Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Pate Family Correspondence (Sc 3697), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid, scans and typescripts of selected letters (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3697. Correspondence of the Pate family of Cloverport and “Brooks Bottom” in Breckinridge County, Kentucky, and of their relatives in the Ramsey and Brackin families (Ohio County), Butler family (Sumner County, Tennessee) and Benton family (Louisville, Kentucky). George L. Pate writes daughter Mary Jane (Pate) Ramsey of conflict with his son Samuel; of his grief over the death of another son in infancy; of the accidental shooting of a young man by his bride-to-be in 1863; and, in 1864, of an attack on …

“Go, Then, To The Front As Temperate Men:” The U.S. Army, Temperance Advocacy, And Lessons Learned To 1873, Megan M.S. Nishikawa

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation examines the long history of attempted liquor controls applied within the American army, from pre-revolution to the Civil War, culminating with a close look at the Union’s Army of the Potomac. This work details how the Union’s battle to control the effects of intoxicating liquors and sober up drunk troops from the commencement of hostilities in 1861 to 1865 reflected the historic efforts of the antebellum temperance movement, and describes how the experience of war prepared the next generation of temperance crusaders to rebuild a more profoundly religious, effective, and female driven temperance movement in the post-war decade.

A Jus In Bello Comparison Of Lee’S Gettysburg Campaign And Sheridan’S Valley Campaign, Jonathan Scott Thomas

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Just War Theory distinguishes between two levels of war, including jus ad bellum, or the just reasons for which the war is waged, and jus in bello, or just actions within the conduct of the war. This research paper focuses on jus in bello aspects of war, including non-combatant immunity, military necessity, and proportionality, in application to an understanding of history, that of the American Civil War. A significant question in this regard is how did commanders and their armies lead and conduct themselves in concern and adherence to the rules of warfare during campaigns in enemy territory? While the …

¡Si Nicaragua Venció, El Salvador Vencerá!: A Comparative Analysis Of The Nicaraguan Revolution And The Salvadoran Civil War, Edrei Pena

Honors Theses

This thesis compares the history of the Nicaraguan Revolution and the Salvadoran Civil War in order to understand why Nicaragua had success, unlike El Salvador. I analyze the history by focusing on four factors I believe are important for a successful revolution. These factors are broad multi-class alliances, military strength and strategy, the role of the Church, and external influences. Through this, I find that the factor of class alliances is the most crucial for a successful revolution to take place. The Sandinistas in Nicaragua had these broad class alliances while the FMLN in El Salvador did not.

The Railsplitter And The Pathfinder: The Relationship Between Abraham Lincoln And John C. Frémont, Kourtney Yantis

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

This study serves as an analysis of the connections between Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States and John Charles Frémont as a Civil War general. Lincoln’s position within history is solid, unlike that of John C. Frémont. The thesis will elevate Frémont to a higher status as a historical figure by arguing that the emancipation edict that he issued for Missouri in August of 1861 would influence Abraham Lincoln’s preliminary emancipation proclamation of September 1862, even though Lincoln repealed Frémont’s decree. In biographies of each man, their interactions are merely a small part of the stories of their …

Analyzing The Relationship Between Aid Agencies And The Union Army In Civil War Arkansas From 1862 To 1865, Kimberly Green

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

This thesis examines the administration of Arkansas’s contraband camps. The Union Army originally failed Black refugees in their quest for freedom as it was unprepared for the large number of African Americans seeking protection and guidance from the army. Arkansas historians have analyzed the effect the war had on the state as a whole and the operation of the Freedmen’s Bureau, but none of these works detail the various agencies that worked with federal authorities. This thesis follows the Western Sanitary Commission and the American Missionary Association as they assisted the federal government by providing supplies and forming partnerships with …

Hitchcock, William, 1843-1913 (Sc 3689), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and typescripts (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3689. Letters of William Hitchcock, Sharon (Potter County), Pennsylvania to his wife during his service with the 136th New York Infantry. He writes primarily from North Carolina of victories at Fort Fisher and Fort Anderson, including the arrival of several African Americans seeking shelter at Fort Fisher. Includes an 1864 family letter fearing the military draft, and a letter from an Army surgeon to Hitchcock’s wife regarding his recovery from typhoid.

