American Studies Commons^™

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 …

Ms-289: John D. Rentz Civil War Diary, Danielle S. Russell

All Finding Aids

John D. Rentz’s Civil War diary chronicles the time he spent with the 96th Pennsylvania Infantry between December 26, 1863, and September 6, 1864. The diary details a wide array of information pertaining to his life with the regiment and the progress of the Civil War.

Rentz’s pension letter is very simple, merely asking for B. Penrose’s assistance with securing a renewal of his pension. The “Rebel letter” written by Margaret Jones to Joseph King is also simple, providing a few details about the rainy weather, the progress of the crops, and expressing Jones’s desire to see her brother.

The …

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 …

A Religious Interpretation Of The American Civil War As Evidenced By Biblical Language In Songs And Hymns, Alyson J. Punzi

Channels: Where Disciplines Meet

Both Union and Confederate soldiers claimed the same moral confidence about being on the right side of the American Civil War. Significant studies have evaluated the religiosity of the Civil War, but the religious content of songs and hymns, namely their use of biblical language has not been studied for the insight into a religious interpretation of the war they provide. Because the moral claims appear in songs and hymns and utilize biblical language to interpret the conflict, their role in the war, and the expected outcome, this research is important to provide a full understanding of religion’s role in …

Review, Surveillance And Spies In The Civil War: Exposing Confederate Conspiracies In America’S Heartland, By Stephen E. Towne, Evan Rothera

Secrecy and Society

Review of Stephen E. Towne's Surveillance and Spies in the Civil War: Exposing Confederate Conspiracies in America’s Heartland.

Warren, Kaye (Fa 1150), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1150. Student folk studies project titled “From Slavery to Freedom for the Negro Race in Logan County [Kentucky]” which includes survey sheets with a brief description of African American life in Logan County, Kentucky. Sheets may include interviews, written records, photographs, informant’s name, age, and address.

The Relationship Between The Methodist Church, Slavery And Politics, 1784-1844, Brian D. Lawrence

Theses and Dissertations

The Methodist church split in 1844 was a cumulative result of decades of regional instability within the governing structure of the church. Although John Wesley had a strict anti-slavery belief as the leader of the movement in Great Britain, the Methodist church in America faced a distinctively different dilemma. Slavery proved to be a lasting institution that posed problems for Methodism in the United States and in the larger political context. The issue of slavery plagued Methodism from almost its inception, but the church functioned well although conflicts remained below the surface. William Capers, James Osgood Andrew, and Freeborn Garrettson …

John H. Vincent: The Other Co-Founder Of Chautauqua, Timothy S. Binkley

Bridwell Library Research

This address, delivered at the Chautauqua Institution Hall of Philosophy on July 20, 2018, reviews the life of John Heyl Vincent (1832-1920) and his relationship to the Chautauqua Institution. Vincent was an American Methodist clergyman and bishop and a leading figure in the Sunday School movement. In 1874 Vincent and businessman Lewis Miller (1829-1899) established an innovative, trans-denominational Sunday School teachers’ training event on the shores of Lake Chautauqua in southwestern New York state. Under the leadership of Vincent and Miller, that event developed into the Chautauqua Institution: an annual summer-long celebration of the arts, religion, education, and recreation, and …

Forggett, Essie (Fa 1104), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1104. Student paper titled “Slavery in Green County” in which Essie Forggett details the history of the settlement of Green County and its eventual dependence upon slave labor. Forggett also includes stories of slave auctions, punishments, attempted escapes, and religious practices of slaves throughout the region. Paper is based on information collected by Forggett from county clerk records and in-person interviews with slave descendants.

Beninger, John, 1850-1922 (Sc 3133), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3133. Notebook containing original and copied poetry by John Beninger, a native of Ohio County, Kentucky. Beninger resided in Versailles, Kentucky, for a number of years, and several of the poems refer to people or places in that community. Beninger often mentions the source of his poem’s inspiration and the date he penned it. Mr. Beninger is buried in the McCord Cemetery in Ohio County, Kentucky.

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

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 605. Correspondence, writings, photographs, 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.

