Week 1

Hello! My name is Abigail Geraci. I am an undergrad student at the University of Central Florida and will graduate this semester. I started my college adventure at Seminole State College, where I got my associate degree as a Psychology major. It was after my first year at UCF that I made the switch to History. Psychology is still of interest, but I found that I enjoyed history more. Now, after two years in the history program, I am about to graduate. It’s been such a rewarding experience, not to mention fun. I am excited to work in the field and eventually going for a master’s degree.

Like many others in the historical field, I do have my favorite areas of study. I have always had an interest in Ancient Egypt. Starting back when I was in elementary school and did my first presentation on the Pharaoh Hatshepsut. It remains one of my favorite subjects to read on, especially their daily lives. After taking German as my foreign language, it sparked my interest in German history.

With this internship, I hope to improve the skills I have already been working on during my time as a history major. Most particularly, I look forward to working in public history and learning more about how projects such as this unfold. I have found that I enjoy being able to share history with others. My grandfather, who was drafted after the Korean War, had never talked about his military service until I took American Military History. It’s been a joy to see the footage he took overseas and being able to learn about him and my great grandfather who was killed in action during World War 2.

I am beginning my internship with the Veterans History Project. This semester I will work on a project concerning the battle of Olustee, which took place in Florida in 1863. The Union hoped to reclaim the state and use the state as an example for Lincoln’s reconstruction plan.  The army that was sent comprised many African Americans who could recently join the Union army in 1862. After the 6-hour battle, the Union was forced to retreat. Because of the retreat, many African Americans who were injured had to be left behind. The South killed those they saw instead of taking them as prisoners and refused many African Americans and Union soldiers a proper burial. Our project concerns those soldiers who are possibly still buried there in unmarked graves. Those soldiers deserve to be recognized and have a proper burial.

This week we had our first team meeting. We discussed some things we would like to work on this semester. In our History and Historians class last fall, we worked on gathering information as a class. Now we are looking at what the class gathered and seeing where we are with the project. We are looking at getting a website and a small documentary in the works to help spread awareness of the battle and the soldiers left behind. When I asked some of my family and friends, they had no idea about this event taking place in our state, and as someone who was born in raised in Florida, I hadn’t heard about it myself until we started our class project on the matter. There was a war order to retrieve soldiers and give them a burial in national cemeteries, yet it is unclear whether they accounted all soldiers. It brings into question whether there are any laws regarding veterans who were left in unmarked graves. Is the government legally required to give them a proper burial? There are all things to investigate. Moving forward into these coming weeks, I look forward to working towards these soldiers, getting the recognition they deserve.