Resources on Pension Files, USCT Regiments, and the Western Theater

These various online resources might be helpful to you as you complete your pension file project. Also, look at the pension file guide I have posted under “Class Handouts.”

Measuring Worth–This website, built by economists, helps us calculate the value of the U.S. dollar today in comparison to the past. Make sure you read down the page to see which kind of measure is best suited to your needs.

Civil War Pensions–This brief (though slightly flawed) article explains how the pension process worked.

Useful Tips for Reading Handwritten Documents:–This is a website out of Australia, but it provides a lot of really useful advice about the particulars of reading handwritten documents from the nineteenth century.

Here are some relevant online primary sources and databases:

Index to Kansas Adjutant General Report, 1861-1865–This includes some enlistment information for the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry (later the 79th USCI) and the 2nd Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry (later the 83rd USCI).

Descriptive Recruitment Lists of Volunteers for the United States Colored Troops for the State of Missouri, 1863–1865–This was compiled from handwritten enlistment records, providing some basic details about Missouri black recruits.  Here’s an example of the handwritten record.

Missouri Soldier Records–This database includes records for Missouri regiments from the War of 1812 through World War I.

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion–This site is searchable and includes official military reports and orders pertaining to the various military campaigns of the Civil War. In class, and in many publications, you will hear this called “the O-R.”

Here are a few specific secondary source articles (available online):

United States Colored Troops in Missouri–this is a brief article (comprising part of a lesson plan) about black regiments recruited in Missouri.

“The First Kansas Colored: Massacre at Poison Springs”–this is a short, academic article by Mike Fisher, published in Kansas History.

“The 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers”–This is a short encyclopedia article on this unit.

These secondary source monographs and anthologies in Torreyson Library are also excellent reference sources:

Bailey, Ann J., and Daniel E. Sutherland. Civil War Arkansas: Beyond Battles and Leaders. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2000. (E496 .C58 2000)

Castel, Albert. Civil War Kansas: Reaping the Whirlwind. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997. (E508 .C3 1997)

Christ, Mark K. Civil War Arkansas, 1863: The Battle for a State. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2010. (E470.4 .C47 2010)

Cornish, Dudley Taylor. The Sable Arm: Black Troops in the Union Army, 1861-1865. New York: W. W. Norton, 1966. (E540.N3 C77 1966)

Dobak, William A. Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862-1867. Washington D.C.: Center of Military History, 2011. (Federal Documents D 114.2:SW 7) <– also available online as a PDF

Earle, Jonathan and Diane Mutti Burke. Bleeding Kansas, Bleeding Missouri: The Long Civil War on the Border. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2013. (F685 .B65 2013)

Gerteis, Louis. The Civil War in Missouri: A Military History. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2012. (E470.4 .G47 2012)

Glatthaar, Joseph T. Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990. (E540.N3 G53 1990)

Monaghan, Jay. Civil War on the Western Border, 1854-1865. Boston: Little and Brown, 1955. (E470.45 .M652)

Shaffer, Donald R. After the Glory: The Struggles of Black Civil War Veterans. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004. (E540.N3 S53 2004)

Examples of Turabian Citations

Here are some models/templates of citations, to use in your footnotes.  These follow the Turabian style, except for those that are citing class discussion and other “unusual” sources, which are my own version since Turabian isn’t always clear.  If you haven’t already, bookmark the Turabian Quick Citation Guide too and download the guide I wrote.

Lecture
Dr. Kristen Epps, “Economic Crisis and Recovery during the Great Depression and New Deal Era” (HIST202 lecture, Colorado State University—Pueblo, March 19, 2012).

Textbook
H. W. Brands, et. al., American Stories: A History of the United States, 2^nd ed., vol. 2 (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Longman, 2012), 494.

Book with One Author

Ira Berlin, Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003), 29.

Online Primary Source
Woodrow Wilson, “Fourteen Points,” My History Lab, accessed January 19, 2012, http://www.myhistorylab.com/item/4013912.

