What is new with the Mississippi Civil War American History and Genealogy Project
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Confederate Memorial Day
Friday, February 11, 2011
See "GeneaBloggers Member Blog Posts" on your Google homepage
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Mississippi Medal of Honor
Navy Valor
U.S. Navy
Recipients of The Medal of Honor
Mississippi
Natchez - Brown, Wilson Civil War
Ship's Island - Freeman, Martin Civil War
DORLEY, AUGUST
Rank and Organization: Private, Company B, 1st Louisiana Cavalry. Place and Date: At Mount Pleasant, Ala., 11 April 1865. Birth: Germany. Date of Issue: Unknown.
Citation:
Capture of flag.
Brown, Wilson
Landsman, U.S. Navy
U.S.S. Hartford
Date of Action: August 05, 1864
Citation:
The Medal of Honor is presented to Wilson Brown, Landsman, U.S. Navy, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving on board the flagship U.S.S. Hartford during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, Alabama, on 5 August 1864. Knocked unconscious into the hold of the ship when an enemy shellburst fatally wounded a man on the ladder above him, Landsman Brown, upon regaining consciousness, promptly returned to the shell whip on the berth deck and zealously continued to perform his duties although four of the six men at this station had been either killed or wounded by the enemy's terrific fire.
General Order No. 45, December 31, 1864
Born: at Natchez, Mississippi
Home Town: Natchez, Mississippi
Freeman, Martin
U.S. Civilian
Pilot (Attached to the U.S. Navy), U.S.S. Hartford
Date of Action: August 05, 1864
Citation:
The Medal of Honor is presented to Martin Freeman, Civilian Pilot, U.S. Civilian, for extraordinary heroism in action as Pilot of the flagship, U.S.S. Hartford, during action against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee, in Mobile Bay, Alabama, 5 August 1864. With his ship under terrific enemy shellfire, Civilian Pilot Martin Freeman calmly remained at his station in the maintop and skillfully piloted the ships into the bay. He rendered gallant service throughout the prolonged battle in which the rebel gunboats were captured or driven off, the prize ram Tennessee forced to surrender, and the fort successfully attacked.
General Order No. 45, August 5, 1864
Born: 5/18/1814 at Germany
Home Town: Ship's Island, Mississippi
Compiled & Edited
By
C. Douglas Sterner
Copyright © 2006 by HomeOfHeroes.com
All Rights Reserved
Forrest County Confederate Monument
Forrest county Confederate Monument
they held back nothing.
They cheerfully gave their
property and their lives.
Through the devotion and
untiring efforts of the
Hattiesburg Chapter No. 422
of the United Daughters
of the Confederacy, this
monument is erected to
the honor and memory of
those who wore the gray.
About Our Freedom Daily is out ! Edition of Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Defenders of the Union marker
[Front Side of Monument]
Rich Mountain
Antietam, Gettysburg,
Vicksburg, Cloyd Mountain
Opequan, Appomattox.
[Back Side of Monument]
They counted not their
lives dear unto them.
Erected in 1880 by The Soldiers Aid Society of Wheeling, West Virginia, in Ohio County
Monday, January 17, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Blogroll
Blogroll as of January 16, 2010
- 13th Mississippi Infantry Blog
- African American Cemeteries
- Africana Heritage Project – University of South Florida
- Afrigeneas
- American Slave Narratives
- Ancestry.com Civil War MS Message Board
- Civil War Bookshelf
- Civil War Interactive
- Civil War Women Blog
- Free African Ameircans of VIRGINIA, NORTH CAROLINA SOUTH CAROLINA, MARYLAND AND DELAWARE
- Geneabloggers – African American Genealogy Blogs
- Home Page – MSCW AHGP
- Jefferson Davis Papers
- Library of Congress
- Message Board – History Sites MS CW
- Mississippi Civil War Sesquicentennial
- MSGenWeb
- Preservation in Mississippi
- The African American Migration Experience
- The American Civil War Homepage
- The Family Griot
- The Sable Arm
- USCT Chronicle
- USGenWeb
- Visit Mississippi
Friday, January 14, 2011
French mediation
Feb. 13, 1863
They have likewise lost the Mississippi, with every island and river fortification, save that at Vicksburgh, by which it was defended. This river, which drains the entire valley of the West and cuts in two the Slave States from Cairo to the Gulf, and on which could float the navies of the world, which can neither be forded nor bridged, must forever separate the four Slave States and their contiguous territories on its West side from those on the East. The loss of the river was more injurious to the cause of the insurrectionists than the loss of many battles. Conscious that this would be so, it was fortified, your Excellency will remember, not only at its mouth, and below and at New-Orleans, but at every available point upward; yet, with its many fortifications, Vicksburgh alone excepted, it has within the year been lost to the South.
Southern Items
November 12, 1865 New York Times
Gov. HUMPHREY, of Mississippi, calls upon the people of that State to organize companies to aid the civil authorities to maintain law and order, and cautions them against oppressing the negro in any way.
Gen. GIDEON J. PILLOW passed through Indianapolis a few days since, on his way to the Wabash country, to buy seed corn to enable him to plant his Mississippi plantation next season.
