Military History Commons^™

A Visit To The Battlefield, Michael J. Birkner, Richard E. Winslow

Adams County History

This piece was transcribed and edited by Michael J. Birkner and Richard E. Winslow.

With fighting concluded at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, the enormous task of burying the dead, treating the wounded, and rehabilitating the town began in earnest. Although Gettysburg looked and smelled worse than it ever had or ever would again, thousands of people arrived on the battlefield in the days and weeks following General Robert E. Lee's retreat. Some came to minister to the sick and reclaim the bodies of neighbors and loved ones; others scavenged souvenirs of the battle. Of the many visits to the …

Veterans Residing In Adams County, Pennsylvania, 1840-1930, Kevin L. Greenholt

Adams County History

The federal decennial census provides a wide-ranging set of data for analysis. The census forms for each ten-year cycle from 1790 until 1930 have been released to the public for access. The tabulations of 1840, 1910, and 1930 contain data relating to the military service of those interviewed by the census enumerator. Compiled here is a list of veterans, listed by Adams County township, who served in the American Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, or other military actions from 1840 through 1930.

Jenkins, William M. (Sc 1398), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1398. Civil War letters, 1861-1862, written by Union soldier William M. Jenkins, to his mother and sister describing the Battle of Williamsburg, Virginia. Also, 1871 letter to his wife in New York detailing his activities on a business trip.

Githens, William Harrison, 1826-1904 (Sc 1364), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid, scan, and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1364. Letter, 22 February 1862, written by U.S. Army surgeon William H. Githens, Birds Point, Missouri, to his wife describing conditions, especially in Cairo, Illinois, and mentioning the activity at Forts Holt and Payne across the river in Kentucky. He includes a sketch of these fortifications.

Bonjour, Thomas L., 1842-1903 (Sc 1385), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid, scan and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1385. Letter written from Atlanta, Georgia, by Thomas L. Bonjour, while serving with the 96th Illinois Regiment, to his father Frederick in Galena County, Illinois. He recounts some data about the Battle of Atlanta as well as personal concerns.

Orville Elias Babcock (1835-1884), Janet Butler Munch

Publications and Research

Orville Elias Babcock (1835-1884) was an army general, engineer, and a private secretary to Ulysses S. Grant..

So Far From God And So Close To Stonewall Jackson: The Executions Of Three Shenandoah Valley Soldiers, Peter S. Carmichael

History Faculty Publications

Mount Pisgah Church had long been a place where Orange County Baptists sought salvation and spiritual comfort. Wars have a way of turning such holy places into brutal scenes of killing. Although a battle was never fought on the sacred ground of the church, Pisgah witnessed man's inhumanity on 19 August 1862, when a firing squad executed three deserters from Brig. Gen. William B. Taliaferro's division of Stonewall Jackson's command - all of whom were conscripts from the Shenandoah Valley. Until that depressing afternoon, when veterans formed a hollow square and waited for the condemned, no deserters in Jackson's command …

The Lincoln Enigma: The Changing Faces Of An American Icon, Gabor Boritt

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Nearly a century and a half after his death, Abraham Lincoln remains an intrinsic part of the American consciousness, yet his intentions as president and his personal character continue to stir debate.

Now, in The Lincoln Enigma, Gabor Boritt invites renowned Lincoln scholars, and rising new voices, to take a look at much-debated aspects of Lincoln's life, including his possible gay relationships, his plan to send blacks back to Africa, and his high-handed treatment of the Constitution. Boritt explores Lincoln's proposals that looked to a lily-white America. Jean Baker marvels at Lincoln's loves and marriage. David Herbert Donald highlights …

Steele, Ira (Sc 1352), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid, scan, and typescript (click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1352. Letter, 16 February 1862, written by Union soldier Ira Steele, stationed at Camp Glenbrook, Kentucky, to his brother Oliver Steele. He mentions the Green River; bridge burning; Bowling Green; the sending of some items to New Haven, Nelson County, Kentucky; and describes camp life.

Kentucky - Cavalry - 5th Regiment (Sc 1361), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1361. Record of the 5th Kentucky Cavalry, including its itinerary and officers. Includes a letter (first page only) pertaining to the document.

Ellsworth, Oliver Carnell, 1842-1864 (Sc 1359), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1359. Correspondence of Civil War soldier Oliver C. Ellsworth, Marion, Michigan, with family and friends. He served with the 22nd Michigan Infantry in Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama. Also includes a tintype of Ellsworth.

0715: Zophar Dean Ramsdell Papers, 1861-1865, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection consists of copies of quartermaster reports for the 5th Regiment, West Virginia Infantry, including monthly property accounts, clothing, stationery, hospital supplies, ordnance materials, animal return and acquisitions, food and fuel receipts, issued supply registers, and correspondence. Due to the nature of copied materials, the legibility and completeness of materials can vary, but is overall high.

