Nov. 16, 2009:
Just happened to notice that I inadvertently left out one resource (which I have since added to my episode citations). It is an interesting little book of reminiscences by Frank Mixson, a South Carolinian who served as a private in James Hagood's brigade. I think I'd like to go back and read the entire book. The personal stories are the best.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Nov. 14, 2009 - Entry 8: And Still More Sources...
Nov. 14, 2009:
After reading Dr. Benson's suggestions, I went back to McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom" and Greene's "The Final Battles of the Petersburg Campaign: Breaking the Backbone of the Rebellion" for more contextual information. I'm beginning to think I have a mental block, because I had a hard time pulling out information to fit well into my almost complete episodes. I also checked the following references:
Charles Augustus Stevens, Berdan’s United States Sharpshooters in the Army of the Potomac
Chandra Manning, What This Cruel War Was Over
Russell F. Weigley, “The Founding of American Strategic Studies,” The American Way of War: A History of United States Military Strategy and Policy
As a result, I tried to do a total re-write of the Barber episode and the Weldon Railroad destruction. Not sure I like either one now!
After reading Dr. Benson's suggestions, I went back to McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom" and Greene's "The Final Battles of the Petersburg Campaign: Breaking the Backbone of the Rebellion" for more contextual information. I'm beginning to think I have a mental block, because I had a hard time pulling out information to fit well into my almost complete episodes. I also checked the following references:
Charles Augustus Stevens, Berdan’s United States Sharpshooters in the Army of the Potomac
Chandra Manning, What This Cruel War Was Over
Russell F. Weigley, “The Founding of American Strategic Studies,” The American Way of War: A History of United States Military Strategy and Policy
As a result, I tried to do a total re-write of the Barber episode and the Weldon Railroad destruction. Not sure I like either one now!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Nov. 11, 2009 - Entry 7: How Did I Miss These?
Nov. 11, 2009:
In my frustration at tying together my primary sources with the larger context from secondary sources, etc., I decided to go back to the History Engine and search again for additional sources that other students had used. This was a last-ditch effort on my part, but I figured I had nothing to lose.
What a delightful surprise to find that someone had done an episode on Berdan's Sharpshooters and had posted "Berdan's United States Sharpshooters in the Army of the Potomac, 1861-1865" by Charles Augustus Stevens as one of his/her sources. According to the Arlington National Cemetery Web site, Stevens was a First Lieutenant, Company G, in Berdan's Sharpshooters. (I was a little surprised that Stevens' tombstone didn't say 3rd Division, 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters instead.) Anyway, his book gives some good firsthand information about this regiment, and about Chaplain Barber's skills with a target rifle.
I also found some comments related to railroads in McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, and insights into Union feelings about blacks in Manning's What This Cruel War Was Over.
In my frustration at tying together my primary sources with the larger context from secondary sources, etc., I decided to go back to the History Engine and search again for additional sources that other students had used. This was a last-ditch effort on my part, but I figured I had nothing to lose.
What a delightful surprise to find that someone had done an episode on Berdan's Sharpshooters and had posted "Berdan's United States Sharpshooters in the Army of the Potomac, 1861-1865" by Charles Augustus Stevens as one of his/her sources. According to the Arlington National Cemetery Web site, Stevens was a First Lieutenant, Company G, in Berdan's Sharpshooters. (I was a little surprised that Stevens' tombstone didn't say 3rd Division, 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters instead.) Anyway, his book gives some good firsthand information about this regiment, and about Chaplain Barber's skills with a target rifle.
I also found some comments related to railroads in McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, and insights into Union feelings about blacks in Manning's What This Cruel War Was Over.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Nov. 10, 2009 - Entry 6: More Sources???