Osborne Family Letters (Sc 3688), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3688. Letters, 1864, of Frank Osborne, Oneida County, New York, written during his Civil War service. Working in a quartermaster’s office in Hilton Head, South Carolina, he discusses the future with his father and urges him to seek business opportunities during the war; he also refers to his brother Galen’s work in the newspaper business. Includes an 1863 letter from his father to New York Governor Horatio Seymour asking for the discharge of his son “Benjamin Franklin Osborne” after he was mustered into service on a false certificate; and an 1861 letter from …

Martin, Laforest John, 1844-1862 (Sc 3687), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3687. Letters, 1861-1862, of LaForest Martin, Oneida County, New York, written to his family while serving with the 26th New York Volunteers. He writes from Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland of his illness; drunkenness and desertion among the troops; and engagements with the Confederates, especially at Antietam. Includes an 1856 family letter; a subscription list of locals pledging to pay Martin's expenses to rejoin his regiment after his illness; and a letter to his father from a friend offering sympathy at the news of Martin’s death at the Battle of Fredericksburg. Some of …

Peckham, L. H. (Sc 3690), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3690. Letter, 23 May 1862, to “Anson” from L. H. Peckham, in camp at Fredericksburg, Virginia. He describes the massing of Union troops in the area in anticipation of a march on Richmond, and the construction of railroad, plank and pontoon bridges. He also remarks on the recent visit of President Lincoln, whose “smiling countenance was met with many cheers by our Troops here, but with dismay by the citizens.”

The Civil War Conflict Between Anglophones/Francophones In The Northwest And Southwest Regions Of Cameroon, Myriam Jeter

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The Civil War conflict between Anglophones and Francophones, also known as the Ambazonia war, is a long-standing issue that continues to plague the people living in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon. This paper explores the colonial history of the nation, the cause of the ongoing conflict, the reasons for its escalation, and how it gave rise to the Ambazonian separatists who want to have a separate nation called the Ambazonia Republic.

This study contributes to conflict understanding in two ways. First, it sheds light on the cultural and economic impacts of internally generated crises in a country. Second, …

Is Hindsight 20/20? Reconsidering Popular Perceptions Of Civil War Surgeons, Miller Bacon

History Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper provides a cursory examination of the history and truth of the modern “butcher” stereotype associated with Civil War surgeons. Beginning with a review of modern examples of the stereotype in cinema, educational materials, children’s literature, and academic literature, this thesis further provides a detailed historical analysis of the source of this stereotype in the nineteenth century. This analysis completes the cultural analysis present within the paper by demonstrating the presence of the “butcher” stereotype in Civil War era newspapers and literature.

Finally, after the cultural analysis of the modern stereotype and its historical roots in the nineteenth century, …

The Lost Cause And The Commonwealth: The United Daughters Of The Confederacy And Forging Civil War Memory In Kentucky., Emma Donaghy

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

For over a century, the Kentucky division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy has worked to instill the Lost Cause myth of the Confederacy in the state’s public schools, libraries, and places where a white child could learn about the past. Few scholars have studied the activities of the Kentucky division of the UDC, although some of the organization’s most influential work took place in the state, and the organization’s national founder, Caroline Meriwether Goodlett, was born in Todd County, Kentucky. This honors thesis offers an in-depth examination of the work of the Kentucky division, drawing from the rich …

From Enslaver To White Savior: The Blackford Family And The Memory Of The American Colonization Society, Helen Dhue

Student Research Submissions

Part of the same family but with a generation dividing them, Mary Berkeley Minor Blackford and her grandson, Launcelot Minor Blackford Junior, shared much of the same sentiment toward the American Colonization Society (ACS). Mary, active in the ACS before the Civil War, supported the organization despite criticisms wielded by abolitionists of the period. Mary looked to the ACS for salvation from discussions about the morality of enslavement while enjoying the comforts that the thought of an all-white America brought her. Launcelot, writing fifty years after Mary’s passing at the beginning of an emerging national conversation about Black civil rights, …

Neely, John W., 1836-1916 (Sc 737), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 737. Amnesty oath of John W. Neely, Simpson County, Kentucky, a member of Terry’s Texas Rangers, signed in Fort Bend County, Texas, 1866, and a page from The Dallas Morning News, 16 December 1892, about the Terry’s Texas Rangers' reunion.