Civil War Visitor Center At Tredegar Iron Works (Exhibition Review), Edward L. Ayers

History Faculty Publications

Review of exhibition, Civil War Visitor Center at Tredegar Iron Works.

Gen Ms 04 William W. Layton Collection Finding Aid, John D. Knowlton

Search the General Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Description:

William W. Layton is an amateur American historian and collector of historical artifacts in Virginia who donated these items in honor of the creation of the Gerald E. Talbot Collection. The Collection consists of 10 original manuscripts, an original lithograph, 2 facsimiles and 14 transcripts and/or photocopies of the manuscripts, regarding Mainers over a period of years in the 19th century, with an emphasis on William Pitt Fessenden and the U.S. Civil War.

Date Range:

1800s

Size of Collection:

2 ft.

0703: Rosanna A. Blake Collection, 1818-2000, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection consists of manuscript and other paper items collected by Rosanna A. Blake. Included are letters, diaries, correspondence, unit rosters, Confederate imprint forms and currency, 1860-1865. Also included are 3D items including firearms, edged weapons, tin soldiers, original Civil War art work, the Volck shield, and Southern periodicals relating to the Civil War. Notably, the collection includes 3 original Robert E. Lee letters, 1 Jefferson Davis letter, and 2 general orders dictated by Lee. The O'Brien sub-collection contains Civil War pamphlets and booklets, over 300 monographs and books, photos, CDV's, original Civil War art work, the Volck shield, ambrotypes …

Lewis-Starling Collection (Mss 38), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 38. Correspondence, Civil War military and personal papers, business papers, land records, scrapbooks, account books, clippings, and genealogical records of the Lewis and Starling families of Logan and Christian counties in Kentucky, and associated families.

Adams County History 2000

Adams County History

No abstract provided.

The Civil War Days Of Captain Charles D. Roush: Company B, 6th Pennsylvania Regiment Reserves, C. Christopher Brown

Book Gallery

The Civil War diary of Capt. Charles Roush provides valuable insight into the life of a Union soldier who marched in 1861 and 1862 through the rolling hills of Maryland and Virginia, ending at the battle of South Mountain, where Roush was injured, just a couple of days prior to Antietam.

His diary relates the dreariness of war. Disease was arguably a far more potent adversary than the Southern troops. Winter brought bad weather, much sickness, as well as McCellan’s infamous forced “promenade” through northern Virginia.

In May 1862, after returning from a long march, Roush encountered two special visitors …

The Gettysburg Battlefield, One Century Ago, Benjamin Y. Dixon

Adams County History

In the fall of 1899, Colonel John Nicholson reported on the recent changes being made to the Gettysburg National Military park. The park held a dedication ceremony that July for a new equestrian statue to General John Reynolds erected northwest of town. It was a shiny goldenbrown, polished-bronze statue sculpted by Henry Kirke Bush-Brown (his second equestrian statue at Gettysburg in three years). The horse and rider, balancing on two legs stood on a large pedestal near the new avenue in his name. Reynolds Avenue and adjoining Wadsworth, Doubleday, and Robinson Avenues were new to the battlefield as well. These …

0697: Archibald Debow Norris Diaries, 1861-1863, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection consists of copies and transcriptions of three diaries, spanning January 1861- April 1863, of Private, later Captain, Archibald D. Norris of the 7th Regiment, Tennessee Infantry, Co. K during the Civil War, ending with the Fredericksburg campaign. The diaries are extensive, and cover details about the war and specific battles as well as camp life. There are also entries about Norris’ evolving feelings about the state of the union. According to a note in the collection, there are a significant proportion of West Virginia related content in the diaries.

The Civil War Letters Of Jeremiah Mickly Of Franklin Township, Adams County, Eric Ledell Smith

Adams County History

On December 2, 1862, just eleven days before the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, Jeremiah Mickly said goodbye to his wife and two children and reported for duty with the 177th Pennsylvania Infantry to become a Civil War chaplain. The only known photograph ofMickly shows him dressed in the standard chaplain's uniform of the day: a plain black frock coat with a standing collar and black buttons with plain black pantaloons. Like many other Civil War soldiers, Mickly re-enlisted for service after his stint with the 177th ended, becoming chaplain of the 43rd Regiment, United States Colored Troops. Impressed with the …

Confederate Matrons : Women Who Served In Virginia Civil War Hospitals, A. Elise Allison

Honors Theses

In September 1862, the Confederate Congress authorized hospitals to employ white women as chief matrons, assistant matrons, and ward matrons. This paper examines the lives and experiences of matrons who worked in Confederate hospitals in Virginia. It concludes that only ''exceptional" women with the stamina to endure physical and mental hardships were able to defy conventional ideas about their proper role and contribute to the care of Confederate sick and wounded as matrons.

