Brief Updates

Posted in African Americans, Genealogy, Leadership, Memory by Andy Hall on March 26, 2011

Things have been busy of late here, and postings limited. So here are a few quick updates.

If you haven’t heard, Kevin’s blog, Civil War Memory, was selected for digital archiving by the Library of Congress as part of their efforts to document the Civil War Sesquicentennial. How cool is that?

A week ago Friday, long after normal business hours, I e-mailed the Texas State Library in Austin to request a Confederate pension file. The official turnaround time is 4-6 weeks, but this Friday (five business days) I got an e-mail that the copies were already in the mail. Props to the library staff in Austin.

I’ve added two new blogs to the roll at right, Civil War Medicine (and Writing) and Notre Dame and the Civil War. Both are written by Jim Schmidt, a Civil War historian who’s published several very well-received works, including Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory, Lincoln’s Labels: America’s Best Known Brands and the Civil War, and the edited volume, Years of Change and Suffering: Modern Perspectives on Civil War Medicine. Welcome to the blogroll, Jim. It’s because of people like Jim that my Amazon purchases ran to thirteen damn pages last year.

Finally, just up the road a ways, a Reconstruction-era Freedman’s settlement has been formally added to the National Register of Historic Places.

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Image: Sketch of a “double-ender” Union gunboat by A. R. Waud. Library of Congress.

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Scott Manning said, on March 26, 2011 at 2:06 pm

I had a similar experience with the Texas State Archives last month. I ordered 4 different pension applications and I got them in less than a week. Given the cheap price tag and the quick turnaround, it is well worth the effort/money to get pension applications from them.

Reply
- Andy Hall said, on March 26, 2011 at 2:12 pm
  
  I’m happy. I don’t know what the Lege’s drastic budget-cutting is going to do to them, though. Nothing good, for sure.
  
  Reply
focusoninfinity said, on March 26, 2011 at 9:59 pm

Today’s Mach 26-27, 2011, Wall Street Journal, page A1, had a feature article concerning Civil War Confederates, primarily from Virginia and North Carolina. N.C. State Archives, Raleigh, researcher John Howard, mentioned an un-named man who he documented was in N.C. Confederate service, captured, imprisoned, then in the Union Army, commanded a black unit. Might be a story there?

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- Andy Hall said, on March 26, 2011 at 11:23 pm
  
  I’ll have a look at that, thanks.
  
  Noted this:
  
  . . . adding that his research has proved a longstanding Palmetto State claim that not one white South Carolinian fought for the federal government during the war.
  
  Wrong.
  
  Reply
Jim Schmidt said, on March 27, 2011 at 11:03 am

From experience, I can tell you that the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office is also pretty quick with replies re: Confederate pension applications:

http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/Default.aspx?tabid=637

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- Andy Hall said, on March 27, 2011 at 11:12 am
  
  Good to know.
  
  Reply
Nora Carrington said, on March 27, 2011 at 12:34 pm

Thanks for all you do, Andy; dunno if it’s my mood or the season, but I’m being reminded every day that none of us are as grateful for the big and small goodnesses in our lives as we might be. Your work has added a great deal to my knowledge and my enjoyment of what I read every day, so thanks!

Reply
- Andy Hall said, on March 27, 2011 at 12:37 pm
  
  Thanks.
  
  Reply