“A Civil War Soldier in the Wild Cat Regiment,” which is available from the Library of Congress, features Captain Tilton Reynolds correspondence with his family between 1861 and 1864. Reynolds, who joined the 105th Pennsylvania Volunteers as a seventeen year old private, became a prisoner of war after the Battle of Fair Oaks in May […]
8
Mar
10
“A Civil War Soldier in the Wild Cat Regiment”
Posted by sailerd Published in Civil War (1861-1865), Letters & Diariesno comment
5
Mar
10
Upper South and the Secession Crisis
Posted by sailerd Published in Antebellum (1840-1861), Letters & DiariesI already described DocSouth’s online exhibit on antebellum students at UNC-Chapel Hill, but this letter from March 1861 provides an interesting example of the Upper South’s role in the secession crisis. Even though “Lincoln’s inaugural…amounts to coersion [sic],” John Halliburton believed that “[he could] hate him and still love the Union.” Pro-secession editorials were “absurdities,” […]
1
Mar
10
“Under the Rebel Flag: Life in Texas during the Civil War” is a new online exhibit available from the Texas State Library & Archives Commission. Even though it focuses is on a single state, teachers from across the country should be able to find material to use in their classrooms. The exhibit breaks down this […]
22
Feb
10
Broadsides Collection
Posted by sailerd Published in 19th Century (1840-1880), Images, Letters & DiariesThe University of South Carolina has a nice digital collection of over two hundred broadsides from the Colonial Era to the present. One can find broadsides related to secession, the Civil War, and a number of other topics. Almost all of the broadsides in this collection were originally printed in South Carolina. Other digital collections […]
19
Feb
10
Robert C. Caldwell Collection
Posted by sailerd Published in Civil War (1861-1865), Letters & DiariesThe Robert C. Caldwell Collection at East Carolina University offers an interesting perspective on life in the South during the Civil War. The collection consists primarily of Robert Caldwell’s letters to his wife between August 1863 and February 1865. He served with the 10th Battalion North Carolina Heavy Artillery, which remained in eastern North Carolina […]
17
Feb
10
The New South Newspaper (1862 -1866)
Posted by sailerd Published in Civil War (1861-1865), Historic PeriodicalsThe Port Royal New South (1862-1866) offers an interesting perspective on life in the South Carolina lowcountry during the Civil War. The editors published the first issue of their weekly paper in March 1862, which was several months into the Union’s occupation of Port Royal. While it promised to “abstain from the discussion of exciting […]
15
Feb
10
Conference Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Harpers Ferry Raid
Posted by sailerd Published in Antebellum (1840-1861), Video“John Brown, Slavery, and the Legacies of Revolutionary Violence in Our Own Time,” a conference held in October 2009 at the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition (Yale University), is now available online. Over twenty scholars participated in this event, which included four different sessions – “John Brown: A Problem […]
12
Feb
10
Delia Locke Diaries (1855-1879)
Posted by sailerd Published in 19th Century (1840-1880), Images, Letters & DiariesWhen Delia Locke and her husband moved to northern California in 1855, she started a diary that she continued to write in until her death in 1922. Thanks to the University of the Pacific, her diary entries between 1855 and 1879 are available online. Locke not only recorded detailed observations about daily life, but she […]
10
Feb
10
John Omenhausser, Civil War Sketchbook (1864-1865)
Posted by sailerd Published in Civil War (1861-1865), ImagesConfederate John Jacob Omenhausser, who was captured in 1864 and spent about a year at a Union prison camp in Maryland, filled a sketchbook with over sixty paintings of camp life. The University of Maryland does not have all of Omenhausser’s paintings, but this one is the largest. Omenhausser, who served with the 46th Virginia […]
8
Feb
10
VMI Cadets & John Brown’s Execution – Dec. 1859
Posted by sailerd Published in Antebellum (1840-1861), Images, Letters & DiariesThe Virginia Military Institute has a number of interesting digital collections related to the Civil War era, including one that focuses on the school’s involvement in John Brown’s execution. After Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry in October 1859, VMI Superintendent Francis H. Smith wrote Virginia Governor Henry Wise and offered to send some of the […]
