Digital Commons Network^™

No Dog In The Fight: East Tennessee And Its Response To The Succession Crisis, Douglas Marsh

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Despite arguments that the South fought in the 'War Of Northern Aggression' to protect the rights of the states, or to defend their homes and their freedom from a foreign power, it is clear slavery was the central issue of the American Civil War. Even the Confederate Vice-President Alexander Stephens declared that the inferiority of the Negro was the "immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution" and the "cornerstone" of the Confederacy. The centrality of the slave issue becomes even clearer when noting that where slavery was not so engrained in the socioeconomic system, Confederate sympathy diminished.

Lincoln's World And The Gettysburg Address, Keith Evans

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Ever since its delivery on 19 November 1863, Lincoln's now-iconic Gettysburg Address has become legend almost as much as Lincoln himself. Historians, political analysts, rhetoricians and fifth-graders have pored over the 272 words to glean insight into this granddaddy of all American speeches. It is possible to view the Address from many angles: some argue he was trying to gain the upper hand over the Confederacy on a moral basis; others argue that he suggested that the Declaration of Independence superseded the Constitution in authority. Other interpretations state that he insinuated the Civil War was being fought to protect the …

"Nobody Whups Me Now": Emancipation And Slave Identity In Mississippi, Daniel Hoer

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Long before the CIvil War drew to a close, slaves had been looking steadfastly towards the day they would be set free. Like Abe McKlennan, who anticipated the arrival of his freedom many years before it came, Dora Franks similarly recalled one day when she overheard her master telling his wife, Emmaline, "dat dey was gwinter have a bloody war and he was afeared dat all de slaves would be took away." Dora heard Emmaline declare that if this were true "she feel lak jumpin' in de well," and although Dora hated to hear her mistress say such things, she …

Bluegrass Grays: Confederate Sons And Unionist Fathers In Civil War Kentucky, Elise Petersen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

After clinging for four months to a futile neutrality policy, the Commonwealth of Kentucky officially pledged loyalty to the Union in September 1861. Though Federal officials welcomed the state with enthusiasm, expecting her to provide significant aid to the Union army, state commanding officer William T. Sherman was soon frustrated by the astonishing one-quarter of Kentucky volunteers who flocked, instead, to the Confederacy. Hardly lonely in his disappointment, Sherman's woes were echoed by thousands of fathers across the Bluegrass State-for these Kentuckian Confederates were, overwhelmingly, young sons of men who passionately supported the Union.

Frozen In Hell The Prisoner: Exchange Program's Influence On The Civil War, Carson Teuscher

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The Confederacy was on the edge, and union forces knew it. In the early months of 1865, General William T. Sherman had rippled through a crippled South on his way to Virginia, following his decisive "March to the Sea." Destroying supply lines and debilitating Confederate morale, Sherman arrived in Bentonville, North Carolina, in March. There, the war's fate hung in the balance: Union morale was at a peak, and soldiers were anxious for an end to the long, bloody conflict. After three long days of fighting, a private from Wisconsin's 31st Regiment, Johann Frenckmann, lay wounded among 4,738 other casualties. …

The Effectiveness Of The Freedmen’S Bureau In The Post-Civil War Era, Michalene M. Mcquide

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

My work began by reading Eric Foner’s A Short History of Reconstruction. This allowed me to pinpoint a topic of interest for this historiography. Once I chose the Freedmen’s Bureau, I developed a topic proposal and list of potential sources. Upon my professor's feedback, I condensed this list of sources and created an annotated bibliography. This bibliography was the backbone of my essay; it allowed me to identify and organize interpretive categories which formed my argument. As I began to shift my draft into a final version, I weaved a thesis into my topic proposal, which became my introduction. …

Catastrophe Of War, Sujit Kumar Singh, Ayushi Jaiswal

Critical Humanities

The paper selects the novel Palpasa Café (2005) by Nepali author Narayan Wagle to highlight the factors that contributed to the Maoist insurgency and counter-insurgency that punctured the Nepali consciousness. It will also critique Eurocentric trauma theory for diminishing the South Asian perspectives of trauma (incidents) from the main discourse of trauma theory. In addition, the paper will explore the detrimental impacts of war and conflict as experienced by Nepalese cops and civilians together, and its long-lasting imprint on their psyche as manifested in different forms of trauma in the text. The dissemination of the 'inarticulable trauma' concept into something …

