The Burns Archive - Important New Book on Clinical Photography and the Civil War

One of the most popular posts on this blog is my "Medical Department" column #30 - "Faces" (Surgical Photography in the Civil War, here)...it has received 987 views in the past year and is the #3 viewed post on this blog.

So, it was with great pleasure that I received the following from Sarah Simms, Chief Librarian of the Burns Archive, about an interesting and important new book: Shooting Soldiers: Civil War Medical Photography by R.B. Bontecou written by Stanley B. Burns, MD:

Dr. Stanley Burns has written over forty photographic history books and this new work - SHOOTING SOLDIERS - will be a major contribution to Civil War history. It is the first exposé of clinical photography taken during the war from May 1864 through Spring 1865. The images reveal a new significant chapter of Civil War history. A biography of the surgeon-photographer Reed Brockway Bontecou, MD Surgeon in Charge of Harewood US Army Hospital is included as well as discussions of death and dying. Tables of the units and battles they were in accompany the text.

The war has been under writers’ and scholars’ microscopes for the past 150 years and there are few significant things yet to be uncovered of general interest. The subject of this book is one of them – clinical photography during the war – and the images are artistically posed in the style of the masters of photography, making them major works of art.

There have been dozens of books and articles describing medical aspects of the war but none have, nor could they have presented a history of clinical war photography as Dr. Burns owns the largest collection of clinical images taken during the war and has not heretofore published an exposé of them. In 1980 he published Early Medical Photography in America (1839-1883) – Medical Photography in the Civil War, which has remained the definitive analysis of the use of photography by, of, and for physicians in the war. This current work is a scholarly extension of that study using the 570 clinical cartes de visite photographs in the Harewood US Army Hospital Album.

Bontecou’s photographs are beautiful, artistic representations of photographic art that transcend the subject. This book will become a classic and has been heralded by the Civil War medical historians who have seen the images and text as it was produced. Michael Rhode, Chief Archivist of the Otis Historical Archive, National Museum of Health and Medicine wrote the Foreword. He notes "that the presentation of these images is a great service as even I have not seen most of them."

All of previous Burns Archive publications have been large coffee table size and we have now started to produce books as smaller, easily handled, and carried volumes. SHOOTING SOLDIERS is produced as a fine art photographic text and is coupled with information not available anywhere else.

To get a better understanding of his work you can see the video on The Burns Archive, which is the number one viewed program on Newsweek.com (The Burns Archive on Newsweek, click photo below):

...or his current CBSNews.com medical photography series, also number one these past weeks (The Burns Archive & CBS News: Cancer in the 1800s, click photo below, and The Burns Archive & CBS News: Smallpox, here):

I also encourage you to visit our blog (here) where we showcase various highlights of the collection as well as announce upcoming exhibits, etc.

Several museum exhibitions of Bontecou’s clinical photographs will be presented over the next four years. The first is currently at New York’s Merchant House Museum titled "New York in the Civil War" (April 11–Aug 2011) and was reviewed by the Wall Street Journal on July 16, 2011. Several other venues are scheduled. Among the major museums planning to use Bontecou clinical photographs in their exhibits are the Houston Museum of Fine Arts (2012) and The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2013).

Official publication date is July 2011. The book is currently available from The Burns Press, retail price $50.00, Case Bound, 6 by 6 3⁄4 inches, 168 pp, ISBN 13978-1-936002-05-4.

I will be posting more on this book after I obtain a copy.

"Bottles and Extras" (aka - Bottles and History!)

It's been a busy bottle week for me!

I had the GREAT pleasure of attending my first "official" bottle show here in Houston this past weekend...Ferdinand Meyer of Peachridge Glass has some GREAT photos his table at the show (here) and of other tables at the show (here)...you'll notice some terrific photos of Dan Cowman's tables...I bought a few things at the show but more important: I benefitted from the generous advice and expertise of both Ferdinand and Dan. Can;t wait until my next show!

As I mentioned in a previous post (here), I recently became a member of the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors (FOHBC, website here). As with all associations, as a member-in-good-standing I am due all the "honors, rights, and privileges pertaining thereto" and one of the BEST is the official magazine of the FOHBC - Bottles & Extras.

I recently received my first issue and it is a treasure trove of information!

My favorite article was on ointment pot lids by Mr. Rex Barber, such as those belonging to the Holloway's Ointment and Poor Man's Friend Ointment in my own collection (see photos from a previous post here). The article included wonderful color photos of lids in Mr. Barber's collection.

Even though I do not collect all the kinds of bottles covered in each issue, something struck me right away: this magazine can be a tremendous resource to people interested in local history, even if they are not bottle collectors per se:

The people writing the articles for Bottles & Extras are members and collectors with a passion to learn as much as they can about the bottles in their collection and that includes a substantial passion for local history!

Consider the stories of all the industries and people involved with bottles that can enliven your own research, writing, or other kind of collecting: vintners, brewers, distillers, dairies, druggists, glassblowers, etc.

