Friday, October 30, 2009
Oct. 28, 2009 - Entry 4: One Last Look in the Library
So the first draft of the episodes are due today, and I am still struggling with whether or not my primary and secondary sources are enough. Was able to get the morning off from work to spend looking through the one-hour reserve books. I got really excited when I ran across a quote attributed to James R. Hagood on page 142 of Richard J. Sommers' book, "Richmond Redeemed: The Siege at Petersburg." The quote was from "Memoirs of the First South Carolina Regiment of Volunteer Infantry in the Confederate War for Independence, April 12, 1861 to April 10, 1865" ... but it was South Caroliniana Library of USC. I did try to track it down online, but was never able to locate it after almost an hour of trying. Another dead end for now. Maybe I'll have more luck this weekend as I look ahead to revise my first draft.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Oct. 17, 2009 - Entry 3 : Who are these people?
Oct. 17:
No time to spend in the library, so here I am trying to research my officers online. Not easy. My previous post about Barber gave me more information on him than anything else I turned up. Not so lucky with Hagood. I decided to pursue locating more information on Hagood's reference to Fort Harrison, since biographical info on him was virtually non-existent. Found a couple of Web sites with some basic info: www.usa-civil-war.com and aotw.org/officers. Thought it was interesting that the plaque at this fort gives both the Confederate name (Fort Harrison) and the Federal name (Fort Burnham, after Brigadier General Hiram Burnham of Maine.
Looks like the Official Records source has the most information, so I plan to go with that.
No time to spend in the library, so here I am trying to research my officers online. Not easy. My previous post about Barber gave me more information on him than anything else I turned up. Not so lucky with Hagood. I decided to pursue locating more information on Hagood's reference to Fort Harrison, since biographical info on him was virtually non-existent. Found a couple of Web sites with some basic info: www.usa-civil-war.com and aotw.org/officers. Thought it was interesting that the plaque at this fort gives both the Confederate name (Fort Harrison) and the Federal name (Fort Burnham, after Brigadier General Hiram Burnham of Maine.
Looks like the Official Records source has the most information, so I plan to go with that.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Oct. 12, 2009 - Entry 2: Getting to know the officers
Oct. 12, 2009:
My schedule did not permit me to stay at the library today to research my officers in the 1-hour reserve sources, so I decided to check out Ancestry.com for starters. My Union officer's name did show up in a couple of locations, but in order to get more details I had to sign up for a 14-day free trial (at the end of which I would either cancel or agree to be billed $12.95 for a basic membership). I might go back and do this later. Being in somewhat of a hurry at this point, I decided to try Google and see what came up for my Union officer. A book titled "The Second United States Sharpshooters in the Civil War: A History and Roster" by Gerald L. Earley came up as the first reference, and I enjoyed what little bit I found. I found some interesting reading on Chaplain Barber, who was a "fighting parson" and considered to be one of the best marksmen in the Union army. I also found that he suffered a severe leg injury on Nov. 30, 1863, which was said to have ended his days as a "chaplain/sniper." The official records information I originally found was a report by Barber from Dec. 1864. I'll be interested to see if I can find any information to shed some light on what happened between the time of his injury and his report.
Reading the preface of this book also gave me some background information that I might not otherwise have found. For instance, the author talks of the South's perception that "Yankees couldn't fight" -- while the North believed it was superior to the South in education, industrialization, and naval and artillery capabilities, but inferior to the South in terms of ground forces (specifically marksmanship). Here begins the story of how the Union army sought to compensate by hiring Hiram Berdan, the country's "premier marksman," to recruit the best marksmen available to form a "regiment or corps of expert riflemen" (preface, page 1). As a result, the only two "pan-Yankee regiments in the Civil War -- the 1st and 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters, also known as "Berdan's Sharpshooters" -- were organized, and became the "standard by which all the others should be judged" (2).