California Assembly Bill 3121’S Claim For Black Redress: The Case For A State Truth And Reconciliation Commission And Housing Vouchers, Jessica Robertson

San Diego Law Review

On September 30, 2020, Assembly Bill 3121 (AB 3121) established the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans (Task Force). AB 3121 charges the Task Force with three duties: (1) identify and synthesize evidentiary documentation of “[t]he institution of slavery . . . that existed within the United States and the colonies that became the United States from 1619 to 1865, inclusive”; (2) recommend ways to educate the public of its findings; and (3) recommend “appropriate remedies in consideration of the task force’s findings on the matters described in this section.” Per these duties, the Task …

Understanding Discursive Framings Of Reparations For Slavery And Jim Crow, Carol Klier

San Diego Law Review

A meaningful reframing can be an effective tool for social change. The work of cognitive scientist and linguist, George Lakoff, explores the relationship between language use and the way we understand the world around us. Pertinent to the discussion of slave redress and reparations is the significance of discursive framing as a means of both promoting and dispelling worldviews. The manner in which we communicate particular ideas reveals much about how we conceptualize that subject. How we frame impacts the effectiveness of our messaging to others. As Lakoff indicates, “[F]acts matter enormously, but to be meaningful they must be framed …

Book Reviews, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

"Cry Aloud And Spare Not": William G. Brownlow, The "Fighting Parson" And His Cantankerous Spirit, Melanie Storie

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

Best known as the “Fighting Parson,” William G. Brownlow earned his sobriquet during his years as an early 19^th century, circuit-riding Methodist preacher in the southern Appalachians. E. Merton Coulter, renowned historian and Brownlow biographer, explained the “frontier man of God was a hard rider, a hard preacher, and a hard liver.” Thus, Brownlow learned very quickly how antagonizing his rivals served as a powerful tool in the contest of soul-winning on the frontier. This practice of verbally attacking his enemies was also used during his long public career in both journalism and politics. Consequently, for Brownlow, religion and …

Arkansas Related Civil War Holdings At Public Institutions Of Higher Education In The State, David Sesser

The Southeastern Librarian

An examination of a library collection using an existing comprehensive bibliography on a particular subject allows librarians to make collection development decisions. In this study, the collections of each public university in Arkansas is examined for Civil War related titles, compiled from two historiographical articles which appeared in the Arkansas Historical Quarterly. The results indicate that collections in the state contain a wide range of items included in the search. The data gathered in this project may help librarians at these institutions and others in the state determine what items need to be added to their respective collections in order …

A Skinful Of Shadows, Karen Abbott

Children's Book and Media Review

Makepeace can harbor the spirits of the dead. To enable her to protect herself, her mother forces Makepeace to spend nights alone in the cemetery. Makepeace rebels and runs away, but finds herself instead in a battle and is devastated when her mother follows and is killed. Penitent, she tries to allow her mother's spirit refuge within her, but captures the spirit of a confused performing bear instead. Unable to control the bear's spirit, she appears to have gone mad. Her aunt and uncle reach out to her mysterious father's family and they imprison her in the ancestral home. Makepeace's …

Last Of The Name, Taylor Nelson

Children's Book and Media Review

It's 1863, and twelve-year-old Danny O'Carolan and his sister, Kathleen, arrive in New York City, searching for freedom from the starvation and bloodshed they experienced daily in their Irish homeland. But what they find in America is not much different—the Civil War is raging, and the only available jobs for young boys seem to be in the army. Determined not to lose her only remaining family, Kathleen finds a job in domestic service for herself and her…sister. Danny reluctantly pretends to be a girl and works as a laundress, but occasionally sneaks off in his regular boy clothes to share …

Kindness In The Bardo: Empathy As A Catalyst For Healing In Victims Of Dissociation, Julia Dorothea Chopelas

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

In George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo, a host of undead characters find themselves in a spiritual limbo based on the bardo. Although they won’t admit it to themselves, Roger Bevins III and Hans Vollman are most certainly dead. Despite their supernatural makeup as ghosts, Bevins and Vollman bear strong psychological resonance with the living: they are human, heartbroken, and lost. For the ghosts of Oak Hills Cemetery, the inefficient coping mechanism of dissociation perpetuates their afterlife imprisonment in the bardo. Bevins and Vollman suffer from a variety of dissociative symptoms, their minds’ psychological defense against the trauma that has …

Truth And Reconciliation: The Ku Klux Klan Hearings Of 1871 And The Genesis Of Section 1983, Tiffany R. Wright, Ciarra N. Carr, Jade W.P. Gasek

