Week 3 Internship Blog

            Hello, Patrick Callaghan here again. I am back for my third blog post on the third week of my internship. This week I have been busy learning and finding more and more about the Battle of Olustee and fighting with technology. Never, and I mean never have I struggled with technology more. This week was filled with trying to figure out the Outlook calendar and the scheduled recurring zoom meetings. Trying to keep the link but somehow deleting it at the same time was a problem that took way longer than it should have to fix. Not only that but everyone loves when their internet providers seem to be switching on and off the wi-fi ten times a day for no reason but thankfully they decided to stop.

Although this week was plagued with technology issues, I took the time I did have to look at information about Olustee and the battle that took place there. This week during our team meeting we were given roles to attack to further the progress towards our goals. I was given the task to create a section on the website about the battle itself based more on the military aspect like the tactics used by the Union and the confederates. Right now I am trying to decide exactly how I am going to present these events. Whether I should be encounter after encounter like some of the other battle overviews I have seen or if I should use words to accentuate the battle or other things like that. I am leaning more to the encounter after encounter based on a couple reasons. One is being unbiased. Due to my inexperience of doing this kind of work, even though our purpose is to place a Union monument at the battlefield, what are the boundaries are present when writing about history as sensitive as this? I may be over thinking it, but I like to write in a way that “hopefully” makes the reader want to look more into the subject after reading what I have written or share it with people that are around them to spread the knowledge. Another reason is the length of my task. I can understand that History buffs and those that love military history can sit and read and watch hours and hours of content about these topics but is that our true audience. Should I provide the information in a way that everyone will be interested in it? However other than this I have just been looking up references used in other websites to see what else I could find, and I think I have mentioned this before but one specific detail that stands out the most during my research is the lack of knowledge that I or anyone has about this battle. It reminds me of how the history of the Tulsa Massacre was hidden and it seems that the country is so ashamed they do not want to remember it. Also it appears there is still a significant amount of people that know and acknowledge it but refuse to allow a Union monument.

This week has just been very interesting in both continuing my knowledge of the project we expect to accomplish many goals and the insight to the hazy and cloudy picture of the battle itself.