The Battle of Olustee or Battle of Ocean Pond, was fought in Baker County, Florida, on February 20, 1864, during the American Civil War. It was the largest battle fought in Florida during the war.
Union General Truman Seymour had landed troops at Jacksonville and aimed chiefly to disrupt the Confederate food supply. Meeting little resistance, he proceeded towards the state capital, Tallahassee, against orders since he assumed that he would face only the small Florida militia. Confederates in Charleston sent reinforcements under General Alfred H. Colquitt, and the two armies collided near Ocean Pond in Olustee.
The Union forces were repulsed and retreated to Jacksonville. Some were garrisoned there to occupy territory. Other troops were transferred to other more active areas, where they were needed.
From the start of the war, Florida primarily served as a supplier of essential provisions, particularly beef and salt, for the Confederacy. The importance of the supplies escalated significantly after the fall of Vicksburg, which severed the eastern part of the Confederacy from beef and supplies originating west of the Mississippi River. Additionally, Florida became a refuge for an increasing number of Confederate deserters and pro-Union Floridians, which seemingly made it a more vulnerable target for raids and assaults by Union forces.
On January 13, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln wrote to Major General Quincy A. Gillmore, the commander of the Union's Department of the South at Hilton Head, South Carolina, and asked Gillmore to take steps to "reconstruct a loyal State government in Florida." By the following month, Gillmore had ordered an expedition into Florida to secure Union enclaves, sever Confederate supply routes, and recruit black soldiers. Brigadier General Truman Seymour, in command of the expedition, landed troops at Jacksonville in an area that had been seized by the Union in March 1862. Seymour's forces made several raids into northeastern and north-central Florida. During the raids, he met little resistance, seized several Confederate camps, captured small bands of troops and artillery pieces, and liberated slaves. However, Seymour was under orders from Gillmore not to advance deep into the state.
Seymour's preparations at Hilton Head had concerned the Confederate command in the key port city of Charleston, South Carolina. General P. G. T. Beauregard, correctly guessed Seymour's objective was Florida and believed that the Union actions posed enough of a threat for him to detach reinforcements under Georgian Alfred H. Colquitt to bolster Florida's defenses and to stop Seymour. Colquitt arrived in time to reinforce Florida troops, under the command of Brigadier General Joseph Finegan. As Colquitt's troops began arriving, Seymour, without Gillmore's knowledge, began a new drive across northern Florida with the capture of Florida's capital, Tallahassee, as a possible objective.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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