Women on the Civil War Battlefront
Women on the Civil War Battlefront

Author: Richard Hall

Publisher:

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13:

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Drawing on a wealth of regimental histories, newspaper archives, and a host of previously unreported accounts, Hall shows that women served in more capacities and in greater number-perhaps several thousand-than has previously been known. They served in the infantry, cavalry, and artillery and as spies, scouts, saboteurs, smugglers, and frontline nurses. From all walks of life, they followed husbands and lovers into battle, often in male disguise that remained undiscovered until they were wounded (or gave birth), and endured the same hardships and dangers as did their male counterparts.

I Freed Myself
I Freed Myself

Author: David Williams

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-04-21

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 1139916068

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For a century and a half, Abraham Lincoln's signing of the Emancipation Proclamation has been the dominant narrative of African American freedom in the Civil War era. However, David Williams suggests that this portrayal marginalizes the role that African American slaves played in freeing themselves. At the Civil War's outset, Lincoln made clear his intent was to save the Union rather than free slaves - despite his personal distaste for slavery, he claimed no authority to interfere with the institution. By the second year of the war, though, when the Union army was in desperate need of black support, former slaves who escaped to Union lines struck a bargain: they would fight for the Union only if they were granted their freedom. Williams importantly demonstrates that freedom was not simply the absence of slavery but rather a dynamic process enacted by self-emancipated African American refugees, which compelled Lincoln to modify his war aims and place black freedom at the center of his wartime policies.

Marketing the Blue and Gray
Marketing the Blue and Gray

Author: Lawrence A. Kreiser, Jr.

Publisher: LSU Press

Published: 2019-06-12

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 0807171565

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Lawrence A. Kreiser, Jr.’s Marketing the Blue and Gray analyzes newspaper advertising during the American Civil War. Newspapers circulated widely between 1861 and 1865, and merchants took full advantage of this readership. They marketed everything from war bonds to biographies of military and political leaders; from patent medicines that promised to cure almost any battlefield wound to “secession cloaks” and “Fort Sumter” cockades. Union and Confederate advertisers pitched shopping as its own form of patriotism, one of the more enduring legacies of the nation’s largest and bloodiest war. However, unlike important-sounding headlines and editorials, advertisements have received only passing notice from historians. As the first full-length analysis of Union and Confederate newspaper advertising, Kreiser’s study sheds light on this often overlooked aspect of Civil War media. Kreiser argues that the marketing strategies of the time show how commercialization and patriotism became increasingly intertwined as Union and Confederate war aims evolved. Yankees and Rebels believed that buying decisions were an important expression of their civic pride, from “Union forever” groceries to “States Rights” sewing machines. He suggests that the notices helped to expand American democracy by allowing their diverse readership to participate in almost every aspect of the Civil War. As potential customers, free blacks and white women perused announcements for war-themed biographies, images, and other material wares that helped to define the meaning of the fighting. Advertisements also helped readers to become more savvy consumers and, ultimately, citizens, by offering them choices. White men and, in the Union after 1863, black men might volunteer for military service after reading a recruitment notice; or they might instead respond to the kind of notice for “draft insurance” that flooded newspapers after the Union and Confederate governments resorted to conscription to help fill the ranks. Marketing the Blue and Gray demonstrates how, through their sometimes-messy choices, advertising pages offered readers the opportunity to participate—or not—in the war effort.

Gettysburg's Unknown Soldier
Gettysburg's Unknown Soldier

Author: Mark H. Dunkelman

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 1999-04-30

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0313003807

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He was found dead on the battlefield at Gettysburg, an unknown soldier with nothing to identify him but an ambrotype of his three children, clutched in his fingers. With the photograph as the single, sad clue to his identity, a publicity campaign to locate his family swept the North. Within a month, the bereaved widow and children were located in Portville, New York, and the devoted father was revealed to be Sergeant Amos Humiston of the 154th New York Volunteers. Using many previously untapped sources, this book tells the tale of 19th-century war, sentiment, and popular culture in greater detail than ever before. The Humiston story touched deep emotions in Civil War America, and inspired a flood of heartfelt prose, poetry, and song. Amid a vast outpouring of public sympathy, a charitable drive evolved to assist the bereft family. At the end of the war, the crusade was expanded to establish a home at Gettysburg for orphans of deceased soldiers. The first residents of the institution were Amos Humiston's widow Philinda and her three children: Franklin, Alice, and Frederick. In this extensive account, a full portrait emerges of Amos Humiston, the loving husband and father destined to be remembered for his death tableau, and his family, the widow and orphans who struggled for the rest of their lives with celebrity born of tragedy.

Port Hudson, Confederate Bastion on the Mississippi
Port Hudson, Confederate Bastion on the Mississippi

Author: Lawrence Lee Hewitt

Publisher: LSU Press

Published: 1994-09-01

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780807119617

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Although the evidence of the site has nearly vanished, Port Hudson, Louisiana, holds a distinct place in Civil War History. Located just north of Baton Rouge, the village was the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River and the site of the longest genuine siege in American military history. In Port Hudson, Confederate Bastion on the Mississippi, Lawrence Hewitt offers a compelling account of the Confederate occupation of Port Hudson in August, 1862, and the Union's efforts to capture the stronghold, culminating in a final unsuccessful assault in May, 1863. Throughout his study, Hewitt offers a colorful narrative account of daily life in the garrison, the commanders' strategies, and the importance of Port Hudson to the war.Wanting to strengthen their hold on Vicksburg, the Confederates begna constructing earthworks for a battery at Port Hudson in early April, 1862. By late summer, the first troops began arriving for duty. As thee soldiers fortified the bluff, they sought to avoid drawing fire from Union naval vessels already present in the area. Throughout their occupation of Port Hudson, the Confederate troops were able to hold their position tenaciously, fighting off Federal efforts to block supply ships by controlling the mouth of the Red River. The Union's failure to starve out the Confederates eventually led them to launch a direct assault on Port Hudson. This attack was unsuccessful and was followed by an equally disastrous siege. Consequently, Port Hudson did not surrender until after the capitulation of Vicksburg in 1863.Hewitt also discusses a unique outcome of this period of the war: the increased enlistment of black soldiers in northern units. According to the author, the newspaper coverage of the charge by black troops at Port Hudson proved to be vital in convincing the northern masses to accept the enlistment of nearly 180,000 black soldiers in the army before the end of the war. Port Hudson will generate renewed interest in and discussion of an important period in Civil War history among scholars and Civil War buffs alike.

Chickamauga, Andersonville, Fort Sumter and Guard Duty at Home
Chickamauga, Andersonville, Fort Sumter and Guard Duty at Home

Author: Robert P. Broadwater

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2015-01-27

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 0786483121

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The best way to bring an event from the past into vivid life is to see it through the eyes of someone who lived it. In this book the reader sees the Civil War through the eyes of four Union soldiers who, although they were all from south central Pennsylvania, experienced the war in radically different ways. The journals of the four--Lt. William Glison of the 6th Ohio Infantry, Sergeant Will Duncan of the 2nd Pennsylvania Militia Battalion, John M. Kelly of the 39th Illinois Volunteer Infantry and Private George Schmittle of the 13th Pennsylvania Calvary--give the reader a glimpse into the daily life of the soldier. Written primarily during 1863 and 1864, entries are in each soldier's own words (including idiosyncrasies of grammar and spelling). Commentary is added when necessary to elaborate or clarify as well as to fix each experience on the canvas of the war as a whole. A capsule history and muster roll are included for each company along with an appendix listing all the corps of the Federal army and giving a brief history of each corps' service.