The Battle of Olustee By Jan May, Lincoln Avenue Academy

Transcription

1 Lesson C-3 I. Lesson Summary The Battle of Olustee By Jan May, Lincoln Avenue Academy Summary The Battle of Olustee was the largest, and only major, Civil War battle fought in Florida. When it was over, battle casualties amounted to 1,861 Union and 946 Confederate soldiers; in proportion to the number of troops involved, it was one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. In this lesson, students will have an opportunity to locate the battle on a map, identify one reason why Florida was important to the South during the Civil War, and relate to the personal experiences of two soldiers using nonfictionreading strategies. Objectives Students will: 1.) Interpret poetry in context reading to enhance understanding of topic and improve reading skills. 2.) Interpret personal letter to identify location of battle on a Florida map. 3.) Understand the influence of geography on the history of Florida for production of and importance of salt. 4.) Read a variety of nonfiction sources to understand history. (map, diary entry, personal letter) 5.) Optional: Understand the value of salt to the troops during the Civil War. U.S. History Event or Era This lesson covers the period of the Civil War. Grade Level This lesson is designed for a 5 th grade classroom. Materials Florida Map, Excerpt of a diary entry: Frier and Norton, Poem: Olustee, and assessment for the poetry reading. Optional science lesson included of Florida and its importance in the production of salt during the Civil War ( Lesson Time This lesson can be completed in whole in five 45-minute class sessions, or parts may be pulled out and used in the reading class for nonfiction reading strategies.

2 II. Lesson Procedures Procedures 1.) Introduce the Battle of Olustee with a guided reading of the poem, Olustee. Model dramatic reading while the students follow along. Then, have students reread the poem silently. Next, have the class reread the poem for a third time using choral reading. 2.) Work in mixed ability pairs to interpret the poem and define unfamiliar vocabulary terms, using context clues and background knowledge. Using the Farr strategy for visualization, have pairs create a poster showing the battle scene. They should include at least 10 details in their poster that they have visualized from reading the poem. Students will then share their work. 3.) Use a multiple-choice quiz to test for comprehension of poem. (Included with answer key and nonfiction reading strategies tested.) 4.) Use information from diary excerpt of Lieutenant Oliver Norton to answer discussion questions. 5.) Have students read a diary excerpt of Joshua Hoyet Frier to understand the problem of salt shortage and the value of Florida s landscape. Complete student response questions, orally or independently ( (Optional) Lesson plans available at: offer information and a science experiment science experiment to enhance understanding of salt value to the troops during the Civil War.

3 III. Activities Olustee The mist hung low o er Ocean Pond That frosty winter s morn; Many hopeful hearts at dawnings light, By night would be forlorn. The Northern tide, was rolling Across Florida s sandy shore, But General Finegan had ordered That tide should roll no more. From Georgia and Carolina, From the Apalachee bend; They joined the sons of Florida The Yankee host to rend. The Southern ranks were drawn up In palmetto, scrub, and pine; They vowed the blue invaders Would ne er cross this gray-clad line. Seymour marched from Jacksonville, To barber s, and then west In the pine woods out from Sanderson, There he failed the gory test. The cannon roared and thundered O er the muskets crashing din; Their franks were decimated And their center driven in. The Massachusetts ebon fifty-fourth, Brave as any in the land; They had their glory once before, But not on Florida sand. A wreath of steel and fire Fringed the tattered Rebel fine; The Yankee onslaught wavered And then withered on the vine. Sundown brought the battle s end, The Northern tide was stemmed; No more was Florida trampled The invaders hopes were dimmed. Olustee s woods are silent now, The battle smoke has fled. A century and a quarter past Only memories and the dead. Written for the 125 th Anniversary of the Battle of Olustee by Benjamin R. Gormley. Taken from the book Haunted Fields: A Collection of Poems from Battlefields and Broken Hearts by Sgt. Benjamin R. Gormley.

