Fold3.com: A Great Resource for Civil War Research

I have been using the incredible resources at Fold3.com for just over a year now.  I decided to join after reading a newspaper article describing how a South Carolina soldier helped comfort a mortally wounded Northern officer.  I immediately had questions.  I knew the name of the doomed Union officer’s father, Halsey R. Wing.  I knew the name of the South Carolinian who had comforted him in his last hours, George S. Baker of the 25th South Carolina.  I decided to research this story and see what I could find.  Most paths continued to be blocked until I kept coming back to Fold3.com.  I joined up and was able to identify the Union officer as Lieutenant Edgar M. Wing of the 118th New York.  I am still working slowly on that story for an article at The Siege of Petersburg Online, and it will appear at some point in the future.

Once I joined, I immediately found many more items which would prove useful at TOCWOC at my Siege of Petersburg site.  Here are just a few of the Civil War collections available at Fold3.com:

• The Confederate Compiled Service Records (CSRs for short): These records contain card abstracts of entries relating to each soldier as found in original muster rolls, returns, rosters, payrolls, appointment books, hospital registers, Union prison registers and rolls, parole rolls, and inspection reports. They may also contain the originals of any papers relating solely to a particular soldier. Browse by military unit, then name of soldier, or use the search box related to this title.

• Civil War Maps: Civil War maps from the collections of the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Library of Virginia. Among the reconnaissance, sketch, and theater-of-war maps are the detailed battle maps made by Major Jedediah Hotchkiss for Generals Lee and Jackson, General Sherman’s Southern military campaigns, and maps taken from diaries, scrapbooks, and manuscripts. Explore over 2,000 images to gain insights into the histories of battles, campaigns, and regions.

• 1860 United States Census: Browse the 1860 US census by state, county, and civil division. This particular census is especially helpful in researching the Civil War era and the soldiers who fought in the imminent conflict. Information about each member of a household as of June 1, 1860, includes age, race, occupation, real and personal estate values, birth place, if married within the year, and if a person was deaf, dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper, or convict. Relationships are not detailed until the 1880 census.

There are many more items which I haven’t used yet which will eventually prove useful to me as well.  If you blog about the Civil War or run a Civil War site, Fold3.com is an extremely useful resource.

I am currently working my way through the First Offensive Order of Battle (June 15-18, 1864) and Second Offensive Order of Battle (June 21-24, 1864) for the Siege of Petersburg.  One of the items which has come up again and again is who exactly commanded various Confederate regiments, batteries, and even brigades in June and July 1864.  A future post at TOCWOC will cover in detail how I’m trying to answer this question using the Confederate Compiled Service Records at Fold3.com.  Look for that in the near future.

Note: At the time of this article I am not a Fold3.com affiliate.  I am merely a subscriber to the site and have found it to be extremely useful to me in my Civil War research.  No perks or benefits were offered for writing this article and my opinions are offered freely and honestly.

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Civil War Collections at Fold3.com

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I was fortunate to do some research at the Rubenstein Rare Books and Manuscript Library at Duke recently. Nice place, friendly and knowledgeable staff. They have a huge collection of Civil War primary sources and manuscripts, including supposedly the largest collection of unpublished Confederate manuscripts in the world. Well worth visiting (certainly was for me). The only problem, like so many college campuses, is parking. Duke, like so many other fine old campuses was designed before the days before all students owned cars, so finding a place to leave the car isn’t easy.

Duke also has its own Civil War exhibit up. As is typical of colleges these days, it’s almost entirely about social issues and features women, African-Americans, and poets.

Asheville columnist Rob Neufeld has returned to Civil War themes lately.

In one column he looks at the Haywood Highlanders (Co. F, 25th NC) and explored the diary of Capt. Thomas Lenoir, recently published by a descendant.

Lenoir was 44 years old with a 17-year old wife, Lizzie, whom he’d just married, left back home.  Since he’d been assigned at age 29 by his father, a Wilkesboro planter and Haywood County pioneer, to take care of the family’s remote Forks of River farm, he’d devoted himself entirely to livestock, slaves, and local governance.  There is no record of any woman in his life until he married Lizzie, and brought her to the place he called Bachelor’s Retreat.

From Camp Lee, Lenoir would march with his troops to a camp in Kinston; and would resign before they were deployed to fight at Malvern Hill.

The next column (same link) looks at some of the other men in the company, one of which was William Pickney Inman, the hero of Cold Mountain.

In response to the question, “Why are some people so obsessed with the Civil War?” one might point to the historical record.  Primary sources abound; the dead are speaking.  People of that time had been tested in the most intense and dramatic ways, with remarkably individual results.

Privates as well as colonels put their thoughts down.  Sometimes, women did, too.  African American history demands a more assiduous search for sources.

