Interpretation Beyond the Battlefield and the 'Mass Customization' of History

Intersection of Queen St. and King St., Lancaster, Pennsylvania
with Soldiers and Sailors Monument (dedicated in 1874)

Over at the excellent To the Sound of Guns and Civil War Memory blogs, the subject of new trends in battlefield interpretation has received attention lately.  Taking stock of the Sesquicentennial, Craig Swain commends new programming that seeks to interpret soldiers' experiences between battles, but remarks:

On the other hand, we might also point out, for the sake of those bicentennialists to follow, many missed opportunities. For all of the focus in late June and early July upon Adams County, Pennsylvania, the public-facing programming left out exactly how those armies got there. Almost as if the soldiers were suspended in time at Chancellorsville, then magically re-appeared, somewhat worse for the wear, at Gettysburg. That’s just one handy example. I’m sure we could demonstrate a few more worth noting. The point to push home here is, again, that the soldiers were not one-dimensional, and their experience was more than combat actions.

This is somewhat odd, I think, given the current trends with a lot of noise about “new military history.” Shouldn’t historians be seeking out those interpretive opportunities to discuss the life of soldiers beyond the battlefields? But we often see tours, especially those focused more on the “education” function over the general “entertainment” functions, that simply hit a set of battlefield sites….

While I have a tough time -- even as a soon-to-be professor of supply chain management -- envisioning the value of visiting, say, the site of a supply depot or winter camp, I agree with the general sentiment and offer my own tangential opinion: We should start expecting more high-quality interpretation of life beyond the battlefield (and beyond the army).  Although the National Park Service can be the vanguard of these efforts (e.g., talking about civilians at Gettysburg), the interpretation should largely take place far beyond NPS boundaries in communities across the North and South.

The question is, are Civil War historians (academic, public, and amateur) making an impact outside of NPS battlefields?  Are they even imagining the possibilities -- especially the new possibilities enabled by technology -- or are their efforts almost exclusively focused on the NPS?

As we go from the Civil War Sesquicentennial to the Bicentennial, I hope to see the emergence of historical interpretation that is more fully integrated with our modern communities.  In these settings, the history of military organizations and events interacts naturally with social, political, and religious history.  Rather than formal historical sites, we can have a virtual historical layer covering the modern world that is anchored by museums, old houses, cemeteries, churches, etc.  In this virtual layer is content -- facts, anecdotes, photographs, analysis -- that enhances the meaning of what we see. 

At first glance, this isn't necessarily anything new.  Within months of becoming interested in the Civil War at age 10, I went on a fantastic walking tour of Lancaster city in 1996 or 1997 with costumed interpreters acting out diverse scenes or relaying facts related to particular locations.  For many years, a friend had led a full-day bus tour of Lancaster County focusing on the Underground Railroad.

What is new, however, is the potential for increasing interpretive quantity and quality enabled by digitization (already happening) and increasing relevance through algorithmic and crowdsourced content curation (still nascent).  At some point, something analogous to "mass customization" will make an impact on the work of historical interpretation, and people will find new and captivating ways to connect to history.  A simple inquiry based on a person, place, or institution would return abundant information harvested from diverse primary sources set within the appropriate scholarly frameworks.

The volume of raw primary source material that has become available in the last ten years is amazing.  Sources such as Google Books, the PA Civil War Newspapers Project, internet forums, genealogical sites, and even (maybe especially) Ebay make it possible to tell a well-rounded story with nice visual aids about some obscure topic with limited effort.  With some guidance by experts, amateurs, and algorithms, people will be able to look at the world around them -- focusing on their town or religious community or family or school or whatever interests them -- and find dozens of compelling historical threads to explore.