Nov. 10, 2009:
I went back to the library catalog and did more random searches with random keyword combinations, and here are some of the selections that looked promising:
"Battles and Leaders of the Civil War," Vol. IV
"Reminiscences of a Private" - Frank M. Mixson, Company E, 1st S.C. Vols. (Hagood's), Jenkins' Brigade (1861), Lee's Army (1865)
"Treasured Reminiscences" - Accounts of the 1st, 6th, 8th, 9th and 21st Regiments, S.C. Volunteer Infantry, 6th S.C. Cavalry Regiment, and 1st, 15th and Pee Dee Volunteer Artillery Battalions, C.S.A. 1861-1865
"A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion" - Frederick H. Dyer
"The American Way of War" - Russell F. Weigley
"Pee Dee Light Artillery of Maxcy Gregg's (Later Samuel McGowan's) Brigade, 1st S.C. Volunteers (Infantry) C.S.A.: A Historical Sketch and Roster" - Sgt. Joseph Woods Brunson
"From Flintrock to Rifle: Infantry Tactics, 1740-1866" - Steven T. Ross
"The Negro's Civil War" - James M. McPherson
"The Railroads of the Confederacy" - Robert C. Black III
"Disloyalty in the Confederacy" - Georgia Lee Tatum, Ph.D.
"Desertion During the Civil War" - Ella Lonn, Ph.D
"Victims: A True Story of the Civil War" - Phillip Shaw Paludan
"American Apocalypse: Yankee Protestants and the Civil War 1860-1869" - James H. Moorhead
"Reminiscences of the War" (Union) - C.J. Wood, M.D.
I went back to the library catalog and did more random searches with random keyword combinations, and here are some of the selections that looked promising:
"Battles and Leaders of the Civil War," Vol. IV
"Reminiscences of a Private" - Frank M. Mixson, Company E, 1st S.C. Vols. (Hagood's), Jenkins' Brigade (1861), Lee's Army (1865)
"Treasured Reminiscences" - Accounts of the 1st, 6th, 8th, 9th and 21st Regiments, S.C. Volunteer Infantry, 6th S.C. Cavalry Regiment, and 1st, 15th and Pee Dee Volunteer Artillery Battalions, C.S.A. 1861-1865
"A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion" - Frederick H. Dyer
"The American Way of War" - Russell F. Weigley
"Pee Dee Light Artillery of Maxcy Gregg's (Later Samuel McGowan's) Brigade, 1st S.C. Volunteers (Infantry) C.S.A.: A Historical Sketch and Roster" - Sgt. Joseph Woods Brunson
"From Flintrock to Rifle: Infantry Tactics, 1740-1866" - Steven T. Ross
"The Negro's Civil War" - James M. McPherson
"The Railroads of the Confederacy" - Robert C. Black III
"Disloyalty in the Confederacy" - Georgia Lee Tatum, Ph.D.
"Desertion During the Civil War" - Ella Lonn, Ph.D
"Victims: A True Story of the Civil War" - Phillip Shaw Paludan
"American Apocalypse: Yankee Protestants and the Civil War 1860-1869" - James H. Moorhead
"Reminiscences of the War" (Union) - C.J. Wood, M.D.
Nov. 9, 2009 - Entry 5: Crunch Time
I now have a new-found respect for historians... I feel as if I have been searching for a couple of needles in a huge haystack of material, and am coming up with nothing. Hats off to the amazing men and women who do this for a living...I would surely starve if this were my "primary source" of income!
But enough of that. From a practical standpoint, my online searches have not, for the most part, turned up good secondary sources. My Union officer was a chaplain and a sharpshooter whose regiment brought an end to the Weldon Railroad, and my Confederate officer was in the Battle of Fort Harrison, which was lost to the Union troops. I would have thought that any number of key word combinations on these people and topics would turn up some rich details, but that's not been the case.
But enough of that. From a practical standpoint, my online searches have not, for the most part, turned up good secondary sources. My Union officer was a chaplain and a sharpshooter whose regiment brought an end to the Weldon Railroad, and my Confederate officer was in the Battle of Fort Harrison, which was lost to the Union troops. I would have thought that any number of key word combinations on these people and topics would turn up some rich details, but that's not been the case.
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