Olustee Festival - Dixie Dancers Square Dance Club

LAKE CITY - COLUMBIA COUNTY
ROLLS BACK THE CALENDAR TO THE YEAR 1864,
THE YEAR OF THE HISTORIC EVENT,
The Battle of Olustee,
when we lost many of our local family members
as well as many union and confederate soldiers.

In an effort to not lose our heritage, the
Blue-Grey Army, Inc.
sponsors the Olustee Festival and
contributes to the support of the annual
Olustee Battle Re-enactment,
which is held at the Olustee Battlefield State Park.

In 2006,
festival activities
at the Museum
expanded to include
a walk through 15 minute
candlelight drama.
Friday, 6:00pm – 9:00pm

In this event the
Museum’s Victorian
era residence
transforms into a
temporary hospital
as existed in many homes
following the
Battle of Olustee,
when it was necessary
to care for the hundreds of
injured and dying soldiers
with nowhere else to go.

The Civil War engagement
commemorated annually by the
Battle of Olustee
has always been the centerpiece
for the annual festival in Lake City.

In an effort to reflect civilian life
as it was affected by
the military perspective
of the battle and its aftermath,
The Lake City
Columbia County
Historical Museum
has sponsored
living history presentations
depicting civilian activities
of the community during that time.

This is a rare opportunity to glimpse what life would have been like in Lake City in February 1864, as the residents get their first real taste of the Civil War conflict with the Battle of Olustee and the traumatic aftermath.

The goal of this drama is to capture a brief moment in time and the lives and emotions of the people who endured those fateful days.

the drama literally involves the audience walking through the post battle chaos and pathos of the struggle to treat the injured, console the dying and deal with the dead.

Friday
Lake DeSoto
Circle Drive
Downtown Lake City
5:00 pm
Battle between the
Monitor and the Virginia (Merrimac)
and a
Re-enactment Skirmish
on the banks of the lake

Saturday
Downtown Lake City
10:30 am
Annual Olustee Civil War Parade
Parade Route
South Marion Street to
US Highway 90 West

Saturday
Richardson Community Center
255 NE Coach Anders Lane, Lake City
7:45 pm - 10:30 pm
Blue-Grey Square Dance

Blue-Grey Army Members
Dancing with the Dixie Dancers
at the
Blue-Grey Square Dance
2006

Dennis Weaver, Commanding General
Blue-Grey Army
2006
with Bill Chesnut, Square Dance Caller
Dixie Dancers Square Dance Club
at the
Blue-Grey Square Dance
2006