What have we forgotten?

[nicholasraphael]

Hi all, my name is Nic, and I'm an Australian teenager with a deep passion for American civil war history, and I would be interested in finding out your opinions on which aspects of the history of the Civil War have we neglected, and what niche topics deserve further exploration. I love writing as a hobby, and I'm searching for a slightly left-field topic to focus on for a personal project. Thanks!

 

[East Tennessee Roots]

Hi all, my name is Nic, and I'm an Australian teenager with a deep passion for American civil war history, and I would be interested in finding out your opinions on which aspects of the history of the Civil War have we neglected, and what niche topics deserve further exploration. I love writing as a hobby, and I'm searching for a slightly left-field topic to focus on for a personal project. Thanks!

Welcome ! I'm probably prejudice, but I believe the war in the bitterly divided border areas of eastern Kentucky, east Tennessee, southwest Virginia, and western North Carolina have been woefully neglected.

 

[Chattahooch33]

As ETR above says, the eastern theater, particularly Gettysburg, gets way too much attention. The war was won\lost in the western theater.

As a more direct answer, I would say the everyday lives of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers. What did they think? Where were they from? What did they go through?
I find all of that incredibly more exciting that Lincoln, Davis, Lee, or Grant.

 

[nicholasraphael]

That's really interesting - can you recommend any ways to find high-quality, primary source material of soldiers, particularly websites? I'm too far away to inspect archival records in person. Would you have any sources you'd be willing to contribute?

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Beats me; I've forgotten it. :: rimshot ::

Obviously, the naval side of the war. I'm fond of pointing out that, by a number of measures, it was the most significant naval war between the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the beginning of World War One, though by far the majority of action was in the "brown water" areas rather than deep sea.

 

[E_just_E]

which aspects of the history of the Civil War have we neglected, and what niche topics deserve further exploration.

Context. I'd say that about 40% of what is written about the ACW is Military History (battles, movements, tactics, uniforms, weapons etc.), 30% is People's experiences (Memoirs, letters, diaries, biographies), and 25% (and increasing) is Slavery related or Lincoln as the great emancipator related. The deficit (and it is less than 5%) is in context.

What I mean by that? Here is the Daily National Republican from Washington DC of July 3, 1863. Pretty big battle day. Only about 1/4 of it is devoted to the above things. There were a lot of other things going on that for some reason are on the back burner these days. One of the most interesting subjects in this category is that the ACW was not the only war that was going on in what we call United States right now. There was a war that started in earnest right about 1776 and did not end until the 20th century: what is now collectively called "The Indian Wars". They did not stop during the Civil War nor all Native American Tribes participated in the ACW (a few did.) Of course there is plenty on Custer and Sitting Bull and the Great Lakota War, but as a matter of fact the roots of that War were in the Montana Gold Rush of 1862-1863 (which, of course is ignored, unlike the CA Gold Rush, because it happened dead smack in the middle of you know what...)

Another way to look at it: The US population in the 1860 census was 31,443,321. Only 10% of that participated in the ACW, and get 99% of page count, where the 90% might get 1%...

Lots of opportunity to find something interesting to write about in the era...

 

[DixieRifles]

Good question.
I have a lot of questions about the War and how the soldiers fought. Maybe I don't read as much as many here but most books cover the big picture. There are some that get down into the details of troop movement and fighting at the company level.
I have been studying the cavalry battles around West Tennessee and Northern Mississippi and I still wonder how they did what they did. Sometimes it seemed they were in the saddle for days and then it would get quite as if they had to have time to recover and refresh their mounts and ammunition and replacements.
One example I found, a cavalry brigade was ordered to move to a location in preparation of stricking a Union garrison and they were told they would get their ammunition when they arrived. How do you order your men to "advance" against the enemy without sufficient ammo or supplies?
Most text books cover the battles and the casualty statistics. I think you can learn a lot more by drilling down into details of supplies, movement to and from the battle and details of casualties.

 

[East Tennessee Roots]

That's really interesting - can you recommend any ways to find high-quality, primary source material of soldiers, particularly websites? I'm too far away to inspect archival records in person. Would you have any sources you'd be willing to contribute?

A source I use : http://civilwardata.com/

 

[Yankeedave]

I would suggest diaries. Nothing closer to the fighting than them that were there.

 

[Will Carry]

Welcome to the forum and thank you for posting such a great question. My interests lie in the day to day lives of the men and women of the South, who lived through it. What was it like being a slave? What was it like being a poor white boy in the South? How did the Southern aristocracy talk that poor white boy in to fighting? Was it a society of social casts? Was Southern culture as cruel as the "haters" say or was it as good as the "lost causers." say? My theory is that is was somewhere in between. I know people and I grew up in a Jim Crowe South. There is a duality there that I need answers to.

 

[diane]

Welcome! I tend to agree with others that the eastern theater has too much attention, and that there is not enough attention paid to 'lynch pin' battles. As Rosecrans once said, please don't ignore this battle because it was not writ in letters of blood! There were lots of battles fought around salt, an amazingly important article. One who knows a great deal about these very important but almost unknown battles is @1SGDan .

