Although the Battle of Olustee took place some 14 miles away as the largest town around Lake City has sort of adopted the battle and celebrates it along with the State Park. You may remember that we visited Olustee State Park when we came to the Florida Folk Festival (FFF) last year, Lake City is only about 7 miles from White Springs (Hi Walter, we do remember you) where the FFF is held.
So we are going to join in the fun at Lake City on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On Sunday we will go to Olustee State Park to watch the main re-enactment.
Lake City Music Festival
On Thursday evening we went to the School Administration Main Hall and joined the throng to watch Lake City’s finest and best perform. It was a pleasant evening. The main players in the re-enactment were there. The M/C was a local teacher who did a lot of organising for the events. They had a character actor to impersonate Abe Lincoln, though they stressed that the hall, although it had a balcony, did not really constitute a theatre. The evening was a mix of old and new. A veterans entertainment group stirred up the pride by singing a load of patriotic songs, to which we had to stand for some of them. The local high school wind band played, though the musical highlight was the Lake City Community College Band who played a lot of good numbers, mostly jazz style show tunes, they had a couple of good female singers as well. At about half time the Abe Lincoln look-alike was introduced and he then told the tale of the Gettysburg Address, then he delivered the Gettysburg Address, in its entirety (although it is not very long).
Friday was the day of Lake Cities re-enactment. All day there had been people using the stage to entertain us on a stage, local groups and individuals, still it gave a background. Also there were a large number of vendors, each with their 12ft sq gazebo, selling everything from Kettle (pop) corn to bird houses. We found a lovely present for Paula there (no can’t say what it is, she hasn’t got it yet).
The battle activities are in three parts:
1. A re-enactment of the famous sea (or rather estuary) battle between the Merrimac (renamed U.S.S. Virginian, after it was captured from the North) and the U.S.S. Monitor, a floating gun platform.
2. At the same time a detachment of Blues (North) and Grays (South) had a skirmish on the lake side. Using cannon, cavalry and infantry. The combatants loosed their weapons and fired loads of blanks at each other. It was all very noisy and smoky.
3. The local museum put on a little drama whereby they turned the museum into a hospital and we were guided through a number of moving scenarios (either meaning of the word moving) depicting what typically happened to the wounded during the civil war. This was more or less summed up by most of them dying. Interestingly the hospital took in wounded from both sides, but then the surgeon was a woman doctor from the North, while the hospital was in the south!.
So having had fun on Friday we waited for the action to begin on Saturday.
Saturday was the day of the big parade! We got up early and claimed a place on the roadside to await the big parade. The parade consisted of a lot of blues and grays marching, lots of horses and carriages with dignitaries in them and several high school bands. This I must say was a bit of a disappointment. Still the weather was perfect, now up in the 70’s again, with clear blue skies, so it was all good fun.
We had another wander round the vendors and finished up at the Texas Roadhouse for a steak lunch. We are now starting to be a bit more savvy with regards to eating. We ordered a 12 oz rib Eye Steak, with fries and a house salad. We then shared it between us. Sally had most of the salad and I had most of the steak. We were both full, Sally stayed on diet, I had a great steak and it only cost us £10.
We have now returned to the campsite for a relaxing afternoon, before the main battle tomorrow afternoon which is out at Olustee State Park.
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