History Commons^™

Ms-287: Whitney Family Civil War Letters, Danielle S. Russell

All Finding Aids

The Whitney Family Civil War Letters collection contains 46 letters from the Civil War Era, 2 Freemason dues notices for Mariner T. Whitney, and four empty letter covers. 37 of the letters, written by Hiram R. Whitney, pertain to his military service and daily life with the 132nd New York Infantry Regiment. Two other letters, written by Henry J. Manning and John Marsh Young relate to their military service with the 11th New York Volunteer Cavalry and the 124th New York Infantry, respectively. John Marsh Young was the nephew of Ruhamah Irwin Whitney, the wife of Mariner T. Whitney. The …

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 …

No Tolerance For Cowards Or “Yankees:” The Letters Of Reuben Allen Pierson, A Confederate Officer, Erica L. Uszak

Student Publications

Confederate officer Reuben Allen Pierson was a single well-to-do Louisiana slaveholder. He enlisted early in the Ninth Louisiana Infantry, insisting that he joined the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to defend his freedom, family, and new country. He turned his back on the United States, convinced that his Northern counterparts were subhuman and dishonorable. This paper argues that Reuben Allen Pierson remained steadfast in his convictions about Southern duty and honor, arguing in the Confederacy’s favor even in bleak times. The writer will examine why he clung desperately to the Confederacy and how he was influenced by ideas of honor, …

Heaven Hung In Black: Grant’S Reputation And The Mistakes At Cold Harbor, Samantha J. Kramer

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

This article examines Ulysses S. Grant’s command of the Union army after receiving his commission as Lieutenant-General through analyzing his decisions both before and during the bloody battle of Cold Harbor. By examining the various factors leading to his tactical decisions, including the ever-looming threat of the upcoming presidential election, the article questions whether or not his reputation as a butcher of his own men is truly deserved. That he made mistakes is undeniable, but the mess of Cold Harbor was not solely his fault. Through the use of a variety of biographies and personal journals and memoirs, the article …

Pittsburgh's Explosive Mystery: A New Holistic Study Of The Allegheny Arsenal Tragedy, Ethan J. Wagner

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

This research critically examines the issues surrounding the worst civilian disaster of the American Civil War, occurring on September 17, 1862 in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Here, seventy-eight teenage girls perished as the Allegheny Arsenal munitions laboratory exploded. Investigations in the disaster’s aftermath, and more recent analysis, have remained largely hesitant in placing chief blame as to its cause. Furthermore, for an event that would seem so significant, its story has inadequately been told. Given that the national spotlight was elsewhere at the time, as the Battle of Antietam was fought on the same day, existing literature has …

Analyzing The Interpretation Of The Civil War In Bluegrass Music, Carter W. Claiborne

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

While the Civil War has long fit well thematically within the existing bluegrass idiom, the way that bluegrass has approached the war over time has changed greatly. Despite bluegrass largely originating from areas with little enthusiasm for the Confederacy during the Civil War, and the genre not emphasizing partisan aspects of the war for several decades, several cultural changes culminated in the late 1960s to turn the genre on a heavily pro-Confederate tilt, with numerous songs in the early- to-mid 1970s glorifying the Confederate States of America and its leaders, while also emphasizing Lost Cause arguments. To see how this …

Close, But No Cigar: Tobacco Usage During The Civil War Era, Benjamin M. Roy

Student Publications

Tobacco carried a range of gendered, social, regional, and racial meanings in America during the nineteenth century, and these disparate meanings were symbolized through different forms of consumption. The cultural meaning inherent within chewing tobacco, cigars, pipes, and cigarettes, are the object of this research. I will examine the class associations linked to chewing tobacco, the manly identities symbolized through cigars and pipes, and explore cultural movement and racial meaning through the cigarette. Through tobacco, I will explain how nineteenth century Americans comprehended addiction, and establish the organic agency of consumable commodities to influence the consciousness of their users.

Military Occupation, Sexual Violence, And The Struggle Over Masculinity In The Early Reconstruction South, Cameron T. Sauers

Student Publications

This inquiry centers on the way that sexual violence became the terrain upon which the struggles of the postemancipation and early Reconstruction South were waged. At the start of the Civil War, Confederate discourse played upon the fears of sexual violence engulfing the South with the invasion of Union armies. The nightmare never came to Southern households; rape was infrequently reported. However, Southern women, especially if they were African American, were subjected to sexual violence, which likely increased as the war dragged on. Sexual violence includes, but is not limited to, rape. Destruction of clothing, invasion of domestic spaces, and …