Sgt. Garland Ferguson wrote his wife Maria in early 1863:

“I can make out if I don’t git in another fight, which I don’t want to for I don’t fancy the balls and bomb-shells a-flying as thick as hale around my head. I think I could tell you something to see men lying all around me and some hollering.”

Neufeld then looks at the writings of Asheville native author Thomas Wolfe, whose father William watched the Confederates invade Pennsylvania. Wolfe’s Civil War writings—fictionalized versions of his father’s experiences—were cut from his original books but have since been published separately.

Elsewhere Fold3.com (formerly footnote.com) has a page on the Confederate service record of Thomas Dula, Co. K, 42nd NC. As I narrated in an earlier post, he is the same “Tom Dooley” who was convicted of the murder of Laura Foster and executed in 1868.

On another page is a look at the use of “torpedoes” in the Civil War.

In the United Kingdom the “Battle to Save the Union” is underway, this time from the secession of Scotland. Abe Lincoln and William Wallace, call your offices!

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Short Takes

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Professor J. David Hacker takes and new look at Civil War dead and concludes there was a major undercount, especially in the South.

Even as Civil War history has gone through several cycles of revision, one thing has remained fixed: the number of dead. Since about 1900, historians and the general public have assumed that 618,222 men died on both sides. That number is probably a significant undercount, however. New estimates, based on Census data, indicate that the death toll was approximately 750,000, and may have been as high as 850,000.

Interesting article, worth reading the whole thing. Also worth remembering that the death toll adjusted for today’s population would be between six and seven million. He also talks about it on YouTube.

Beautiful Whitworth rifle up for sale. This is a two band (33″) model with a globe front sight. We often see references to “globe-sighted rifles” by CW sharpshooters and this is what they mean. The globe and post sight arrangement used a narrower sight blade on the front and had a metal hood for protection. Some models even had interchangeable front sight inserts. Why? because the common “barlycorn” sight, while sturdy, was too thick for long range work and would completely cover a man-sized figure at longer ranges. The thinner sight worked much better at range but needed protection. This model also is adjustable for windage at the front sight, and the photo also gives a great look at the WW’s hexagonal bore. The elevator rear sight marks it as a target/sporting model.

Charles Joseph Minard is best remembered for his graphic depicting the fate of Napoleon’s army in Russia, but he produced many others as well. Of interest to TOCWOC readers is his look at cotton production, shipping, and use during the Civil War.

Much of the Confederacy’s strategy was based on the idea that the Europeans, particularly France and Britain, would not stand for an interruption of their cotton supplies and would intervene or at least support the South. Jeff Davis even held his cotton off the market in the opening months of the war rather than selling it to raise badly needed funds.

As Minard’s graphic shows, however, the Europeans adapted by shifting cotton production to places like Egypt and India, lessening their dependence on the American South.

While we’re on maps, Frank Jacobs has an ante bellum underwriter’s map of the (then) United States, showing what the insurance companies thought the risk was over the country.

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Short Takes

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My Siege of Petersburg web site research leads me to all kinds of interesting places online.  Because there were so many New York units at the Siege of Petersburg, one place I end up finding myself back at time after time is the New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center web site, specifically the New York Civil War Units NY State Unit History Project page.  On this page you can find links to any New York infantry, artillery, or cavalry unit as well as specialist units like engineers.

Each unit page offers a brief set of histories of a specific unit, usually pulled from Frederick Phisterer’s New York in the War of the Rebellion, but that’s not where it shines.  The resources offered include unit rosters in PDF format, transcribed newspaper clippings, some dozens of pages long, images of some soldiers, particularly higher ranking men in a regiment, images of flags, and a Further Reading section which provides a great avenue for more in depth research on a regiment.  Transcriptions of diary entries and letters also abound.  See their page on the 117th New York, which I was using today, for only one example of the wealth of information available for each unit.

If you have ancestors in a New York regiment or battery or are interested in the units of the state for other reasons, I highly recommend you check it out.

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Great Resource for New York Regiments

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After working on some Confederate Inspection reports prior to Christmas, I’ve switched gears and started transcribing National Archives Microfilm M1281, Roll 7 containing the weapons carried by Union regiments on September 30, 1864, or 3rd Quarter 1864 (July-September). These are officially known as Union Ordnance returns, and I now have available the weapons carried by the following groups of regiments at the Siege of Petersburg on September 30, 1864:

• United States Regulars
• Connecticut Regiments
• Delaware Regiments

SAMPLE IMAGE OF A PORTION OF A TRANSCRIBED UNION ORDNANCE RETURN: LEFT CLICK TO ENLARGE

I’m slowly working my way through the rest of Roll 7 and transcribing the information for the regiments of all other states who participated in the Siege of Petersburg. Wargamers and researchers interested in specific units will find this information interesting and useful. Go check it out if you’re interested.