"Or This Whole Affair Is A Failure": A Special Treasury Agent's Observations Of The Port Royal Experiment, Port Royal, South Carolina, April To May, 1862, Michael Edward Scott Emett

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This thesis covers two critical months (April and May, 1862) during the Port Royal Experiment, which took place during the Civil War in the Sea Islands of South Carolina. This abolitionist-influenced experiment has been enriched by numerous primary sources from a range of people: military officials, General Superintendents of the Treasury, abolitionists and educators. However, this topic has been missing one important source: Special Treasury Agents. These men implemented the orders of various groups involved with the Experiment. The unpublished papers of one such agent, James Severance, provides a new depth in Port Royal analysis. This firsthand account shows the …

"Let Us Bury And Forget:" Civil War Memory And Identity In Cabell County, West Virginia, 1865-1915, Seth Adam Nichols

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This thesis covers the events of the Civil War in Cabell County, West Virginia, and how those events were remembered by the county’s residents in the decades after the war. It provides a brief look at the early development of the county and how its inhabitants sought to exploit the county’s topography in order to facilitate commercial investment in the region. Cabell Countians were deeply divided and several skirmishes between Union and Confederate forces produced a time of terror and hardship. When the war was over, Cabell Countians sought a return to normality and to renew projects that might bring …

Developing Civil War Washington, Katherine L. Walter, Elizabeth M. Lorang, Stacy Rickel, Karin Dalziel

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

The Civil War Washington project team at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln includes scholars, librarians, technologists, and students, both undergraduate and graduate. Individuals are affiliated with the English and History Departments, the University Libraries, the School of Geography, and the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities. Our successes as a team can be attributed to many things, including sound project management and the fact that our participants have been committed to achieving set goals. Most important, the interdisciplinary nature of the team has been highly advantageous in the research itself and in creating the composite web site.

The project was …

All Things Were Working Together For My Deliverance: The Life And Times Of Twelve Years A Slave, Mary Niall Mitchell

Mary Niall Mitchell

No abstract provided.

The Young White Faces Of Slavery, Mary Niall Mitchell

Mary Niall Mitchell

No abstract provided.

South Carolina: From A State Of Rebellion To A State Of Change A Study Of Reconstruction In South Carolina From 1866-1872 Through A Partisan Press, Samantha Killeen

Honors Theses

The United States was not always as united as its name suggests. In the middle of the nineteenth century, as the country was in turmoil, the nation was divided between the North and the South, ultimately resulting in a four year Civil War. By 1865 the regions’ tensions around the strongly contrasting views of partisanship, the role of the Federal government, and race were fully exposed. Between 1865 and 1877, the nation embarked on a path of Reconstruction as a way to rebuild itself. This path had three different phases – Presidential Reconstruction, Radical Reconstruction, and Redemption. However, South Carolina, …

The Shanachie, Volume 25, Number 3, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

Contents:

Rural Ashford’s first pastor was a jack of all trades: Priest, farmer, builder, co-op manager, band leader, lawyer, coach. etc. --Please join us to honor the Irish servants in our families --Home sought for Civil War sword of Col. Healy of the Ninth Regiment --Civil War draft registration records now available online /by Paul Keroack --Wreath-laying at monument on Nov. 10.

Indiana, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview of key Civil War developments in Indiana and how this conflict impacted Indiana.

Western, William Wallace, 1834-1870 (Sc 736), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 736. “Prison Pastime: A Poem,” written by William W. Western, a Memphis, Tennessee Confederate while in Canada during the Civil War. Privately printed, updated, and dedicated to Henry H. Skiles, a lawyer friend of Bowling Green, Kentucky. Includes typescripted letters of Western, written from Canada, discussing his poems and his uncertain future.

Whitaker, Francis J., 1916-1994 (Mss 406), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 406. Correspondence, research notes and manuscript articles of Frances J. “Thomas” Whitaker, a Benedictine monk who lived and worked at St. Maur’s Priory, formerly the South Union Shaker Village in Logan County, Kentucky, from 1954-1988. He amassed a large collection of photocopied research material on the South Union community as well as other Shaker villages and museums in the United States. Also includes his research on various Catholic topics.