So, what might this look like, or at least what is an example of Civil War history interpreted far beyond the battlefield (or even a historical museum) that primarily utilizes digitized resources?  I've actually had the great pleasure over the past year of participating in such a project investigating how people associated with First Lutheran Church in the city of Pittsburgh experienced the Civil War era.  For those of you familiar with the city, it's the church directly across Grant Street from the U.S. Steel tower.  Needless to say, space is limited and the church's archives isn't too much more than a few records books and stray pamphlets.  However, starting with just a few lists of names, we were able to craft a story of the congregation and the Civil War that we presented in two one-hour Sunday School classes...and still felt like we barely scratched the surface.  Based primarily on what we found in digitized books and newspapers, our presentation touched on slavery and racism, patriotism, mobilization, benevolent efforts, the work of women, the 62nd Pennsylvania and the 101st Pennsylvania, Hampton's Battery, death and mourning, prisons, memory, and the Lutheran confessionalism/pietism controversy.  The presentation was received extremely well by the congregation, and a new website provides ample opportunities for the primary sources corresponding to those topics to be explored in detail.  Also, projects like the Valley of the Shadow seem like a good first-generation effort, but we can continue to think about how to craft narratives and make the primary sources more accessible and relevant to readers. 

Going back to my original point, I really hope to see professional and amateur historians seeking more Civil War interpretive opportunities beyond battlefields.  And I don't mean just giving tours or creating exhibits, but enhancing them with online historical ecosystems that dynamically engage learners to reward curiosity.  I know that I will eagerly consume such efforts.  No matter the location, it's hard to beat the human drama of Civil War history grounded in specific people and places.  

Living History Prep: Researching Pennsylvania in May 1864

My wife and I beside French Creek at Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site, June 2013 (Tintype by Jim Pfeiffer)

Once or twice a year, my wife and I have the opportunity to participate in a living history event in which reenactors partner with a historical site to interpret a specific historical event.  My wife savors the opportunity to assemble a high-quality wardrobe, and I generally enjoy doing some of the background research about a particular person, place, and time.  Neither of us are big fans of "first-person" portrayals where we pretend to be a person in the 1860s, but we're happy to do it if it enables us to do something special with costumes, material culture, biography, and history.

This year, we are planning to return to Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site on May 16-18, 2014, in Elverson, Pennsylvania (~20 miles east of New Holland).  The theme of the event is "Enduring the Storm: Hopewell 1864," which excites me as an opportunity to research how Northern communities fared in 1864 -- a time of the war that I've read much less about in newspapers.  So, I recently had the Daily Evening Express microfilm sent out to Pittsburgh to do some research.  I scanned the editions of the newspaper covering May 16-18, 1864, to share with other reenactors and to spark ideas about what to interpret at the event.  Here are links to the PDFs:

• Monday, May 16, 1864
• Tuesday, May 17, 1864
• Wednesday, May 18, 1864

Going over these newspapers, a few themes emerge that might be worthwhile pursuing as topics to research further and possibly incorporate into the event:

1.  Emancipation as a moral imperative.  Instead of talking about emancipation as a military necessity, the possibility of an antislavery amendment brought moral arguments against slavery into pages of the Daily Evening Express, a Republican newspaper.  The Express ran an essay entitled "The Demon of Slavery" by Henry Ward Beecher on its front page, and editorialized that the war's objective was now "the merciless mandated, 'Slavery must die!'"  Among Lancaster's mainstream Republican community, emancipation was pretty much an afterthought in the rush to war, and then really came up in the context of confusing policy situations in which military found itself in 1862.  By 1864, we see that ending slavery went hand-in-hand with winning the war.
2. Details from the Battles of Wilderness and Spotsylvania.  Initial reports had indicated a victory with heavy losses in these first meetings between Grant and Lee, with more clashes expected.  More local news -- casualty lists from the Lancaster companies and accounts of the Pennsylvania Reserves in battle -- began to trickle in a couple days after the national news.  The five Pennsylvania Reserves companies or two 45th Pennsylvania companies suffered moderate casualties.  
3. Soldiers fairs.  News about local soldiers fairs and support for an upcoming fair in Philadelphia filled newspapers for much of the first half of 1864.  In addition to raising the morale of and materially aiding local soldiers, they seem to have served to re-energize the Northern populace and provided a welcome distraction as the war dragged on.  
4. Inflation and prices.  Trade organizations for hotel keepers and shoemakers made attempts to publish suggested prices as the war raised prices of materials.
5. Veterans home on furlough.  Most had already come home and were back in the field, but a few had their furlough in May.  Company G, 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry, was home during this time.  Sadly, one of its veterans was killed when jumping off a train at Elizabethtown. 
6. Administration of veterans' bounties. Veterans who reenlisted were promised bounties from municipalities (that received credit for their reenlistment against their draft quota).  Families were slow to receive that money, much to the indignation of soldiers who wrote letters of protest.  
7. Preparing for the election of 1864. Newspaper editors talked about the Virginia campaigns and military strategy in the context of campaign strategy.  The Union Party (Lincoln's party) would have its convention in the first week of June.  With its editorial, "The President and the War," the Express made clear its unwavering support for Lincoln saying, "The country may rely, with unfaltering trust, upon the supreme devotion of the President to the defence of the Government and the suppression of the rebellion.  He has never, in a single instance, given the slightest ground for the imputation of being governed by personal ambition, or by any other motive than devotion to the public good."

