You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast.

This episode of the podcast contains explicit language. You're going to be. The Hey everyone. Welcome to episode 464 of our Civil War

podcast. I'm Rich. And I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Thanks for tuning into this episode of the podcast.

After using a couple of shows to set the stage with this episode, as promised, we'll finally get to the Battle of a Lusty which took place in

Northern Florida in February 1864. Yep and when we left off last time the

federal commander in the field, breeder General Truman

Seymour, had decided to set out and march west from the railroad junction of Baldwin, heading

deeper into the interior of Northern Florida.

For his part, John Hay, Lincoln's man on the scene in Florida,

was growing weary of Seymour's constantly changing outlook, as Seymour vacillated between aggression and

overconfidence and caution and doubt.

Hay noted that since the beginning of the campaign, Seymour had seemed, quote, very unsteady.

Meanwhile, the Confederate commander, Brigadier General Joseph Finnegan, was receiving reinforcements and overseeing the construction of a strong line of

fieldworks east of Lake City near O'Lusti, a stop on the Florida, Atlantic, and Gulf Central Railroad.

Finnegan himself had no experience leading men in battle, but fortunately for the

Confederate cause, as part of the reinforcements, rushed to aid him was a brigade of Georgians, commanded

by a combat tested officer, Brigadier General Alfred Colquit.

Colquit and his men were most recently stationed in South Carolina at Charleston, but they were veterans of the peninsula, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville.

On the federal side, Truman Seymour's decision to advance west toward Lake City came as a

surprise to his superior Major General Quincy Gilmore.

Gilmore's last instructions to Seymour had been to fortify Baldwin and

secure the ground already won in Northeast Florida.

...