Leon Duke, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, at Sunday’s re-enactment. “But don’t put it in front of the monument where, when you come in there and you back up to take a picture of our monument, you have to take a picture of theirs. Because if you back up far enough to take a picture of the whole monument, where they want to put it, you would be taking a picture of theirs. And that’s basically it.”
While the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War are seeking to add a new monument in the state park, a union marker has been in a nearby graveyard since 1991. It’s a concrete cross without signs or an access path.
Thomas Fasulo, a retired etymologist at the University of Florida and now the webmaster for the Olustee Battlefield Citizens Support Organization, acknowledged that the signage could be better.
Like many of the re-enactors, Fasulo is a history buff. He said Olustee was the second-bloodiest battle of the war for the Union, which lost 34 percent of its soldiers who fought there. The Confederates lost 19 percent of theirs.
“If you look at the memoirs and the letters of the men who fought here on both sides, many of whom fought in the really large battles in the Eastern and Western theatres of the war, they say the four hours that they spent fighting here was the fiercest fighting they ever had,” Fasulo said. “And that’s reflected in the casualties.”
Re-enactors marked the sesquicentennial during a weekend with perfect weather, sunny but cool enough for wearing heavy wool period costumes. Because the re-enactors’ clothes and campsites must be historically correct, they aren’t allowed to use, for instance, elastic in their clothing.
“Everything has to be authentic,” said Andrea Thomas of the Department of Environmental Protection. “They have inspections.”
Karen Sheets has been involved in re-enactments since 1979, not only for the Civil War but the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. On Sunday she played a citizen of Olustee; in the past, she’s been a medic and fired cannons. “It’s so cool to bring the kids out and let them experience history, not just read about it,” said Sheets, whose daughter and grandchildren are also re-enactors. Sheets once took a busload of students to Jekyll Island for two weeks to work on the movie “Glory,” and the kids got to meet actors Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington.
“History is something that if you don’t learn from it, you’re doomed to repeat it,” said Sheets as cannons fired off behind her. “It doesn’t matter how pretty someone can package it, how pretty someone can take events that happened and erase them and pretend that they happened a different way.”
Now the re-enactment is over for another year, but the controversy remains.
The Department of Environmental Protection has asked the U.S. Forest Service to consider placing a Union memorial on federal land, but Porter said nothing has come of it.
“I heard that the U.S. Forest Service feels like that just isn’t really something that they do,” Porter said. “They’re still in discussion with (the department), but I don’t know if anything will come of it. … But there will remain some way to come up with a compromise, and we’ll have to find it.”
Baxley also said he’s been in discussions with the department about the memorial.
“I’m convinced that they’re not on a fast track,” he said. “I think they’re letting us work through this policy decision.”
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Editor’s Note: The Vicksburg National Military Park has memorials from Northern and Southern states, as do most Civil War battlefield parks.