We'll see how these themes develop over the upcoming weeks and if any would be amenable to interpretation at Hopewell.  One of the next steps will be to portray a historical persona.  Last year, I portrayed Lancasterian William A. Heitshu, who married Mary Geiger, daughter of an iron master with operations in the region.  Geigertown, a crossroads two miles west of Hopewell Furnace, was named after their ancestors, and my wife and I pretended to be visiting the village on our respective business and personal matters.  The completion of the Reading and Columbia Railroad gave an excuse to talk about pig iron markets and the pig iron supply chain with some of the other reenactors.  Like I said, pretending to be historical persons is silly on some level, but it often gives an excuse for a fun train of research questions.  We'll see how our impressions develop this year, and I'll try to give an occasional update as I research the issues facing residents of Lancaster, Berks, and Chester Counties in May 1864.    

Presentation on Fri., Nov. 22, at Lancaster County Historical Society

Event Details:

Union Warriors: A Lancaster County Company Fights the Civil War by Vince Slaugh

Friday, November 22, 2013, 4:00pm-5:30pm

Lancaster County Historical Society (LancasterHistory.org)

230 North President Avenue, Lancaster, PA 17603 

http://lancasterhistory.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=44&Itemid=53

This presentation follows the wartime experiences of a group of ten soldiers from Lancaster County who joined Company E, 79th Pennsylvania, nicknamed the "Normal Rifles" for their connections to the Millersville State Normal School. Using photographs and their own words, we will learn about their backgrounds, the battles they fought, their connections to the home front, and where we can see their legacy in Lancaster today.

On Friday, November 22, I will be giving the latest iteration of my presentation, Union Warriors: The "Normal Rifles" Fight the Civil War, at the Lancaster County Historical Society.  There will be a social gathering with light refreshments beginning at 4:00pm, and the presentation starts at 4:30pm.  My presentation will follow ten soldiers of Company E, 79th Pennsylvania, through the war, and try to understand their lives and places in the community before and after the war.  In this version of the presentation, I will highlight people with connections to the Lancaster County Historical Society through involvement in its early days (e.g. Lieut. Samuel L. Hartman) or through items donated to its collections (Pvt. Reuben Long).

While many aspects of the Civil War's military and political history have long been the subject of microscopic attention, I believe we still lack a fundamental understanding of how individuals and communities experienced the war.  This presentation serves as a case study for understanding what the war meant to one community: How did existing social networks translate to Civil War armies? Why did soldiers enlist? How were soldiers' families cared for? How did soldiers stay connected to the home front? What happened to the wounded? How did communities mourn and remember the dead? How did soldiers on the battlefield attempt to influence life at home?  