Amnesty proclaimation
Amnesty proclaimation
Manufacturers and Farmers Journal - Jun 1, 1865 |
Southern lady Union spy
Elizabeth Van Lew was a well-born resident of Richmond, Virginia, who built and operated an extensive spy ring for the United States during the American Civil War. Under the nose of the Confederate government, Van Lew gathered intelligence, hampered the Southern war effort, and helped scores of Union soldiers escape from Richmond prisons. A Northern sympathizer in the Confederate capital, Van Lew led what one historian called "the most productive espionage operation of the Civil War."
Five things to know about the Port of New Orleans - Civil War
With the blockade of Confederate ports during the Civil War, immigration through New Orleans was halted and never regained its momentum due to the rapid expansion of railroads that made travel from Eastern ports more appealing. Also at this point, more and more shipping companies were turning to the larger steamships that couldn’t reliably get into the port of New Orleans because of sand bars that often blocked the port.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Counties during the Civil War
County | Date Created | Parent County | County Seat |
Adams | 1799 | Natchez District | Natchez |
Jefferson | 1799 | Natchez | Fayette |
Claiborne | 1802 | Jefferson | Port Gibson |
Wilkinson | 1802 | Adams | Woodville |
Amite | 1809 | Wilkinson | Liberty |
Franklin | 1809 | Adams | Meadville |
Warren | 1809 | Natchez District | Vicksburg |
Wayne | 1809 | Mississippi Territory's "Old"Washington County | Waynesboro |
Greene | 1811 | Amite / Franklin / Wayne | Leakesville |
Marion | 1811 | Amite / Wayne / Franklin | Columbia |
Hancock | 1812 | Mobile District | Bay Saint Louis |
Jackson | 1812 | Mobile District | Pascagoula |
Lawrence | 1814 | Marion | Monticello |
Pike | 1815 | Marion | Magnolia |
Covington | 1819 | Lawrence / Wayne | Collins |
Perry | 1820 | Greene | New Augusta |
Hinds | 1821 | Choctaw Cession of 1820 | Jackson |
Monroe | 1821 | Chickasaw Cession of 1821 | Aberdeen |
Copiah | 1823 | Hinds | Hazlehurst |
Yazoo | 1823 | Hinds | Yazoo City |
Simpson | 1824 | Choctaw Cession of 1820 | Mendenhall |
Jones | 1826 | Covington / Wayne | Laurel / Ellisville |
Washington | 1827 | Warren / Yazoo | Greenville |
Madison | 1828 | Yazoo | Canton |
Rankin | 1828 | Hinds | Brandon |
Lowndes | 1830 | Monroe | Columbus |
Attala | 1833 | Choctaw Cession of 1830 | Kosciusko |
Carroll | 1833 | Choctaw Cession | Carrollton |
Choctaw | 1833 | Choctaw Cession | Ackerman |
Clarke | 1833 | Choctaw Cession of 1830 | Quitman |
Holmes | 1833 | Yazoo | Lexington |
Jasper | 1833 | Indian Lands | Bay Springs |
Kemper | 1833 | Choctaw Cession of 1830 | De Kalb |
Lauderdale | 1833 | Choctaw Cession of 1833 | Meridian |
Leake | 1833 | Choctaw Cession | Carthage |
Neshoba | 1833 | Choctaw Cession of 1830 | Philadelphia |
Noxubee | 1833 | Choctaw Cession of 1830 | Macon |
Oktibbeha | 1833 | Choctaw Cession of 1830 | Starkville |
Scott | 1833 | Choctaw Cession of 1832 | Forest |
Smith | 1833 | Choctaw Cession of 1830 | Raleigh |
Tallahatchie | 1833 | Choctaw Cession of 1830 | Charleston |
Winston | 1833 | Choctaw Cession of 1830 | Louisville |
Yalobusha | 1833 | Choctaw Cession of 1830 | Water Valley |
Bolivar | 1836 | Choctaw Cession Of 1830 | Cleveland |
Chickasaw | 1836 | Chickasaw Cession of 1830 | Houston |
Coahoma | 1836 | Chickasaw Cession of 1836 | Clarksdale |
DeSoto | 1836 | Indian Lands | Hernando |
Itawamba | 1836 | Chickasaw Cession of 1832 | Fulton |
Lafayette | 1836 | Chickasaw Cession | Oxford |
Marshall | 1836 | Chickasaw Cession of 1832 | Holly Springs |
Newton | 1836 | Neshoba | Decatur |
Panola | 1836 | Chickasaw Cession of 1830 | Batesville |
Pontotoc | 1836 | Chickasaw Cession of 1832 | Pontotoc |
Tippah | 1836 | Chickasaw Cession of 1832 | Ripley |
Tishomingo | 1836 | Chickasaw Cession of 1832 | Iuka |
Tunica | 1836 | Chickasaw Cession of 1832 | Tunica |
Harrison | 1841 | Hancock / Jackson | Gulfport |
Issaquena | 1844 | Washington | Mayersville |
Sunflower | 1844 | Bolivar | Indianola |
Calhoun | 1852 | Chickasaw / Lafayette / Yalobusha | Pittsboro |
Lee | 1866 | Itawamba / Pontotoc | Tupelo |
Counties formed after the Civil War
Lee | 1866 | Itawamba / Pontotoc | Tupelo |
Alcorn | 1870 | Tippah / Tishomingo | Corinth |
Benton | 1870 | Marshall / Tippah | Ashland |
Grenada | 1870 | Carroll/Yalobusha /Montgomery/Tallahatchie/Webster/Choctaw | Grenada |
Lincoln | 1870 | Franklin / Lawrence /Copiah / Pike / Amite | Brookhaven |
Prentiss | 1870 | Tishomingo | Booneville |
Union | 1870 | Pontotoc /Tippah | New Albany |
Clay | 1871 | Chickasaw / Lowndes /Monroe / Oktibbeha | West Point |
Leflore | 1871 | Carroll / Sunflower / Tallahatchie | Greenwood |
Montgomery | 1871 | Carroll / Choctaw | Winona |
Tate | 1873 | Marshall / Tunica / DeSoto | Senatobia |
Webster | 1874 | Montgomery / Chickasaw /Choctaw / Oktibbeha | Walthall |
Sharkey | 1876 | Warren / Washington / Issaquena | Rolling Fork |
Quitman | 1877 | Panola / Coahoma | Marks |
Pearl River | 1890 | Hancock / Marion | Poplarville |
Lamar | 1904 | Marion / Pearl River | Purvis |
Forrest | 1906 | Perry | Hattiesburg |
Jefferson Davis | 1906 | Covington / Lawrence | Prentiss |
George | 1910 | Greene / Jackson | Lucedale |
Walthall | 1910 | Marion / Pike | Tylertown |
Stone | 1916 | Harrison | Wiggins |
Humphreys | 1918 | Holmes / Washington /Yazoo / Sunflower | Belzoni |
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Civil War letters come to New Ulm museum
NEW ULM — The Schilling brothers' eight letters penned in 1862 evince an extraordinary time in American history as well as a painful part of New Ulm's past.
