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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Analyzing The Relationship Between Aid Agencies And The Union Army In Civil War Arkansas From 1862 To 1865, Kimberly Green May 2023

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 …


The Fight For Equality: African American Seabees During World War Ii, Victoria Castillo Jan 2023

The Fight For Equality: African American Seabees During World War Ii, Victoria Castillo

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

This thesis outlines the Navy’s movement towards black inclusion from the beginning of World War I to the end of World War II through the lens of African American Seabees as well as the two integrated Seabee Battalions, 34th and 80th. While examining African American Seabees during World War II, one can see the injustices they were facing in the Navy. Seabees are one of the forgotten branches during World War II, but while examining the history of African Americans serving in the U.S. Navy and the Seabees, we start to understand how they were able to …


A Subtle Discrimination: Segregation And The Selective Service Act Of 1917-1918 In Abbeville County, South Carolina, Harris M. Bailey Jr. Aug 2022

A Subtle Discrimination: Segregation And The Selective Service Act Of 1917-1918 In Abbeville County, South Carolina, Harris M. Bailey Jr.

All Theses

The focus of this study examines how the South Carolina Abbeville County Draft Board (ACDB) implemented the provisions of the Selective Service Act of 1917 and its ancillary legislation to register and select men for induction into military service for World War I. The primary question is whether the ACDB, with no clear directions from the United States War Department, interpret and apply the Act’s provisions in a discriminatory manner against African Americans. This study will show that the Abbeville County Draft Board manipulated the provisions of the Selective Service Act to discriminate against both African American and Euro-American registrants. …


Hobson, Edward Henry, 1825-1901 (Mss 736), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives May 2022

Hobson, Edward Henry, 1825-1901 (Mss 736), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 736. Photocopied correspondence of Brigadier General Edward H. Hobson of Greensburg, Kentucky. Letters from his family in Bowling Green, Kentucky, fellow soldiers, colleagues and citizens of Greensburg cover his Mexican War and Civil War service, his business ventures, and attempts to win political office. Includes Hobson's memoranda of actions against Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan in 1864, a list of prisoners taken from Morgan's and other brigades, and a letter from Hobson's nephew deploring an 1892 lynching in Bowling Green, Kentucky (Click on "Additional Files" below).


Weir Family Collection (Mss 651), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Nov 2018

Weir Family Collection (Mss 651), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 651. Letters and papers of the Weir family of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, and related members of the Rumsey and Miller families. Well-to-do merchants and farmers, the Weirs were leading supporters of the Union during the Civil War, providing advocacy, financial support, and military service. Includes full-text scans of a letter from the brother of steamboat pioneer James Rumsey defending his legacy as an innovator; James Weir's journal; James Weir's will; the annotated recollections of Edward Weir, Sr.; and two letters from former Weir slaves recolonized in Liberia (Click on "Additional files" below).


Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 94, No. 12, Wku Student Affairs Nov 2018

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 94, No. 12, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Archives Records

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. This issue contains articles:

  • Heicelbech, Evan & Rebeckah Alvey. Molded – Dormitories
  • DeLetter, Emily & Nicole Ziege. 348 Minton Hall Residents Spend Weekend Relocating
  • DeLetter, Emily. WKU to Continue Saudi Scholarship Between Countries
  • DeLetter, Emily. ROTC Celebrates 100 Years at WKU, Honors Veterans
  • Non-Binary: Proposal Disregards Science, Harms Non-binary Rights
  • Allen, Ellie. Editorial Cartoon re: Gender Does Not Equal Sex
  • Hanks, Michelle. Teaching Diversity
  • Sisler, Julie. Review: Hair and the Call to Freedom & Expression – Theatre & Dance
  • Holland, Kelley. In Formation – Marching Band
  • Bryant, Maxis. Fresh …


Ligon, Lucy Ann (Parker) Robbins, 1833-1891 - Letters To (Sc 3278), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Oct 2018

