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Steen, Jennifer (Hines), B. 1949 - Collector (Mss 738), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 738. Genealogical data, family papers and photographs collected by Jennifer (Hines) Steen on the Hines, Duncan, Covington and Nicholls families of Kentucky, and related families.

Reenvisioning Richmond's Past: Race, Reconciliation, And Public History In The Modern South, 1990-Present, Marvin T. Chiles

History Faculty Publications

The article explores the history of race relations and slavery in Richmond, Virginia with regard to the 2020 removal of Confederate monuments in the region. Topics discussed include the order issued by Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney to remove Confederate statues in the city, the efforts of neighborhood groups and grassroots organizations to acknowledge the African American history in Richmond's public history narratives, and the racial violence in the Oregon Hill neighborhood of Richmond.

Finding Aid For The Juanita Brown Collection (Mum00048)

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids

Collection contains extensive Civil War correspondence, most notably the letters of J.H. Buford to his sisters.

The Complexity Of A Soldier: Mitchell Anderson’S Life, Death, And Legacy, Ryan Bilger

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

It is hard to believe that this is my last semester as a Civil War Institute Fellow, but that time has indeed come. When offered my choice of projects for this term, I figured it would only be appropriate to finish out my work on the Killed at Gettysburg project with one last deep dive into the life and legacy of a soldier who died here in Pennsylvania. I know I have stated this several times in my previous reflections on the project, but I feel that Killed at Gettysburg profiles offer an excellent way to consider the battle from …

[Introduction To] Confederate Exceptionalism: Civil War Myth And Memory In The Twenty-First Century, Nicole Maurantonio

Bookshelf

Along with Confederate flags, the men and women who recently gathered before the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts carried signs proclaiming “Heritage Not Hate.” Theirs, they said, was an “open and visible protest against those who attacked us, ours flags, our ancestors, or our Heritage.” How, Nicole Maurantonio wondered, did “not hate” square with a “heritage” grounded in slavery? How do so-called neo-Confederates distance themselves from the actions and beliefs of white supremacists while clinging to the very symbols and narratives that tether the Confederacy to the history of racism and oppression in America? The answer, Maurantonio discovers, is bound …

Messer, George, 1833-1863 (Sc 3211), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and full text transcription (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3211. Letters, 6 January-31 May 1863, of George Messer to his wife Lottie in DeWitt County, Illinois, while encamped in Hart County, Kentucky and at Camp Hobson, Glasgow, Kentucky. He writes of illness and death among his comrades, troop strength, wage payments, food, and his commanding officers. Weary of a soldier’s life and anxious for the South’s total defeat, he criticizes conscription laws that allow exemption on payment of a fee, and accuses politicians and “Eastern men” of prolonging the war. He notes local citizens’ …

Honor And Compromise, And Getting History Right, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly does not have a Ph.D. in history, although he does have two master’s degrees, in Strategic Studies (from the National Defense University) and in National Security Affairs from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. So perhaps it was simply that he believed what he said about the Civil War this past Monday on Laura Ingraham’s new Fox News ‘Ingraham Angle’ was so innocuous that he could also believe that it wouldn’t even become a blip on anyone’s radar screen. (excerpt)

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)

Should We Banish Robert E. Lee & His Confederate Friends? Let's Talk., Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

After 152 years, Robert E. Lee is back in the headlines. But not in any way he could have imagined.

The “Unite the Right” forces descended on Charlottesville, Va., to protest calls for the removal of an equestrian statue of Lee that has been sitting in a city park since 1924. The larger question, however, was about whether the famous Confederate general was also a symbol of white supremacy.