The Brown County Historical Society Museum has acquired the documents from descendants of Louis and August Schilling, Union soldiers from New Ulm who sent letters from Civil War battlefields to family members back home who were caught in their own battles with Indians.
The letters, written in archaic German script by the immigrant brothers and yet to be fully translated, show that their concern for the welfare of New Ulm kin appeared to override the peril of having to fight in some of the war's bloodiest battles.
"From Camp Corinth (Mississippi) May 22, 1862: "They have 160,000 troops and approximately 700 cannons. The weather is great, the nights are cool. The peach trees are brimming with fruit."
June 26: "The camp site is nice, the water quite good ... there are no mosquitoes yet ... Uncle Sam won't provide beer, which is a shame, because it's currently warm enough to drink a good portion."
Famed military historian to present
Ed Bearss, an award-winning historian who spent more than 40 years with the National Park Service, will present at Wednesday night's Brunswick Civil War Roundtable.
Bearss, described as a "national treasure" by Roundtable organizers, spent most of his career dedicated to battlefield preservation and interpretation, according to the NPS. His awards include the "Harry S. Truman Award for Meritorious Service in the field of Civil War History" and he has been commended by the Secretary of the Army.
The topic will be the Vicksburg campaign, the battle for the last Confederate fort on the Mississippi River.
Negro labor to be employed
American and Commercial Advertiser - Jul 23, 1862 |
Civil War letters come to New Ulm museum
http://mankatofreepress.com/local/x756278918/Civil-War-letters-come-to-New-Ulm-museum
NEW ULM — The Schilling brothers' eight letters penned in 1862 evince an extraordinary time in American history as well as a painful part of New Ulm's past.
The Brown County Historical Society Museum has acquired the documents from descendants of Louis and August Schilling, Union soldiers from New Ulm who sent letters from Civil War battlefields to family members back home who were caught in their own battles with Indians.
The letters, written in archaic German script by the immigrant brothers and yet to be fully translated, show that their concern for the welfare of New Ulm kin appeared to override the peril of having to fight in some of the war's bloodiest battles.
"From Camp Corinth (Mississippi) May 22, 1862: "They have 160,000 troops and approximately 700 cannons. The weather is great, the nights are cool. The peach trees are brimming with fruit."
June 26: "The camp site is nice, the water quite good ... there are no mosquitoes yet ... Uncle Sam won't provide beer, which is a shame, because it's currently warm enough to drink a good portion."
Famed military historian to present
http://brunswick.blogs.starnewsonline.com/12191/famed-military-historian-to-present-at-special-civil-war-roundtable/
Ed Bearss, an award-winning historian who spent more than 40 years with the National Park Service, will present at Wednesday night's Brunswick Civil War Roundtable.
Bearss, described as a "national treasure" by Roundtable organizers, spent most of his career dedicated to battlefield preservation and interpretation, according to the NPS. His awards include the "Harry S. Truman Award for Meritorious Service in the field of Civil War History" and he has been commended by the Secretary of the Army.
The topic will be the Vicksburg campaign, the battle for the last Confederate fort on the Mississippi River.
Monday, January 10, 2011
THE SLAVERY QUESTION
November 16, 1859
Also slave revolts in Kentucky, article also mentions states of Ohio and Georgia
Mississippi digital map library
USGenWeb Mississippi digital map archive
Harrison Irby Rocky Springs cemetery, Claiborne county
Roster - 38th Mississippi CAV Co. B - Van Dorn Guards
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Confederate Veteran, Volume 30
Confederate veteran
, Volume 30 (Google eBook)
Front Cover
Confederated Southern Memorial Association (U.S.), Sons of Confederate Veterans (Organization), United Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy
0 Reviews
S.A. Cunningham, 1922 - History
Medical Organizations and Installations in the Civil War
Mississippi Genealogy and History Network - by Bill White
Civil War Education in 1899
Educational foundations:
a text book for the professional teacher, Volume 10 (Google eBook)
Front Cover
0 Reviews
A.S. Barnes, 1899 - Education
Mention an important event bearing on the slavery question in each of the following periods: (a) 1815 to 1825 (b) 1845 to 1855.
