Oxford, MS Talk-5/21/16

I met Ms. Reba Greer in April 2015, when I spoke at the Delta Kappa Gamma state convention in Olive Branch, Mississippi.  After that, she worked tirelessly to set up something where I could come speak in Oxford where she lives and volunteers.  I wish I had as much energy as she has!  So after locating a venue at the Burns-Belfrey Museum and Multicultural Center, the group of sponsors, which included the Oxford Newcomers Club, Cedar Oaks Guild, and the Oxford-Lafayette County Retiree Attraction Program, set out to promote my presentation.  And they did a fabulous job!  They advertised by newspaper, social media, radio, and this very nice poster!  

He Ain't a Unionist; He's My Brother

My apologies to the Hollies.....


When researching, I will often come across non-woman soldier references that I find rather unique, odd, and/or humorous.   This one is courtesy of the St. Louis provost.  Basically, G.G. Ebert was employed by the Union to carry dispatches for Rosecrans in Virginia during the winter of 1861.  When he returned to St. Louis the following year, he paid a visit to his brother, E.B. Ebert, who called him a

Women Soldiers of the 95th Illinois at Camp Fuller

Camp Fuller was established at Rockford, Illinois in 1862, following Lincoln's call for volunteers to serve the Union.  Soldiers began arriving in August.  In all, four regiments trained at the camp before being sent to the front.   One was the 95th Illinois Infantry which was mustered into service there on September 4th and began making preparations for war.  Camp Fuller "...became busy with the hum and tramp..." of "Squad drills, company and battalion drills, [and] dress parades...."   The 95th remained there until November 4th, 1862, when it was ordered initially to Cairo, Illinois, and thence to the front.    When the unit left Rockford, there were at least two, possibly three, women in the ranks.

South Mississippi Genealogical and Historical Society Talk AAR, 4/5/16

When I have a talk approaching, I create an event for it on Facebook in order to help spread the word for those who are interested in attending.  At one point, I was able to embed one of those events into a blog post so I could share it here, too.  But alas, it hasn't worked since.  I keep getting an error about privacy settings and some such.  But my event announcements are set to public, so I don't get it.  Grrr.....

Anyway.....

Monday, I pulled up my schedule of talks in order to get the address of the location where I would be speaking Saturday so could add it to the event I was creating.  What I saw absolutely scared me to death.  I probably resembled a cartoon character whose eyes were bugging out of the head.  With a tingly feeling rushing through my body in a wave of panic, I quickly pulled up the other two copies of my schedule I have posted elsewhere.  They only confirmed what I feared.  My talk was the very next day, not Saturday!

Fool Me Once...

The two nurses moved about the steamship headed south, the vessel carrying them and the soldiers toward their fate.  The women wondered how many of these boys would not make the return trip home.  They knew the blue-clad warriors were pondering the same possibility, and so the ladies began to hand out handkerchiefs to them in hopes the pieces of cloth would perhaps remind them of the home they just left behind and help ease their mind in the turbulent times to come.

My Central Louisiana Talks, 3/4 and 3/5

About five years ago, I posed a question on a message board regarding a flag. Richard Holloway responded. And we went from talking about flags to women soldiers. Of course. Unbeknownst to me, he was (and is) the president of the Civil War Round Table of Central Louisiana based in the Alexandria/Pineville area. The next thing I knew, he invited me to speak at a meeting. The last time I taught anything history related was in the spring of 1997 when I did my student teaching. Since then, it's been all math. So yeah, I was hesitant. But then I began to welcome the challenge of putting together a power point presentation on women soldiers. It was exciting. But boy was I nervous when I spoke for the first time at that meeting in March, 2010. I enjoyed the experience and gradually started giving more presentations on women soldiers.

The Woman Soldier and the Golden Circle

If you watched the last two episodes of Mercy Street, you saw the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) make an appearance.  This secret organization was formed before the war and sought to extend a slave-based empire to territories that stretched around the Gulf of Mexico, down past Mexico and Central America to parts of South America, hence the circle.  Its membership reached to every state in the Union and purportedly included the likes of Sam Houston, John Wilkes Booth, Jesse James, and William Quantrill.

Rosetta's Real Life "Mercy Street" in New Orleans

http://thecivilwarparlor.tumblr.com/

Continuing with the theme of women soldiers and their hospital experiences, this blog post details that of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, whose story has been highly publicized in books, articles, and blogs since Lauren Cook introduced us to the woman warrior in 1994 through her wartime letters in An Uncommon Soldier.

The 5'0" tall, blue-eyed farm girl was financially driven to enlist in the 153rd New York Infantry on August 30th, 1862.  As a "man," she would make more money than she ever would as a woman.  Rosetta sent a portion of her soldier's pay home to Afton, New York in order to help alleviate the debt her family had accrued.  (Uncommon Soldier, p. 9)

In February, 1864, the 153rd was transferred from Washington D.C to Louisiana where they would participate in Major General Nathanial Banks' Red River Campaign.   During the ill-fated venture, Federal troops experienced bad water, bad food and fatigue from hundreds of miles of hard marching in the burning heat and suffocating humidity of Louisiana's subtropical climate.  The stress of dealing with all of these hardships took its toll as soldiers began to succumb to a variety of diseases.  Private Wakeman was one of them.

"Mercy Street" and Women Soldiers: "I Would Rather Have Been Shot Dead"

Did you watch the premier of Mercy Street last night?  This is PBS's new Civil War medical drama.  Of course, I couldn't help but to think about women soldiers and their experiences.  A trip to the "saw bones" typically meant the end of their stint in the military.  They were aware of this and sometimes attempted to evade a trip to the hospital.  After her case of malaria worsened and a furlough to seek treatment was denied, Sarah Emma Edmonds, alias "Franklin Thompson," deserted the 2nd Michigan Infantry rather than risk discovery. Her story would not come to light until she herself came forward with details of her service, which were confirmed by male comrades.

My Talk for Delta Kappa Gamma, 1/14/16

Last April, I spoke at the Delta Kappa Gamma state convention in Olive Branch, Mississippi, which you can read about (HERE).    In attendance was Stacy who then invited me to speak at a meeting for her Sigma Chapter of DKG, which is a professional society of women educators.   I was honored to have been asked.