SIR: It becomes my duty to report to-day the result of the engagement
between our forces (under the command of Brig. Gen. T. Seymour) and the enemy,
occurring at a place known as Olustee, Fla., and distant from Jacksonville
some 45 or 50 miles in a westerly direction, under the following
circumstances:
On the evening of February 19, the general commanding ordered his command to
be in readiness, with several days' cooked rations, for a forward movement
from Barber's Station, 32 miles from Jacksonville, on the Florida Central
Railroad.
At daybreak, February 20, the command took its line of march on the road to
Sanderson, with its cavalry brigade and Elder's battery (under the command of
Colonel Henry) in the advance. Passing Sanderson, the general commanding was
informed that we should meet the enemy in force (as the information would
have it, 15,000 strong) some miles this side of Lake City; but no reliance
was placed on such dubious information in regard to strength as well as
position. About 5 miles farther on our advance reported some 60 or 70
skirmishers of the enemy falling slowly back, on the north side of the
railroad, toward Lake City. A short distance from that point our cavalry
force, together with one company of the Seventh Connecticut Volunteers,
reported that it was suspected that the enemy was directly in front.
The general commanding gave the order to halt and directed shells to be
thrown through the pine barren as feelers. Hardly had the second shell
departed when a compliment in the form of solid shot fell directly in front
of the staff, a second one following closely on the first, and a third one
passing in close proximity over our heads. No time was to be lost to bring our
guns into battery, and to throw companies of the Seventh Connecticut
Volunteers out as skirmishers on our right. The infantry line of battle was
in cool promptness formed of the brigades, commanded, respectively, by
Colonels Barton, Forty-eighth New York Volunteers, Hawley, Seventh
Connecticut Volunteers
, and Montgomery, Second South Carolina Volunteers [Webmaster's note: I suspect that Surgeon Majer has confused this regiment with the Thirty-Fifth United States Colored Troops in Col. Montgomery's Brigade. The 35th USCT was originally the First North Carolina Volunteers].
Soon our artillery fire became hotter and hotter and the musketry incessant.
Looking about for a convenient ambulance depot, I rode on our right toward a
couple of log houses, the only ones within miles, but found on arriving that
these houses were so much exposed that while inspecting them I was in
imminent danger in the midst of heavy and light missiles; and while the
topographical condition hardly offered a slight undulation of soil, there
was no protection for a depot than the even extension of the pine barrens.
About 200 yards in the rear of our left, observing a cluster of pine trees, I
directed our ambulances (twelve in number) to be drawn up in line, the
surgeons preparing their instruments and appliances, to be in readiness.
While the roar of artillery and the musketry fire continued without
intermission, our wounded men began to arrive, part walking, some on litters,
and others in open ambulance wagons, as it were, first in single drops, then
trickling, after a while in a steady stream, increasing from a single row to
a double and treble, and finally into a mass. In a half hour from the
commencement, stray shots passing through the tall pines, and, breaking
them off at the trunk like canes, admonished us to remove the depot farther
to the rear, when within 1 mile we drew our ambulances up behind a small
stream and guarded in front by miry ground, thus securing a sufficiency of
water, yet not of suitable protection against missiles from rifled guns. For
three hours, without a second's intermission, had the battle been raging,
when we heard from the front three lusty cheers and the firing ceased
abruptly. Our troops fell back about 1 mile, and I received an order to bring
our wounded as far to the rear as we could reach with our limited
transportation. Ambulances, caissons, army wagons, litters, single
horses, carts, in short, every conceivable mode of carrying was made use of
to secure the large number of our wounded, and with a readiness which
deserves high commendation did every one busy himself to execute the order.
There was no depression of spirits manifested, and the morale of the command
expressed the brave determination in the words, "We will give it back
to them."
Our troops fell back to Barber's Station under the protection of our cavalry
brigade, which, during the battle, was quietly drawn up in the rear of our
right and left. While passing Sanderson I sent the following telegrams:
Surgeon in charge of field hospital at Barber's Station:
A large number of wounded. Prepare coffee, tea, and beef soup.
