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Madden, Cornelius J., 1842-1903 (Sc 3494), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Madden, Cornelius J., 1842-1903 (Sc 3494), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and typescript of letter (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3494. Letter, 17 November 1862, to his mother from Cornelius Madden, serving with the 102nd Ohio Infantry at Bowling Green, Kentucky. He describes an increase in patrols and fortifications precipitated by rumors of guerrilla leader John Hunt Morgan’s presence in the area. Anticipating an encampment for the winter, he suggests his mother and other “widows” send a box of provisions, prepaid in order to save expense. He reports hearing nothing of his father, also in military service, who he believes to be at Nashville, Tennessee. …
Gray, John H. (Sc 3483), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Gray, John H. (Sc 3483), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and full-text scan of typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3483. Letter, 15 October 1862, to his family from John H. Gray, serving with the 101st Indiana Infantry. He describes his experiences en route to Perryville, Kentucky in the wake of the recent battle there: the lack of rations that required improvisation when preparing meals, the prevalence of diarrhea (“the quick step”) among the troops, and his hospitalization at Perryville, where he sees the decaying body of a Confederate soldier, houses and hospitals full of suffering wounded, piles of spent ammunition, and destruction of …
Warr, Joseph W., 1836-1864 (Sc 3482), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Warr, Joseph W., 1836-1864 (Sc 3482), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and typescript (Click on “Additional Files” below for Manuscripts Small Collection 3482. Letter, 11 February 1862, to his mother and siblings from Joseph Warr, Company A, 2nd Minnesota Volunteers. From Somerset, Kentucky, he writes of troop movements toward Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he expects a victorious battle. He describes a recent encounter with Confederate forces crossing the Cumberland River and the severe wounds of those taken prisoner, but declares that the enemy would otherwise have shown no mercy. He notes the long knives of the Confederates (“Mississippi toothpicks”) and the homemade quality of their uniforms. He also urges …
Bate Family Papers (Mss 673), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Bate Family Papers (Mss 673), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 673. Correspondence, business, and legal papers of various members of the Bate family of Sumner County, Tennessee. Some of the children are located in San Augustine, Texas. Most of the correspondence centers around the mother, Ann Franklin (Weatherred) Bate and her children, particularly Eugenia Patience (Bate) Bass Bertinatti and Humphrey Howell Bate, and to a lesser degree their siblings. Includes extensive documentation about the financial and legal condition of Bertinatti after the Civil War. The originals are in the Tennessee State Library & Archives, Nashville, Tennessee.
Perry Collection (Mss 676), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Perry Collection (Mss 676), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 676. Letters, papers, photographs and scrapbooks of the Perry family, principally Gideon Babcock Perry, rector of Grace Episcopal Church, Hopkinsville, Kentucky and his children, Reverend Henry G. Perry, Chicago, Illinois, and Emily B. Perry, Hopkinsville.
Knott Family Papers (Mss 675), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Knott Family Papers (Mss 675), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 675. Papers and photographs of James Proctor Knott, Lebanon, Kentucky, and his wife Sarah "Sallie" (McElroy) Knott. Includes two journals of Sallie Knott covering the first eight years of their marriage (Click on "Additional Files" below to view typescripts), and miscellaneous papers of a related family, the Clarks.
Hardesty, Isaac Ellis, 1841-1917 (Sc 3464), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Hardesty, Isaac Ellis, 1841-1917 (Sc 3464), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and typescripts (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3464. Letters, 11 September 1862 and 4 April 1863, to his family from Isaac Hardesty, serving with the 99th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. From camp near Covington, Kentucky, he reports on his health and his efforts to have his clothing shipped home; he also describes his fortified camp, the sounds of battle nearby, the dangers posed to pickets, and his pleasure at glimpsing his home state from the nearby hills. From Louisville, Kentucky, he writes of his painful arm and his longing to be at home, but without …
Adams, Marion Lee, 1930-2013 - Collector (Sc 3462), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Adams, Marion Lee, 1930-2013 - Collector (Sc 3462), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3462. Revolutionary War pension claim of Richard Wade, Cumberland County, Kentucky; and Civil War military service record of John Crittenden Bolin, Russell County, Kentucky.
Reppert, Charles Kramer, 1842-1921 (Sc 3456), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Reppert, Charles Kramer, 1842-1921 (Sc 3456), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3456. Letter, 24 July 1864, of Charles K. Reppert, Louisville, Kentucky, to his brother William E. Reppert, then serving with a Pennsylvania cavalry company at Nashville, Tennessee. He reports on the progress of their business making and marketing “Silver Pearl Soap,” the difficulty of trade in Kentucky without proof of loyalty to the Union, and his hopes to eventually sell the business. He also remarks on an upcoming military draft and that “the Negro Enlistments have cleared Kentucky.”
