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Full-Text Articles in History

The Spartacus Rebellion, More Than A Slave Revolt, Gavin J. Maziarz Aug 2022

The Spartacus Rebellion, More Than A Slave Revolt, Gavin J. Maziarz

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

The Spartacus Revolt is commonly known for its titular leader, whose deeds have been romanticized in movies and other media. While Hollywood has led many to believe Spartacus was a revolutionary leader working to end slavery in the Roman Empire, this is not an accurate characterization. However, that does not mean that the Spartacus Revolt was nothing more than a historical footnote, although not for its leader. In fact, the revolt should be seen as a revolt of a middle class of veterans in the Roman Empire who wanted greater social standing than the end of the Social War had …


Gettysburg Historical Journal 2022 Jan 2022

Gettysburg Historical Journal 2022

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Complete Issue of the Gettysburg Historical Journal 2022


When The Hurlyburly's Done / When The Battle's Lost And Won: Service, Suffering, And Survival Of Civil War And Great War Veterans, Ian A. Isherwood Mar 2019

When The Hurlyburly's Done / When The Battle's Lost And Won: Service, Suffering, And Survival Of Civil War And Great War Veterans, Ian A. Isherwood

Interdisciplinary Studies Faculty Publications

Marching in the Gettysburg Liberty Parade in May 1918 was a drum corps consisting entirely of Civil War veterans. As local citizens demonstrated their patriotism—notably with the Kaiser hanging in effigy—the old soldiers helped keep the pace for two thousand citizens who turned out to vigorously support the Great War. It was no doubt a moving moment, the nation's largest veteran demographic encouraging and supporting the next generation of soldiers to fight for cause and country in a very different war waged on a very different continent. Though fifty years separated the trenches of Petersburg from those of the western …


After Andersonville: Survivors, Memory And The Bloody Shirt, Kevin S. Nicholson May 2018

After Andersonville: Survivors, Memory And The Bloody Shirt, Kevin S. Nicholson

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

This article details the experiences of survivors of the Andersonville prison camp after the Civil War. Feeling marginalized by the public after returning to the North, prisoners of war worked to demonstrate that their experiences were exceptional enough to merit the same kind of respect and adoration given to other war veterans. In particular survivors utilized the strategy of "waving the bloody shirt," describing purported Confederate atrocities at the camp to a Northern audience looking for figures to blame for the horrors of war. Through prison narratives, veteran organizations, the erection of memorials, and reunions years later, Andersonville survivors worked …


Gettysburg College Journal Of The Civil War Era 2018 Jan 2018

Gettysburg College Journal Of The Civil War Era 2018

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

No abstract provided.


Marching In Step: Usct Veterans And The Grand Army Of The Republic, Ryan Bilger May 2017

Marching In Step: Usct Veterans And The Grand Army Of The Republic, Ryan Bilger

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

For many United States Colored Troops, remembering the Civil War and their comrades who fell in it became an important part of their post-war life. One of the primary opportunities for public expression of remembrance was Decoration Day, now known as Memorial Day. African Americans played a critical part in the creation of this holiday. On May 1, 1865, the newly-freed black residents of Charleston asserted their place in Civil War memory by leading a parade to a recently constructed cemetery for Union prisoners at the city’s horseracing course. The procession heaped flowers upon the graves of the honored dead, …


A Home For Volunteers: Togus And The National Soldiers’ Homes, Savannah Labbe May 2017

A Home For Volunteers: Togus And The National Soldiers’ Homes, Savannah Labbe

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

The current U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs traces its origins to the Civil War. Before the Civil War, there had been some attempts to provide services for veterans but these benefits were solely for career military veterans and not volunteers. Since Civil War veterans were mostly volunteers, this became a problem. The services provided before this had been mostly in the form of homes like the U.S. Naval Asylum in Philadelphia where veterans could receive long-term care. Many felt that homes were the best way to care for soldiers and so, in March of 1865, legislation passed to create a …


Gettysburg Historical Journal 2015 Jan 2015

Gettysburg Historical Journal 2015

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

No abstract provided.