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New Union Ordnance Returns for 3rd Quarter 1864: US Regulars, Connecticut, Delaware

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Truly nothing is sacred to metal thieves, not even Abe Lincoln.

Thieves have nabbed a 3-foot-long copper sword atop Lincoln’s Tomb in what is believed to be the first theft at the site in more than a century.

An employee noticed last week that the sword was cut from a statue of a Civil War artillery officer, the (Springfield) State Journal-Register reported Saturday. Officials think the sword was stolen sometime between September and early November.

Apparently, though, this is not the first time the sword has been stolen, although the last time was a hundred years ago.

The headline screams that Bill O’Reilly’s book on the Lincoln assassination has been “banned” at Ford’s Theater. Well, not exactly—it’s just not being sold there. Presumably if you walk in with a copy the security guards will not take it away from you.

Why? Misteakes, and not just copy editing.

“Killing Lincoln” suffers from factual errors and a lack of documentation, according to a study conducted by Rae Emerson, the deputy superintendent of Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site, which is a unit of the National Park Service. Emerson’s review recommended that the book not be sold at Ford Theatre’s store.

Having sold a few books myself at various sites I can tell you how the process works: NPS does not sell books but works through concessionaires, in this case Eastern National. In order to sell it you first have to convince EN, then have them submit the book to the Park Service for approval. NPS likes to have books that are factually accurate with lots of footnotes, but readable. Not all books are accepted as there is a limited amount of shelf space. It took me over two years to get my sharpshooter book approved for Manassas. Still, it’s surprising that O’Reilly’s book was not accepted, because it would generate a lot of money.

There is the usual kvetching from academics, who only wish (don’t we all) their books would sell as well.

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Lincoln Robbed, O’Reilly Banned

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The Historical Archive has what they are calling a “page perfect” version of the Official Record, which comes on two DVDs.

The gold standard reference series for Civil War enthusiasts is the 128 volume The War of the Rebellion a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. It is the most complete reference for the brave men who fought on both sides of the war. But the problem is that a print set is very expensive and can be difficult to fully search.

With the advent of computers and OCR technology, several manufacturers produced relatively inexpensive versions of the OR on CD media. These versions had an advantage over the printed set. They allowed users to easily search the volumes. But there are huge disadvantages of these versions. The OCR process is very spotty. It causes many spelling errors, loses critical formatting on tables and of course loses all the images that are in the print version of the OR.

To solve these limitations, THA New Media began an ambitious project in 2009 to build a digital version of the OR that has all the advantages of the print edition – full and accurate formatting of all text and tables and inclusion of all images – as well as all the strengths of the digital versions – i.e. being fully searchable.

After two years of work, the Master Edition of the OR was born and is now available to all Civil War enthusiasts for a very reasonable $29.95. This master work delivers the full experience of having a printed set of the 128 volumes of the OR as well as the ease of searchability people expect from digital products.

Things have certainly changed, and for the better. When I first started out doing CW research you had to find a place with the OR—all 128 volumes of it—and pore through the volumes one by one, then either copy or transcribe what you wanted. The indexing left a bit to be desired and was confusing to use. Now you can buy the whole thing on CD or DVD for under $30, search for a word or phrase instantly, then copy off what you need.

The Archive also has much more CW-related material, including the complete works of Abe Lincoln, Battles and Leaders, a slew of regimental histories, and much more.

UPDATE: I should have mentioned that if you’re going to work from a CD or DVD you should consider using a virtual drive. This is a program that replicates the action of the physical drive with software. To use it you download an image of the CD/DVD to your hard drive, then “load” it into the virtual drive.

There are a number of advantages to this system. First and biggest is speed—the difference will amaze you and you’ll wonder why you ever put up with that clunky, grinding physical drive. You can find things…instantly.

The other big advantage is that you don’t have to constantly switch plastic cookies in and out of the drive. They won’t get scratched and you can leave them in a secure place. If your drive crashes you just reload them. If you use more than one on a regular basis you can just create more than one virtual drive and leave both loaded for when you need them. I used to leave the OR and the OR maps both loaded so I could switch back and forth as necessary.

Virtual drive software is cheap (typically less than $25, some are free) and well worth a trial.

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“Page Perfect” OR Available

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There’s a legal battle brewing in Oklahoma about the tribal status of the descendants of the former slaves of the Cherokee. As it stands now they are getting the boot and Great White Father is not happy about it.

The dispute stems from the fact that some wealthy Cherokee owned black slaves who worked on their plantations in the South. By the 1830s, most of the tribe was forced to relocate to present-day Oklahoma, and many took their slaves with them. The so-called Freedmen are descendants of those slaves.