Answer:
(a) The Missouri Compromise. (b) The Omnibus bill.
What was the special advantage of location which in each case made the following places important points in the Civil war: (a) Fort Sumter; (b) Island No 10; (c) Fortress Monroe.
Answer:
(a) Gaurded Charleston Harbor. (b) It controlled the navigation of the Mississippi river. (c) It gaurded the entrance to Chesapeake bay, the James river and Hampton roads.
Confederate Veteran, Volume 30
, Volume 30 (Google eBook)
Front Cover
Confederated Southern Memorial Association (U.S.), Sons of Confederate Veterans (Organization), United Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy
0 Reviews
S.A. Cunningham, 1922 - History
Saturday, January 8, 2011
DearMYRTLE's Genealogy Blog : Hampton University receives US Colored Troops A...
Post: Hampton University receives US Colored Troops Archives
Link: http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2011/01/hampton-university-receives-us-colored.html
Five myths about the Civil War from the Washington Post
See also http://civilwarmississippi.blogspot.com/2011/01/all-confidence-in-north-is-lost-in.html
Five myths about why the South seceded
By James W. Loewen
Sunday, January 9, 2011; 12:00 AM
One hundred and fifty years after the Civil War began, we're still fighting it -- or at least fighting over its history. I've polled thousands of high school history teachers and spoken about the war to audiences across the country, and there is little agreement even on why the South seceded. Was it over slavery? States' rights? Tariffs and taxes?
As the nation begins to commemorate the anniversaries of the war's various battles -- from Fort Sumter to Appomattox -- let's first dispense with some of the more prevalent myths about why it all began.
1. The South seceded over states' rights.
Confederate states did claim the right to secede, but no state claimed to be seceding for that right. In fact, Confederates opposed states' rights -- that is, the right of Northern states not to support slavery.
On Dec. 24, 1860, delegates at South Carolina's secession convention adopted a "Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union." It noted "an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery" and protested that Northern states had failed to "fulfill their constitutional obligations" by interfering with the return of fugitive slaves to bondage. Slavery, not states' rights, birthed the Civil War.
South Carolina was further upset that New York no longer allowed "slavery transit." In the past, if Charleston gentry wanted to spend August in the Hamptons, they could bring their cook along. No longer -- and South Carolina's delegates were outraged. In addition, they objected that New England states let black men vote and tolerated abolitionist societies. According to South Carolina, states should not have the right to let their citizens assemble and speak freely when what they said threatened slavery.
Other seceding states echoed South Carolina. "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery -- the greatest material interest of the world," proclaimed Mississippi in its own secession declaration, passed Jan. 9, 1861. "Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of the commerce of the earth. . . . A blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization."
The South's opposition to states' rights is not surprising. Until the Civil War, Southern presidents and lawmakers had dominated the federal government. The people in power in Washington always oppose states' rights. Doing so preserves their own.
2. Secession was about tariffs and taxes.
During the nadir of post-civil-war race relations - the terrible years after 1890 when town after town across the North became all-white "sundown towns" and state after state across the South prevented African Americans from voting - "anything but slavery" explanations of the Civil War gained traction. To this day Confederate sympathizers successfully float this false claim, along with their preferred name for the conflict: the War Between the States. At the infamous Secession Ball in South Carolina, hosted in December by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, "the main reasons for secession were portrayed as high tariffs and Northern states using Southern tax money to build their own infrastructure," The Washington Post reported.
These explanations are flatly wrong. High tariffs had prompted the Nullification Crisis in 1831-33, when, after South Carolina demanded the right to nullify federal laws or secede in protest, President Andrew Jackson threatened force. No state joined the movement, and South Carolina backed down. Tariffs were not an issue in 1860, and Southern states said nothing about them. Why would they? Southerners had written the tariff of 1857, under which the nation was functioning. Its rates were lower than at any point since 1816.
3. Most white Southerners didn't own slaves, so they wouldn't secede for slavery.
Indeed, most white Southern families had no slaves. Less than half of white Mississippi households owned one or more slaves, for example, and that proportion was smaller still in whiter states such as Virginia and Tennessee. It is also true that, in areas with few slaves, most white Southerners did not support secession. West Virginia seceded from Virginia to stay with the Union, and Confederate troops had to occupy parts of eastern Tennessee and northern Alabama to hold them in line.
However, two ideological factors caused most Southern whites, including those who were not slave-owners, to defend slavery. First, Americans are wondrous optimists, looking to the upper class and expecting to join it someday. In 1860, many subsistence farmers aspired to become large slave-owners. So poor white Southerners supported slavery then, just as many low-income people support the extension of George W. Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy now.
Second and more important, belief in white supremacy provided a rationale for slavery. As the French political theorist Montesquieu observed wryly in 1748: "It is impossible for us to suppose these creatures [enslaved Africans] to be men; because allowing them to be men, a suspicion would follow that we ourselves are not Christians." Given this belief, most white Southerners -- and many Northerners, too -- could not envision life in black-majority states such as South Carolina and Mississippi unless blacks were in chains. Georgia Supreme Court Justice Henry Benning, trying to persuade the Virginia Legislature to leave the Union, predicted race war if slavery was not protected. "The consequence will be that our men will be all exterminated or expelled to wander as vagabonds over a hostile earth, and as for our women, their fate will be too horrible to contemplate even in fancy." Thus, secession would maintain not only slavery but the prevailing ideology of white supremacy as well.
