Arts and Humanities Commons^™

In Gettysburg, The Confederacy Won, Scott Hancock

Africana Studies Faculty Publications

Almost every day, I ride my bicycle past some of the over 1,300 statues and monuments commemorating the Civil War in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where I live. They are everywhere. None of them are of black people.

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought over three days in July of 1863, is often considered the turning point of a war fought over the fate of slavery in America. Black people ultimately were the reason why over 165,000 soldiers came to this Pennsylvania town in the first place. But on the battlefield, as far as the physical memorials, they disappear. (excerpt)

The Buffalo Soldiers, Kenneth Estes Hall

Kenneth Estes Hall

Excerpt: Despite the great success of the Civil War epic Glory, the story of the black troops during and after the War is not well known. This lack of exposure to popular familiarity is especially true of the Buffalo Soldiers who served on the frontier in the late 19th century, chiefly but not exclusively in the Indian Wars.

Civil War In The Delta: Environment, Race, And The 1863 Helena Campaign, George David Schieffler

Theses and Dissertations

“Civil War in the Delta” describes how the American Civil War came to Helena, Arkansas, and its Phillips County environs, and how its people—black and white, male and female, rich and poor, free and enslaved, soldier and civilian—lived that conflict from the spring of 1861 to the summer of 1863, when Union soldiers repelled a Confederate assault on the town. Scholars have been writing Civil War community studies since the 1960s, but few have investigated communities west of the Mississippi River. Historians also have written widely about Arkansas during the war, but there are no comprehensive studies of ...

What If The South Had Won The Civil War? 4 Sci-Fi Scenarios For Hbo's 'Confederate', Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

“What if” has always been the favorite game of Civil War historians. Now, thanks to David Benioff and D.B. Weiss — the team that created HBO’s insanely popular Game of Thrones — it looks as though we’ll get a chance to see that “what if” on screen. Their new project, Confederate, proposes an alternate America in which the secession of the Southern Confederacy in 1861 actually succeeds. It is a place where slavery is legal and pervasive, and where a new civil war is brewing between the divided sections. (excerpt)

Messer, George, 1833-1863 (Sc 3129), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and transcription (click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3129. Letter, 26 March 1863, of George Messer to his wife Lottie in DeWitt County, Illinois. From Camp Joe Kelly (the name changed, as he notes, to Camp Hobson) near Glasgow, Kentucky, he describes camp life, including the clearing of timber and his duty in the cold and rainy weather. He also praises the hospital facilities and describes a joke played on an officer who returned to camp without a pass. Expecting the war to end soon, he also writes of matters relating to home.

Vance, Edward Richard, 1833-1902 (Mss 612), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 612. Correspondence, diaries, scrapbooks, photographs and family papers of Richard Vance, a Warren County, Kentucky native and U.S. Army officer. After his Civil War service, Vance spent his career at several posts in the South and on the frontier until his retirement in 1892.

Cowing, Rufus Billings, 1840-1920 (Sc 3124), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3124. Letter, 21 February 1862, of attorney Rufus B. Cowing, New York City, to his mother. He encloses a letter from his brother (not included), who was then serving in the Union Army and would later be killed at the Battle of Chickamauga. Rufus notes his brother’s arrival in Bowling Green, Kentucky after “the enemy had run away.” Believing the war will soon end, he speculates on his brother’s future in business and writes of his own desire to be financially independent.

Loving, Hector Voltaire, 1839-1913 (Sc 3123), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text typescript (click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3123. Letter, 31 July 1862, of Hector V. Loving, Bowling Green, Kentucky, to Harlan P. Lloyd, Angelica, New York. He tells his former schoolmate of his law study and practice since graduation from New York’s Hamilton College, and particularly describes the uproar in his home town of Bowling Green, Kentucky at the outbreak of the Civil War: secessionist “treason,” the Confederate occupation, and the rebuilding of the city afterward. He also refers to their classmate and law student Daniel Webster Wright as a “violent” secessionist.

"Cracks In The Melting Pot": Native Americans, Military Service And Citizenship, Brittany A. Kelley

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This paper focuses on Native American military service in Euro-American Wars. It analyzes their reasons for fighting and compares those reasons to the reasons of other racial and ethnic groups. This paper explores how certain racial and ethnic groups are marginalized and “otherized” and how they occasionally attempt to assimilate into mainstream society through military service. Irish Americans and African Americans viewed the Civil War in this way, while Native Americans hoped they would be able to improve their individual situations. Native Americans fought for purposes of assimilation and citizenship in World War I, and while they were technically granted ...

Messer, George, 1833-1863 (Sc 3118), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text typescript (click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3118. Letter, 23-24 May 1862 [sic], of George Messer 107^th Illinois Infantry, to his wife Lottie in DeWitt County, Illinois. From Camp Hobson, Glasgow, Kentucky, he reports on his health and the possibility of battle, and mockingly describes the two-men “dogtents” issued to the troops. He also discusses recent promotions and the prospects for a military draft, notes the arrival of an Indiana regiment decimated at the Battle of Perryville, and criticizes "shoulder strap gentlemen” who take credit for soldiers’ achievements.