My schedule did not permit me to stay at the library today to research my officers in the 1-hour reserve sources, so I decided to check out Ancestry.com for starters. My Union officer's name did show up in a couple of locations, but in order to get more details I had to sign up for a 14-day free trial (at the end of which I would either cancel or agree to be billed $12.95 for a basic membership). I might go back and do this later. Being in somewhat of a hurry at this point, I decided to try Google and see what came up for my Union officer. A book titled "The Second United States Sharpshooters in the Civil War: A History and Roster" by Gerald L. Earley came up as the first reference, and I enjoyed what little bit I found. I found some interesting reading on Chaplain Barber, who was a "fighting parson" and considered to be one of the best marksmen in the Union army. I also found that he suffered a severe leg injury on Nov. 30, 1863, which was said to have ended his days as a "chaplain/sniper." The official records information I originally found was a report by Barber from Dec. 1864. I'll be interested to see if I can find any information to shed some light on what happened between the time of his injury and his report.
Reading the preface of this book also gave me some background information that I might not otherwise have found. For instance, the author talks of the South's perception that "Yankees couldn't fight" -- while the North believed it was superior to the South in education, industrialization, and naval and artillery capabilities, but inferior to the South in terms of ground forces (specifically marksmanship). Here begins the story of how the Union army sought to compensate by hiring Hiram Berdan, the country's "premier marksman," to recruit the best marksmen available to form a "regiment or corps of expert riflemen" (preface, page 1). As a result, the only two "pan-Yankee regiments in the Civil War -- the 1st and 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters, also known as "Berdan's Sharpshooters" -- were organized, and became the "standard by which all the others should be judged" (2).
Sept. 30, 2009 - Entry 1: Choosing my officers' reports
Sept. 30, 2009
My group has chosen the Battle of Petersburg for our History Engine episode assignment. I did not have a chance to go to the library until today and due to a limited amount of time, I did not find the volume with all the officers’ names and their accompanying ranks. Therefore, I spent an incredible amount of time just trying to randomly research for records from officers of lower rank. I also wanted to find records pertaining to different time frames than that of my fellow group members; because I was the last to choose, I tried to pick a period within the 9-month Petersburg siege that did not correspond with the others. Already chosen by others in my group were the earliest days of the battle, the final days, and the events at the Battle of the Crater, among others. After mostly searching the digital version of the Official Records, as well as looking at the printed copies, I found reports from a Union chaplain and a South Carolina infantryman, and thought they would both bring a very different perspective than what had already been selected.
“The War of the Rebellion: A compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies”; Series 1, Volume 42 (Part 1) –
Report of Chaplain Lorenzo Barber, Second U.S. Sharpshooters, of operations December 7-12, 1864 (pages 355-357)
Report of Col. James R. Hagood, First South Carolina Infantry, of operations August 14-December 10, 1864 (pages 937-939)
My group has chosen the Battle of Petersburg for our History Engine episode assignment. I did not have a chance to go to the library until today and due to a limited amount of time, I did not find the volume with all the officers’ names and their accompanying ranks. Therefore, I spent an incredible amount of time just trying to randomly research for records from officers of lower rank. I also wanted to find records pertaining to different time frames than that of my fellow group members; because I was the last to choose, I tried to pick a period within the 9-month Petersburg siege that did not correspond with the others. Already chosen by others in my group were the earliest days of the battle, the final days, and the events at the Battle of the Crater, among others. After mostly searching the digital version of the Official Records, as well as looking at the printed copies, I found reports from a Union chaplain and a South Carolina infantryman, and thought they would both bring a very different perspective than what had already been selected.
“The War of the Rebellion: A compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies”; Series 1, Volume 42 (Part 1) –
Report of Chaplain Lorenzo Barber, Second U.S. Sharpshooters, of operations December 7-12, 1864 (pages 355-357)
Report of Col. James R. Hagood, First South Carolina Infantry, of operations August 14-December 10, 1864 (pages 937-939)
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