4. Abraham Lincoln went to war to end slavery.
Since the Civil War did end slavery, many Americans think abolition was the Union's goal. But the North initially went to war to hold the nation together. Abolition came later.
On Aug. 22, 1862, President Lincoln wrote a letter to the New York Tribune that included the following passage: "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union."
However, Lincoln's own anti-slavery sentiment was widely known at the time. In the same letter, he went on: "I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free." A month later, Lincoln combined official duty and private wish in his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.
White Northerners' fear of freed slaves moving north then caused Republicans to lose the Midwest in the congressional elections of November 1862.
Gradually, as Union soldiers found help from black civilians in the South and black recruits impressed white units with their bravery, many soldiers -- and those they wrote home to -- became abolitionists. By 1864, when Maryland voted to end slavery, soldiers' and sailors' votes made the difference.
5. The South couldn't have made it long as a slave society.
Slavery was hardly on its last legs in 1860. That year, the South produced almost 75 percent of all U.S. exports. Slaves were worth more than all the manufacturing companies and railroads in the nation. No elite class in history has ever given up such an immense interest voluntarily. Moreover, Confederates eyed territorial expansion into Mexico and Cuba. Short of war, who would have stopped them - or forced them to abandon slavery?
To claim that slavery would have ended of its own accord by the mid-20th century is impossible to disprove but difficult to accept. In 1860, slavery was growing more entrenched in the South. Unpaid labor makes for big profits, and the Southern elite was growing ever richer. Freeing slaves was becoming more and more difficult for their owners, as was the position of free blacks in the United States, North as well as South. For the foreseeable future, slavery looked secure. Perhaps a civil war was required to end it.
As we commemorate the sesquicentennial of that war, let us take pride this time - as we did not during the centennial - that secession on slavery's behalf failed.
jloewen@uvm.edu
Sociologist James W. Loewen is the author of "Lies My Teacher Told Me" and co-editor, with Edward Sebesta, of "The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader."
Test yourself to find out how much you know about the Civil War.
The Center for Civil War Research
The Center for Civil War ResearchThe University of Mississippi established the Center for Civil War Research in the spring of 2009. In scope, the Center is designed to promote a more thorough understanding of the American Civil War, its history and its scholarship, among the various constituencies of the University.
The American Civil War is central to our nation's history. The legacies of that nineteenth-century conflict continue to influence our twenty-first century lives, our politics, culture, economy, and society, not to mention our sense of who we are, individually and collectively. Such significance provides an opportunity, one the Center hopes to seize by setting for itself the following goals:
To promote academic excellence among undergraduate and graduate students of the Civil War.
To obtain and house research materials currently beyond the scope of the University libraries.
To increase interest and opportunities for enrichment across departmental and disciplinary boundaries on the University campus.
To provide outreach to the Oxford communities through public lectures, conferences and other programming.
To forge meaningful working relationships with other institutes of higher learning throughout Mississippi and the region.
To serve the people of the State of Mississippi by confronting those aspects of our common history that tend to perpetuate divisiveness, and to promote an understanding of our shared past as the foundation on which to build respect for our mutual and diverse society today.
Although the Center embraces all aspects of Civil War research, our special focus will be the memory of the Civil War. To study the memory of the war is in no small way to study its importance in American life, for every generation since.
Hampton University recieved US Colored Troops Archives
Post: Hampton University receives US Colored Troops Archives
Link: http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2011/01/hampton-university-receivesuscolored.html
Five myths about the Civil War from the Washington Post
See also: http://civilwarmississippi.pcriot.com/wp/?p=79
Five myths about why the South seceded
By James W. Loewen
Sunday, January 9, 2011; 12:00 AM
One hundred and fifty years after the Civil War began, we're still fighting it -- or at least fighting over its history. I've polled thousands of high school history teachers and spoken about the war to audiences across the country, and there is little agreement even on why the South seceded. Was it over slavery? States' rights? Tariffs and taxes?
As the nation begins to commemorate the anniversaries of the war's various battles -- from Fort Sumter to Appomattox -- let's first dispense with some of the more prevalent myths about why it all began.
1. The South seceded over states' rights.
Confederate states did claim the right to secede, but no state claimed to be seceding for that right. In fact, Confederates opposed states' rights -- that is, the right of Northern states not to support slavery.
On Dec. 24, 1860, delegates at South Carolina's secession convention adopted a "Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union." It noted "an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery" and protested that Northern states had failed to "fulfill their constitutional obligations" by interfering with the return of fugitive slaves to bondage. Slavery, not states' rights, birthed the Civil War.
South Carolina was further upset that New York no longer allowed "slavery transit." In the past, if Charleston gentry wanted to spend August in the Hamptons, they could bring their cook along. No longer -- and South Carolina's delegates were outraged. In addition, they objected that New England states let black men vote and tolerated abolitionist societies. According to South Carolina, states should not have the right to let their citizens assemble and speak freely when what they said threatened slavery.
Other seceding states echoed South Carolina. "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery -- the greatest material interest of the world," proclaimed Mississippi in its own secession declaration, passed Jan. 9, 1861. "Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of the commerce of the earth. . . . A blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization."