Decoration Days And Memorial Days, John M. Rudy

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

By the time he came to Adams County in 1909, John Esch had been a Wisconsin representative to the U.S. House of Representatives for two decades. But today was not just any ordinary day in the life of a congressman. Esch came to speak in the Soldiers' National Cemetery; it was Memorial Day. "Except for the difference in the number here," the Gettysburg Times noted after a note on shrinking attendance, "Memorial Day 1909 was little difference from those of former years." (excerpt)

A Compact With The Whales: Confederate Commerce Raiders And New Bedford’S Whaling Industry 1861-1865, Mark Mello

Honors Program Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Kitchcart, Mary L., 1837-1925 (Sc 3113), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3113. Correspondence of Mary L. Kithcart, Mount Pleasant, Ohio. A letter to her from Ella Hurst and Thornton Moore, 23 October 1862, reports on encounters between Confederates, including John Hunt Morgan, and Union troops near Lexington, Kentucky, Ella’s family’s aid to home guards, and the theft of horses and wagons.

A concerned Mary forwards the letter to a cousin with

details of one of the stolen horses.

Caught In The Headlights: Revising The Road Kill Hypothesis Of Antebellum Illinois Bank Failures, Scott N. Clayman, Scott Deacle, Andrew J. Economopoulos

Business and Economics Faculty Publications

Illinois had a dismal free banking experience, with over 80% of its free banks failing by the start of the Civil War. Researchers agree that a dramatic change in bond prices was the catalyst, and some have shown that the riskiest banks, ex ante, were the most likely to fail. This study examines how Illinois free banks adjusted their portfolios in the face of increased political and financial risks prior to Abraham Lincoln’s election as president. Lincoln’s nomination in May 1860 and the Democratic Party schism in June 1860 raised the likelihood of secession and the potential for ...

Education In The South: 1870-1930, Joe S. Mixon

Student Research

The fight for better education in the South after the Civil War was a long, arduous process. Illiteracy was at extreme levels as Reconstruction was under way. Many people in the South saw this and tried to remedy the problem as best they could. This paper will look at how education levels in the South increased through the eyes of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the United Confederate Veterans, the Cherokee Indians, and most important of all, Anne Bachman Hyde.

Rice, Laban Lacy, 1870-1973 (Mss 605), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 605. Correspondence, writings, hotographs, clippings, and papers of Laban Lacy Rice, a Webster, County, Kentucky native, educator, author, lecturer, poet, and president of Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee. Includes his scientific writing, principally on astronomy, relativity and cosmology, as well as fiction, poetry, and autobiographical writing. Also includes some correspondence and papers relating to his brother, poet and dramatist Cale Young Rice, and sister-in-law, author Alice Hegan Rice.

Potter, Hugh Oliver, 1905-1986 (Mss 602), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 602. Correspondence, research notes, book manuscripts, promotional material, and editorials related to Hugh O. Potter’s career as a radio broadcaster and his interests in Kentucky history, specifically Owensboro and Daviess County, and Abraham Lincoln. Includes one box of original legal documents (1783-1953) related to the Massie family of Daviess County.

Retroactive Definitions: The Problem With The Traditional Marriage Argument, Atticus Garrison

Religion: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Words often change meaning over time. For example, until the 1960s, the word “gay” meant “Light-hearted and carefree” or “Brightly coloured; showy”.[1] But after the 1960’s, the definition of “gay” drastically changed, to meaning a “homosexual.”[2] “When you're with the Flintstones, Have a yabba dabba-do time A dabba-do time, We'll have a gay old time!”[3] This means that when we look at the theme song for the classic cartoon The Flinstones, we should not apply our definition of what gay means to how it is used in the theme song. Definitions of marriage work ...

Right To Serve, Right To Lead: Lives And Legacies Of The Usct, Matthew D. Laroche, Hannah M. Christensen, Alexandria J. Andrioli, Jennifer A. Simone, Savannah G. Rose, Jonathan G. Danchik, Laurel J. Wilson, Jonathan E. Tracey, Danielle E. Jones, Ryan D. Bilger, Savannah A. Labbe

Civil War Institute Student Research

This is a catalog for an exhibit that follows the evolution of African-American participation in the Civil War, from slaves, to contrabands, to soldiers of the United States Colored Troops (USCT), as well as the lives of black veterans beyond the war, and their ultimate military and social legacy. Using a variety of period items, it creates a narrative that stretches from the Antebellum Period to the current day. In doing so, the exhibit shows how black sacrifice on the battlefield redefined the war's purpose throughout the divided nation, how Jim Crowe suppressed the memory of black participation after ...

Visual Culture Project: Confederate War Etchings: Searching For Arms By Adalbert Johann Volck, Lynn B. Hatcher

Student Publications

Adalbert Johann Volck’s 1861 sketch of Union soldiers, “Searching for Arms,” represents a substantial contribution to the narrative about gender relations during the American Civil War. This simple, small sketch offers the observer a window into the past. It is a collision of symbols and meaning—from gender to war to the household—all wrapped up in one image. This is a portrait sketch of a woman being invaded in her domestic, private sphere, revealing so much about gender relations during the time. The mistress herself seemed to embody a vast range of sentiments such as anger, fear, frailty ...