Academic Journal Article
Brooke Speer Orr, “Mary Elizabeth Lease: Gendered Discourse and Populist Party Politics in Gilded Age America” Kansas History 29, no. 4 (Winter 2006/2007), 261.

Book/Anthology Excerpt
Linda Ford, “Alice Paul and the Politics of Nonviolent Protest,” in Votes for Women: The Struggle for Suffrage Revisited, ed. by Jean H. Baker (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 184.

Discussion Notes
Class discussion on “The Southern Manifesto,” HIST202, April 20, 2012.

Definition of Historiography

As a 4000-level course, we will spend some time this semester on understanding the historiography of the Civil War. If you are not familiar with this term (or you are, and you just need a refresher!), historiography is essentially the study of historical writing.  Instead of working with primary sources, historiography involves secondary sources only.  Dictionary.com gives two definitions, which when combined, are mostly useful: it defines historiography as “the body of literature dealing with historical matters; histories collectively; the body of techniques, theories, and principles of historical research and presentation; methods of historical scholarship.”  In short, it is the history of historical study and the important debates occurring in the field.  As one author put it, “when we read history, we are reading a particular historian’s encounter with the world.”[1]  Typical questions would include: how do historians’ interpretations of this issue differ, and why?  What are the current debates driving discussion in the field of Civil War studies?  How have our interpretations of the Civil War changed over time, and what factors were most relevant in shaping these revisions?  Those are just some examples.  So, if I use the term “historiography” or “historiographical” in class, now you know!

[1] Francis G. Couvares, et. al., Interpretations of American History: Patterns and Perspectives, vol. 2 (Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2009), 1.

Civil War Tweets

Are there any Twitter users out there?  If so, here’s a list of some of the Civil War-related accounts I find useful. This list is absolutely not comprehensive, so see my Twitter profile (@hist_enthusiast) and the lists there, especially the one titled “Civil War Resources” and the one titled “Historians” (which are not perfect, but are more comprehensive).  Even if you never post about yourself, you can get a Twitter account just to follow your friends, organizations, news sources, etc.  Here’s an example of a Twitter page by a historical society, focusing on John Quincy Adams.

• Abraham Lincoln — @Abe_Lincoln
• Lincoln Tweets — @Lincoln_Tweets
• The Civil War Monitor — @CivilWarMonitor
• Disunion — @NYTcivilwar
• Civil War Day by Day — @CWDaybyDay
• Harry Smeltzer, author of Bull Runnings blog — @bullrunnings
• Museum of the Confederacy — @moc1896
• Mark Grimsley, author of The Hard Hand of War — @MarkGrimsley
• Kevin Levin, author of War as Murder — @KevinLevin
• Carole Emberton, author of Beyond Redemption — @CaroleEmberton
• Seth Rockman, author of Scraping By — @sethrockman
• Civil War Studies — @SmithsonianCW
• Damian Shiels, author of The Irish in the American Civil War — @irishacw
• Journal of the Civil War Era — @JCWE1
• Ann Sarah Rubin, author of Through the Heart of Dixie — @AnneSarahRubin
• Civil War St. Louis — @CivilWarMO
• Society of Civil War Historians — @SCWHistorians
• Civil War Book Review — @CWBookReview
• American Civil War Center (Richmond, VA) — @CivilWarCenter
• Ann Tracy Mueller — @LincolnBuff2
• The Civil War Augmented Reality Project — @ACWAR_Project
• Jonathan R. Allen — @CivilWarHistory
• Civil War Campaigner — @CivilWarMag
• Civil War Collect — @CivilWarCollect
• Mr. Sardonicus — @CivilWarGuy
• Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College — @CWI_GC
• Civil War History (journal) — @CWHJournal
• Megan Kate Nelson, author of Ruin Nation — @megankatenelson
• Civil War News 150 — @CivilWarNews150
• Civil War Photos — @CivilWarPhotos
• Discovering the Civil War — @discovercivwar
• Rachel Shelden, author of Washington Brotherhood — @rachelshelden