The South's opposition to states' rights is not surprising. Until the Civil War, Southern presidents and lawmakers had dominated the federal government. The people in power in Washington always oppose states' rights. Doing so preserves their own.
2. Secession was about tariffs and taxes.
During the nadir of post-civil-war race relations - the terrible years after 1890 when town after town across the North became all-white "sundown towns" and state after state across the South prevented African Americans from voting - "anything but slavery" explanations of the Civil War gained traction. To this day Confederate sympathizers successfully float this false claim, along with their preferred name for the conflict: the War Between the States. At the infamous Secession Ball in South Carolina, hosted in December by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, "the main reasons for secession were portrayed as high tariffs and Northern states using Southern tax money to build their own infrastructure," The Washington Post reported.
These explanations are flatly wrong. High tariffs had prompted the Nullification Crisis in 1831-33, when, after South Carolina demanded the right to nullify federal laws or secede in protest, President Andrew Jackson threatened force. No state joined the movement, and South Carolina backed down. Tariffs were not an issue in 1860, and Southern states said nothing about them. Why would they? Southerners had written the tariff of 1857, under which the nation was functioning. Its rates were lower than at any point since 1816.
3. Most white Southerners didn't own slaves, so they wouldn't secede for slavery.
Indeed, most white Southern families had no slaves. Less than half of white Mississippi households owned one or more slaves, for example, and that proportion was smaller still in whiter states such as Virginia and Tennessee. It is also true that, in areas with few slaves, most white Southerners did not support secession. West Virginia seceded from Virginia to stay with the Union, and Confederate troops had to occupy parts of eastern Tennessee and northern Alabama to hold them in line.
However, two ideological factors caused most Southern whites, including those who were not slave-owners, to defend slavery. First, Americans are wondrous optimists, looking to the upper class and expecting to join it someday. In 1860, many subsistence farmers aspired to become large slave-owners. So poor white Southerners supported slavery then, just as many low-income people support the extension of George W. Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy now.
Second and more important, belief in white supremacy provided a rationale for slavery. As the French political theorist Montesquieu observed wryly in 1748: "It is impossible for us to suppose these creatures [enslaved Africans] to be men; because allowing them to be men, a suspicion would follow that we ourselves are not Christians." Given this belief, most white Southerners -- and many Northerners, too -- could not envision life in black-majority states such as South Carolina and Mississippi unless blacks were in chains. Georgia Supreme Court Justice Henry Benning, trying to persuade the Virginia Legislature to leave the Union, predicted race war if slavery was not protected. "The consequence will be that our men will be all exterminated or expelled to wander as vagabonds over a hostile earth, and as for our women, their fate will be too horrible to contemplate even in fancy." Thus, secession would maintain not only slavery but the prevailing ideology of white supremacy as well.
4. Abraham Lincoln went to war to end slavery.
Since the Civil War did end slavery, many Americans think abolition was the Union's goal. But the North initially went to war to hold the nation together. Abolition came later.
On Aug. 22, 1862, President Lincoln wrote a letter to the New York Tribune that included the following passage: "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union."
However, Lincoln's own anti-slavery sentiment was widely known at the time. In the same letter, he went on: "I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free." A month later, Lincoln combined official duty and private wish in his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.
White Northerners' fear of freed slaves moving north then caused Republicans to lose the Midwest in the congressional elections of November 1862.
Gradually, as Union soldiers found help from black civilians in the South and black recruits impressed white units with their bravery, many soldiers -- and those they wrote home to -- became abolitionists. By 1864, when Maryland voted to end slavery, soldiers' and sailors' votes made the difference.
5. The South couldn't have made it long as a slave society.
Slavery was hardly on its last legs in 1860. That year, the South produced almost 75 percent of all U.S. exports. Slaves were worth more than all the manufacturing companies and railroads in the nation. No elite class in history has ever given up such an immense interest voluntarily. Moreover, Confederates eyed territorial expansion into Mexico and Cuba. Short of war, who would have stopped them - or forced them to abandon slavery?
To claim that slavery would have ended of its own accord by the mid-20th century is impossible to disprove but difficult to accept. In 1860, slavery was growing more entrenched in the South. Unpaid labor makes for big profits, and the Southern elite was growing ever richer. Freeing slaves was becoming more and more difficult for their owners, as was the position of free blacks in the United States, North as well as South. For the foreseeable future, slavery looked secure. Perhaps a civil war was required to end it.
As we commemorate the sesquicentennial of that war, let us take pride this time - as we did not during the centennial - that secession on slavery's behalf failed.
jloewen@uvm.edu
Sociologist James W. Loewen is the author of "Lies My Teacher Told Me" and co-editor, with Edward Sebesta, of "The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader."
Test yourself to find out how much you know about the Civil War.
The Center for Civil War Research
About
The Center for Civil War Research
The University of Mississippi established the Center for Civil War Research in the spring of 2009. In scope, the Center is designed to promote a more thorough understanding of the American Civil War, its history and its scholarship, among the various constituencies of the University.
The American Civil War is central to our nation’s history. The legacies of that nineteenth-century conflict continue to influence our twenty-first century lives, our politics, culture, economy, and society, not to mention our sense of who we are, individually and collectively. Such significance provides an opportunity, one the Center hopes to seize by setting for itself the following goals:
To promote academic excellence among undergraduate and graduate students of the Civil War.