The same issues were in play in May when a statue of Lee was removed from Lee Circle in New Orleans. There are also more than two dozen streets and schools …

Lincoln's Words At Gettysburg Resonate After Charlottesville, Christopher R. Fee

English Faculty Publications

Seven score and fourteen years ago, Abraham Lincoln eloquently reminded us of the idealism of our founding our fathers, who “brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. “

Lincoln also called upon all persons of good conscience, not simply to remember the sacrifice of those who died preserving these ideals on the battlefield at Gettysburg, but also to act upon those ideals, and to rise to the challenge “to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us….” (excerpt)

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)

Defending Reconstruction, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

There are no Reconstruction re-enactors. And who would want to be? Reconstruction is the disappointing epilogue to the American Civil War, a sort of Grimm fairy tale stepchild of the war and the ugly duckling of American history. Even Abraham Lincoln was uneasy at using the word “reconstruction”—he qualified it with add-ons like “what is called reconstruction” or “a plan of reconstruction (as the phrase goes)”—and preferred to speak of the “re-inauguration of the national authority” or the need to “re-inaugurate loyal state governments.” Unlike the drama of the war years, Reconstruction has no official starting or ending date. ( …

Wiley Nessmith Family Letters, Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections

Finding Aids

This collection consists of correspondence from Wiley Nessmith to his wife, Martha Ann Nesmith written during the Civil War from 1862-1865. Also included are typed transcripts, published and unpublished materials on the Nessmith family, and correspondence between Franklyn Hatch and the Nessmith family concerning the letters.

Find this collection in the University Libraries' catalog.

Arkadelphia Man Elected Confederate Governor Of State, Wendy Bradley Richter

Articles

During the Civil War, citizens of Arkansas elected an Arkadelphia man to serve as leader of the state’s Confederate government. Harris Flanagin became Arkansas governor in 1862 and held that office during some of the most tumultuous years in American history.

Flanagin was born in New Jersey in 1817. He moved first to Pennsylvania and then to Illinois before settling in Greenville in 1839, then the county seat of Clark County, where he began practicing law. In 1841, he became a deputy sheriff, and in 1842, was elected state representative and served one term. In 1848, he was elected to …

Gossom, Magnolia (Rone), 1866-1948 (Sc 2885), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2885. Applications and membership certificates of Magnolia (Rone) Gossom and her daughter Grayce (Gossom) Bell in the Bowling Green, Kentucky chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy; membership certificate of Grayce (Gossom) Bell in the Samuel Davies Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution.

Confederate Nationalism And The Authenticity Of Southern Ideology, Nicholas Vail

Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History

About the author
Nicholas Vail wrote this paper at Trinity University in Texas as a history major with a minor in African American Studies. Current he is pursuing his master degree in American History at Texas Christian University.

Class Conflict And The Confederate Conscription Acts In North Carolina, 1862-1864, Tyler Cline

Honors College

This thesis will analyze the effect that Confederate conscription policies during the American Civil War from 1862 to 1864 had on the social order that existed in North Carolina. Conflicts arose during the war between the slave-owning aristocratic class and the yeomen farmers who owned few slaves, if any, and thus were not dependent on the slave system in the pre-war era. A regional approach, exploring the impact of geography on social development, illustrates that the undermining of this social stability led to growing class-consciousness among the middle class farmers who dominated the Piedmont region of North Carolina. It will …

Vanbuskirk, Michael Henry, 1840-1905 (Sc 1383), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Small Collection 1383. Diary, 1862-1864, kept by Michael H. VanBuskirk, while serving with Co. F, 27th Regiment of the Indiana Volunteers. He was taken prisoner in Virginia on 25 May 1862, and released on 13 September 1862. He gives a good description of military life. Also includes an 1862 letter written in rhyme to his parents (Click on "Additional Files" below for scan).

Parker Family Papers (Mss 118), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 118. A wide array of materials, chiefly correspondence, of the Liddell and Spencer families of Alabama and the Parker family of Bowling Green, Kentucky. Of particular interest are Civil War letters written to Mary E. “Mollie” Liddell, items related to Howard College and Judson Institute in Marion, Alabama, letters to Lorena Parker from a missionary in Ethiopia, and a letter mentioning Texas politics in 1860.