4 Letter from Lt. Oliver Norton: February 1864 Oliver Willcox Norton served as an enlisted man in the 83 rd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment during the first half of the American Civil War. He enlisted at Springfield, August 28, 1861 and was wounded at Gaines Mill, Virginia, on June 27, He was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Eighth United States Colored Troops on November 10, This unit, consisting of black enlistees and white commissioned officers, received its baptism of fire at Olustee, suffering terrible casualties. The following letter is from the book Army Letters, , by Oliver Norton. Dear Sister L: You will probably see accounts of the battle of Olustee, or Ocean Pond, in the papers. I have ordered a copy of the Brookville Republican, containing a letter from Dr. Heichold, descriptive of the battle, sent to you, but I will give you some of my own ideas about it too; you always express a preference for them, you know. Well, the morning of Saturday, the 20 th of February, found us at Barber s Ford on the St. Mary s River ready to march and loaded down with ten days rations. Our force consisted of the 115th, 47 th, and 48th New York Regiments, 7th New Hampshire and 7th Connecticut (repeating rifles), 54 th Massachusetts (colored) of Fort Wagner memory, the 1st North Carolina Colored and the 8th, twenty pieces of artillery, one battalion cavalry and the 40th Massachusetts (mounted infantry). We started marching in three columns, artillery in the road, flanked by the infantry on either side. After marching twelve miles we halted near a few desolate houses called Sanders and while resting heard a few musket shots in advance. We supposed our cavalry had met a few of the enemy s pickets. Their force was supposed to be at Lake City, twelve miles distant, so we moved on up the railroad. The skirmishing increased as we marched, but we paid little attention to it. Pretty soon the boom of a gun startled us a little, but not much, as we knew our flying artillery was ahead, but they boomed again and again and it began to look like a brush. An aide came dashing through the woods to us and the order was double quick, march! We turned into the woods and ran in the direction of the firing for half a mile, when the head of the column reached our batteries. The presiding genius, General Seymour, said: Put your regiment in, Colonel Fribley, and left. Military men say it takes veteran troops to maneuver under fire, but our regiment with knapsacks on and unloaded pieces, after a run of half a mile, formed a line under the most destructive fire I ever knew. We were not more than two hundred yards from the enemy, concealed in pits and behind trees, and what did the regiment do? At first they were stunned, bewildered, and knew not what to do. They curled to the ground, and as men fell around them they seemed terribly scared, but gradually they recovered their senses and commenced firing. And here was the great trouble- they could not use their arms to advantage. We have had very little practice in firing, and, though they could stand and be killed, they could not kill a concealed enemy fast enough to satisfy my feelings. After seeing his men murdered as long as flesh and blood could endure it, Colonel Fribley ordered the regiment to fall back slowly, firing as they went. As the men fell back they gathered in groups like frightened sheep, and it was almost impossible to keep them from doing so. Into these groups the rebels poured the deadliest fire, almost every bullet hitting someone. Color bearer after color bearer was shot down and the colors seized by another. Behind us was a battery that was wretchedly managed. They had but little ammunition, but after firing that, they made no effort to get away with their pieces, but busied themselves in trying to keep us in front of them. Lieutenant Lewis seized the colors and planted them by a gun and tried to rally his men round them, but forgetting them for the moment, they were left there, and the battery was captured and our colors with it. Colonel Fribley was killed soon after his order to fall back, and Major Burritt had both legs broken. We were without a commander, and every officer was doing his best to do something, he knew not what exactly. There was no leader. Seymour might better have been in his grave than