Liberty Without Love: An Investigation Of Antebellum Slave Narratives And American Freedom, Hallie Rogers

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Liberty Without Love: An Investigation of Antebellum Slave Narratives and American Freedom investigates the social, political, and economic contexts in which some slaves chose to stay with their former enslavers after emancipation. For many, the decision relied on two factors, the historical events taking place, and a slave's perception and feelings about these events. Liberty Without Love investigates historical events such as the Emancipation Proclamation, 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments along with the creation of sharecropping, black codes and refugee camps. In conjunction is an investigation of personal narratives surrounding these events from the WPA "Born into Slavery" Collection.

Hobson, William Edward, 1844-1909 (Sc 3684), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3684. Treasury Department and Post Office Department correspondence and appointments relating to William E. Hobson’s service as a Claims Agent, Assessor of Internal Revenue for the Third Collection District of Kentucky, and Postmaster at Bowling Green, Kentucky.

American Military Cemeteries: Temples Of Nationalism And Civic Religion, Kyler James Webb

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Beginning with the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg and the address given by Abraham Lincoln, American military cemeteries would have a dual objective to honor nationalism and expand civic religion. Military cemeteries have been on the leading edge of accomplishing ideals such as equality during their construction, implementation, and development. As military cemeteries were created both domestically and on foreign soil between 1860-1960 they became temples to honor nationalism and civic religion.

Farmer, Eugenia (Berniaud), 1835-1924 (Sc 3677), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3677. Biographical data on Eugenia B. Farmer, who worked for woman suffrage in Covington, Kentucky before moving to St. Paul, Minnesota. Includes Farmer’s address, “A Voice from the Civil War,” read at the 1918 Minnesota Woman Suffrage Convention; clippings from St. Paul newspapers; and a 2016 article from the Northern Kentucky Tribune. Also includes death certificates for Farmer and her husband.

Hodge, James H., 1843?-1924 (Sc 3675), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid, scans and typescripts (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3675. Letters (3), written by James Hodge to his mother in Warren County, Kentucky, while serving with the 11th Kentucky Infantry, U.S.A. Writing from Tennessee just before the Battle of Bean’s Station, and from Kentucky and Georgia, he tells of engaging the enemy at Knoxville, of enduring "hard times" and reduced rations, and of his wish to return home to see her. Includes his 1924 obituary.

Kirby Family Papers (Mss 749), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 749. Papers of the Kirby family of Warren County, Kentucky, especially Sarah Jane “Jennie” Kirby, her son Percy Warren Kirby, and his grandson Joseph W. Harris. Includes some genealogical data collected by Jennie.

Robert Heller’S Magical Mystery Tours, Jessie Fillerup

Music Faculty Publications

Robert Heller, a virtually unknown figure in music-historical accounts, trained in the 1840s at the Royal Academy of Music in London and gave the American premieres of Beethoven’s Fourth and Fifth Piano Concertos with the Germania Musical Society. But he also pursued a parallel career in theatrical magic, using his musical virtuosity to elevate his social and artistic stature as a conjurer. Between 1852 and 1878, his magic act was seen by millions in Europe, East Asia, and the United States, including states and territories in the American West never visited by contemporary piano virtuosos like Thalberg and De Meyer. …

Enduring The Elements: Civil War Soldiers’ Struggles Against The Weather, Cameron Boutin

Theses and Dissertations--History

This dissertation is an environmental history that studies the variety of ways that soldiers in the American Civil War experienced the pressures of weather over the course of their military service. For the troops of the U.S. and Confederacy, the weather was more than simply a passive backdrop to their time in the military, but a central preoccupation. This dissertation analyzes how weather intersected with some of the most central experiences of soldiering – tent camping and winter quarters, marching, bivouacking, manning sentry posts and field fortifications, and fighting in battles. Life in Civil War armies consisted of all of …