As historians have pondered the future of Civil War history, some -- in particular, Peter Carmichael of Gettysburg College -- have proposed a new "nation at war" paradigm for understanding the war and its ability to both provide an opportunity for people make heroic sacrifices for the nation and senselessly rob people of their humanity through horrific suffering.  Ensuing discussions on blogs centered around how the National Park Service should interpret this on battlefields, and that's a complicated question.  What's straightforward, though, is that communities like Lancaster and Millersville/Mountville provide an extraordinary opportunity for us to find a "usable past."  Monuments, cemeteries, farms, intersections, institutions, churches, and homes in the community around us offer tremendous chances to interpret the sacrifice and suffering that came with the Civil War.  And that's what I hope to show by focusing on the stories of ten soldiers of Company E, 79th Pennsylvania.  

I hope to see you on Friday.  If you get a chance, please introduce yourself and your interest in Lancaster's Civil War history.

79th PA Presentation on Sunday at Trinity Lutheran Church

First block of S. Duke St., c. 1865
Stereoview by William Gill

On Sunday, June 30, I will be debuting a presentation on the Normal Rifles (Company E, 79th Pennsylvania) during Trinity Lutheran Church's Forum Hour.  Trinity's pastor, Timothy Mentzer, asked me to give a talk about something related to the Civil War, and I thought focusing on one company through the war would be the best way to give a perspective on what the war meant to those who experienced it.  All are welcome to attend the presentation, which begins at 9:45 a.m. in the Fondersmith Auditorium of Trinity Lutheran Church, 31 S. Duke Street, Lancaster.  Hopefully, I'll be giving this talk on many more occasions in Lancaster County, as well.

The talk will focus on the stories of ten soldiers of Company E, 79th Pennsylvania, which was known as the "Normal Rifles" for its connection to the State Normal School at Millersville. We'll learn about their backgrounds, the events in which they participated between 1861 and 1865 from the perspective of their families and friends in Lancaster, and how they shaped the war's memory.  I'll try to include as many pictures and connections to modern-day Lancaster as possible.  The ten soldiers whom I have selected for their diverse experiences and for which the records they left are:

1. Morris D. Wickersham
2. Sigmund E. Wisner
3. Edwin K. Martin
4. Elias H. Witmer
5. Stephen S. Clair
6. Thomas B. Hambleton
7. William L. Lamborn
8. Reuben C. Long
9. George M. Delp
10. Michael W. Brandt

I hope to see you on Sunday!

Note: See last year's presentation, which focused on a wartime history of Trinity Lutheran Church, here.

Reaction to American Experience's "Death and the Civil War"

Tombstone of Capt. John H. Dysart
Woodward Hill Cemetery

Alerted by Kevin Levin's review, I watched American Experience's two-hour documentary, "Death and the Civil War."  Overall, I thought it was well done, although I've considered the topic interesting for many years.  In fact, much of this blog chronicling the Lancaster County Regiment has focused on deaths in the regiment and reactions in Lancaster.  Here are a couple posts for anyone interested:

• "There Sleeps a Pennsylvania Volunteer": Death Visits the 79th Pa.  A letter from Corp. Elias H. Witmer about the first death in the regiment.
• Better Know a Soldier: Lewis H. Jones.  A working-class soldier from Lancaster City for whom the month of January 1861 was dominated by taking care of matters after the death of his brother-in-law (also in the 79th PA).  Treatment of his brother-in-law's family became a political issue when the incumbent mayor falsely charged his physician challenger of snubbing the family (I still need to post the wives' letter) a couple weeks after the death.  Jones himself died in the Battle of Perryville.
• The Death and Funeral of Capt. John Dysart.  The first officer of the 79th PA to die, and whose body was returned to Lancaster.

I also hope to write soon about post-Antietam aid trips and visits to recover bodies, including that of John A. Hougendobler whose death was recently mentioned in my last post on South Mountain.  Furthermore, I'll have a lot more about the Battle of Perryville and how the regiment and Lancaster dealt with the thirty-something deaths in the regiment.

Back to the documentary, I probably best enjoyed the beginning and the end, as the stories and pictures about battlefield horrors blended together.  The new roles that the federal government took on were interesting, particularly reburial efforts in Kentucky and Tennessee which doubtless brought many of the remains of Pennsylvania volunteers into national cemeteries, although few successfully retained identification in the case of the 79th Pennsylvania.   

