brenolustee

[brenolustee]

Week 12 – July 30/August 6

Here we are, at the end of this incredible journey. Even after all the long hours, the countless migraines, and the endless cursive names that never seemed to come to an end, I can say that I feel so blessed to have been apart of the Olustee team. Despite all of the challenges, and the persistent feeling within myself that I wasn't qualified enough to complete the task of transcribing such important primary documents, I would happily do it all over again.

To summarize, allow me to break down briefly what I completed within these two months in a concise manner. I went through seven regiments of morning reports to transcribe around approximately 1,650 Union casualties who were present at the Battle of Olustee. As I went about my work, I noted any discrepancies between existing research done by previous interns and my own findings within the reports. I also compiled a list of men that I did not encounter within the morning reports for future interns to remain cognizant about. Morning reports were usually written up the day following the engagement, and considering the context of the circumstance as well as the hasty nature of war following deadly conflicts, human error is to be expected, and I wanted to account for this. I'm sure my own work isn't without its sporadic faults, but I believe that what I produced was the best that I could do within the time constraints, my own busy schedule, and the nature of the reports themselves.

What did I gain? Aside from a new appreciation for people who make a career out of this manner of transcription and a better comprehension for the handwriting of the period, I feel I gathered a lot, personally, from my involvement within the project. I believe I improved my skills for historical research of this kind by the spades, and I feel far more confident about involving myself in this work. This project assured me that what I wanted to pursue in the professional sector and within my future academic career was the right choice, and this was a very comforting discovery to come to. My organizational and time management skills experienced a significant improvement as well, having to juggle my full-time job and my three summer courses alongside this internship. I feel better equipped to immerse myself fully within this type of active participation in public history and I am eager to transfer my new skills, both technical and personal, to other projects.

Ultimately, I wish nothing but success for the purpose of the Olustee project. Having spent so much time familiarizing myself with the names of unacknowledged men, I feel a personal connection with these individuals, and I have a very strong, passionate desire to see them memorialized properly for future generations, so that they may come to understand and appreciate them just as we do at Team Olustee. I hope that future interns will be able to use my work to further this goal and I know that I will continue to keep my eye on the work being done here.

My utmost gratitude to all of the staff at the history department who made this opportunity for me possible. Dr Gannon, I feel privileged to have made your acquaintance and to have been able to help realize your objectives. I couldn't have asked for a better supervisor. Dr Larson, who has always shown me kindness and has allowed me to reach goals and gain experience in ways that would have otherwise seemed unattainable. Dr. Lyons, my former professor and current history advisor, who recommended Project Olustee in the first place. Jessie Oldham, the project coordinator, Dr. French, who saw my potential and brought me into the fold – thank you both, sincerely. Finally, to my peers and fellow interns, thank you for allowing me to contribute to the work gathered by such an amazing group of people.

And finally, thank you, dear reader, for taking the time to share in these experiences alongside me.

Until next time :)

[brenolustee]

Week 11 – July 23/30

Hi everyone!

Short blog post this week. I've been doing the same as usual, making my way through the rest of the morning reports that I need to do. My biggest update is that, after this coming Sunday, I will no longer be working my summer job, so I will be available to fully dedicate these last few days to my work for the internship.

I've unfortunately fallen a little behind, because of the job in question, but I'm still fully confident I will get everything done and present the best work that I possibly can. I will have plenty to say for my last blog post next week, so there is that to look forward to.

Until then :)

[brenolustee]

Week 10 – July 16/23

Hello again, blog.

As I near the completion of my internship and, by extension, my work, I have started to think back on all the skills I have acquired since. I am very grateful to have been a member of this team, and I would gladly do it again.

As for my work, I am more than halfway through the 35th USCT morning reports. Some of the pages for this particular regiment are in rough shape, which has made my work a bit more difficult than it was for the other two that I've gotten through. Slightly a little more time consuming, as a result, but I'm getting there. I really hope to finish these over the weekend, so that I can get the smaller regiments finished and do the polishing work on my acquired data that I planned for. Regardless of any hold-ups, I'm still on schedule for what I wrote up for myself to get the work done, and if anything, I have that.

In addition to my internship, I'm also finishing up the three summer courses that I have also been taking. The workload hasn't been a problem since the beginning, but with finals coming up, I hope I don't get pushed off course. I'm dedicated, however, and I'm using my time wisely, so at the end of the day, I'm not too worried. Rather, I'm excited, and I look forward to the challenges that might come my way these final weeks.

