Page 28 - lake-city-florida-a-sesquicentennial-tribute-(h-morris-williams-kevin-mccarthy)-2009

Lake City, Florida: A Sesquicentennial Tribute (2009) H. Morris Williams, Dr. Kevin M. McCarthy

Many of the Confederate
troops who fought so well at
Olustee later fought as part of
the Florida Brigade under Gen-
eral Joseph Finegan at the
battles of Cold Harbor and Pe-
tersburg, both in 1864 in Vir-
ginia. In the following year, Con-
federate forces repelled a fed-
eral attack at Natural Bridge
south of Tallahassee, thus pre-
venting the capture of Florida’s
capital, but the end of the war
was near. On April 9, 1865,

General Joseph Finegan General Robert E. Lee surren-
dered his army in Virginia, and
the war was over. Around eight thousand Confederate troops in Florida
went to either Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Tallahassee, or selected
other cities to surrender, be placed on parole, and then returned to
their homes to begin life anew.
Edward Keuchel recounts one tragic incident as the soldiers
were returning home. A Confederate soldier, who was returning to
Lake City and was sitting on top of the crowded train, saw his family
waiting for him, jumped off the train before it stopped, and was crushed
beneath its wheels. 18

The transition to a normal post-war life was difficult for Flo-
ridians and for the state, although Florida had received relatively little
physical damage when compared to other Confederate states. The
freeing of the slaves by President Lincoln, while welcomed by most
blacks, was still difficult as they sought to find work in the South,
much of which was still hostile to them, and they had to compete with
whites and other blacks to find work. Many blacks came to realize
that education was the key to the success of their children and suc-
cessive generations, a realization that would have a big impact on
Columbia County and Lake City, as well as places throughout the
South.
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