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Family History Documents and Artefacts => FH Documents and Artefacts => Topic started by: andysouthern on Saturday 01 September 12 19:30 BST (UK)
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Hello, my name is Andy Southern.
I recently helped clean out my grandfather's house and took a few boxes of old family items back home with me. In it, I discovered a 27 page (typed on a type writer) retelling of my 4th great grandfather's experiences as a soldier in the Civil war, fighting for the Confederacy, as well as when he was wounded at Vicksburg. It is truly fascinating and well written, as he was a well off attorney. I am wondering if anyone here can offer me advice on where I can go with it. I am scanning the whole of it onto my computer and would love to find a place online where I can upload it, make it readable to others, and hear other's opinions on it and maybe learn more about him. If anyone has any advice on what I can do to help preserve his story I would greatly appreciate it.
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Andy, you don`t say which country you live in.
If The United states then there are Civil War Societies which would give their eye teeth for such a document.
I`m sure they would print it and you would have a copy.
Perhaps a publisher would be interested.
However I think you need expert advice because it is first and foremost a family archive . Ensure you maintain control over it.
How lovely to have it. You say it is a typed copy, have you any idea what happened to the original?
It is possible it has already been published if only by a society , in which case you may be infringing copyright regulations.
I wish you success and would like to read it myself.
I was bought for Christmas one year the video set of a very good documentary programme about the Civil war, with original photographs and it was very sad compelling viewing.
Please keep us posted. Viktoria.
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Hi, thanks for the reply!
Yes, it's the United States Civil War. I believe it is the original; it isn't a journal per say, it's more of a retelling because I believe he wrote the whole thing after the war. I don't think it was published, he was wealthy at the time and typed it himself after the war (he often mentions that reconstruction is going on at the time he is writing it). I would love to find some sort of publisher that would be interested in looking at it because it covers everything from the south separating from the union and all of his opinions on what was going on at the time and goes all the way through the fall of Vicksburg, his injury, and reconstruction. It's really fascinating, so if you have any ideas of where to look for publishing or any civil war societies that would be interested please let me know! I would love to show some people what I have!
Thanks again!
~Andy
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Making an intervention from Britain. I think your document is most likely to be a typewritten copy of the original as the typewriter did not become available commercially in the USA until 1873(Wikipedia), and then it was patented in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Would a Southerner have bought a machine from the north this early? I know from my own interest in early American railroads that the Virginian Railway placed locomotive orders with Alco, specifying Richmond (Va) works as late as the 1920s.
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That may also be true. I'm attempting to date it based off what he does talk about in it, because it is all in the past tense. Near the end he says "longer than three years of the third decade ending in 1868 did it take to restore to the white men the ballot and lift from their necks the yoke of their former slaves". So, I know he wrote this sometime after 1868. It may be possible that he either handwrote it and it was typed later, but after reconstruction ended I know he started his own newspaper in Independence Missouri, so he may have been able to get his hands on a typewriter through that, in which case this would have been written sometime after the war.
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I thought that seeing the condition of the paper, type of paper, etc. might help someone with determining how old the typed copy may be, so i scanned the first page of the journal here.
(https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13885522/img055.jpg)
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"the Sholes & Glidden Type Writer, which began production in late 1873 and appeared on the American market in 1874. Christopher L. Sholes, a Milwaukee newspaperman, poet, and part-time inventor, was the main creator of this machine. The Sholes & Glidden typed only in capital letters"
http://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/tw-history.html
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Ah, so it could not have been that one, as it is lowercase. I did however discover a second copy of this; I found a second, identical typed copy of this same journal (except that one was missing the last 3 pages) and it looked to be newer. Not quite sure what that could mean.
EDIT: Also, the paper says "Berkshire Bond USA" on it, so that would be the company that made the paper.
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You might find some information here:
http://www.vintagetypewriterjewelry.com/12/history-of-remington-typewriters-|-vintage-remington-typewriter-company.html
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Margaret Mitchell who wrote "Gone With the Wind" was the daughter of a man who was the chairman of The Civil War Society(Southern States),that is why the book is so accurate.
I`m sure you`ll find something if you go on the internet.
I was rather uneasy when I read the excerpt;I rather thought the slaves were the ones who bore the yoke!
I am presuming the flag written about was "Old Glory" . Have you any thoughts as to what could have happened to the hand written original?
Tomorrow I will look to see if there is any listing of C.W Societies on the video packaging of the video programme I mentioned.
Viktoria.