Thanks for joining me along this journey as always.

[brenolustee]

Week 9 – July 9/16

Hello all.

As I mentioned last week, I was planning on getting a lot done – and I have! I finished the 8th USCT and have since started the 35th USCT. After I complete the 35th, I will have gone through the three biggest regiments, which take up a significant amount of the total people. That means the finish line will be in sight, and if I continue at the speed that I am going at now, then I will have the transcriptions finished sometime before the actual deadline, which is my goal.

It's always exciting starting a new regiment. Sometimes lingering on one for too long makes me feel as if I am not getting any significant work done, even if getting through the companies comes with its own milestones. I look forward to work through the 35th as efficiently as possible, and have these three, huge regiments behind me.

[brenolustee]

Week 8 - July 2/9

Hi again!

As I reach my eighth week in the project, I have started to think about all the work that I have done so far and how fulfilled I feel to have decided to join the team to begin with.

I cannot explain how much it brings me great pleasure to work with like-minded people on a project that is undoubtedly very important. I look forward to the day when we can bring this goal to fruition.

For the work I conduct itself, I have set up a calendar to account for my newly received deadline. If everything goes according to plan, I can have all my transcriptions done well before the date I was given, as I am interested in doing a few extra things to further improve legibility and easy consumption of the data I have collected. I also believe that its always best to finish an object ahead of time, in case further assessment is necessary for the best version of the work to be presented. As I strongly believe in this project and what it seeks to do, I only want to provide accurate and concrete information, to better benefit our case and move the project along steadily.

This time next week, I will update you guys on my progress, as I intend to get quite a bit done before then.

Till then!

[brenolustee]

Week 7 – June 26/July 2

Hi Tumblr!

Last week, I mentioned that I would be doing some research within my work, which specifically referred to doing a deep dive to uncover someone's identity. I actually ended up not doing that!

Why? I realized, as I was preparing to get into it, that research might take up valuable time that could be spent transcribing as much people as I possibly could. I didn't want to get sidetracked from the ultimate goal and distract myself with secondary endeavors, so I decided to put that aside for the time being until I felt comfortable in the amount of work I had done.

Finishing the 115th was a lot, and the 8th USCT is no different in the amount of names I have to jot down. Similarly, this work isn't anything different from what I was doing as well, so for this blog post, I will mention things about the process that I noticed.

It's been very fun accustoming myself to the penmanship of whoever did the morning reports. After hours and hours of staring at the same letters and style of cursive, I feel that I have a pretty good grasp on what they write. Initially, it would take me a good dozen of minutes to muster up enough confidence to write down a name, but now, it's all very quick. The reason why it takes so long is because I want to be sure that I'm doing everything correctly. This is not to say that I don't double check the work I had done the previous day when I get back to it, but more so that I want to maximize the accuracy of my output from the get-go. At the end of the day, when this task has been completed, I will have a lot of names written down, and I would rather a scattering of minor mistakes within those hundreds of people rather than constant ones.

On the topic of familiarizing myself with the author's penmanship, I have also learned to adjust to the fact that this person will be guilty of human error, as we all are. Not all discrepancies that I note are of grand importance – the explanation is usually, from my understanding, just spelling mistakes or misunderstandings, and it's not surprising to see. It's really a very nice reminder to me that the work I'm doing involved people who were not so different from you or me.

[brenolustee]

Week 6 – June 19/25

Hello, all.

This week has been much of the same as the previous, and I suspect this will be the case for a bit of the foreseeable future. I have finally gone through the 115th Regiment and begun work on the next one, transcribing and saving the research for last. I have a good handful of names that have yet to be identified from the 115th, but I think it would be best to get through with this next regiment before investing my time in either of these.

I have not much to report on this week, as it has been the same gathering of data as it was prior – mostly dedicated to getting names down, confirming or reporting on any discrepancies where they have already been noted, and going through the pages. This coming week I plan on doing that research I had mentioned and, if it is like any of the previous names I have done deep dives to recover, I will have plenty to share in the next blog post.

Until then!

[brenolustee]

Week 5 – June 13/18

In continuation with the previous week, I have been hard at work with the morning reports.