To obtain and house research materials currently beyond the scope of the University libraries.
To increase interest and opportunities for enrichment across departmental and disciplinary boundaries on the University campus.
To provide outreach to the Oxford communities through public lectures, conferences and other programming.
To forge meaningful working relationships with other institutes of higher learning throughout Mississippi and the region.
To serve the people of the State of Mississippi by confronting those aspects of our common history that tend to perpetuate divisiveness, and to promote an understanding of our shared past as the foundation on which to build respect for our mutual and diverse society today.
Although the Center embraces all aspects of Civil War research, our special focus will be the memory of the Civil War. To study the memory of the war is in no small way to study its importance in American life, for every generation since.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Civil War Album
http://www.civilwaralbum.com/site_index.htm
Civil War Album
http://www.civilwaralbum.com/site_index.htm
Our trip to Deer Creek and Dr. Nailor
We passed the residence of Dr. Nailor, whom we all described as the most patriotic citizen we met in Mississippi. He had barrels of cistern water which was a "rarity." His servants had drawn the water from the cistern. He and his family were sitting by the roadside, busily engaged in giving each soldier a drink and filling his canteen. His table was ready for one and all. Dr. Nailor said he had been feeding soldiers ever since the beginning of the war, and had never exacted one cent in return.
Report of Gen. W. E. Baldwin's Office
Here we remained until Friday morning, the 8th, when I was again directed to move to Dr. Nailor's, 10 miles from Vicksburg, on the Warrenton and Hall's Ferry road. The command was kept all the time in readiness for an immediate movement, supplied with two days' cooked rations in haversacks, two days' rations in regimental wagons, and two days' supplies in hands of brigade commissary.
Google Book
Dr. Daniel Burnett Nailer was a Warren county physician who lived in the Asbury community about ten miles from the Batchelors. Mrs. Nailer was the former Teresa Selser Martin.
Jefferson Nailor owned land in Warren county MS in 1835.
Betsey Young was 50 yo, also from Warren county, was one of the 4,000 black Civil War nurses who served the Union. *Note: Betsey Young's CWSS record specifies "mulatto".
Our trip to Deer Creek and Dr. Nailor
We passed the residence of Dr. Nailor, whom we all described as the most patriotic citizen we met in Mississippi. He had barrels of cistern water which was a "rarity." His servants had drawn the water from the cistern. He and his family were sitting by the roadside, busily engaged in giving each soldier a drink and filling his canteen. His table was ready for one and all. Dr. Nailor said he had been feeding soldiers ever since the beginning of the war, and had never exacted one cent in return.
Report of Gen. W. E. Baldwin's Office
Here we remained until Friday morning, the 8th, when I was again directed to move to Dr. Nailor's, 10 miles from Vicksburg, on the Warrenton and Hall's Ferry road. The command was kept all the time in readiness for an immediate movement, supplied with two days' cooked rations in haversacks, two days' rations in regimental wagons, and two days' supplies in hands of brigade commissary.
Google Book
Dr. Daniel Burnett Nailer was a Warren county physician who lived in the Asbury community about ten miles from the Batchelors. Mrs. Nailer was the former Teresa Selser Martin.
Jefferson Nailor owned land in Warren county MS in 1835.
Betsey Young was 50 yo, also from Warren county, was one of the 4,000 black Civil War nurses who served the Union. *Note: Betsey Young's CWSS record specifies "mulatto".
Blogroll
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Booknotes: Somewhere Toward Freedom - New Arrival: • Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March and the Story of America's Largest Emancipation by Bennett Parten (Simon & Schuster, 2025). Numero...2 days ago
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Elizabeth Blackwell, Botanical Illustrator - The eighteenth century proved to be the time for budding female botanists. Women were allowed to pursue the study of plants and encouraged in illustratio...1 year ago
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Decoration Day and Memorial Day - We sometimes forget that today’s Memorial Day came directly from Decoration Day, which originated to honor the dead of the Civil War. There has been a grea...1 year ago
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ACT UP holds its first action on Wall Street - On March 24, 1987, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) holds its first-ever demonstration on Wall Street—the world's financial center—targeting ph...1 year ago
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Are These Photographs Of The Same 48th Pennsylvania Soldier? Help Me Identify An "Unidentified" CDV Image - Regular readers of my blog know that I often ask for your help in identifying "unidentified" images of 48th Pennsylvania soldiers. Soon, I will be posting...4 years ago
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To Useful to Sacrifice - There has been a great need for an objective analysis of the leadership of General George B. McClellan during the Maryland Campaign. While Joseph Harsh ...5 years ago
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Finished a Few Books (Two are "Must Have") - I've been plowing through a lot of reading lately, trying to finish some things up. The stack on my desk keeps getting taller, but I have made some progres...5 years ago
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Civil War memes in Zamoyski's Napoleon, A Life - I was startled by the number of Civil War history memes found in Adam Zamoyski's Napoleon, A Life. Marches Recall a topic as trivial as the length and dura...5 years ago
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New title available! - I am proud to announce the release of my newest title, *Five or Ten Minutes of Blind Confusion: The Battle of Aiken, South Carolina, February 11, 1865*. ...6 years ago
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The Trump Administration & Camp Nelson - I’d like to draw your attention to an article that was published this morning over at The Guardian regarding the preservation efforts under way at a place ...6 years ago