"Newest Born Of Nations": Southern Thought On European Nationalisms And The Creation Of The Confederacy, 1820-186, Ann L. Tucker

Theses and Dissertations

When nineteenth-century southern nationalists seceded from the Union and created a southern nation, they sought to justify their actions by situating the Confederacy as one of many aspiring nations seeking membership in the family of nations in the middle of the nineteenth century. To support their argument that the Confederacy constituted a legitimate and independent nation, southern nationalists claimed nineteenth century European nationalist movements as precedents for their own attempt at nation-building, using the southern nation's supposed similarity to, or, at times, differences from, these European aspiring nations to legitimize the Confederacy. Such claims built on a long antebellum precedent …

Legislating The Danville Connection, 1847-1862: Railroads And Regionalism Versus Nationalism In The Confederate States Of America, Philip Stanley

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the effect regionalism had upon North Carolina and Virginia during the 1847-1862 legislative battles over the Danville, Virginia, to Greensboro, North Carolina, railroad connection. The first chapter examines the rivalry between eastern and western North Carolina for internal improvement legislation, namely westerners’ wish to connect with Virginia and easterners’ desire to remain economically relevant. The second chapter investigates the Tidewater region of Virginia and its battle against the Southside to create a rail connection with North Carolina. The third chapter examines the legislation for the Danville Connection during the American Civil War in the Virginia, North Carolina, …

Wall Family Papers (Sc 1094), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1094. Documents mainly of Wall family members of Cynthiana (Harrison County), Kentucky, and Dallas, Texas. The family correspondence includes three Civil War era letters. The financial receipts include one for the cost of an 1841 servant’s coffin.

For Dixie Children: Teaching Students What It Meant To Be Confederate Americans Through Their Textbooks, Nathan Richard Samuel Ryalls

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Education in the 19th century relied heavily on school texts in order to teach American children the moral and civic responsibilities they must possess in order to become productive members of the American republic. After declaring secession, Confederate cultural nationalists took up the cause of educating the school children in the Confederate States of America in the moral and civic responsibilities determined important to the preservation of their new nation. Southerners had felt disenfranchised by the northern press and believed their children learning from these schoolbooks became weakened in their southern identity. Though some southerners were espousing the need for …

Morgan, John Hunt, 1826-1864 - Relating To, 1863 (Sc 1019), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1019. Special Order Number 44, signed by Major General Wheeler, Confederate States of America Cavalry, 8^th Regiment, near Shelbyville, Tennessee, detailing plans for Morgan to proceed to Kentucky with a force of 2,000 in an attempt to destroy the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and supplies. Impressment authorization is granted to Captain McCarthy and assistants

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King, Stephen Lynn, B. 1954 (Mss 110), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 110. Correspondence, 1994-1997 (31); lists of Confederate soldiers in Bowling Green, Kentucky; and research materials, 1861-1997 (46); used by King in writing his book Confederate Dead at Bowling Green, Kentucky and Vicinity, 1997.

Bruce, Horatio Washington, 1830-1903 (Sc 2685), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2685. Handbill of H. W. Bruce announcing his candidacy to represent the 7th Congressional District of Kentucky in the Congress of the Confederate States, and outlining his objectives if elected. Includes an endorsement from the Louisville (Kentucky) Courier, 2 January 1862.

Gaines, Sarah Elizabeth, 1852-1943 (Sc 999), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and typescripts (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 999. Recollections of Elizabeth Gaines about her life in Bowling Green and Warren County, Kentucky. She discusses residents, schools, and businesses. Gaines includes a detailed account of Civil War incidents in Bowling Green that she recalls from her childhood.

Edmunds Family Papers (Mss 443), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 443. Correspondence, deeds, legal and other personal papers of the Edmunds family of North Carolina and Caldwell County, Kentucky. Includes genealogical data and papers of associated families, primarily the Cameron family of North Carolina.

Gooch, Thomas Claiborne, 1830-1889 (Sc 810), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 810. Letter, 1864, written by Thomas Claiborne Gooch, Louisville, Kentucky, to his brother William, Logan County, Kentucky. Includes comments about the gold standard, Major General Stephen Gano Burbridge, George B. McClellan’s chances of winning the 1864 presidential election, and Robert E. Lee’s international influence.

Hay, Charles (Sc 651), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 651. Compilation by Charles Hay of a chronology of events in the life of William Preston of Louisville, Kentucky, a congressman, minister to Spain, and brigadier general in the Confederate Army.