“When This Cruel War Is Over”: The Blurring Of The Confederate Battlefront And Homefront During The Civil War, Sophie Hammond

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

The line dividing the Confederate battlefront and homefront was always extremely blurred, and this blurring, though initially a source of strength, contributed significantly to the South losing the Civil War. While fighting the war, the Confederacy faced a terrible handicap which the Union did not: the vast majority of the war's battles happened on its own soil. At first, this situation galvanized Southerners. But as the war dragged on, concern for their families as well as the very real costs of war—Confederate soldiers were nearly three times as likely to die as Union soldiers—encouraged a total of around 103,000 Confederates …

Destroying The Right Arm Of Rebellion: Lincoln’S Emancipation Proclamation, Benjamin Pontz

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was a gamble. If it were to succeed, it could cripple the economy of the South, decimating its war effort, drive the border states to accept compensated emancipation, ending slavery as an institution in the United States, and accelerate the end of the war, ensuring the endurance of the United States of America. If it were to fail, it could spur the border states to secede, galvanizing the South, render Abraham Lincoln a political pariah with two years remaining in his term, deflating the North, and encourage European states to broker a two-state solution in North America, …

A Cause Lost, A Story Being Written: Explaining Black And White Commemorative Difference In The Postbellum South, Bailey M. Covington

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

This paper addresses the disparate commemorative modes and purposes employed by black and white Southerners following the Civil War, in their competing efforts to control the cultural narrative of the war’s legacy. I attempt to explain commemorative difference in the post-war era by evaluating the historical and rhetorical implications of the white Confederate monument, in contrast with the black freedom celebration. The goal of this research is to understand why monuments to the Confederacy proliferate in the South, while similar commemorative markers of the prominent role of slavery in the Civil War are all but nonexistent. I conclude that, while …

Ms-227: Theodore Schlack, Class Of 1950 Civil War Artifact Collection, Laurel J. Wilson

All Finding Aids

This collection is made up of artifacts relating to the American Civil War. It includes both items from the Civil War era and postwar items. The wartime artifacts were collected by Rev. Dr. Schlack in order to reflect the items a Union soldier would have interacted with in their daily life. The collection of wartime artifacts includes items such as a Springfield rifled musket, a knapsack, and a dice cup with dice. The collection of postwar artifacts relates more broadly to war memory and commemoration, and includes items such as paper souvenir fans from the 75th anniversary of the Battle …

The War For The Common Soldier: How Men Thought, Fought, And Survived In Civil War Armies, Peter S. Carmichael

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

How did Civil War soldiers endure the brutal and unpredictable existence of army life during the conflict? This question is at the heart of Peter S. Carmichael's sweeping new study of men at war. Based on close examination of the letters and records left behind by individual soldiers from both the North and the South, Carmichael explores the totality of the Civil War experience--the marching, the fighting, the boredom, the idealism, the exhaustion, the punishments, and the frustrations of being away from families who often faced their own dire circumstances. Carmichael focuses not on what soldiers thought but rather how …

The Trophies Of Victory And The Relics Of Defeat: Returning Home In The Spring Of 1865, Peter S. Carmichael

History Faculty Publications

The remains of a lone apple tree, cut down and carved into small pieces by Confederate soldiers, lay along a rutted dirt road that led to the village of Appomattox Court House. Earlier on 9 April 1865, Robert E. Lee had waited under the shade of the apple tree, anxious to hear from Ulysses S.Grant about surrendering his army. Messages between the generals eventually led to a brief meeting between Lee and two Union staff offices who then secured the parlor in Wilmer McLean's house, where Grant dictated the surrender terms to Lee. As soon as the agreement was signed …

Ms-225: Joshua Blake Civil War Naval Journal, Laurel J. Wilson

All Finding Aids

In this journal, Blake details his experiences aboard the USS Preble, which was one of the ships that were deployed to the Gulf Coast as part of the Eastern Gulf Blockading Squadron. His time on the USS Preble is detailed in the first 41 pages of the journal. On page 46, Blake switches to detailing his time aboard the USS Augusta from 1866-67, and also details his 1869 passage to Genoa aboard a ship called the Magdalene. On page 132, Blake switches back to 1862, detailing his two months aboard the USS Connecticut. A possible explanation for …

A Dagger Through The Heartland: The Louisville & Nashville Railroad In The Civil War, Gared N. Dalton

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

The Civil War was a defining moment in American history. What began as a sectional debate over states’ rights transformed itself into a bloody odyssey that would alter the national character itself. Within the wide scope of this conflict, scholars have sought to answer the multifaceted question of how the Union triumphed, often citing the proficient management of the railways as a key contribution to victory. Within this logistical network of rails, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad served as a vital mode of transportation for supplies and troop mobility through the heartland states of Kentucky and Tennessee. The Union exploited …