Obetz, Jeremiah H., 1843-1923 (Sc 3444), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Obetz, Jeremiah H., 1843-1923 (Sc 3444), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and full-text scan of transcriptions (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3444. Letters of Jeremiah H. Obetz, Manheim, Pennsylvania, to his former employer Henry C. Gingrich, written during his service with the 9th Pennsylvania (Lochiel) Cavalry at Camp Dunham near Bowling Green, Kentucky, and at Camp Andy Johnson near Jeffersonville, Indiana. Obetz describes the pursuit of Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan, the death of a comrade, camp life, and his confidence that England could not interfere successfully against the Union. He also reports on the strength of fortifications at recently recaptured Bowling Green. Suffering from …
Gibble, Harrison H., 1822-1898 (Sc 3443), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Gibble, Harrison H., 1822-1898 (Sc 3443), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Letter, 5 January 1862, of Harrison Gibble, 79th Pennsylvania Infantry, to his friend Henry Gingrich in Manheim, Pennsylvania. From Camp Wood, Munfordville, Kentucky, Gibble writes of the cold weather, the repair of a bridge across the Green River that had been destroyed by Confederates, the construction of floating bridges, and his company’s anticipated move to Cave City, Kentucky. He also relays reports of Confederate withdrawal toward Nashville and of 5,000 sick in hospital at Bowling Green. He mentions the names of other Manheim soldiers in his regiment, asks Gingrich to draw funds for his wife out of his next pay, …
Gray, John H. (Sc 3445), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Gray, John H. (Sc 3445), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3445. Letter, 17 October [1862], to his sister Jennie from John H. Gray, serving with the 101st Indiana Infantry. Recovering in hospital at Perryville, Kentucky after an arduous march, he describes conditions in the aftermath of the Battle of Perryville: property damage, unburied dead, Confederate prisoners of war, the suffering of the wounded, and shortages of food and water. He regrets being unable to recuperate without benefit of a furlough and, as he prepares to rejoin his regiment, refers sarcastically to the “lovely war.”
Newcomb, Horatio Dalton, 1809-1874 (Sc 3437), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Newcomb, Horatio Dalton, 1809-1874 (Sc 3437), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3437. Letter, 9 March 1863, from H. D. Newcomb, Louisville, Kentucky, to Sumner(?) Wells, Chicopee, Massachusetts, asking for help in locating a suitable house for his sister in nearby Springfield. Newcomb also offers his thoughts on the Civil War: his proximity to its “desolating influences” in contrast to New England; the disunion perpetrated by the “imbecile abolitionists” of the Lincoln Administration; the corruption of the government; the financial perils of the war; and the necessity for a negotiated peace with the Confederacy.
Johnson, Samuel F. (Sc 3442), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Johnson, Samuel F. (Sc 3442), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and full-text scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3442. Telegram, 17 October [1864], from Hopkinsville, Kentucky of Lieutenant Colonel Samuel F. Johnson to Colonel Cicero Maxwell in Bowling Green, Kentucky. He advises that Confederate General Hylan B. Lyon’s troops are in Providence, Kentucky “sweeping every horse mule & man in their course.” Johnson asks for mounted troops and a supply of ammunition to be sent to him at Russellville, Kentucky, failing which Lyon’s troops “will get out with their plunder & hundreds of recruits.”
Griffin, Lowell M. (Mss 669), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Griffin, Lowell M. (Mss 669), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 669. Civil War related material, chiefly recorded audio presentations to the Louisville Civil War Round Table of which Lowell Griffin was a member. Also includes some news clippings about the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln as well as transcripts of several presentations on Civil War topics.
Todd, Theophilus Law, 1841-1963 (Sc 3435), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Todd, Theophilus Law, 1841-1963 (Sc 3435), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3435. Letter, 19-21 September 1862, from Theophilus L. Todd to his sister Agnes Jane Todd. Camped near Louisville, Kentucky while serving with the 93rd Ohio Infantry, Todd thanks her for a package of food and clothing. He describes his surroundings and camp life, including the friendly reception the troops received in Louisville and competition between the camp sutler and local women in the sale of foodstuffs. He also writes critically of the behavior of Brigadier General James S. Jackson during a lengthy and tiresome review of the brigade.
Mcbride, John Randolph, 1841-1912 (Sc 3433), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Mcbride, John Randolph, 1841-1912 (Sc 3433), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3433. Letter, 1 May 1862, of John R. McBride to Lucas F. Smith, Bluffton, Indiana. Serving with the 33rd Indiana Volunteers, McBride describes the march from Lexington, Kentucky to their present encampment near Cumberland Ford on the Cumberland River, and the current command structure. He asks about Bluffton’s young women and lightheartedly complains about the absence of eggs from his diet. He also recalls his fortunes after leaving Bluffton, which included a year of homesickness and then enlistment for service in order to return home “with a …
Daniel, Hannah (Lewis) Hawkins, 1833-1870 (Sc 3413), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Daniel, Hannah (Lewis) Hawkins, 1833-1870 (Sc 3413), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below" for Manuscripts Small Collection 3413. Letter, 31 October 1864, of Hannah Hawkins Daniel, Poplar Plains (Fleming County), Kentucky, to her brother Dr. Henry H. Lewis, Salt Lick (Bath County), Kentucky. She writes of a possible raid on Flemingsburg, and of the fate of a party of looters in the area. She also laments the difficulties of horse travel, reports hearing of conflict over the military draft from a correspondent in Iowa, and invites a member of Lewis’s household to visit “if there are no Rebs between here & there.”