Visual Culture Analysis Of "The Last Ditch Of The Chivalry, Or A President In Petticoats", Sarah A. Hansen

Student Publications

This lithograph is a Northern depiction of the capture of former Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Titled "The Last Ditch of the Chivalry, or a President in Petticoats", and picturing Davis in a woman’s dress and bonnet, the Northern press painted Davis as a coward. Rather than being a man and standing up to the Union troops, Davis disguised himself as a woman and attempted to cowardly escape. Although in actuality Davis was wearing a rain jacket and shawl rather than a full dress and bonnet, the Northern press mocked him. This piece demonstrates the prominence of male Southern honor ...

Breaking The Silence: The Story Of The Ixil Maya Of Union Victoria During The Guatemalan Civil War, Megan Marcucci (Class Of 2017)

History Undergraduate Publications

In the spring of 2016 and in the spring of 2017, I went to southern Guatemala on a mission trip under the auspices of Sacred Heart University. Never having studied Guatemala or its history, I had no idea what type of turmoil plagued this beautiful country. After traveling high up in the mountains of Guatemala and hearing the story of one indigenous Ixil Maya village, I knew that their story needed to be told.

Waite, Martin Van Buren, 1843-1923 (Sc 3105), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3105. Letter, 14 September 1862, of Martin Waite to his brother Jonathan in Hortonville, Wisconsin. Camped with the 1^st Wisconsin Infantry near Bowling Green, he refers to aspects of camp life including inspections, procuring honey from bees, and an African-American cook, John Brown, who speaks of his abolitionist namesake. He remarks on how much he has seen of the world since becoming a soldier, expresses confidence in the power of the “blue tailed Yankees,” and asks Jonathan about exchanging greenbacks for gold or silver. Includes envelope imprinted with pro-Union image.

Morgan, William Montrose, 1842-1926 (Sc 3104), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding Aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3104. Letter, 12 January 1862, of Wisconsin volunteer Montrose Morgan to his sister and brother-in-law, Thomas and Orissa Harney. From Camp Wood in Kentucky, he writes of military forces in the area and the possibility of battle, the completion of a bridge across the Green River, and a recent meeting with Confederates under a flag of truce. He also refers to having Confederate major general Simon Bolivar Buckner “hop” (or “pop”) after an expected massing of Union forces.

Huntsman, John Wesley B., 1842-1918 - Relating To (Sc 3103), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding Aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3103. Papers relating to an application by John W. B. Huntsman, Allen County, Kentucky, for an increase in his Civil War veteran’s pension. Includes affidavits detailing Huntsman’s three gunshot wounds suffered during his service in the Union Army, Ninth Kentucky Infantry, his resulting health problems, and notices of pension increases.

Davis, Jefferson Finis, 1808-1889 - Letter To (Sc 3099), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3099. Letter from Kentucky secessionists James W. Moore, J. M. Burns, and Nathaniel M. Menifee to Confederate president Jefferson Davis, in which they request an urgent meeting with Davis to discuss Kentucky’s political situation. Research notes relating to this piece of correspondence and its circumstances are also included.

Fleming, Samuel, 1838-1916 (Sc 3095), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and full text (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3095. Letter from Union soldier Samuel Fleming, Camp Wood [Munfordville], Kentucky, to James C. Carnahan, in which he discusses a military engagement with Confederates at Green River, Kentucky. He mentions casualties for both sides. He also reports, by name, the death of a soldier from fever and soldiers sent to Louisville Hospital.

Bond, Thomas J. (Sc 3094), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding Aid and full text (Click on "Additional Files") for Manuscripts Small Collection 3094. Letter from Thomas Bond, Camp Wood [Munfordville], Hart County, Kentucky, to his parents, in which he relates a skirmish, including casualties, with Confederates near the Green River. He also mentions Simon Bolivar Buckner’s occupation of Bowling Green, Kentucky, and troop movements.

A Bid For Brotherhood: The Civil War And The Emergence Of The Lexington Triad, Jonathan G. Danchik

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

There is little controversy in claiming that the Civil War casts a long shadow. Whether you’re a history enthusiast, a reenactor, or even someone who doesn’t study history, it’s hard to completely get away from it. Shifts in political discourse and race relations are the most commonly discussed results of the conflict, but the war also brought about a considerable change in dominant moral philosophies that led to the establishment of several organizations, which continue to enjoy prominence to this day at different institutions of higher learning across the United States.

[excerpt]

Cannons And Columns: The Phoenix Iron Company And The Civil War, Laurel J. Wilson

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Anyone who has visited a Civil War battlefield is familiar with the sight of artillery pieces dotting the landscape, marking the places where artillery units were positioned on the field. Gettysburg National Military Park has one of the largest and most diverse collections of these now silent sentinels, ranging from bronze Napoleons to breech-loading Whitworth rifled guns. One of the most common types of cannon found at Gettysburg is the 3-inch Ordnance rifle. The Ordnance rifle is interesting for a number of reasons, not least of which are its connections to Phoenix Iron Company of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.

[excerpt]