Message-ID: <35751.42163.qm@web57507.mail.re1.yahoo.com> Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2010 18:10:31 -0700 (PDT) From: Monette Bebow-Reinhard <moberein@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Civil War start 150th anniversary in 2011 -- ideas
I've finished an 18-year book on Civil War and Indian wars through the view
point
of a soldier who I'm now thinking of impersonating - maybe I shoul
d get that
done in time for next year, even if I can't find a publis
her in time. I already
check with the Wisconsin Humanities Council,
though and they're not taking any
new people on. I'll just put wor
d out here when I have something ready to
present.
Monette
Fre
e chapter read of Bonanza Novels at
www.bebow-reinhard.com
________________________________
From: sara steele <smsteele@wisc.edu>
To: localhistory@listserve.uwec.edu
Sent: Thu, September 9, 2010 8:36:
55 AM
Subject: Re: Civil War start 150th anniversary in 2011 -- ideas
Hi Russ
I became interested in Cottage Grove's Civil War soldiers a
bout ten years ago
and began collecting information on them. My profe
ssional field is infomal
adult and community educaiton, so I have lots o
f suggestions. Your question is a
great one and leads to a review of thi
ngs 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 l
ists of CW resorces HS's, local libraries, and history
teachers ca
n access?
1. speaker lists
2. lists of books ab
out Wisconsin in the Civil War--overview and location
or role specifi
c
3. preview of what the WHS, the Veterans Museum, and WHA
have already got
in stock or will be making available on the interne
t or DVD. For example
will the excellent CW exjibit a
t the VM be available in a form which
could be shown locally to add to a
local speaker?
4. Electronic and print resources available f
rom other sources such as
other local Historical Societies, CD's from CW
bands? Lists of CW songs?
5. Enactor groups and dates of sch
eduled enatation? (Consider the
possiblity of a bus trip to one, unle
ss one is near by )
6. Internet sites of CW battle locations,
enactor groups, history of the
CW
7. Local Civil War hist
orians, professional and amateur, whether or not
they want to speak to g
roups. 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 you
r 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 n
ewspaper editor in Green Lake and
Berlin. Many of the men in his batt
ery 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 the
y can access CW lists alphabetically
and by regiment on the WHS site.
Very helpful. However, so far there isn't a
statewide list by locali
ty.
Yes, you question is about local activities. However, sometimes
working on
something local, a question arises about a bigger area and b
eing able to go
quickly to a resource speeds up the process
For exampl
e, you find out that a local soldier you are going to spotlight
particia
pted in battle X. You never heard of battle X, what campaign was it
i
n? What happened there?
Planning
There are lots of steps and ques
tions 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. Br
ing out and update your inventory of what you already have about local
p
articipation in the Civil War. Such things as:
Human resources
a. How interested are your society members? Who in particular is mos
t
interested?
b. What resources do you have among members or frien
ds who might be willing to
do certain things--track down missing informa
tion, work on exhibits, skits, etc/
Informationi resources
c. Ge
nerally 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 in
dividual, company, or regiment from your area that was
especially promin
ent?
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 ou
r 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 th
rough
Ancestry at your local library? If you find a lot of soldiers n
ames 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 regu
lar
Army,or, who for one reaons or enother (possibly because they were u
nder age or
the enlistment money was better)
enlis
ted and/or gave their residence as someplace else.
d. Are
you limiting your attention to men who lived in your county when
they en
tered 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 abo
ut 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 micro
films available,
and do you have access to a microfilm reader at the lib
rary and a HS member
patient enough to
read, print
, and clip? It's amazing how much there was in newspapers
in the 1860
s.
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 co
mmunity has one.
e. Has someone (probably a descendent in
terested in history) ordered
pension files from Washington?
f. Newspaper fragments and newspaper clippings.
2. How much attent
ion is your HS going to give to the Civil War? Only provide
info to o
thers--history teachers, newspaper, etc--if asked? A few token things
li
ke a localized new release letting folks know you are aware of the
anniv
ersary? Or an indepth effort to try to help your public gain some
unders
tanding of something about the war. If the latter, what spin or approach
will yout take, for example?
a. A general summary of: who took pa
rt, ages, date they volunteered? which
units, where they were fought?
. b. Spotligting a few local soldiers and telling their story persona
l story
from when their famliy settled in your area, until when they die
d 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 o
r 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 som
ething special like the
training camp operated in your location --the ca
valry 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 t
o 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 o
i the War--next three or so years?
4. Are you going to show and tel
l? Or do you want to try to involve youth and
adults in doing things
within or outside of your museum or other
headquarters--contests, reques
ts for information, photos, etc, unit for a youth
group or American Legi
on 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 indivdua
lly, my address is
smsteele@wisc.edu. I wish I had a blog up and runn
ing. I have found tracking
CG'soldiers fascinating even though I still h
ave relatively little interest in
the CW.
Sara
CGAGS (just outsid
e 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--Cou
nty and smaller. What sounds interesting enough to grab the
> public's
attention?
>
>
> Russ Hanson
> (I am a member of the P
olk County Historical Society, Luck Area
> Historical Society, Sterling E
ureka 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).
>