Budget conference: Funding likely for Olustee Civil War museum

The Legislature in some senses hasn’t stopped fighting the Civil War, as evidenced by weeks of focus on a dead-for-this-year Confederate monument protection bill.

While the monument bill is no more (for now), an effort to fund the rehab of a museum commemorating the biggest Civil War battle in the state appears more imminent, with the Senate agreeing to match the House’s proposed $400,000 funding level for the Olustee Battlefield State Park Citizens Support Organization.

Olustee was the place in Baker County where the Battle of Ocean Pond happened in 1864, a skirmish largely about cutting off Confederate supplies from Jacksonville to the east. 160 years later, Sen. Jennifer Bradley and Rep. Chuck Brannan, both Republicans, appear poised to get money for the first substantial reconstruction of the “deteriorating” facility since the 1950s.

“These funds will supplement other funds raised to build a new Museum located at the Olustee Battlefield State Park behind the rapidly deteriorating current Olustee Battlefield Museum which was built in the early 1950s. The secure facility will include both indoor and outdoor exhibits that tell the story of the civil war in Florida, culminating with the Battle of Olustee. The new museum will house interactive exhibits, artifacts, restrooms, and a historical library,” reads the House funding request.

Any funding is contingent on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ approval, of course. But given his rhetorical support for everything from Confederate monuments to renaming a North Carolina fort to honor Confederate laughing stock Braxton Bragg, it’s hard to imagine him saying no to this project.