Post Surgeon SMITH,
Jacksonville:
Send immediately a train of cars with bales of hay, lint, bandages, and
stimulants. Call on Sanitary Commission.
DR. A. MAJER.
We reached Barber's Station at 12 midnight, and while, unhappily, some 40
cases of wounded had to be left at the ambulance depot near the battle-field
under the charge of Asst. Surg. C. A. Devendorf, Forty-eighth New York
Volunteers
, and 23 more at Sanderson (badly wounded), two companies of
cavalry were dismounted, thus saving an addition of 80 men. We had now to
take care of and forward by cars and wagons some 860 wounded, 215 of which
were at once delivered to the hospital ship Cosmopolitan, awaiting at the
wharf at Jacksonville. A list of this first shipment will be forwarded by the
surgeon in charge of that steamer. A list of the wounded admitted to hospital
at Jacksonville from the surgeon in charge (William A. Smith, Forty-seventh
New York Volunteers
). I have the honor to transmit, together with a list(*)
of all the casualties, as gathered from the surgeons in charge of brigades.
I now beg leave to add the following remarks: The expedition into Florida
and its occupation we believe to be not a sanguinary one. No one expected,
at least, a resistance so bold and stubborn, because no concentration by the
enemy of 12,000 or 15,000 men was deemed possible; and our hospital
preparations at the post, as well as in the field, had up to the time of the
engagement remained a mere consolidated regimental affair in supplies. When
under these circumstances the comparatively large number of cases have been
well cared for, I feel it to be my duty to be thankful to the aid and
assistance of the ever-ready and assiduous agent of the U.S. Sanitary
Commission, Mr. A. B. Day, and to the untiring exertions of our worthy
colleague, Surg. William A. Smith, in charge of hospital. Under no ordinary
circumstances should I have departed from the rule of not making requisition
on the commission, and unless such an emergency had arisen in which our wants
were urgent and large. Again, the very limited number of ambulances could
not, inside the department, have been increased; therefore, transportation on
army wagons and caissons could not well have been avoided; yet, in spite of
these deficiencies, will any contribution to the surgical history
of the war speak but favorably of the manner in which the medical officers
bore themselves, to the credit of their profession and administration? True,
such could not have been the case were the character of the wounds in the
majority grave; but, happily, the number of slight cases is large, showing
for the most part wounds of the lower extremities, with but few cases
of operations. Five hundred at least will be able for duty in less than four
weeks, and our loss therefore will be merely temporary. We have to regret the
many casualties among officers, and the fact that we could not recover all
our wounded, in spite of an effort made to do so, by requesting this
privilege under a nag of truce. I made this proposition to the general
commanding, and while he entertained the opinion that they ought to be well
taken care of by the enemy, the general finally yielded to the request, which
unfortunately has been refused by our opponents. Meanwhile, the number of our
wounded retained at this post has been decreased to 165 by transfer of cases
by hospital ship Cosmopolitan and transport steamers Dictator and Delaware,
the hospital steamer making two trips within one week to Hilton Head and
Beaufort, S.C.
It is, perhaps, not out of place to recommend that no general hospitals, above
those already existing, be established, and especially that the general
hospital at Jacksonville may merely be conducted as a receiving depot, whence
to forward to the above hospitals, adding thereto Saint Augustine, Fla. The
remoteness from the main depot of supplies of the department, with all its
annoying and delaying circumstances, and the readiness with which the
returning empty transports can be employed for transportation of sick and
wounded, prompts me to come to this conclusion; and while the interior of
Florida, in regard to healthfulness among a large command, is yet to be
tested, there presents itself at the convalescent hospital at Saint Augustine
a hospital arrangement which, when completed, will meet all demands of
sanitary law, with no heavy expenses. Should the army of occupation advance
toward Middle Florida, there will be an easy and quick communication with the
delightful seaside of the old Spanish colony.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
ADOLPH MAJER,
Surg., U.S. Vols., Chief Medical Officer, Dist. of Fla.
Surg. EBEN SWIFT,
Medical Director.
Copied from The Official Records of the War of Rebellion.