Date: Thu, 09 Sep 2010 08:36:55 -0500 From: sara steele <smsteele@wisc.edu> Subject: Re: Civil War start 150th anniversary in 2011 -- ideas Message-id: <51BAE91D73DB4B1392E42D377FD14200@SaraPC>
Hi Russ
I became interested in Cottage Grove's Civil War soldiers about ten years
ago and began collecting information on them. My professional field is
infomal adult and community educaiton, so I have lots of suggestions. Your
question is a great one and leads to a review of things other HS's are
probably thinking about. Or perhaps you are a jump ahead of others of us.
Backup Resources
Is someone at the state level, or a local HS, who has already covered this
material, preparing lists of CW resorces HS's, local libraries, and
history teachers can access?
1. speaker lists
2. lists of books about Wisconsin in the Civil War--overview and
location or role specific
3. preview of what the WHS, the Veterans Museum, and WHA have
already got in stock or will be making available on the internet or DVD.
For example
will the excellent CW exjibit at the VM be available in a form
which could be shown locally to add to a local speaker?
4. Electronic and print resources available from other sources such
as other local Historical Societies, CD's from CW bands? Lists of CW songs?
5. Enactor groups and dates of scheduled enatation? (Consider the
possiblity of a bus trip to one, unless one is near by )
6. Internet sites of CW battle locations, enactor groups, history of
the CW
7. Local Civil War historians, professional and amateur, whether or
not they want to speak to groups. You may have a local expert in a nearby
county and not know it.
And speaking of togetherness, some regiments or batteries were made up of
men from two or three counties. Have you discovered whether your soldiers
are in such a regiment and if so are two HS's sharing? For example, Captain
Lou Druyr of the Third Artillery Battery had been an newspaper editor in
Green Lake and Berlin. Many of the men in his battery were from those
areas., but five came form CG and I found William's diary in the WHS
archives.
Folks in your group have probably found they can access CW lists
alphabetically and by regiment on the WHS site. Very helpful. However, so
far there isn't a statewide list by locality.
Yes, you question is about local activities. However, sometimes working on
something local, a question arises about a bigger area and being able to go
quickly to a resource speeds up the process
For example, you find out that a local soldier you are going to spotlight
particiapted in battle X. You never heard of battle X, what campaign was it
in? What happened there?
Planning
There are lots of steps and questions that you and others have probably gone
through as you decide what your HS is going to do, but here are a few that
come to mind.
1. Bring out and update your inventory of what you already have about local
participation in the Civil War. Such things as:
Human resources
a. How interested are your society members? Who in particular is most
interested?
b. What resources do you have among members or friends who might be
willing to do certain things--track down missing information, work on
exhibits, skits, etc/
Informationi resources
c. Generally what coverage has there been of the Civil War in the past
by your group, the newspaper, local GAR chapter, etc,
d. Was there some individual, company, or regiment from your area that
was especially prominent?
e. How accurate is your list of CW participants from your area?
a. Remember that the computer list at the Veterans Museum is done by
post offices not by governmental divisions. I forgot that our township had
two post offices, and had to play catch up after
I had the counts made for an overall summary. .
b. Has someone checked that list against the 1860 census aviable
through Ancestry at your local library? If you find a lot of soldiers names
that you can't find in the Census, you may need
to look for informatioin on paid substittues. The CW was done
by governmental unit quotas not on specific people having to report.
c. The Veteran's Museum does not include men who served in the
regular Army,or, who for one reaons or enother (possibly because they were
under age or the enlistment money was better)
enlisted and/or gave their residence as someplace else.
d. Are you limiting your attention to men who lived in your county
when they entered the war? Or are you focusing on the CW veterans who lived
in your community at some time
after the war (some of whom moved in after the war)? or both?
e. What do you know about what was happening back home in your
community while the men were at war?
f. If your area had a newspaper int he 1860ss, are microfilms
available, and do you have access to a microfilm reader at the library and a
HS member patient enough to
read, print, and clip? It's amazing how much there was in
newspapers in the 1860s.
Artifact resources
a. Photos of CW soldiers from your area
b. Photos of their famlilies or farms
c. Diaries
d. Penants, dishes, any other artifact known to have been used in
the CW--description and history of the cannon if your community has one.
e. Has someone (probably a descendent interested in history)
ordered pension files from Washington?
f. Newspaper fragments and newspaper clippings.
2. How much attention is your HS going to give to the Civil War? Only
provide info to others--history teachers, newspaper, etc--if asked? A few
token things like a localized new release letting folks know you are aware
of the anniversary? Or an indepth effort to try to help your public gain
some understanding of something about the war. If the latter, what spin or
approach will yout take, for example?
a. A general summary of: who took part, ages, date they volunteered?
which units, where they were fought?
. b. Spotligting a few local soldiers and telling their story personal
story from when their famliy settled in your area, until when they died here
or in a community farther west. Much of the
attention would be on how the Civil War fit into on going history.
c. Looking at the Battle of ________, or __________Prison camp through
the eyes of a local soldier. Much of the info would be about the battle or
the prison camp, but enough info
would be given about an indivdiual soldier or small group of local
soldiers that it would be localized.
d. other aspects like, "Why did they volunteer? or something special
like the training camp operated in your location --the cavalry trained some
place in the Fox Valley, the artillery
were down bhy Lake Michigan can't remember if it was Racine,
Kenosha, or partway in between, what every day life and battle were like
for men in the Infantry, Artillery, cavalry
3. When is your society going to do something? One big push at the
beginning of the war? One big push at the end of the war? Various
activities through the duration oi the War--next three or so years?
4. Are you going to show and tell? Or do you want to try to involve youth
and adults in doing things within or outside of your museum or other
headquarters--contests, requests for information, photos, etc, unit for a
youth group or American Legion post..
You know all that, but a check list sometimes is reinforcing. I could go
on and on with ideas. If you want to contact me indivdually, my address is
smsteele@wisc.edu. I wish I had a blog up and running. I have found
tracking CG'soldiers fascinating even though I still have relatively little
interest in the CW.
Sara
CGAGS (just outside Madison's east boundaries)
.
`
----- Original Message -----
From: "Russell Hanson" <riverroadrambler@gmail.com>
To: "localhistory" <localhistory@listserve.uwec.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 10:42 AM
Subject: Civil War start 150th anniversary in 2011 -- ideas
>I am looking for suggestions for the 2011 celebration of the 150th
> anniversary of the Civil War. We are thinking on a local
> level--County and smaller. What sounds interesting enough to grab the
> public's attention?
>
>
> Russ Hanson
> (I am a member of the Polk County Historical Society, Luck Area
> Historical Society, Sterling Eureka and Laketown Historical Society
> and the Polk County Genealogical Society--all adjacent to the St.
> Croix River and just across the border from the Twin Cities).
>