Military History Commons^™

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 …

Fleming, Peter F., 1843-1924 (Sc 3392), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3392. Letter, 7 December 1862, from Peter Fleming of the 96th Illinois Volunteers, Company E, to his friend Thomas Elliott. From Camp Beard at Danville, Kentucky, he writes of the cold weather, the good turnpike roads, the presence of troops in the vicinity, and the satisfactory food supply. He also mentions the names of several of his comrades in Company E.

Cutting Through The Ranks: The Navy’S Forgotten Legacy, Cameron T. Sauers

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

The bearer of this sword was a member of a United States Navy that rapidly grew in power during the Civil War, increasing its enlistment 500% and developing the first ironclad ship. However, even as the Navy was in the midst of its transition, one thing remained in place: The U.S. Model 1852 Navy Officer’s Sword. The sword is still used in the Navy today, albeit for ceremonial purposes. Yet, for all that this sword symbolizes, very few scholars have given much attention to it or the sailors who used it in the Civil War. The common soldier has received …

Messer, George, 1833-1863 (Sc 3385), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and full text transcript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3385. Letter, 14 December 1862, of George Messer, 107th Illinois Infantry, to his wife Lottie in Clinton, Illinois. He describes the march to camp near Munfordville, Kentucky, the layout of the camp, and nearby graves, the result of an earlier engagement. He outlines the position of other troops in the area and lists the names of several men who have deserted from his company. He makes some critical remarks about his father at home and expresses confidence in Lottie’s ability to manage his domestic affairs.

Clarke, Marcellus Jerome, 1844-1865 - Relating To (Sc 3393), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3393. Clippings, some typescripted from unidentified sources, and letters about the identity and exploits of Confederate guerrilla “Sue Mundy,” the alias of Simpson County, Kentucky native Jerome Clarke. Topics covered include his family, career, burial place, the origin of the name “Sue Mundy,” and the resulting confusion over whether “Sue” was actually a woman. Also includes an abstract of the U.S. War Department’s record of his court martial.

Women Of The War: Female Espionage Agents For The Confederacy, Sarah Stellhorn

Steeplechase: An ORCA Student Journal

Although historians have frequently examined the role of women on the home front during the Civil War, women who contributed to the cause in more direct ways, such as espionage, are often neglected. An in-depth examination of specific females spying for the Confederacy, such as Rose O’Neal Greenhow and Belle Boyd, proves that their actions, both remarkable and uncharacteristic of women at the time, had a direct impact on the war. A vast network of spies and smugglers existed not only in the southern and border states but also throughout the North, even in Washington D.C. itself. This network was …

Review: Looming Civil War, Olivia Ortman

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

In Looming Civil War, Phillips writes about the future, specifically, the one predicted by nineteenth-century Americans in the years preceding the Civil War. Challenging dominant narratives of the war, Phillips argues that nineteenth-century individuals were fully aware of a looming civil war and that many believed it would be a long, bloody, and disastrous conflict, not just a short excursion. As individuals looked to the uncertain future, they all made predictions unique to their race, religion, gender, and location. Some white southern elites saw the looming war as an Armageddon that would destroy civilized society, while abolitionists and slaves …

Clagett, John Henry, 1916-1970 (Sc 3388), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3388. Christmas cards to WKU faculty member Frances Richards from student John H. Clagett. The cards reflect Clagett’s service at the U.S. Naval Academy and at sea. Includes a notice for Clagett’s novel Buckskin Cavalier, clippings about his novels, and a copy of “The Lantern,” his short story published in Collier’s magazine.

The Forgotten Expedition Of The Michigan Polar Bears, Laura Anthon, Jamie Breyfogle, Timothy Embertson, Natalie Weg

18th Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2019)

The Michigan Polar Bear expedition saw Allied forces leading a controversial excursion into Northern Russia during the concluding years of World War I. Despite thousands of soldiers being sent to interfere with the Russian Civil War, the Polar Bear Expedition has been lost from collective memory. We publicly inquired about the expedition, then combined this research with a found scholarly consensus about the lack of cognizance relating to the events. This revealed a disconnect, which led us to inquire as to the nature and origin of its historical omission. Our primary sources of research focused on the oral histories of …

G.I. Jane Fem Etran Goes Corporate: An Exploration Of Post-9/11 Female Combat Veterans Transitioning To A Civilian Career, Tumona Austin

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this multiple-case study was to explore the experiences of post- 9/11 female combat veterans transitioning from military service to civilian careers, using the Schlossberg transition model factors of situation, self, social support, and strategies.