Ligon, Lucy Ann (Parker) Robbins, 1833-1891 - Letters To (Sc 3278), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and typescripts (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3278. Letters to Lucy Ann Robbins Ligon, the daughter of Fulton County, Kentucky judge Josiah Parker and his wife Lucy A. Parker, written while she lived in Crittenden County, Arkansas with her late husband’s brother, and in Hickman, Kentucky after her remarriage. Lucy’s parents relay news of her siblings and of pre-Civil War Hickman, and at the outbreak of war dramatically describe the division of loyalties, the townspeople’s fear and uncertainty as invasion threatens from the North, the enlistment of local men, two destructive fires, economic conditions, …


Ballew, William A., 1842-1915 (Sc 3277), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Oct 2018

Ballew, William A., 1842-1915 (Sc 3277), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3277. Letter, 12 November 1864, from William A. Ballew to Thomas Hopkins, Clinton County, Kentucky. Writing from Spring Hill, Tennessee, where he is serving with the 12th Kentucky Infantry, Ballew notes his regiment’s support of presidential candidate George B. McClellan (“little mack”). Although they were not yet enfranchised, he cites a mock election held by African Americans in Nashville as evidence for President Abraham Lincoln’s likely reelection. He notes the good health of his fellow soldiers, including Hopkins’ two sons, Lewis and Shelby.


Both Sides Of The Barbed Wire: Lives Of German Prisoners Of War And African Americans In Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, 1944-1946, Claire Delucca May 2018

Both Sides Of The Barbed Wire: Lives Of German Prisoners Of War And African Americans In Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, 1944-1946, Claire Delucca

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Located outside of Alexandria, Louisiana, Camp Claiborne was temporarily home to more than 500,000 U.S. servicemen and women during its short existence. Thousands of German prisoners of war also were held for more than two years in a section of the camp. Racial problems stemming from the policies of Jim Crow South and the blatant inequality eventually led to an African American mutiny within the camp. The events from 1944 to 1946 at Camp Claiborne provide insight into the mindsets of white Southerners and the generation of African Americans who would influence the major civil rights victories in the following …


African Americans In Times Of War, Auburn University Feb 2018

African Americans In Times Of War, Auburn University

Ethnic History

Bibliography and photograph of a display of government documents from Auburn University Libraries.


Vance, Edward Richard, 1833-1902 (Mss 612), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Jul 2017

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.


Waite, Martin Van Buren, 1843-1923 (Sc 3105), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Mar 2017

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 1st 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.


Profiles In Patriotism: Muslims And The Civil War, Jeffrey L. Lauck Mar 2017

Profiles In Patriotism: Muslims And The Civil War, Jeffrey L. Lauck

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

While many minority groups have had their contributions and accomplishments during the Civil War recognized, one group of Americans has received little attention. Muslim Americans are rarely the focus of Civil War scholars and are typically viewed as a demographic relevant only to more modern history. This should not be the case. In fact, Muslim Americans have served in virtually every armed conflict in United States history and left their mark on every era, including the Civil War. A simple search using the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (CWSS) reveals several names associated with Islam, including two Mahomets, two …


Winn Family Letters (Sc 3015), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Jun 2016

Winn Family Letters (Sc 3015), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3015. Letters of the Winn family of Barren County, Kentucky. Includes letters of Confederate solider Marcus De Lafayette Winn, his parole, oath of allegiance and obituary, and letters to Winn from former Civil War comrades. Other letters convey family news. Includes some Winn genealogical data.