Rewriting History: A Study Of How The History Of The Civil War Has Changed In Textbooks From 1876 To 2014, Skyler A. Campbell

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

History textbooks provide an interesting perspective into the views and attitudes of their respective time period. The way textbooks portray certain events and groups of people has a profound impact on the way children learn to view those groups and events. That impact then has the potential to trickle down to future generations, fabricating a historical narrative that sometimes avoids telling the whole truth, or uses selective wording to sway opinions on certain topics. This paper analyzes the changes seen in how the Civil War is written about in twelve textbooks dated from 1876 to 2014. Notable topics of discussion …

Condemning Colonization: Abraham Lincoln’S Rejected Proposal For A Central American Colony, Matthew Harris

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

This article focuses on a proposal by Abraham Lincoln to settle freed African Americans in Central American countries. The backlash from several countries reveals that other countries besides the warring United States were also struggling with reconciling racial issues. This also reveals how interwoven racial issues were with political crises during the Civil War because it not only effected domestic policies but also international relations.

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 …

A Whole Lot Of Blame To Go Around: The Confederate Collapse At Five Forks, Peter S. Carmichael

History Faculty Publications

While Confederate major general George E. Pickett was finishing his plate of fried fish at a shad bake, Union major general Philip H. Sheridan was devouring Pickett's command at Five Forks. The sounds of the Federal assault were supposedly silenced by abnormal atmospheric conditions called an acoustic shadow. Pickett and his luncheon companions -- Maj. Gen. Thomas Rosser and Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee -- heard nothing over the sounds of conviviality, but the sudden appearance of the courier alerted the dining party to an alarming reality. This solider claimed that he was nearly shot out of his saddle by Federal …

The History Of Reconstruction’S Third Phase, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

There is no Society for Historians of Reconstruction. That should tell you something. There are also no Reconstruction re-enactments, and no museums teeming with artifacts of Reconstruction. Because what, after all, would there be for us to re-enact? The Memphis race massacre of May 1-3, 1866? And what artifacts would we be proud to display? Original Ku Klux Klan outfits (much more garish than the bland white-sheet versions of the 1920s)? Serial-number-identified police revolvers from the New Orleans’ Mechanics Institute killings of July 30, 1866? Looked at coldly, the dozen years that we conventionally designate as “Reconstruction” constitute the bleakest …

Gettysburg College Journal Of The Civil War Era 2018

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

No abstract provided.

The Poor Man’S Fight: Mercenary Soldiers In The Civil War: An Interview With William Marvel, Ashley Whitehead Luskey

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Over the course of this year, we’ll be interviewing some of the speakers from the upcoming 2018 CWI conference about their talks. Today we are speaking with William Marvel, an independent scholar of mid-19th-century American History. Marvel is the author of eighteen books, including most recently, Lincoln’s Mercenaries: Economic Motivation among Union Soldiers, which is due for release by LSU Press in the early fall of 2018. Some of Marvel’s additional publications include: Lincoln’s Autocrat: The Life of Edwin Stanton (UNC Press, 2015), A Place Called Appomattox (UNC Press, 2000), and Andersonville: The Last Depot (UNC Press, 1994), for which …

You’Ve Got Mail: Throwback To The American Revolutionary War, Abigail K. Major

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

A collection of approximately 150 Civil War era envelopes, mainly produced by Philadelphia publisher James Magee as well as the King & Baird printers, with patriotic Unionist themes is located in Gettysburg College’s Special Collections & College Archives. Of particular interest are the “throwbacks” and references to the American Revolution. The “Glorious Old Hall of Independence,” a depiction of Bunker Hill, and Mount Vernon are only a few illustrations from the collection that demonstrate this American Revolution era theme. [excerpt]

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)

Waging Just Warfare During America’S Civil War: An Interview With Dr. D.H. Dilbeck, Ashley Whitehead Luskey

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Over the course of this year, we’ll be interviewing some of the speakers from the upcoming 2018 CWI conference about their talks. Today we are speaking with Dr. D.H. Dilbeck, an historian of 19th-century American legal and religious history. Dr. Dilbeck received his Ph.D. in American History from the University of Virginia. His first book, A More Civil War: How the Union Waged a Just War (UNC Press, 2016), was a finalist for the Gilder-Lehrman Lincoln Prize. His most recent book, Frederick Douglass: America’s Prophet is forthcoming from UNC Press in 2018. A former Assistant Professor of History at Oklahoma …

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 …

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)

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)