Week 5 - Biographies

This week, Brett and I made further progress on the task assigned to us over the past few weeks, which involved cleaning up the Google Sheet and verifying the final determinations for the men of the 8th and 35th USCT who were present at the Battle of Olustee.

I have pretty much completed my Google Sheet for the 35th USCT and have now turned my attention to writing biographies for the men who do not have one - to do this, I utilized the template provided by Dr. Gannon and the sources compiled by former interns. Out of the 21 men in need of a biography, I have already written four.

Delving into the lives of these men, primarily through military muster and death certificates, has been a somewhat somber experience. It can be challenging to truly grasp who these individuals were when all you have are records indicating whether they were deceased or still alive, particularly in terms of their presence at the Olustee Battleground. Nevertheless, it is crucial knowledge that helps to bring their stories to light. I hope that the work we are doing now will lay the foundation for more comprehensive research and storytelling about these men in the future.

Although compiling data and writing biographies may be a relatively straightforward and shorter task, we have been informed that we will be assigned interview processing tasks in the future to introduce some variety into our workflow. I am excited not only to expand my knowledge of oral history but also to learn audiovisual editing techniques; expanding my "historical toolkit" and CV in the process of doing good work!

Looking ahead, our team will convene on Tuesday to discuss our progress. In the meantime, I will continue working on these men's biographies, striving to shed light on their lives and contributions!


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