Methodology: This multiple-case study identified and interviewed post-9/11 female combat veterans transitioning from active-duty to civilian career. Respondents were purposively chosen based on specific criteria and expert panel recommendations.

Findings: Examination of case-study interview data and artifacts from the 3 post-9/11 female combat veterans indicated nine major findings:

1. The factor of situation clearly outweighed the other Schlossberg factors in impact.

2. …

Politics And Crisis In The 1850s: An Interview With Rachel Shelden, Ashley Whitehead Luskey

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Today we are speaking with Rachel Shelden, Associate Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma. She is the author of Washington Brotherhood: Politics, Social Life, and the Coming of the Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 2013), which received honorable mention for the Wiley-Silver Prize for the best first book on the Civil War and was a selection of the History book club. She is also the co-editor, with Gary W. Gallagher, of A Political Nation: New Directions in Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Political History (University of Virginia Press, 2012). Dr. Shelden serves as the book review editor for the …

To Remake A Man: Disability And The Civil War, Cameron T. Sauers

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

With a disability certificate and discharge from the military in hand, disabled citizens who had not long previously been abled bodied servicemen went through a period of emasculation followed by a return to waged labor which redeemed their sacrifice. These disability certificates were issued in large quantities by the sprawling northern bureaucratic machines created by the Civil War. The above-pictured certificate, issued to James Murray of the 56th New York, discharged Murray from service because, according to his regimental surgeon, he would “never be able to discharge his duty as a soldier.” Murray stood 5’8″ when he re-enlisted for three …

Johnston, Joseph E., 1875-1970 (Sc 3382), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3382. Letters of Joe E. Johnston, Pleasureville, Kentucky, to Mary Ellen Richards, Franklin, Kentucky. He discusses his activities, his book Life Begins at Eighty, and his father, Captain I. N. Johnston, an escapee from Virginia’s Libby Prison during the Civil War. Includes clippings about Johnston and his father.

Fact Or Fiction: African American Confederate Veterans, Isaac J. Shoop

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

As an intern this past summer at The National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, I came across many intriguing artifacts. One of the artifacts that stood out to me most was the photo above, which I discovered when the museum’s CEO conducted a behind-the-scenes tour. When I look at this photo, I see, on the surface at least, a group of 13 African American men who are presumably Confederate veterans. Several of these men are dressed up for the occasion. Many are wearing ribbons, one man has a Confederate flag, and another has a trumpet. There are also two …

The Third-Annual Abolitionists’ Day Event, Claire Bickers

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Three years ago, Adams County declared the first ever Abolitionists Day—a day dedicated to honoring the lives of the county’s abolitionists. The county’s abolitionists were a varied group, comprised of both whites and free blacks, men and women. Through their efforts, thousands of slaves were able to find their freedom in the North. One impressive couple, William and Phebe Wright, helped approximately one thousand men, women, and children to freedom. Adams County was also home to Thaddeus Stevens, a Gettysburg resident who used his position in the US House of Representatives to fight against the institution of slavery. With people …

A Modern-Day Review Of The Fort Pillow Massacre - Act Of War Or Genocide, Austin Valentine, Austin Valentine

Student Scholarship & Creative Works

On April 13^th, 1864 Confederate Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest attacked Union held Fort Pillow in western Tennessee. The event would later be known as the Fort Pillow Massacre where a number of African American soldiers were killed while trying to surrender to Confederate forces.

Forrest was one who had not been a graduate of a military academy, nor had any military experience. He had simply been a Memphis slave trader turned Confederate sympathizer who enlisted as a private in the Confederate Army on June 14^th of 1861. However, he eventually financed and organized his own cavalry …

Finding Aid For Rees Odeil And Patti Mattox Bryant Papers, Patti Mattox Bryant, Rees Odeil Bryant

Rees Odeil and Patti Mattox Bryant Papers

Finding aid for the Rees Odeil and Patti Mattox Bryant Papers.