Warren, Robert Penn Oral History Collection, 1977-1982 (Mss 383), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 383. Transcripts, notes, and cassette tapes for interviews conducted by Dr. Wilford Fridy with individuals who knew or knew about John Wesley Venable, Jr., the person on whom Robert Penn Warren based the character Bolton Lovehart in his novella "Circus in the Attic." Interviews mention other people and places that Warren knew in Todd County, Kentucky. Also includes tapes of Robert Penn Warren giving a speech, reading some of his work, and an interview with Warren.

Volkerding Family Papers (Mss 385), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 385. Letters written chiefly by Herman Frederick Wilhelm Volkerding, of Louisville, Kentucky, to his wife Mary Elizabeth (Hauber) Volkerding while traveling as a salesman for the John T. Barbee distillers. Volkerding pines for home and describes the scenery, hotels, amusements and rail travel in the western United States.

Wayne County, Kentucky Project (Fa 23), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid for Folklife Archives Project 23. Oral history interviews with various residents of Wayne County, Kentucky, conducted by Western Kentucky University folk studies students. Topics include the oil industry, folk medicine, water witching, one-room schools and banjo playing.

Davis, Jefferson Finis, 1808-1889 (Sc 280), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 280. Photostat of a letter written at Washington, D.C. on 20 January 1861 by Jefferson Davis to President Frankin Pierce advising of his resignation from the U.S. Senate and his intention to return to Mississippi. Davis also comments on the unsettled conditions following Mississippi's secession from the Union. Original in Library of Congress.

George Engelmann’S Barometer: Measuring Civil War America From St. Louis, Adam Arenson

Adam Arenson

In the Civil War Era, German-American botanist George Engelmann regularly measured St. Louis's pressure and temperature--both literally, as a scientist, and figuratively, in his observations on the nation's politics. This essay uses this doubling to explore the place of St. Louis within Civil War America.

Art+Politics, Shannon Egan, Jenna L. Birkenshock, Hillary B. Goodall, Tessa M. Sheridan, Josiah B. Adlon, Megan E. Hilands, Emily A. Francisco, Molly E. Reynolds, Shelby P. Glass, Colleen L. Parrish, Francesca S. Debiaso

Schmucker Art Catalogs

For the exhibition Art + Politics, students worked closely with the holdings of Gettysburg College's Special Collections and College Archives to curate an exhibition in Schmucker Art Gallery that engages with issues of public policy, activism, war, propaganda, and other critical socio-political themes. Each of the students worked diligently to contextualize the objects historically, politically, and art-historically. The art and artifacts presented in this exhibition reveal how various political events and social issues have been interpreted through various visual and printed materials, including posters, pins, illustrations, song sheets, as well as a Chinese shoe for bound feet. The students' …

Crabb, Alfred Leland, 1884-1979 (Mss 367), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and bibliography (click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Collection 367. Correspondence, book and article manuscripts, and research material of Alfred Leland Crabb, a native of Warren County, Kentucky and later professor at George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, Tennessee. The topics of the manuscripts include historical fiction related to Nashville and Bowling Green, biographies of prominent Nashvillians, and articles on all levels of education. Much of the unpublished material is fiction but draws from Crabb's Plum Springs school days and his student experiences at Western Kentucky University.

Trout, Allan Mitchell, 1903-1972 (Mss 346), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 346. Correspondence and writings relating to the career of Allan Mitchell Trout, political reporter and columnist for the Louisville Courier-Journal. Includes letters from readers, written mostly on the occasion of his retirement, collections of Trout's "Greetings" columns, speeches and articles, historical memorabilia, correspondence relating to the Allan M. Trout Collection at Western Kentucky University, and messages of sympathy to his wife after Trout's death.

[Introduction To] America's War: Talking About The Civil War And Emancipation On Their 150th Anniversaries, Edward L. Ayers

Bookshelf

Edited by Edward L. Ayers, America’s War is an anthology of Civil War writing originally published between 1852 and 2008. Co-published by the American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities, America’s War was created in support of a national reading and discussion program for libraries called “Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War.”

The selections in America’s War include works of historical fiction and interpretation, speeches, diaries, memoirs, biographies, and short stories. Together, these readings provide a glimpse of the vast sweep and profound breadth of Americans’ war among and against themselves, adding …