Civil War and Reconstruction

The Civil War Book Review, a quarterly journal published by the LSU Libraries' Special Collections Division, has released its Summer 2018 issue: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cwbr/

Greetings fellow H-CivWar subscribers. I would like to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Susan (Susannah) Deily-Swearingen and I am one of the new book review editors for H-CivWar. I am a sixth-year Doctoral Candidate at the University of New Hampshire and will be defending in May of 2019. You can find out more about me here https://networks.h-net.org/users/susan-deily-swearingen.

The mixed legacy of heroic sacrifice and bitter division of the American Civil War continues to permeate popular culture and political discourse. As a growing minority in the 1860s, making up about ten percent of the United States population concentrated in the north, Catholics were embedded in this conflict. Their relatively unknown story was recently and expertly addressed by historian William B. Kurtz in his book Excommunicated from the Union: How the Civil War Created a Separate Catholic America.

I've worked with this material, which I believe is an invaluable source on ordinary soldiers, especially because it allows you to trace veterans over decades via their pension rolls. I think it's a shame that historians haven't made more use of it (so far its mostly been economists and demographers).

We'd like to announce the launch of a new crowd-sourcing transcription project, African American Civil War Soldiers. We are building a comprehensive database of the estimated 200,000 soldiers who fought for their freedom in the American Civil War. We are currently transcribing the soldiers military records and hope to later include the pension records of surviving veterans.

Ford's Theatre will host historian Kate Masur, who will discuss John Washington's They Knew Lincoln with Michele Norris on Monday, April 16, at 5:00 p.m.

At the Southern Historical Association’s 2016 meeting, as I shambled by booksellers—sluggish from both a lack of coffee and a need for more coffee—I encountered a table about Union Army Data and the Historical Urban Ecological GIS Data Set. Though the website (http://uadata.org/) indicates that Robert W. Fogel initiated the project through a 1992 grant, it remained under my radar until the SHA meeting.  

So I must ask:

Has anyone done much work with this material? If not why?

Would anyone be interested in using the data?

I am looking for a co-author for a book project I have been working on for several years: the topic is notions of evil (Satan, hell, devils) in various facets of the Civil War and Reconstruction. I have significant materials, and have published several essays on this topic, but I am hoping to create something new and vibrant. If you have interest in this topic and would consider working with me, please send me an email with your interest: eblum@mail.sdsu.edu

Edward J. Blum

Professor of history, San Diego State University