I have neared completion of one regiment, but I still have plenty left to do ahead of me. I don't wish to take too long with this task, but I would also like to ensure that I am completing them patiently and with a focused mind, so finding that balance has been interesting.

Probably the most difficult thing that I have encountered since starting with the reports is the amount of names certain companies hold that have not been written down, or were accounted for with either different information or none at all. Therefore, this transcription process has also included plenty of research for me to conduct, which has been enriching in its own way. Nothing beats the excitement of identifying someone.

I look forward to finishing this regiment and keeping on with my work within my spreadsheet.

[brenolustee]

Week 3/4 - May 29/June 12

Hello!

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I was unfortunately unable to post on time for the third week as I had wanted. As a result of this, I will discuss both the previous week and the activities of this current one in a singular blog post.

A lot of exciting things are starting to happen in association with this project. I spent much of the previous week pouring over the story-map, educating myself more and more on the history of Olustee and any relevant historical context that I could think of. My main goal in doing this was that, when I actually started to get involved, I wanted to be as informed as possible, as to be alert and aware of any and all possible information to be gleaned from the prospective documents.

This Monday, I had a very informative one-on-one meeting with Dr. Gannon, where I was informed of my responsibilities and given access to the drive containing all the relevant information compiled that would prove necessary to my objectives. I've already spent some time going over the records I was entrusted with – the morning reports, a recent addition to the research efforts. As I've worked with morning reports before during my time with the Florida-France Soldiers Project, another history-department endeavor at the University of Central Florida, I feel very comfortable with this newfound responsibility. Morning reports are significant sources of information and are an exciting addition to come into the Olustee project. I feel very thankful and privileged to be looking through them, transcribing the original cursive and comparing the data found with other statistics and conclusions that have already been drawn throughout the project's existence.

The more I look through these reports, the more significant this work feels, as I track down individuals and trace down what ended up of their lives. It is a very humbling experience and as I have stated numerous times, an experience I am very grateful to be apart of. I look forward to looking through the rest of the morning reports, and consuming so much of the information, that I find myself becoming an expert at what these documents hold.

I'll be sure to come back and expand on all of this!

[brenolustee]

Week 2 – May 21/28

Hello again, tumblr. Another week on the project and another blog post – albeit, this one will definitely be shorter than those that will follow.

For the better part of this week, I have spent time getting used to the documents and interview formats provided for our use. Our first team meeting was held this past Tuesday, which served to slowly ease us into the process and get the members of the internship introduced as we work towards familiarizing ourselves with the Olustee and other veterans projects as best as possible.

Personally, for the next week, I look forward to putting what I have learned thus far to good use, and making myself a valuable member of the group. As I look through the materials provided already, I eagerly await what the next team meeting might bring.

I'm excited to have more to tell you all, but until then, I hope this little update suffices.

[brenolustee]

Week 1 – May 13/20

It is with great pleasure that I can say that this will be my first of several blog entries for an internship that I am extremely proud to be apart of.

My name is Brendan Jordan and I am an undergraduate at the University of Central Florida, working on receiving two degrees in History and Anthropology. This summer, I have the privilege to be working alongside Dr. Gannon on her project focusing on the Battle of Olustee – a civil war engagement fought in Florida that has otherwise gone relatively unnoticed to the general knowledge that encompasses the civil war era. Alongside Dr. Gannon and several other peers, we work towards proper recognition being shown towards those who fought and died in this conflict, specifically black union soldiers who have not been treated in the same way their white compatriots have. This includes furthering engagement with the topic as well as determining the location of the mass grave in which these men were placed, and have since not been recovered for proper burial. Through the project, with conducting interviews and allocating important information, we hope to shed light on this facet of history and commemorate the lives of the fallen in a fashion befitting their service to an unforgiving United States.

Through my engagements with this internship, I believe I will gain several important skills. As I am very interested in working within the sector of public history throughout – and following – the course of my studies, there is plenty for me to gain from the Olustee endeavor. Improving methods of research, compiling information in the most effective manner, and maximizing teamwork to further our shared pursuits are just a few skills that I am anxious to improve on, as I strive to be the best I can possibly be when it comes to what I am passionate about.

Several weeks, and in extension, several more blog posts await me. I can say for certain that I will have plenty to talk about in each, with the summer that awaits me.

Until next time!