Parsons, James T., 1835-1875 (Sc 2990), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Mar 2016

Parsons, James T., 1835-1875 (Sc 2990), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text of letters (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2990. Letters of James T. Parsons to his parents, written during his service with the 17th Ohio Infantry. He details his regiment’s arduous marches through Kentucky, especially Boyle and Pulaski counties, and remarks on bad roads, picket duty, and high prices charged by the sutler. He criticizes Kentucky soldiers as both braggarts and cowards. In December 1861, he speculates on the “great Battle to come” at Bowling Green but, in hospital at Nashville in August 1862, doubts the prospects for victory over the South. He …


Smith, Elvin, Jr. - Collector (Mss 534), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Mar 2015

Smith, Elvin, Jr. - Collector (Mss 534), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection MSS 534. Collected research of Elvin Smith, Jr. relating to the Civil War in Kentucky and consisting mostly of typescripted soldiers’ diaries and letters. Also includes compiled data on regiments stationed in Bowling Green, Kentucky and at Lost River Cave near Bowling Green, and lists of soldiers’ deaths at Bowling Green.


Kirby, Carlisle Wilkins, 1890-1968 (Mss 530), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Jan 2015

Kirby, Carlisle Wilkins, 1890-1968 (Mss 530), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 530. Note cards, memoranda, and grave registration forms compiled by Carlisle W. Kirby and others for the Veterans’ Graves Registration Project in Warren County, Kentucky, a project created by the Works Progress Administration to identify the graves of war veterans from the American Revolution through World War I. Included are names, service data, and the name of the cemetery, where known. Also includes clippings from the (Bowling Green, Kentucky) Park City Daily News about local soldiers serving in the Korean War.


Slaves, Soldiers, Citizens: African American Artifacts Of The Civil War Era, Lauren H. Roedner, Angelo Scarlato, Scott Hancock, Jordan G. Cinderich, Tricia M. Runzel, Avery C. Lentz, Brian D. Johnson, Lincoln M. Fitch, Michele B. Seabrook Jul 2014

Slaves, Soldiers, Citizens: African American Artifacts Of The Civil War Era, Lauren H. Roedner, Angelo Scarlato, Scott Hancock, Jordan G. Cinderich, Tricia M. Runzel, Avery C. Lentz, Brian D. Johnson, Lincoln M. Fitch, Michele B. Seabrook

Other Exhibits & Events

Based on the exhibit Slaves, Soldiers, Citizens: African American Artifacts of the Civil War Era, this book provides the full experience of the exhibit, which was on display in Special Collections at Musselman Library November 2012- December 2013. It also includes several student essays based on specific artifacts that were part of the exhibit.

Table of Contents:

Introduction Angelo Scarlato, Lauren Roedner ’13 & Scott Hancock

Slave Collars & Runaways: Punishment for Rebellious Slaves Jordan Cinderich ’14

Chancery Sale Poster & Auctioneer’s Coin: The Lucrative Business of Slavery Tricia Runzel ’13

Isaac J. Winters: An African American Soldier from Pennsylvania …


Freedmen With Firearms: White Terrorism And Black Disarmament During Reconstruction, David H. Schenk Apr 2014

Freedmen With Firearms: White Terrorism And Black Disarmament During Reconstruction, David H. Schenk

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

The outcome of the Civil War brought freedom to over six million slaves of African descent. These Freedmen communities remained a critical source of labor for the agrarian based economy of the southern U.S. Conflicts erupted because former slaves sought to exercise their new freedoms against the restrictions placed on them by local authorities. New laws, mob actions and acts of organized white terrorism were used to subjugate free citizens and return them to their former stations of labor. Political activities and participation in the electoral process were violently discouraged. Vocal opponents of the new system were often targeted for …


Vanbuskirk, Michael Henry, 1840-1905 (Sc 1383), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Mar 2014

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).


Tuttle, John William, 1838-1927 (Sc 1197), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Nov 2013

Tuttle, John William, 1838-1927 (Sc 1197), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1197. “History of the Third Kentucky Volunteers” written by John William Tuttle, Wayne County, Kentucky, from a diary that he kept of his Civil War experiences. Includes associated data.