5 there. Many will blame Lieutenant Lewis that the colors were lost. I do not think he can be blamed. Brave to rashness, he cannot be accused of cowardice, but man cannot think of too many things. Some things in this story look strange. Officers should know exactly what to do, you may say. Certainly, but it is a damper on that duty when there is a certainty on the mind that the commander does not know. When, with eight or ten regiments ready, you see only two or three fighting, and feel you are getting whipped from your general s incompetence, it is hard to be soldierly. I saw from the commencement of our retreat that the day was lost, but I confess to you that I was in doubt whether I ought to stay and see my men shot down or take them to the rear. Soldierly feelings triumphed, but at what a cost. Captain Dickey was shot early in the fight and the command of the company devolved on me. He was not seriously wounded, a ball through the face. Captain Wagner was standing by me when he fell, pierced by three balls. I seized him and dragged him back a few rods and tow of his men then took him to the rear. I carried his sword through the fight. Several times I was on the point of throwing it away, thinking he must be dead, but I saved it and had the pleasure of giving it to him and hearing that he is likely to recover. Of twenty-two officers that went into the fight, but two escaped without marks. Such accurate firing I never saw before. I was under the impression all the time that an inferior force was shipping us, but the deadly aim of their rifles told the story. Well, you are, wanting to know how I came off, no doubt. With my usual narrow escapes, but escapes. My hat has five bullet holes in it. Don t start very much at that- they were made by one bullet. You know the dent in the top of it. Well, the ball went through the rim first and them through the top in this way. My hat was cocked up on one side so that it went through in that way and just drew the blood on my scalp. Of course a quarter of and inch lower would have broken my skull, but it was too high. Another ball cut away a corner of my haversack and one struck my scabbard. The only wonder is I was not killed, and the wonder grows with each succeeding fight, and this is the fifteenth or sixteenth, Yorktown, Hanover, Gaines Mill, Charles City, Malvern, Bull Run, Antietam, Shepherdstown Ford, Fredericksburg, Richards Ford, Chancellorsville, Loundon Valley, Gettysburg, Manassas Gap, Rappahannock Station and Olustee. Had any one told me when I enlisted that I should have to pass through so many I am afraid it would have daunted me. How many more? A flag of truce from the enemy brought the news that prisoners, black and white, were treated alike. I hope it is so, for I have sworn never to take a prisoner if my men left there were murdered. This is the first letter I have written since the fight, and it is to you, my best beloved sister. It is written in haste, in a press of business, but you will excuse mistakes and my inattention to the matter of your own letter. You may pray for me-i need that, and do write to me as often as you find time. 1.) Do you think that Lt. Norton was a credible source of information about the Battle of Olustee? 2.) According to his description of the fighting, how do you think the soldiers felt? Use evidence from the letter. 3.) What were some of the other battles that Lt. Norton had served in? 4.) How would you describe Lt. Norton s attitude toward his commanding officers? Do you think his opinions were valid, based on his testimony of the battle?

6 Risking Their Lives for Salt : Joshua Hoyet Frier s Journal Excerpt *This selection is from his work, Reminiscences of the War Between the States by a Boy in the Far South at Home and in the Rank of the Confederate Militia. In addition to this the blockade was beginning to be seriously felt. Store coffee had well nigh vanished from the land; homespun clothes, and homemade shoes was all that was obtainable. There was but few sheep in the South at that time, and woolen clothing was an article for the rich only. The country was flooded with a currency that had depreciated steadily, and rapidly since its introduction, and nothing but the wholesome dread of the powers that were, induced people to part with their property, for any amount of it. Pony horses now were selling at one to two thousand dollars. Flour was somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 per barrel; as there was no flour mills in our section we ate no flour from that time on. But the most serious ill convenience however, that was felt was salt, having by our civilization been accustomed to a free and all most unlimited supply; to be suddenly cut off without a grain, was a situation that can be imagined, but not realized only by experience. It is true the South had a long coast line where unlimited quantities might have been manufactured (and it was done later on) we had no arrangements of making it, and iron mind you at this time was as scarce as hens teeth. There was no persons among us that understood the manufacture of it, and last but not least, was a dread of Yankee gun boats for while according to reports, our army had uniformly been successful on land; we had invariable been worsted where they could get at us with those invulnerable monsters, and the idea of setting up an industry right under the nose of the United States Navy was something we did not do until forced to do so. But the salt was gone and it meant we had to either have some, or quit eating, the one Picture C-3-1: Destruction of a rebel salt factory, on the coast of Florida, by the crew of the United States ship Kingfisher. September 15, looked like an impossibility, while the other was a dreadful alternative. About this time some inventive person discovered that by taking up the dirt out of the meat houses, and leaching it a fair article of salt could be made: this he published for the good of suffering humanity. Next day all hands went to work, erecting hoppers to leach the earth in, and improvising furnaces for the evaporation of the water after it had leached out the precious property, late in the evening we took a small fun off, the product of much more like mud than salt; but it was salty any how. The water leached abundance of other matter out of the meat house soil besides salt, but for the sake of what little salt there was in it we manufactured several bushels of it; and that winter we saved our pork with it. A piece of pork liberally smeared with it had the appearance of being wallowed in the mud. But even a new danger confronted us; the supply of dirt was limited, in fact it was utilized the first season. So at the dawn of 1863 the prospect of a Salt famine added gravity to the already grave situation. However the people with the true spirit if American enterprise addressed themselves to the situation and before hogs was slaughtered the next season all the available marsh lands on the coast was one vast salt works, and you could get all the salt you wanted at fifteen dollars a bushel, by hauling it nearly one hundred miles. The salt works was unique affairs and many interesting chapters could be written about them what kinds of vessels was used for evaporating the brine which included every conceivable iron vessel from a dinner pot, to an engine boiler split in halves each half being converted into an open kettle; how they worked in continual expectation of gales, high tides and Yankees. Nor arrangements for storing was made any where on the coast for the obvious reason it would only have been an invitation to the Marines to come out, and destroy it, which invitation they would have been quick in accepting.