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I have found references to the Berkshire Bond watermark being used between c.1910 and 1980, a very wide and by no means definitive range :-\
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Yes, i'm assuming he was referring to the lowering of Old Glory and the raising of the Confederate Flag (not sure the specific name of it) in his town square. Thanks again, i'll also do some searching on the internet for some places too. I'll continue scanning the pages onto my computer as well, so I can upload them when I do find a place for them.
As for that range, it fit right in. i've actually been able to find alot of articles on the internet about him, as he was an influential part of Independence Missouri (and he was also a close ancestor/relative of President Harry Truman).
He lived until 1920 and there are no traces of any hand written version, so I suppose it could be possible that he wrote this 1910-1920ish as he knew his life was coming to an end and wanting to tell his story and preserve it before his death, but this is, of course, all speculation.
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I have found references to the Berkshire Bond watermark being used between c.1910 and 1980, a very wide and by no means definitive range :-\
It seems that would fit, that the document was written about 1910. It says, "a pathos that lingers still close to the places of heart pulsation, nearly a half century since, and the years between contain the awful tragedies of the Civil War."
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Ah, I must have missed that! Yes, so it seems it was a sort of last telling of his story before his death, putting his experiences onto paper.
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Check out this site:
http://americancivilwarsite.tripod.com/_diaries
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Thanks! I'll check that out tonight!
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I have found references to the Berkshire Bond watermark being used between c.1910 and 1980, a very wide and by no means definitive range :-\
It seems that would fit, that the document was written about 1910. It says, "a pathos that lingers still close to the places of heart pulsation, nearly a half century since, and the years between contain the awful tragedies of the Civil War."
Picked that up myself, but time zone and Erato beat me to the punch. However, I would place it a little later around 1915 it is i think likely that reports of the war in Europe prompted him to type up his recollections. No problem I would suggest, I can remember things very well back to before 1950.
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Yes, that actually would make a lot of sense. I am currently in the process of scanning it all over to my computer so i don't need to work with the delicate pages each time I look through it. Also, I figured I would share this interesting quote from it, showing his views on the commanding officers of the Confederacy. He seems to be quite an opinionated person, even so many years after the war.
EDIT: ALSO, I have while scanning these, I found another quote, where he actually says that 45 years have passed, so I suppose that would actually put it at 1910.
This was in response to the Siege of Vicksburg, which he was stationed at.
"I have been unable to understand why President Davis and his advisors and the head military of men of the Confederacy did not more than a year before the war ended, see their inevitable failure and find some way to have stopped the slaughter and ruin of 1864 and the first three months of 1865.
I know the answer, 'their honor was involved.' I cannot resist the reply, that pride and artificial honor ought to have been sacrificed rather than hundreds of thousands of men and homes and families, to which comes the ready answer, they were powerless to stop hostilities while they had armies in the field."
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The first modern war. The predecessor of WW1 which has been described by the late eminent English Historian A.J.P.Taylor as "war by timetable" However, in view of the damage the north had done to Confederate railways, communication was badly damaged so it would have been difficult if not impossible to contact the armies in the field.
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I`ve looked at the video packs but there is nothing about C.W societies ,however there is info about the distribution in the U.K .That could lead to contact with the film makers who will perhaps have been in contact with such societies.
If it is allowed I`ll post them on here. A moderator will no doubt advise if that`s O.K.
Viktoria.
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I just typed in "The American Civil War Homepage" and wow! There is a list of publications and all sorts of personal accounts so if your ancestor did get his memoirs printed it will perhaps be listed with the many others. If not I`m sure they would be pleased to have it.
If this is allowed: http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/warweb.html
The site is organised and run by a professor, not sure if I can give his name or email address on here. It is an extensive site and when I`ve time I will look at it myself.
Hope this helps. Viktoria.
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Just looked at the site, and tried to access a few items of interest to me. Found that I was usually denied access due to items having been moved etc.
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Yeah, i'm still looking around for any reputable publishers who are interested in publishing Civil War memoirs. I have it all scanned now, also.
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Yeah, i'm still looking around for any reputable publishers who are interested in publishing Civil War memoirs. I have it all scanned now, also.
Andy I don't know the details, but is self publication a possibility?
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Andy,
You say your ancestor was a person of some prominence in the community and that leads me to suggest that you contact universities in the area to learn whether they have any collections of correspondence or other documents from the period that may have been donated by family members. A university might be sufficiently interested to provide some assistance in preparing and assembling materials for publication. My mother's second cousin published a well-regarded book tiltled "Lone Star and Double Eagle". That book took its form from her translation of the letters to and from three sons of the family of German immigrants who served the Confederacy.