Grand Army of the Republic plot at Greenwood Cemetery, Lancaster
I believe the African-American section of the GAR plot is pictured.

I would have liked to have heard more in two specific areas, though.  First, as Kevin pointed out, the documentary neglects to discuss how the war's proponents very clearly tried to use the deaths to build support for the war (or resist Copperhead criticisms).  Particularly in the winter of 1863, these rhetorical efforts corresponded to the advent of the Union Party which sought to basically reboot the war effort.  It was even fairly obvious earlier, too, as I'll be posting soon about how soldier deaths played into the Congressional election of 1862.  Lancaster Republicans, especially, argued that only a vote for Thaddeus Stevens would properly honor the dead.  

Second, rather than a multitude of stories about battlefield horrors, I would have liked to know more about how death tied into existing art, rituals, and institutions (besides the federal government).  How did mainline denominations and evangelical churches react and change or not change how they talked about death?  How did pastors respond?  What did wartime soldiers' tombstones look like (these tend to be amazing)?  What were traditions of mourning?  What about art and jewelry?

I still highly recommend watching the documentary, which you can find at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/death/.  Check back on this blog to fill in the details and for more case studies to better understand the divisions and unity produced by death during the Civil War, as well as the lasting memorials that they created and that we still have around us today.    

'Troublous Times': Trinity Lutheran Church and the Civil War

Thank you to everyone who attended my presentation this morning.  Over the next week, I'll post more content related to the presentation, but for now here's a link to a couple posts in which I've written in more detail about Trinity Lutheran Church and the Civil War.

• Happy 250th Birthday, Trinity Lutheran Church
• Lancaster and the Civil War Through the Lens of Trinity Lutheran Church
• Rev. Gottlob F. Krotel's Civil War
• Rev. F. W. Conrad's Civil War
• Army Surgeon John F. Huber's Civil War

Also, here's a <link> to the presentation handout which contains an outline and the following primary sources, which consists of:

1. Resolutions Adopted by the General Synod of the Lutheran Church at the 1862 Conference
2. Reply to General Synod Resolutions by President Lincoln
3. “A Visit to the Antietam Hospitals and Battle-field” by Charles A. Heinitsh and/or John B. Kevinski
4. “A Week Among the Soldiers in the Hospitals” by Rev. F. W. Conrad
5. A Letter from Dr. John F. Huber
6. Opening to Rev. F. W. Conrad’s “America’s Blessings and Obligations”
7. A Letter from D. P. Rosenmiller aboard the USS Essex
8. From “A Historical Sketch of Trinity Lutheran Church”
9. Recommended Reading

Please let me know if you have any questions by posting in the comments section below or sending me an email at vince@lancasteratwar.com.  In case you couldn't tell, I really enjoy talking about these topics and connecting anyone interested to resources that are relevant to them.

Announcing a Presentation on Trinity Lutheran Church and the Civil War

Engraving of Trinity Lutheran Church
Commissioned in 1861 as part of book
commemorating the 100th anniversary
of the laying of the church's cornerstone

On Sunday, May 13th, I'll be returning to Lancaster to give a lecture at Trinity Lutheran Church on the history of that congregation and the Civil War. The 150th anniversary of the Lutheran General Synod convention--which resulted in a statement on the war and slavery--held at Trinity in May 1862 provides the occasion for the lecture, but I'll also talk about how the congregation and its surrounding community experienced the Civil War.

Location: Trinity Lutheran Church, 31 S. Duke St., Lancaster, PA
Fondersmith Auditorium
(Yes, I believe there is a family connection to the 79th Pennsylvania color bearer H. Binney Vondersmith whose bravery is commemorated in the regiment's monument at Chickamauga.)

Date: 9:45am-10:45am, Sunday, May 13, 2012
(This is the church's "Christian Education hour" between 8:30am and 11:00am worship services)

I hope to see you there!

Thank You, Joe Paterno

Pattee and Paterno Libraries, Penn State University
(Photo: Nathaniel C. Sheetz via Wikimedia Commons)

Although many things can be said about Joe Paterno, I want to say something very specific and relevant to this project: Thank you, Joe Paterno, for your support of Penn State's libraries.  Since before I was born, Paterno and his wife have led efforts to raise many millions of dollars--with their own contributions as the vanguard--to improve that very important aspect of academic life.