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Over the course of seven months in 1871, Congress did something extraordinary for the time: It listened to Black people. At hearings in Washington, D.C. and throughout the former Confederate states, Black women and men—who just six years earlier were enslaved and barred from testifying in Southern courts—appeared before Congress to tell their stories. The stories were heartbreaking. After experiencing the joy of Emancipation and the initial hope of Reconstruction, they had been subjected to unspeakable horror at the hands of white terrorists. They had been raped and sexually humiliated. Their children and spouses murdered. They had been savagely beaten …

"A Quixote In Imagination Might Here Find...An Ideal Baronage": Landscapes Of Power, Enslavement, Resistance, And Freedom At Sherwood Forest Plantation, Lauren K. Mcmillan

Northeast Historical Archaeology

In the winter of 1862, two armed forces descended upon Fredericksburg; one blue, one gray. After suffering heavy losses during the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Union Army retreated to the northern banks of the Rappahannock River, making camp in Stafford County. From December 1862 until June 1863, the Union Army overran local plantations and small farm holdings throughout the area, including at Sherwood Forest, the home of the Fitzhugh family. Sherwood Forest was used as field hospital, a signal station, a balloon launch reconnaissance station, and a general encampment during the winter and spring of 1862/1863. Throughout the roughly six-month …

Reevaluating The Pension System: The Struggles Of Black Widows Following The Civil War, Samantha E. Carney

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

Following the Civil War, the United States government invested heavily in the U.S. Pension Bureau: a government agency that distributed monetary aid to wounded veterans. This paper discusses the impact of race and gender with regards to pensions in black communities, as evidenced by the pension files of the 34^th Regiment of the South Carolina United States Colored Troops. In particular, it addresses the lack of education and documentation amongst black widows which was largely due to their enslavement, in concert with the inherent racist and sexist prejudice of white Special Examiners hired by the Pension Bureau. This combination …

Broadside, 12 October 1861, Issued By Wilmot Gibbes Desaussure As Commander Of The Fourth Brigade, South Carolina Militia, South Caroliniana Library

The South Caroliniana Library Report of Acquisitions

No abstract provided.

Letter, 24 March 1873, Anderson County, Richard Williamson Grubbs To William Clement, Benton County, Arkansas, South Caroliniana Library

The South Caroliniana Library Report of Acquisitions

No abstract provided.

Jones Family Papers, 1837-2005, South Caroliniana Library

The South Caroliniana Library Report of Acquisitions

11.25 linear feet of correspondence, account books, receipts, photographs, and genealogical material chiefly relating to the families of Lewis Jones (1813–1892) and his wife Rebecca Margaret Jones (b. 1819) and their son Louis Pou Jones (1849–1890) and his wife Matilda Virginia Lomax (1851–1926) of Abbeville and Edgefield Counties, South Carolina.

Antebellum materials include:

Letters, 1843-1851, written by Matilda Lomax’s mother, Mary Elizabeth Duncan (1825–1851) describing her experiences at Buckingham Female Institute in Buckingham County, Virginia; her life in Boydton, Virginia, where she lived while her father David Duncan (1791–1881) taught at Randolph-Macon College; her life in Abbeville, South Carolina following …

Sadler Family Papers, 1836-1921, South Caroliniana Library

The South Caroliniana Library Report of Acquisitions

Correspondence, receipts, legal documents, and labor contracts chiefly documenting the lives of the family of Richard Sadler (1815–1890) and his wife Mary Henrietta Williams (1818–1896) of York County, S.C.

The earliest correspondence in the collection, dated 1846-1846, relates to family affairs and the settlement of the estate of Mary Robertson Sadler (1774–1842) and includes letters written to the Sadlers in York County from relatives in Alabama.