After the Civil War, in which the Cherokee fought for the South, a treaty was signed in 1866 guaranteeing tribal citizenship for the freed slaves.

The U.S. government said that the 1866 treaty between the Cherokee tribe and the U.S. government guaranteed that the slaves were tribal citizens, whether or not they had a Cherokee blood relation.

Indian tribes claim to be sovereign nations who alone can decide who is or is not a member, but OTOH the idea of “blood quantum” is a pretty much discredited one with echoes of the Old South and apartheid-era South Africa.

As the article notes the Cherokee, one of the “Five Civilized Tribes” who were removed to Oklahoma by Andrew Jackson in the 1830s, fought for the South. One of their chiefs, Stand Watie, was a Confederate Brigadier General—the highest ranking Native in an American Army.

The Cherokee and allied warriors became a potent Confederate fighting force that kept Union troops out of southern Indian Territory and large parts of north Texas throughout the war.

Watie was the last field commander of the Confederacy to surrender, laying down his arms on June 23, 1865.

In the East the remaining Cherokee were led by Will Thomas, a white man (and so far as I know the only one ever elected as chief of a Native American tribe), who organized a legion for Confederate service. His men fired the last shots of the war in North Carolina before surrendering in May 1865.

Closer to home here is an article by columnist Rob Neufeld in his “Visiting the Past” section. Neufeld looks at the meeting of the descendants of a slave and his owner. Some of the details are quite interesting, for instance that the slave, Joe, was at one point locked up in the local jail over a debt dispute as “collateral.” A skilled slave (Joe was a mason) was a valuable asset. It also points out the differences between slavery in the mountains and elsewhere. The mountainous western part of Carolina did not lend itself to plantation agriculture and thus masters seem to have more likely to “learn a trade” to a slave and either use him in that capacity or hire him out. Having a marketable skill like masonry, carpentry, and such made the transition to emancipation much easier after the war.

Joe’s imprisonment came about during the building of Mars Hill College, which still stands.

“During the first term,” Dillingham writes, “the Trustees found themselves in litigation with the building contractor…According to oral tradition, the court-determined debt amount was $1,100; whereby, eleven of the founding families divided the debt among themselves…liberating Joe from jail and saving the school.”

In the slave records for Madison County, Joe was listed as one of 10 slaves belonging to Jesse. In 1859, Joe was 21, and had worked in local brickyards. His listed value was $1,000.

After the war, the Reverend gave Joe five acres on Gabriel’s Creek. When Jesse, in his old age, moved to Asheville, Joe helped take care of him.

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Cherokees, Slavery, and Masters

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A regimental history of the 36th Wisconsin by James M. Aubery, published in 1900, contains his observation of so-called “Black Confederates”, and whether or not they were soldiers.  I think Aubery’s statement¹ speaks for itself on the matter, emphasis mine.

The following from General Longstreet regarding Hatcher’s Run explains itself and shows that the slaves were quite a factor in the Confederate Army, although they were not in the ranks to fight, but were put on the works, saving the strength of the fighters. Our army had to build their own forts and breastworks. Also, the reader will note that General Longstreet anticipated a move before election, as did General Grant, by his “confidential” circular to the commanders of the corps:

Headquarters, October 29th, 1804. Gen. B. E. Lee,

Commanding Army of Northern Virginia: General: The operations of Thursday must have developed the feasibility of a grand attack upon either points on my left. In view of the damaging effects of the late operations upon the prospects of the present Yankee administration and the importance of some decided success before the approaching election, I am apprehensive of a formidable effort to break through my line at an early moment. If I am obliged to stretch out my line as much as I did on Thursday, a grand attack must go through it. I suggest, therefore, that all of the negro force we have and all that is at work around Richmond be put at work to build a line from the battery on the Charles City road to the point where the enemy last crossed White Oak Swamp. I think that I might hold such a line until I could get re-enforcements. The other crossings of the swamps can be held by cavalry for some time. * * * Most of this new line could be put up to-morrow if all the negroes were put to work at it. If they can be sent I should be advised, so as to make my line of skirmishers stronger in front of that part of the line. I am, etc.,

J. LONGSTREET,

Lieutenant-General.

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Black Confederates at the Siege of Petersburg?

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While looking through the notes at the end of A Melancholy Affair at the Weldon Railroad: The Vermont Brigade, June 23, 1864 this weekend, I found what appears to be the entire run of Alabama Historical Quarterly online.  I was specifically interested in Colonel Hilary A. Herbert’s “History of the Eighth Alabama Volunteer Regiment, C.S.A.“, but discovered the rest of the journals as well.  I haven’t yet had time to look, but I’m sure there is a ton of Civil War content there.  I’ll be scouring these for Petersburg related materials soon.

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Alabama Historical Quarterly Online

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