Civil War Science

Library of Congress photo by Alexander Gardner

An article in today’s New York Times presents the case a larger total of Civil War casualties.  In a paper published in Civil War History, Dr. J. David Hacker estimates the total death toll at about 750,000. Dr. Hacker used digitized census data to reach his conclusion; you can read his paper here.

Perhaps the most poignant outcome of the new findings is the realization that an increased number of dead means an increased number of widows—by some 37,000—and an increased number of orphans, by perhaps 90,000. The men who went into the battles in the Civil War knew how likely they were to die, and we are fortunate to have some of their letters. For me, reading about Civil War mortality rates inevitably reminds me of the letter Sullivan Ballou wrote to his wife  in July, 1861, before the battle of Bull Run.

…If it is necessary that I should fall on the battle-field for my country, I am ready. I have no misgivings about or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how American civilization now leans on the triumph of the government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing, perfectly willing, to lay down all my joys in this life to help maintain this government and pay that debt.

But my dear wife when I know that with my own joys I lay down nearly all of yours, and replace them in this life with cares and sorrows, when after having eaten the bitter fruit of orphanage myself, I must offer it as the only sustenance to my dear little children, is it weak or dishonorable, that, while the banner of my purpose floats calmly and proudly in the breeze, underneath my unbounded love for you, my darling wife and children, should struggle in fierce though useless contest with my love of country? I cannot describe to you my feelings on this calm summer Sabbath night, when two thousand men are sleeping around me, many of the them enjoying the last, perhaps, before that of death; and I am suspicious that death is creeping behind me with his fatal dart, and communing with God, my country, and thee.

A better count of the casualties of war provides us with the opportunity to better understand the aftermath of that war, the impact of what really were countless dead, in the South primarily but also in the North. To understand the losses is to better understand the enormous effect on the country as a whole. Read together, Dr. Hacker’s paper and Drew Gulpin Faust’s This Republic of Suffering can bring us to closer to understanding the Civil War in its time, and in ours.

~ Kirsten Hammerstrom, Director of Collections

Library Welcomes MET School Scholars

Elyssa Tardif, RIHS Education Director, leads a close reading of a letter collection

Students from the MET School in Providence visited the library this week to research primary documents about the Civil War. The visit was arranged by Elyssa Tardif, RIHS Education Director, and Robert Goldman who teaches at the MET School and directs Living History, a nine year old program that engages high school aged youth from Providence’s MET school in reenactment activities specific to the experience of Rhode Island’s 14h Regiment of Black Civil War soldiers. Rob will be directing the student research under a RI Council for the Humanities Grant.

“Everything was for the Union. I did not see a single seccession flag” , July 5, 1861. Mary ( Congdon) Dearstyne Diaries, 1861 – 1862, from The Congdon Family Papers, Mss 363

The students studied a Civil War officer’s uniform from the museum collections and three primary documents: 1) a leather-bound diary written by a young woman reflecting on the War, 1861 – 1862; 2) The letters of a Rhode Island doctor stationed in South Carolina in 1862 – 1863 with his descriptions of the suffering of the wounded; and 3) Company A, 3rd Regiment, Rhode Island Cavalry “Clothing Book” documenting supplies distributed to soldiers in 1863.
The library staff is looking forward to working with the students when they return to continue their research in the weeks ahead.

For more on RHODE ISLAND IN THE CIVIL WAR see the library’s manuscript collection Civil War Military Records (MSS 673 sg 4)

The Rhode Island Historical Society holds a great variety of records relating to the state’s military units. In addition to official records like muster rolls, clothing accounts and troop returns, there are also innumerable unofficial records such as diaries and letters written by soldiers; post-war memoirs; records of veteran groups; and records of organizations from the home front that supported the troops.

Celebrating Preservation

This is the start of Preservation Week*, and we wanted to highlight one of our most recent efforts to ensure our materials stay as healthy as possible.

The clothing book** of the Third Regiment, Rhode Island Heavy Artillery is one of a number of Civil War ledgers held by the Historical Society, and it documents one of the essential, but generally overlooked, elements of waging a war: making sure that soldiers have pants and shirts and everything else they need to fight.

Years of use had worn the volume tremendously: the red-rotting spine was no longer intact, making it a difficult volume for researchers to use. But thanks to a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, we were able to send the clothing book to the conservators at the Northeast Document Conservation Center.

The $3,000 conservation job brought the volume back to a condition that will make it much more useful to researchers and will keep it healthy for years to come.

Here are a few images of the process:

The volume before conservation work

A conservator cuts the stitching to disbind the volume

The individual signatures loose from the binding

Cleaning the signatures

The text block being placed in its case

Getting ready to letter the spine

The final product, ready to be used

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* Or Preservation Month, if you prefer.

**Third Regiment, Rhode Island Heavy Artillery
Volume 32.      Clothing book, Company A.
August 1861 – September 1865
Cols. Nathaniel W. Brown, Edwin Metcalf, Charles R. Brayton.
Served at Pocotaligo, Morris Island, Fort Wagner, Petersburg, etc.
RIHS Accession #1947.32.17, gift of the National Archives

George Lee Gaskell

Just a reminder of tonight’s event at the Historical Society Research Library, where Robert Grandchamp will discuss George Lee Gaskell, Civil War soldier and traveler in the American west:

Robert Grandchamp recently earned his M.A. in American History from R.I. College. The author of seven books and a former National Park Ranger, he resides in Warwick.

The program is free and open to the public. For more information, call (401) 273-8107 x12 or email libprograms@rihs.org .

Megan Kate Nelson Lecture

(Visit our online calendar to keep up with events and closings.)

Join us this Thursday evening at the Historical Society Library from 6:30-7:30, when Megan Kate Nelson will discuss her book project, “Ruin Nation: The Destruction of the South and the Making of America during the Civil War Era.” She will explain how and why Americans destroyed southern cities, plantations, forests, and men, and how both soldiers and civilians responded to these different kinds of ruins. She will also talk about the challenges of investigating the environmental history of the Civil War, and the important role the letters and diaries of New Englanders play in her research.

Megan Kate Nelson received her Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Iowa in 2002 and is Assistant Professor of History at California State University, Fullerton. Her first book, Trembling Earth: A Cultural History of the Okefenokee Swamp (Georgia, 2005) will be released in paperback in 2009. Nelson has received five fellowships to support the research and writing of her second book, Ruin Nation: The Destruction of the South and the Making of America during the American Civil War. Her research is funded by the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium Research Award.