A significant portion of the correspondence are letters to and from Kiah Price Harris Sadler (1842–1864), the oldest son of Richard and Mary Sadler, while he was employed as a clerk in a mercantile …

The Experiences Of Black Soldiers During The Civil War: A Microhistorical Case Study Of The Demus Family, Tora Ueland

West Virginia University Historical Review

As with most researchable source material, the voices of minorities and marginalized groups are often unavailable, nonexistent, or heavily obscured by the voices of their more privileged counterparts. The Civil War, for instance, is studied through a predominantly white lens, despite the importance of African American soldiers, civilians, and enslaved individuals enveloped in this conflict. This paper aims to analyze the African American perspective on the Civil War (1861-1865) and early antebellum period through the words of these individuals and the experiences of David Demus, an infantryman in the all-black 54th Massachusetts Regiment, and his family. Utilizing correspondence, letters, military …

Lincoln And The Copperheads: The War For The North, Anthony Kellar

West Virginia University Historical Review

This work focuses on the role that Peace Democrats, also known as “Copperheads,” played in Northern dissent during the Civil War. This is done by analyzing public newspapers and journals from the time period that reveal the strategies used by the Copperheads to undermine the war effort in the North. It also compares the works of other notable historians, in particular Jennifer Weber and Mark Neely, to help determine how effective the Copperheads were in threatening Lincoln’s efforts to hold the Union together.

Abraham Lincoln And The Marathon Of Emancipation, Elijah Q. Fisher

Tenor of Our Times

This work explores the circumstances surrounding Abraham Lincoln's release of the Emancipation Proclamation in the context of the abolition movement and the Civil War. It explores many works of Abraham Lincoln and attempts to truly understand Lincoln's view on slavery. It also deals with the double edged sword of diplomacy that influenced the Emancipation Proclamation. Comparing and contrasting Lincoln's diplomatic relations with the border states and European nations, this work paints a clear picture of Lincoln and how he came to emancipate the slaves.

The Counterproductivity Of Protectionist Tariffs, David Korn

Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy

This paper questions whether protective tariffs are counterproductive as political-influence tools. This thesis will examine protective tariffs implemented throughout history in different circumstances and levels of technological development. In every case examined, the results and principles behind protective tariffs remain constant. The historical examples utilized in this research include Civil War taxes, the Smoot-Hawley tariff, and Trump’s tariffs against China in 2018. Each of these examples serve as consequential representations of protectionist tariff policy. Protectionist tariffs artificially raise prices and restrict markets while simultaneously propping up inefficient industries. Thus, this paper explores whether the benefits of protectionist tariffs justify their …

Heaven Hung In Black: Grant’S Reputation And The Mistakes At Cold Harbor, Samantha J. Kramer

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

This article examines Ulysses S. Grant’s command of the Union army after receiving his commission as Lieutenant-General through analyzing his decisions both before and during the bloody battle of Cold Harbor. By examining the various factors leading to his tactical decisions, including the ever-looming threat of the upcoming presidential election, the article questions whether or not his reputation as a butcher of his own men is truly deserved. That he made mistakes is undeniable, but the mess of Cold Harbor was not solely his fault. Through the use of a variety of biographies and personal journals and memoirs, the article …

Pittsburgh's Explosive Mystery: A New Holistic Study Of The Allegheny Arsenal Tragedy, Ethan J. Wagner

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

This research critically examines the issues surrounding the worst civilian disaster of the American Civil War, occurring on September 17, 1862 in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Here, seventy-eight teenage girls perished as the Allegheny Arsenal munitions laboratory exploded. Investigations in the disaster’s aftermath, and more recent analysis, have remained largely hesitant in placing chief blame as to its cause. Furthermore, for an event that would seem so significant, its story has inadequately been told. Given that the national spotlight was elsewhere at the time, as the Battle of Antietam was fought on the same day, existing literature has …

A Noble Duty: Ladies’ Aid Associations In Upstate South Carolina During The Civil War, Elizabeth Aranda, Carmen Harris

University of South Carolina Upstate Student Research Journal

The contributions of women during the American Civil War have been typically examined within the broader picture of a nation or state-wide mobilization of citizens during a time of war. In this paper, I seek to show the mobilization of women during the Civil War from a regionalized perspective limited to the Upcountry of South Carolina and the effect their development of aid societies had on the war as well as on their place as white women in the Confederacy. Female-run aid societies began for the purpose of gathering supplies for soldiers. Within two years they had founded hospitals and …

Analyzing The Interpretation Of The Civil War In Bluegrass Music, Carter W. Claiborne

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

While the Civil War has long fit well thematically within the existing bluegrass idiom, the way that bluegrass has approached the war over time has changed greatly. Despite bluegrass largely originating from areas with little enthusiasm for the Confederacy during the Civil War, and the genre not emphasizing partisan aspects of the war for several decades, several cultural changes culminated in the late 1960s to turn the genre on a heavily pro-Confederate tilt, with numerous songs in the early- to-mid 1970s glorifying the Confederate States of America and its leaders, while also emphasizing Lost Cause arguments. To see how this …