Fleming, Peter F., B. 1842? (Sc 3392), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Fleming, Peter F., B. 1842? (Sc 3392), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3392. Letter, 7 December 1862, from Peter Fleming of the 96th Illinois Volunteers, Company E, to his friend Thomas Elliott. From Camp Beard at Danville, Kentucky, he writes of the cold weather, the good turnpike roads, the presence of troops in the vicinity, and the satisfactory food supply. He also mentions the names of several of his comrades in Company E.
Messer, George, 1833-1863 (Sc 3385), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Messer, George, 1833-1863 (Sc 3385), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and full text transcript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3385. Letter, 14 December 1862, of George Messer, 107th Illinois Infantry, to his wife Lottie in Clinton, Illinois. He describes the march to camp near Munfordville, Kentucky, the layout of the camp, and nearby graves, the result of an earlier engagement. He outlines the position of other troops in the area and lists the names of several men who have deserted from his company. He makes some critical remarks about his father at home and expresses confidence in Lottie’s ability to manage his domestic affairs.
Clarke, Marcellus Jerome, 1844-1865 - Relating To (Sc 3393), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Clarke, Marcellus Jerome, 1844-1865 - Relating To (Sc 3393), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid for Manuscripts Small Collection 3393. Clippings, some typescripted from unidentified sources, and letters about the identity and exploits of Confederate guerrilla “Sue Mundy,” the alias of Simpson County, Kentucky native Jerome Clarke. Topics covered include his family, career, burial place, the origin of the name “Sue Mundy,” and the resulting confusion over whether “Sue” was actually a woman. Also includes an abstract of the U.S. War Department’s record of his court martial.
Johnston, Joseph E., 1875-1970 (Sc 3382), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Johnston, Joseph E., 1875-1970 (Sc 3382), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3382. Letters of Joe E. Johnston, Pleasureville, Kentucky, to Mary Ellen Richards, Franklin, Kentucky. He discusses his activities, his book Life Begins at Eighty, and his father, Captain I. N. Johnston, an escapee from Virginia’s Libby Prison during the Civil War. Includes clippings about Johnston and his father.
Rice, Bertha Eleanor (Adams), 1875-1948 (Mss 661), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Rice, Bertha Eleanor (Adams), 1875-1948 (Mss 661), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 661. Genealogical research and correspondence files of Bertha (Adams) Rice, Russellville, Kentucky, mainly regarding the ancestry of Logan County, Kentucky families. Includes a large amount of data copied from deed, marriage, will, and court records of Logan and other Kentucky counties, and from published works.
Civil War Collections In Manuscripts & Folklife Archives At Western Kentucky University, Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Civil War Collections In Manuscripts & Folklife Archives At Western Kentucky University, Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
This is a list of collections in the Manuscripts & Folklife Archives holdings of WKU’s Department of Library Special Collections that relate to the Civil War. Included are letters and diaries of soldiers and civilians, military records and papers, and other, mostly unpublished material. Our collections are particularly strong on Bowling Green, Kentucky’s Civil War history and in documenting the experiences of Kentuckians or those who passed through Kentucky and surrounding states during the war.
Messer, George, 1833-1863 (Sc 3332), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Messer, George, 1833-1863 (Sc 3332), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3332. Letters of George Messer to his wife Lottie, written while serving with the 107th Illinois Infantry. Writing on 7-9 December 1862 from Camp Waller near Elizabethtown, Kentucky, where part of his regiment is guarding the railroad, he describes the camp and includes a sketch; he also writes of two desertions, of procuring some fresh meat, of an officer who has contracted a venereal disease, and of the local populace who he finds “at least one half century behind the times.” In a letter of 25 July …
Redfern, Alfred Francis, 1848-1913 (Sc 3327), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Redfern, Alfred Francis, 1848-1913 (Sc 3327), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3327. Letter, 24 December 1863, to his parents from Alfred Redfern, serving at Point Isabel, Kentucky with the 91st Indiana Volunteers. He reports orders to march to Knoxville, Tennessee, despite his hopes of remaining at the now-fortified camp until he is mustered out. He also reports on receipt of money and other gifts from home, sending some of his pay to a friend in New Albany, and the likelihood of a poor Christmas dinner of fat pork and crackers.
Hebron, John L., 1842-1914 (Sc 3323), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Hebron, John L., 1842-1914 (Sc 3323), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and typescript for Manuscripts Small Collection 3323. Letter, 20 February 1862, from John L. Hebron to his mother in Steubenville, Ohio. He reports his regiment’s arrival on the outskirts of Bowling Green, Kentucky, taken from Confederate forces “without firing a gun,” and describes attempting to cross a ruined bridge, his living quarters in a deserted house, and available food supplies. In a 25 February postscript from Nashville, Tennessee, he writes of the troops’ continued lack of success in crossing the river into Bowling Green, and mentions reports that the Confederates plan to “make a stand” south of Nashville. …