Learning The Fighting Game: Black Americans And The First World War, S. Marianne Johnson Jan 2015

Learning The Fighting Game: Black Americans And The First World War, S. Marianne Johnson

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

The experience of African American veterans of the First World War is most often cast through the bloody lens of the Red Summer of 1919, when racial violence and lynchings reached record highs across the nation as black veterans returned from the global conflict to find Jim Crow justice firmly entrenched in a white supremacist nation. This narrative casts black veterans in a deeply ironic light, a lost generation even more cruelly mistreated than the larger mythological Lost Generation of the Great War. This narrative, however, badly abuses hindsight and clouds larger issues of black activism and organization during and …


Clark Gardner: The Curious Case Of Mr. Rich And Mrs. Gardner, Brianna E. Kirk Apr 2014

Clark Gardner: The Curious Case Of Mr. Rich And Mrs. Gardner, Brianna E. Kirk

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

The story of Clark Gardner, his double amputation, and his pension records are still surrounded by two other clouds of ambiguity concerning his neighbor and friend, Edward A. Rich, and Gardner’s wife. Rich relayed information to a special examiner about the nature of Gardner’s injuries. He claimed to know Gardner before the war began, revealing that Gardner had running sores on his right leg prior to enlisting in the 10th New York Heavy Artillery. This made the amputation he received in 1879 a result of this pre-existing condition instead of the sickness Gardner claimed to acquire from Staten …


Wartime Reminiscences: The Story Of William R. Tanner’S Civil War Service, Brianna E. Kirk Mar 2014

Wartime Reminiscences: The Story Of William R. Tanner’S Civil War Service, Brianna E. Kirk

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Veteran war stories are some of the most fascinating windows into the past that students of history can experience. With World War II veteran numbers quickly diminishing and the risk of these accounts of history being lost, the importance of collecting and passing on veteran stories to future generations is vital. Such was the case with those who fought in the Civil War. As the twentieth century approached, droves of veterans began disappearing from the pages of history. The need for those veteran stories from America’s bloodiest war to be recorded and published became not only important to the veterans …


Competing Stories: The Gardner Saga Continues, Brianna E. Kirk Mar 2014

Competing Stories: The Gardner Saga Continues, Brianna E. Kirk

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

In 1893, two Philadelphia doctors from the Mütter Museum sent surveys to Civil War amputee veterans in order to compile records on their war amputations circa thirty years after seeing combat. One of those surveys found its way into the hands of Clark Gardner, a fifty-four year old double amputee vet who served in the 10th New York Heavy Artillery. (An introduction to Garnder can be found here.) Gardner’s responses to the survey are quite compelling and provided vivid details about his war amputations, the healing processes, difficulties he encountered, and artificial limb usage. [excerpt]


Tales From A Boston Customs House: “Worthy” Suffering, S. Marianne Johnson Feb 2014

Tales From A Boston Customs House: “Worthy” Suffering, S. Marianne Johnson

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Despite Francis Clarke’s argument that men who suffered in exceptional ways, such as amputees, were regarded as national martyrs and held up as the emblem of sacrifice to the nation, this argument cannot be applied wholesale to all exceptional sufferers in the post-war North. Although men who lost limbs in battle were often remembered in terms of glory and treated as national heroes, those who suffered in non-heroic ways, such as prisoners of war and the victims of non-combat related accidents, were often treated as less deserving of honor. [excerpt]


Voices From D-Day, June 6, 1944, Musselman Library Jan 2014

Voices From D-Day, June 6, 1944, Musselman Library

Other Exhibits & Events

Seventy years on from D-Day, we still marvel at the stoic heroism of the men who contributed to the success of what remains the greatest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare. The Normandy campaign would, in one way or another, prove a pivotal moment in the ongoing world war. A disaster in the campaign to liberate France would set back Allied hopes for crushing Nazism in Western Europe. It would also fray the alliance with the Soviet Union that was essential to defeating Hitler’s forces. By contrast, success would mark not just the end of the beginning of the …