As an example of the positive impact of their largesse...my interest in the 79th Pennsylvania and this history project were truly born in the library that bears the Paterno name.  In 2005, I began an independent study project transcribing the letters of Corp. Henry Witmer Miller of Company I, 79th Pennsylvania, which are housed on the first floor of the Paterno Library.  As part of that project and a larger project later in the year on the Battle of Perryville, I spent many hours taking advantage of the library's state-of-the-art microfilm scanner, the source of most of the newspaper material displayed on this site.  Around that time, Penn State also launched the ambitious and amazing digitized Pennsylvania Civil War Era Newspaper Collection, which makes the Lancaster Intelligencer, Columbia Spy, and Weekly Mariettian browsable and full-text searchable.  Penn State Libraries, its collections, its facilities, and its programs are truly an indispensable resource for Civil War research, and the Paternos deserve credit for enabling scores of research projects, including this blog. 

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Joe Paterno as a supporter of academics at Penn State--for saving the university's classics and ancient Mediterranean studies department, for giving a pep talk about academic achievement in my dorm one winter afternoon, and for many other stories that offer at least a little perspective to our collective obsession with sports. 

Behind Paterno's statue at Beaver Stadium is the quote, "They ask me what I'd like written about me when I'm gone. I hope they write I made Penn State a better place, not just that I was a good football coach."

Consider it written.

Paterno Statue at Beaver Stadium
(Photo: Robert J. La Verghetta via Wikimedia Commons)

Compelling and Worth Retelling: Letters from the 45th PA and Other Regiments

Scene on Otter Island, South Carolina, where Companies B and K, 45th Pennsylvania, were stationed beginning in December 1861. (New York Illustrated News, May 17, 1862)

In my reading of Lancaster County newspapers from 150 years ago, I recently decided to take a glance at two digitized weekly newspapers, the Columbia Spy and the Mariettian, and have been absolutely amazed at the soldiers' letters they contain!  In late 1861 and early 1862, they seem to average about five per month (a little over one per edition) and cover a variety of units:

1. Co. K, 5th Pennsylvania Reserves
2. Battery G, 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery
3. Co. E, 107th Pennsylvania Infantry
4. Co. I, 23rd Pennsylvania Infantry ("Birney Zouaves")

But, most of all, they cover the wartime experiences of Companies B and K, 45th Pennsylvania Infantry, which were recruited in Marietta and Columbia, respectively, which were probably Lancaster County's two "bloodiest" companies in terms of casualties, and the regiment ranks in the Top 20 for men killed in battle for all Union regiments.  They also had the most unique travelogue of Lancaster companies, which included

• Spending several months on Hilton Head, South Carolina, where they were on the front line of the Union's emancipation policy and regularly interacted with runaway slaves (Wikipedia page about operations there)
• Fighting at South Mountain and Antietam in September 1862
• Being transferred to fight at Vicksburg, Mississippi
• Fighting in East Tennessee on their way back east
• Going through miserable fighting at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor
• Participating in the Siege of Petersburg and operations through the end of the war

Sgt. (later Capt.) John F. Trout
Company B, 45th Pa.
(From recent Ebay auction)

I've barely begun reading these letters, but their content is usually fascinating both from a human interest standpoint and from the perspective of historical analysis.  Several different correspondents contributed, including Columbians George H. Stape ("45," I believe, in the Spy) and Lewis Martin (in the Mariettian).  The first letter from the 45th Pennsylvania in South Carolina, though, was written on December 13, 1861, by a soldier who signed his name "Hempfield."  (Based on circumstantial evidence, I'll nominate Sergt. John F. Trout of Landisville as a possible author.)  <Click here> for a link to the letter in the December 28, 1861, edition of the Columbia Spy, which is part of the Pennsylvania Civil War Newspapers Project.  Here's an excerpt:

Behold us then on the super-sacred soil of South Carolina, and nary bloody hand has welcomed us to ary hospitable grave thus far.  We were all upside down for a little while, but the Colonel [Thomas Welsh of Columbia] soon reduced us to order.  The boys generally went into bathing and oyster hunting, collecting curiosities, &c.  At night the contraband (who arrived simultaneously with the northern invaders) afforded amusement by their grotesque dances, &c.
...
Otter Island, on which we are stationed is some three miles in length by a width of two and a half miles.  It seems never to have been cultivated, but commands a very prominent point on St. Helena Sound.  Hutchinson Island, opposite, is highly cultivated, and grows cotton abundantly, but the crops have either been removed or burned.  

Col. Thomas Welsh
(Source)

Unfortunately, I mostly won't be posting on these letters, as telling the story of the 79th Pennsylvania fully consumes my blogging time capacity, but I just wanted to point out their existence and online availability for anyone who might be interested.  I'm compiling a list of the letters for my own use as a go through the newspapers, and I might polish it at some point and publish it online.

I hope that the resurrection of some of these stories as for entertainment, inspiration, and analysis becomes a hallmark of the Civil War sesquicentennial, as we begin to care not just what was going through the mind of Generals Grant and Lee but also, for instance, what was going through the mind of some corporal from Columbia who found himself building quarters on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, for some of the first slaves liberated by Union armies. 

Other References:

• Pennsylvania Civil War Newspapers Project (includes Lancaster Intelligencer, Columbia Spy, and the Weekly Mariettian), which you can search and browse by paper.
• Bates' regimental history and roster of the 45th Pennsylvania
•  Albert, Allen D. (Editor) History of the Forty-Fifth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1865, Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 1912.
•  Biography of Col. Thomas Welsh (later Brig. Gen)
• Don’t forget it the Civil War military correspondence of Private John W. Bookman, 45th regiment, Pennsylvania volunteer infantry (at Lancaster County Historical Society)
  
• First Sergeant John Hipple, Co. B 45th Pennsylvania / by Donald L. Rhoads, Jr. (LCHS Journal, 2000)
• Also providing commentary from South Carolina was Franklin and Marshall College Class of 1861 Valedictorian Adam Cyrus Reinoehl, who wrote back to the Daily Evening Express throughout the war under the name, "Demas." 

Update: Blog Makes the News, Burial Places, etc.

Last night, I was pleasantly surprised to learn (via near-simultaneous phone calls from my mother, mother-in-law, and both of my grandmothers) that my post from last week on the Hempfield School District Gettysburg field trip controversy made the newspaper in Lancaster.  Jack Brubaker, aka the "Scribbler" and author of an enjoyable local history column that usually has some modern tie-in, quoted and paraphrased my post in his article, "The Value of School Field Trips."  Thanks for the attention, Jack!  Although my basic conclusion is that both sides have a valid point but the situation is set up to create a mess, I hope it gives Hempfield administrators and parents something to think about...and that one way or another all fifth-graders in Hempfield (and in Lancaster County, for that matter) get to go to Gettysburg.

Monument at Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky
By Bedford at en.wikipedia, from Wikimedia Commons

A couple other notes about things that have popped up in my searching...

• Monday's post was about the 79th Pennsylvania's first soldier to die, Samuel H. Clair, who became sick and died on December 5, 1861, at Camp Negley, near Nolin Station, Kentucky.  He was buried in the quiet corner of a farmer's field, and I raised the question of what happened to his remains.  After looking at an 1868 government publication entitled Roll of Honor, it appears the government went through Kentucky in 1867 to find soldiers' graves widely scattered across the state and removed remains to a set of national cemeteries.  Although Clair's name is not listed, there are many sets of remains classified as unknown which were removed from Nolin Station and Bacon Creek to Cave City Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky.  So my best guess is that he is buried there in a grave marked, "Unknown."
• If you're like me, you enjoy the Daily Evening Express letters of Corp. Elias H. Witmer, and I've spoken with at least one other person who does.  Sadly, Witmer's fate was unknown after the regiment came out of a chaotic nighttime fight at the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863, although he was presumed mortally wounded and never heard from again.  I always wondered though if his family in Mountville did anything to memorialize their son, and found the answer through Find a Grave.  By clicking on the link, you can see a picture of his tomb stone at the Mountville Cemetery, which was shared with his brother Abraham, a lieutenant of Company G, 2nd Pennsylvania Reserves, who died earlier that year of disease.  