7 They would occasionally come out and turn out the kettles, and knock holes in them for miles up and down the works. These same vessels would be patched and plugged, and made to do service until they came out again, and broke them into little bits of pieces. Sometime a gale would come up and flood the works when they would have to flee to save their lives such an occurrence in the night always resulted in great loss of property for besides dissolving great quantities of salt, tearing up furnaces, carrying off quantities of wood, frequently carried away all their provision, feed, and camp equipments. For all this there was a peculiar fascination in making salt that caused some to follow it during the war. I might add that one of the principle charms of the salt works was that it was too near the Yankee gun boats for enrolling officers to be meddlesome as they was making themselves in the interior. To a good many they was making life a burden by threatening and pretending they was going to send them off. Of course they were not subject to the conscription act but they new that the Government hated to lose the opportunity of an able bodied man even though he was over age; so you see the grounds for such worriment. Risking Their Lives for Salt: Discussion Questions 1. How important is salt to you? How many of you would travel 100 miles to get salt. How many would risk your lives to get salt? 2. What is a meat house? 3. Why would someone put salt on meat? 4. How would you make salt if you couldn t buy it at the store? 5. If you were going to evaporate salt water to make salt, what would you put the salt water in? 6. If you build a sand castle on the beach, what can happen to the sand castle? 7. If you built a salt works on the beach during the Civil War, what could happen to it? 8. What is a gale? 9. What are provisions? 10. What is a vessel? *READ THE EXCERPT 1. What do you think of the excerpt? Were you surprised that he said salt was the most serious consequence of the blockades? 2. Would you eat meat that had been covered in salty mud? 3. Why was the Florida coastline important in producing salt during the Civil War?

8 IV. Assessment Olustee Poetry Comprehension 1. The Yankee troops the battle of Olustee. a. fought and won b. fought and lost c. never reached d. fought and conquered 2. Since the time of the battle, the field has a. continued to ride the tide b. stemmed the grayclad line c. become silent d. withered on the vine 3. The word wreath in this poem means a. a band of soldiers b. a campfire c. a circle of holly d. a circle of soldiers 4. This poem is mostly about a. the battlefield of Olustee b. remembering the war c. the Yankee troops d. the rebel army 5. The Battle of Olustee proved that the South a. Could set goals and win b. Were too weak to fight c. Were a disjointed army d. Died in battle 6. The Massachusetts 54 th was a Yankee regiment who a. never succeeded in battle b. left to fight other battles c. were killed at the battle of Olustee d. won all their battles Olustee Poetry Assessment Answer Key Poetry is a form of literature easily read and enjoyed by young students. Because poetry often uses figurative speech, it encourages imagination and creative thinking. As students progress, their enjoyment of poetry grows to encompass different forms and styles. The assessment for this poem was based on the design of assessments from the book Comprehension Activities in Poetry by Steck-Vaughn. The assessment tests students on comprehension at six levels: finding the facts, detecting a sequence, learning new vocabulary through context, identifying main idea, drawing conclusions, and making inferences. Strengthening these skills through the reading of poetry will also aid students in other reading experiences. 1. B Facts: The first question focuses on literal comprehension. 2. C Sequence: Students practice identifying the order of events. 3. D Context Clues: Students become aware of relationships of words in context. 4. B. Main Idea: Students will identify the overall point made in the poem. Students must be able to differentiate between the main idea and the details that support it.

9 5. A Conclusion: Conclusions are not stated in the reading but must be formulated by the students. The conclusion must be supported by details in the poem. 6. C. Inference: Students make inferences by combining their own knowledge and experiences with what they read. Making inferences requires students to go beyond the information in the poem. Map Activity: Although there were no large battles in the southern part of Florida, there were raids and small attacks. 1.) Where did most of the battles in Florida take place? 2.) Do you think that the Union naval blockade of Florida was effective? 3.) What important food supply did Confederates attempt to make along the coast? Why was it important?

10 V. Resources - Florida in the Civil War Lesson Plans from the Florida Memory Project s Online Classroom - The Battle of Olustee website Harcourt Brace s 4 th -Grade Social Studies Florida Edition textbook