Some Culp Family Members In The Civil War, David A. Culp

Adams County History

In the 1860s Gettysburg had a population of around 2,400. The Culps had lived there since 1787, the year Christopher Culp purchased the farm, located on the east end of town, with its western boundry starting at Baltimore St. between Breckenridge and South Streets, going northeast to South Stratton St. and Wall Alley East, then on to East Middle St. between South Stratton and Liberty Streets. The town more or less ended at the farm boundary. Prominent on the farm and southeast of town was Culp's Hill. Five generations of Culps had lived in Gettysburg by the time of the …

Worrying About The Civil War, Edward L. Ayers

History Faculty Publications

There is no animosity in any of these historical or practical interpretations of the Civil War. It is clear that the North fought for purposes entirely good--for Union and the end of slavery--but Confederate soldiers also win respect for their bravery, their devotion, and their struggle against long odds. They seem to have been playing historical roles for which they are not to blame. The reenactors, the books in stores, and the battlefield tours generally avoid talking about the cause of the war, focusing instead on the common bravery and hardships of soldiers North and South.

0678: Karen N. Cartwright Nance Collection, 1865, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection consists of a scanned copy of the diary of C. F. Ropes, a Union soldier with the Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and a copy of a publication titled “Civil War Diary of C. F. Ropes, 38th/34th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, Co. “H”, 1865” compiled, annotated, and edited by Karen N. Cartwright Nance. The diary covers the period from January to September 1865, and takes place mostly in the Gulf area between Galveston, Texas, and Pensacola, Florida. The publication, in addition to a transcription, includes a schedule and map of C. F. Ropes movements, as well as an index of subjects …

Building A Battle Site: Roads To And Through Gettysburg, Elwood W. Christ

Adams County History

On the morning of 1 July 1863, lead elements of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia advanced on the town of Gettysburg situated in the lush farm lands of south-central Pennsylvania just eight miles east of the South Mountain in Adams county. The Southern reconnaissance in force made early that summer morning was destined not only to change the history of the struggling Confederacy, but also to set the infant United States republic, indeed the world, on courses towards more democratic forms of government.

Although many historians have dwelled on those three fateful days in 1863, few …

0661: Elizabeth Cometti Collection, 1861-1869, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection consists of a microfilm copy of items selected by Elizabeth Cometti about West Virginia taken from the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, specifically materials taken from the W. R. Redding Papers, 1861-1865 and the William Thomas Sutherlin Papers, 1842-1892. The Redding materials are from 1861 while Redding was stationed in Virginia, to his wife, Elizabeth M. Redding, in Randolph County, Ga.. He discusses camp life, troop movements and skirmishes, and conditions at home. Sutherlin materials date from 1868 to 1869 and may include correspondence and other papers relate to the varied business …

A Tour Of Gettysburg's Visual Battle Damage, Timothy H. Smith

Adams County History

A little-known aspect of the Battle of Gettysburg is the story behind the Civil War battle damage still present m some of the town's buildings. During the first three days of July 1863, cannons fired over and into Gettysburg, and as a result some of the homes were inadvertently struck by the shells. As a battlefield guide, the author has driven by these structures everyday for the past few years, and a highlight of any tour is a stop in front of the Sheads house on Buford Avenue, where one can point up to an artillery shell embedded just to …

William And Isabel: Parallels Between The Life And Times Of The William Bliss Family, Transplanted New Englanders At Gettysburg, And A Nineteenth-Century Novel, 'Isabel Carollton: A Personal Retrospect' By Kneller Glen, Elwood W. Christ

Adams County History

By 3 July 1863, Union troops under the command of General George G. Meade and elements of General Robert E. Lee's Confederate army had struggled for two days over the rolling farm lands, ridges, and rocky crags around a small farming community and county seat known as Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Within the encompassing whirlpool ofbattle, however, smaller dramas had unfolded, and one of them is of interest to us here. The soldiers had been fighting for the possession of a house and barn situated equidistant between the battle lines about one and onequarter miles south-southwest of the town square. During a …

Union Civilian Leaders, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

The American Civil War was a war of civilians. The fact that 3 million or so of them happened to be in uniform was almost incidental, since the soldiers, sailors, and officers of both the Union and Confederate armies were mostly civilian volunteers who retained close contacts with their civilian social worlds, who brought 1f9Culent civilian attitudes into the ranks with them, and who fully expected to return to civilian life as soon as the shooting was over. By the same token, civilian communities in both North and South kept closely in touch with their volunteers all through the war, …