Finally, depending on who you ask, the 79th Pennsylvania moved its camp between 1/2 and 1 1/2 miles south along the Louisville & Nashville Railroad on December 6 [WTC, JHD, ASJ].  The move gave the regiment more favorable sod and less mud on which to pitch tents, although they wouldn't stay there long due to orders to keep moving south on December 11. 

Office Hours: Ask Me a Question

From Hardtack and Coffee

Since today marks the three-month anniversary of my first post, I thought it would be good to offer an opportunity for readers to ask any question about Lancaster County, the 79th Pennsylvania, and the Civil War.  As I've touched on many topics, are there any background questions that could make things clearer for you?  Also, what would you like to know about Lancaster in the 1860s or the regiment that it sent to war?  Something about life in Lancaster at the time?  The grand military strategy?  The politics?  The technology?  The officers and men of the regiment?  How to do research? 

I'll be happy to do some digging, try to patch together an explanation of something, find a relevant source, or just flat-out make something up.  Post a question in the comments section below or on the blog's Facebook page anytime between now and the end of November.  It's a fascinating topic to me, so I look forward to the conversations!  

A (Local) Civil War History Renaissance?

From Hardtack and Coffee
The seed is sown...

As I look back at what's been written about Lancaster and the Civil War since 1865, I can't help but feel the topic is sadly underdeveloped relative to the quality of available primary source material that lends itself to (1) compelling local stories with tangible connections to the present that should excite local historical society and heritage groups and (2) critical analysis on or not too far from the frontier of academic Civil War scholarship.

To illustrate, if I were on a lifeboat that could only hold either Samuel Bates' narratives of Pennsylvania Civil War regiments from the late 1860s (not even considering the regimental rosters, which are obviously indispensable) or everything else written about Lancaster and the Civil War, I'd probably choose Bates.  Basically, besides a couple interesting projects*, we really lack both the broad narrative and the raw stories of how Lancaster and its soldiers experienced and remembered the Civil War.  (For now, I'm going to leave alone the foundational question of why local Civil War history is worth our attention; just assume it is.)  I feel bad for the heritage tourism folks and the marketing people they employ, as their efforts sometimes give the impression of running on fumes. 

And that's too bad as, like I said, there's really good primary source material available mostly in newspapers but also in letters, photographs, and other media (e.g., tombstones) about the war itself and how it was remembered.  For example, the approximately 150 letters written by a small group of 79th Pennsylvania soldiers to Lancaster newspaper editors document the regiment's life and usually focus on the more entertaining and/or historically-rich subjects.  The internet has certainly helped, too, by connecting researchers with this material in many ways: simple web searches, Ebay auctions, Google Books, genealogical resources, and more recently social networks and digitized newspapers.

It appears Lancaster is not unique in the secondary-source-to-primary-source quality disparity, so my hope is that the attention of the Sesquicentennial sparks a little bit of a renaissance in Civil War scholarship--or at least a primary source mining boom--at the local level.  I even think there's a really bad metaphor using  Marcellus shale natural gas boom somewhere in what I'm saying.  Anyway, my hope is to see a flood of new stories with an interesting analytical angle that are also relevant today, and I'll try to do my part for Lancaster on this blog.

* I'll cite Leroy Hopkins' work on Lancaster's African-American community, Ron Young's books, the Lancaster Newspapers Civil War articles series and blog, and some yet-to-be-published work by Gary Hawbaker on Cos. B and E, 1st Pennsylvania Reserves, as good steps in the right direction.  

...and the crop is harvested 150 years later.
(Me at the Lancaster County Historical Society with the
1862 Daily Evening Express volume that escaped microfilm)