Haynes, James Pleasant, 1843-1919 (Mss 477), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Oct 2013

Haynes, James Pleasant, 1843-1919 (Mss 477), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 477. Civil war diaries (1864-1865), service and pension records of James Pleasant Haynes of Warren County, Kentucky, who served with the 26th Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer Infantry.


Coombs Family Collection (Mss 349), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Aug 2013

Coombs Family Collection (Mss 349), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 349. Correspondence, photographs, business records and miscellaneous papers of the Coombs, Robertson and related families of Warren and Simpson counties in Kentucky and of Alabama, Texas and Tennessee. Includes correspondence, personal papers and research of Elizabeth Robertson Coombs, librarian at the Kentucky Library, Western Kentucky University. Several documents from this collection have been scanned are available for viewing by clicking on the "Additional Files" below.


Dumarey?, J. R. (Sc 1017), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Apr 2013

Dumarey?, J. R. (Sc 1017), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and full text scan of transcription (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1017. Civil War letter written by J. R. DuMarey?, Lexington, Kentucky, to his father in Delta (Fulton County, Ohio), relating camp news. Mentions an owner reclaiming his enslaved African American who had been working for one of the army captains.


Bowles, Orlando Charles, 1839-1896 (Mss 455), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Apr 2013

Bowles, Orlando Charles, 1839-1896 (Mss 455), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 455. Correspondence, accounts, land surveys, and miscellaneous business and legal papers of Orlando C. Bowles, a Civil War veteran, lawyer, farmer, and timber trader of Pike County, Kentucky. Includes some material relating to the Cecil family of Floyd and Pike counties.


Carter, Chillon Conway, 1830-1891 (Mss 112), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Apr 2013

Carter, Chillon Conway, 1830-1891 (Mss 112), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and typescripts of selected material for Manuscripts Collection 112. Correspondence, chiefly written by Monroe County, Kentucky native Chillon Conway Carter, to his wife, Lucinda E. and his two daughters Nancy G. and Louisa A., during the Civil War. Also includes letters written to Carter by his brother, John B. Carter, who lived in White County, Illinois.


Schenck, William T. Y., 1844-1904 (Sc 2690), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Mar 2013

Schenck, William T. Y., 1844-1904 (Sc 2690), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of letter (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2690. Letter, 22 March 1866, to a newspaper editor from Captain William Schenck, encamped near Bowling Green, Kentucky with the 119th Regiment, U.S. Colored Infantry. He denies the editor’s claim that an outbreak of smallpox in the town was attributable to “careless Negro soldiers” and describes the measures taken to control the disease among his troops.


Emerson, James William, 1920-1978 (Sc 872), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Feb 2013

Emerson, James William, 1920-1978 (Sc 872), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 872. Diary of James William Emerson, Covington, Kentucky, while he was enlisted in the United States Navy. He enlisted in 1941 and served as a machinist’s mate on the USS Stevenson. The diary dates from 1943-1944 and details his round trip journey from Cape Henry, Virginia to French Morocco. Other items include rank insignias (3), training certificate, discharge papers, newspaper clipping, biographical information, etc.


Wood, Jonathan, 1795-1873 (Sc 824), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Jan 2013

Wood, Jonathan, 1795-1873 (Sc 824), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid, scan and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 824. Letter, 8 January 1865, from Jonathan Wood, Smithfield, Pennsylvania, to his son, Union soldier Pliny Wood. He writes with sympathy for the soldiers’ hardships, instructs him on saving postage, criticizes the privileges of congressmen, expresses contempt for the treason of Jefferson Davis and the Confederates, and remarks on the suffering of prisoners of war at Andersonville, Georgia; nevertheless, he hopes for reconciliation with ordinary Southerners after their defeat and repentance.


Ua1b1/7 Wku Ceremonies, Dedications, Groundbreakings, Wku Archives Jan 2013

Ua1b1/7 Wku Ceremonies, Dedications, Groundbreakings, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records regarding special ceremonies, dedications, groundbreakings not already housed in a particular office.