 

[MajGenl.Meade]

Well, Young Winston. I'd suggest that the US merchant marine (to use a modern term) has been neglected. What the government did to support, supply, transport their own troops and convey captures north using the oceans and rivers is a fascinating subject that er... actually hasn't been written about much yet. OTOH, that's not something that the internet is going to be much of a source for - and nor is much else!

 

[lakertaker]

You might consider aspects of how and why the nation was divided in the years leading up to the War. Ideology, politics, and all that good stuff!

 

[DaveBrt]

As far as finding information without being able to visit the main archives:

1. the Official Records are on a couple of sites (https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/official-records is one place)
2. there are many, many newspaper sites (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ is only one and is very good)
3. Fold3.com has a huge amount of National Archives material for a very reasonable fee if you are going to use them very often
4. https://archive.org/ lets you look for books and documents and be shown which libraries hold them. Then go to the web site for the library and you will find may of the original documents on the library site
5. Google books is very useful, frequently find out of print post-war books
6. the National Archives is in the process of posting copies of the 2,500 ledgers (1259 available now) that they hold from the Confederacy. These are clothing issues from single companies, letters sent records from many armies and departments, etc. They don't seem to want people to find these ledgers, so I will post below the path to get to them:


1. www.archives.gov/research/catalog
2. In the center search box, enter 596501 and Enter
3. Top center, click on the link "Record Books of Executive, Legislative and Judicial Offices of the Confederate Government"
4. Half way down, on the right side, click the blue box "Search Within This Series"
5. Top Left, in the light blue box, click "Archival Descriptions with Digital Objects"


You have arrived!! The documents are loaded in the order they were scanned and cannot be "Searched" in any convenient way. I suggest you go to Results per Page and set it to 100, then search each page with Control F and your item of interest. Remember to "search" each time you change pages (ie "Navy" will never find a hit unless you "search" on the page that has the Navy document on it.

If you have the Volume and Chapter numbers from a previous visit, these will search well.

None of these are on Fold3 and they have no intention to put them there.

If you want to Save a page of the final book, use the Save button in the center, under the image. This will save the entire page/pair of pages, not just a screen shot.

To save an entire ledger, on its home page, scroll down below the thumbnails and click on PDF. Then scroll up a little and look for the arrow pointing down, just under the tumbs. Click and wait. Many of the ledgers are 1+ gigs, so it take time, but it is much easier to work with the downloaded copy than to try to work downloading one pair of pages at a time.

 

[DaveBrt]

Poorly covered subjects that come to my mind are: the war on salt production, the war in Texas (including the New Mexico campaign and the Red River campaign or just the Gulf coast), almost any logistics subject, the war in Missouri/Arkansas, Indians in the war

 

[1SGDan]

Welcome! I tend to agree with others that the eastern theater has too much attention, and that there is not enough attention paid to 'lynch pin' battles. As Rosecrans once said, please don't ignore this battle because it was not writ in letters of blood! There were lots of battles fought around salt, an amazingly important article. One who knows a great deal about these very important but almost unknown battles is @1SGDan .

You are too kind Diane. I have done my best to bring some of this to light.

 

[AUG]

Howdy and welcome from Texas!

I would agree that the Western and especially the Trans-Mississippi theaters are generally forgotten, underrated, and overshadowed by the events in the East; however, I still do find all three fascinating. Modern historians have devoted a bit more attention to the Western theater lately, but still not much on the war west of the Mississippi.

I will edit to add that if anything in particular, I personally would like to see more attention given to Texas cavalry general and forgotten legend Maj. Gen. Thomas Green, as well as his troopers. Imo, he is probably one of the most overlooked cavalrymen of the war. His service in the New Mexico Campaign and in the battle of Galveston is better remembered, but his actions in Louisiana as a brigade, division and corps commander until his death in the Red River Campaign are largely forgotten. Tom Green's life before the ACW is also a whole nother story in itself. I'm surprised no one has attempted to write a biography on him.

 

[James N.]

Hi all, my name is Nic, and I'm an Australian teenager with a deep passion for American civil war history, and I would be interested in finding out your opinions on which aspects of the history of the Civil War have we neglected, and what niche topics deserve further exploration. I love writing as a hobby, and I'm searching for a slightly left-field topic to focus on for a personal project. Thanks!

Welcome to the forums! Are you aware that your avatar suggests one such relatively "neglected" topic? During the July, 1863 Draft Riots in New York City, Winston Churchill's maternal grandfather Jerome helped man a Gatling gun which protected his newspaper's office from the howling mob trying to invade and destroy the loyal-to-the-administration press.

 

[Allie]

One that would be easy to investigate online is the reports of the Southern Claims Commission. The claims often contain eyewitness reports of local military activity which isn't found elsewhere, and also contains testimony which can shed a lot of light on how the local population felt about the war. A fold3 account is all that's necessary to get to the original documents.

 

[donna]

Welcome to the forum. I am particularly interested in the War in Kentucky and its surrounding areas. My ancestors and my husband's ancestors who fought in the war came from Ky. and joined Ky. regiments. Two of my favorite generals are John Hunt Morgan and Basil Duke. I have many books on them Recently my husband bought "Morgan Is Coming". It has a section on three of his ancestors with their photos, who rode with Morgan. The war in Ky. was bitter as the state was very divided. Both my husband and I have ancestors who fought for North and South. Some from same families as they say brother against brother.