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Improving lives with technology – HSE lighthouse project - The ‘Lighthouse Projects’ are in the clinical disciplines of the chronic diseases Epilepsy, Haemophilia and Bipolar Disorder. The epilepsy Lighthouse proje...6 years ago
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War Department Papers Captured in Charlotte - Post-war image of the Mecklenburg County Courthouse To my knowledge (limited, I know), there has only been one article ever written on Confederate W...6 years ago
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[CIVIL-WAR] searching - I am looking for a quarter master, possibly in North Carolina Regt, with last name Merrill. Moved briefly to New Jersey after the war. had a man slave with...7 years ago
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The Battle Flags of Minnesota - All of Minnesota's Civil War units, with the exception of the 1st Minnesota Infantry, served in either the Western Theater and/or in the trans-Mississippi....7 years ago
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Capt. E.D. Booker, Quartermaster and (Robert?) Rice - I found a fascinating letter in some old family papers, and I am trying to track down who these people are and what may have happened to them. Here are the...7 years ago
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Dec 06, 2016 - V105.5 Caroling Contest - The V105.5 Caroling Contest will be at 6:30 p.m. at the Vicksburg Convention Center, 1600 Mulberry Street. For more information call the VCC office at 601-...8 years ago
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August 23, 1861: The Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut - Mary Boykin Chesnut visited an army hospital on this day, 150 years ago. August 23d. - A brother of Doctor Garnett has come fresh and straight from Cambr...8 years ago
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[MISSISSIPPI] Hand picked for you - Unable to display full message. You can view it by clicking [here](http://df38214ede57f8987b5.72b594e53b35125c9727.67008b43f8a70b98ba8aa9.ssl-mmsg.com/?qamx...8 years ago
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Rare Photo of Arkansas Black Soldier Located in Civil War Pension File - *Image of Aaron Brooks, Corporal, 54th US Colored Infantry* A research trip to the National Archives has uncovered the image of a long forgotten freedom...9 years ago
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The Rout of the Confederate Flag - As surely you already know, in the wake of the murder of nine worshipers at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, a pet...9 years ago
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Mississippi Moonshine Politics: How Bootleggers and the Law Kept a Dry State Soaked - I'm pleased to announce that my new book, *Mississippi Moonshine Politics*, the story of state prohibition in Mississippi, will be released in March! Altho...9 years ago
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Book Review: "I Am Abraham" by Jerome Charyn - In time for the 205th birthday of Abraham Lincoln comes the latest work from the prolific author, Jerome Charyn, a novel titled "I Am Abraham: A Novel ...10 years ago
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Uncle Thurman was a Gandy Dancer. . . - I came across a short film "Gandy Dancers" online that reminded me of my paternal uncle, Thurman Callen who retired from the railroad. Uncle Thurman was th...11 years ago
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Confederate Memorial Day - On this day, April 26th, the state of Mississippi celebrates Confederate Memorial Day.13 years ago
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Civil War Drummer Boy Johnny Clem Takes Arms - In a previous post we learned of the circumastances under which young Johnnie clem left home in order to enlist and fight for the cause. What follows her...14 years ago
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Time Out - Please accept my apologies for the lack of recent posts. Now that tax season is officially over, I am hopeful that I can return to regular postings to this...15 years ago
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Augusta Inge - *My story is hospitality.* *I am Augusta Inge.* In April 1862, Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston made his headquarters in my home, Rose Cottage. I...16 years ago
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Blog Archive
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2011
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January
(105)
- Mississippi Medal of Honor
- Forrest County Confederate Monument
- Natchez Court and Land Claim Records
- Updates to Historical Marker Database Mississippi
- About Our Freedom Daily is out ! Edition of Tuesda...
- Defenders of the Union marker
- Genealogy of Color: Resources on line
- Blogroll
- French mediation
- Southern Items
- Amnesty proclaimation
- Barbour: build civil rights museum in Mississippi
- Simplistic liberal views challenged
- Southern lady Union spy
- A Baptism of Blood? NYTimes.com
- Civil War Sesquicentennial Twitter
- Five things to know about the Port of New Orleans ...
- Counties during the Civil War
- Counties formed after the Civil War
- Civil War letters come to New Ulm museum
- Famed military historian to present
- Negro labor to be employed
- Auto Draft
- Civil War letters come to New Ulm museum
- Auto Draft
- Famed military historian to present
- THE SLAVERY QUESTION
- 1858 Slave trade Claiborne county
- Mississippi digital map library
- Harrison Irby Rocky Springs cemetery, Claiborne co...
- Confederate Veteran, Volume 30
- Medical Organizations and Installations in the Civ...
- Newton county history
- Hancock County History
- Jeremiah and Wirt Adams land patent 1854 Lincoln c...
- Civil War Education in 1899
- Confederate Veteran, Volume 30
- DearMYRTLE's Genealogy Blog : Hampton University r...
- Five myths about the Civil War from the Washington...
- The Center for Civil War Research
- Hampton University recieved US Colored Troops Arch...
- Five myths about the Civil War from the Washington...
- The Center for Civil War Research
- National Portrait Gallery Smithsonian
- National Portrait Gallery Smithsonian
- Civil War Album
- Civil War Album
- Mississippi Books We Own
- Mississippi Books We Own
- Our trip to Deer Creek and Dr. Nailor
- Our trip to Deer Creek and Dr. Nailor
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January
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