Review Of Baptism Of Fire: The Birth Of The Modern British Fantastic In World War I, Ian A. Isherwood

Interdisciplinary Studies Faculty Publications

The Great War had a lasting influence on literature and literary culture in Britain. Spanning the ‘brows’ of literary taste were authors writing in response to the cataclysmic violence experienced by the war generation, at both the war front and the home front. The war's shadow permeated all aspects of cultural expression; its experience found authors who, with varying degrees of success, wrote on its lasting influence to a readership that, as the decades wore on, grew increasingly afraid of another world war. One of the responses undoubtedly influenced by the war was the genre of fantasy. As one of …

Investigation Of Chlorine Gas, Phosgene Gas, And Mustard Gas: Development, Use, Effects, And Treatments With A Focus On World War I, Kyle Zaremba

Honors Projects

The German attack in Ypres on April 22, 1915 ushered in a new era of warfare. For the first time in military history, large amounts of weaponized gas were being deployed. The first attack utilized chlorine gas while subsequent attacks used phosgene gas, mustard gas, or a combination of them. Scientific and medical communities scrambled to combat the new threat, leading to great advancements in the understanding of the pathophysiology and treatment relating to chemical gas attacks. New ways to bypass chlorine gas, phosgene gas, and mustard gas effects were proposed and tested and already existing medical interventions proved useful. …

The Octofoil, April/May/June 2019, Ninth Infantry Division Association

The Octofoil

The Octofoil is the offical publication of the Ninth Infantry Division Association, Inc., an organization formed by the officers and men of the 9th Infantry Division in order to perpetuate the memory of fallen comrades, preserve the esprit de corps of the Division, promote peace and serve as an information bureau about the 9th Infantry Division. The Association is made up of 9th Infantry veterans from WWII and Vietnam, spouses, widows and lineal descendants.

Borrone, Bert Joseph, Jr., 1919-1995 (Sc 3368), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3368. Prelude to Invasion,” two programs written by Sergeant Bert J. Borrone, Bowling Green, Kentucky, for the American Expeditionary Station News Bureau to be broadcast on 23 May and 30 May 1944. Borrone, then stationed in North Africa, details possible scenarios and tactical challenges for the highly anticipated Allied invasion of Europe, and expresses confidence in victory.

Violence And Restraint: An Interview With Aaron Sheehan-Dean, Civil War Institute

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Today we are speaking with Aaron Sheehan-Dean, Fred C. Frey Professor of Southern Studies at Louisiana State University and the Chair of LSU’s History Department. He teaches courses on nineteenth-century U.S. history, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and southern History. He is the author of Why Confederates Fought: Family and Nation in Civil War Virginia (UNC Press, 2007), Concise Historical Atlas of the U.S. Civil War (Oxford University Press, 2008), and is the editor of several other volumes. His most recent book, The Calculus of Violence: How Americans Fought the Civil War, was released by Harvard University Press in Fall, …

Last Respects Portrait

Raoul Lufbery Newspapers

A photograph from a newspaper of soldiers attending Major Raoul Lufbery's grave. Text below the document "LAST RESPECTS. Gen. Clarence Edwards, commanding the 26th division at the foot of the grave of Maj. Raoul Lufbery near Toul."

The Lafayette Escadrille, John Knox

Raoul Lufbery Newspapers

A newspaper article about Major Raoul Lufbery's time as a member of the La Fayette Escadrille, which was a U.S. flying unit under French command at the time.

Luftbery, With Engine Stopped Eludes Four Hostile Airplanes

Raoul Lufbery Newspapers

A short newspaper article about Raoul Lufbery escaping enemy planes with his engine stopping from a punctured gas pipe.

Maj. Lufbery American Air King Killed

Raoul Lufbery Newspapers

A newspaper article detailing the death of Major Raoul Lufbery. The article also details his record number of enemy kills during his career.

Lufbery Vanquished In A Battle With Huge German Plane

Raoul Lufbery Newspapers

A newspaper article detailing Major Raoul Lufbery's final skirmish with the German Army. The article includes interviews with Lufbery's family.

Hagerstown Man Was With Famous Ace Six Months On French Battle Front

Raoul Lufbery Newspapers

A newspaper article profiling the relationship of the "only recruited man who was a pallbearer at the funeral of Raoul Lufbery". Maximilian Bono was a soldier of orderly that was assigned to Major Lufbery as a personal servant.

Exploits Of America's Fist Air Ace, Michael Hull

Raoul Lufbery Newspapers

A newspaper article complete with official U.S. Air Force photos profiling Major Raoul Lufbery as a decorated pilot and flying ace.

The Sky Raiders, Paul Whelton

Raoul Lufbery Newspapers

A newspaper article about Major Raoul Lufbery's exploits as a fighter pilot for the United States Army. Of note, this includes the "Roll of Honor" which is a list of pilots killed in action. Major Lufbery is one of the pilots on this list.