"This week, almost 150 years later, in a public school auditorium in Lake City, Fla., the Battle of Olustee once again pitted Confederates against Yankees. This time, there were no casualties. But at stake was the fate of a monument to the Union soldiers who fought in the battle, proposed by the Florida "department" of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.
"We really don't want controversy," Charles "Buck" Custer, treasurer of the Union group, told TPM in an interview this week. "We're down here in Dixie, and we certainly don't want to make enemies of our neighbors and people that we live with. But on the other hand, I think there should be justice, if you will, and I think that those 2,000 Union soldiers that died up there are at least entitled to have people know that they were there and existed."
The plans for a Union monument at the Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park -- about 46 miles west of Jacksonville, Fla. -- began several years ago. The idea was to commemorate the Union regiments that fought at Olustee (pronounced oh-lusty), and to recognize the African American regiments that made up one third of the Union forces. The group members also hoped to correct a perceived imbalance -- they say three Confederate monuments currently exist on the site -- and to get the monument built in time for the battle's sesquicentennial in February 2014. The Florida chapter of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War intended to fully pay for the project, and to offer it as a gift to the people of Florida.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/confederates-look-to-win-second-battle-of-olustee-in-florida
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