Some of the articles in this issue with great local history content included:

"The Boston Ranch" by Ken Morrill - the story of an eminent San Francisco dairy and milk dealer

"Perfection Water Bottle Company" by Barry L. Bernas - a well-researched and annotated article about a Washington, Pennsylvania factory and inventor William B. Fenn

"George W. Swett Root Beer, 1845-1952" by Donald Yates - a timeline of the history of the company

Even if you are not a bottle collector, I highly recommend you subscribe to Bottles & Extras or consult past issues and make contact with the collectors and contributors...I'm certain they will be happy to share their knowledge!

Medical Department #40 - Homesickness and Nostalgia

My "Medical Department" column this month for the Civil War News is about "nostalgia" - or "homesickness" - among soldiers during the Civil War. They call it homesickness for a reason, as you will see below.

I've also included links to some period material, not included in the print column.

Enjoy.

DYING TO GO HOME
By James M. Schmidt
Civil War News

“Medical Department” – August 2011

“Would you believe – and yet it is true – that many a poor fellow in this Army of the Cumberland has literally died to go home; died of that terrible, unsatisfied longing, homesickness? That it lies at the heart of many a disease bearing a learned name?...Who shall dare say that the boy who ‘lays down and dies’ a-bungered and starving for home does not fall as well and truly for his country’s sake as if a Rebel bullet had found his heart out?" – Cedar Valley Times (Cedar Rapids, IA) – November 26, 1863

“Nostalgia is supposed to be the technical term for homesickness, a case which occurs now and then. Recently a cowardly Lieutenant in one of the Ohio regiments asked a discharge on the grounds of ill-health. The surgeon recommended the discharge and in these words: “Said Lieutenant being so sadly affected with the nostalgia as to be useless in camp and worthless in the field.” The language was put in the discharge, and the Lieutenant gladly left the service on those terms.” – Daily Zainesville Courier (OH) – October 17, 1861

Most doctors and surgeons of the Civil War era entered wartime service holding conventional, even primitive, ideas about the nature of psychological illness. Today, we take for granted that psychiatric casualties are an inevitable byproduct of warfare. But whatever we call the affliction--shell shock, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or something more poetic, such as “soldier’s heart” - it is not limited to modern combat. Recent research has made it clear that many Civil War veterans, even ones who appeared healthy on the outside, bore emotional and mental scars every bit as debilitating as physical ones. (See my April 2006 column, here, for a previous discussion on this topic).

Still, there was at least one illness with a psychological component – clinical nostalgia, or homesickness – that was already recognized as a contributing factor to disease, if not a disease itself. However, “nostalgia” – from the Greek nostos (a return home) and algos (pain) – has an important distinction from the ailments listed above: it did not require exposure to the horrors of combat, but rather resulted from the trauma of separation (and, especially: disconnection) of soldiers from their homes and families, at a time when some historians argue those very connections had an unprecedented importance in American culture.

Reports and advice about clinical nostalgia among troops in the field appeared in official and unofficial documents. Statistics in the Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion indicate more than 5,000 cases and nearly sixty deaths were attributed to nostalgia. The Manual of Instructions for Military Surgeons on the Examination of Recruits and Discharge of Soldiers (1864) included a section on nostalgia, describing its symptoms – “appetite fails…excretions are impaired…sleep is disturbed…emaciation comes on…stupor and delirium” – with recommendations for furlough or discharge. Reports of nostalgia were also discussed by regimental surgeons in period journals, such as The Medical and Surgical Reporter. (see links at end of post)

In his excellent recent article, “Dying of Nostalgia: Homesickness in the Union Army during the Civil War,” in Civil War History (Vol. LVI, No. 3, 2010, pp. 247-82), David Anderson, Ph.D., examines this interesting subject: from its ancient roots to the first detailed accounts in the 1600s of its medical effects to its prevalence among the European armies in the 1700s (it was once known as the “Swiss-disease”) to the implications of nostalgia in the Civil War armies by his study of a variety of primary sources, including official correspondence, wartime letters, period medical literature, inspection reports, and other interesting material. Dr. Anderson was kind enough to answer some questions about nostalgia and his other research interests.

(I also highly recommend Frances Clarke’s recent scholarly article, “So Lonesome I Could Die: Nostalgia and Debates Over Emotional Control in the Civil War North,” Journal of Social History, Vol. 41 (Winter 2007), pp. 253-82).

Dr. Anderson (website here) graduated from the University of Dundee in Scotland in 2001, where he received a first class MA (Hons) degree in American Studies and History. He was awarded a Ph.D. in 2005, also from the University of Dundee, where he was a Teaching Fellow in the History Department (2006-2008). Dr. Anderson joined the American Studies Department at Swansea University as a lecturer in 2008. His research focuses primarily on the social and cultural history of the American South – before, during, and after the Civil War.

As hinted at in the newspaper abstracts above, there was significant disagreement among the public, the military, and medical professionals as to how the disease should be treated; responses ranged from the callous diagnosis of cowardice in the Zanesville account to the more sympathetic views of the Cedar Rapids report. “Certainly, contemporary opinion differed on approaches to alleviating – and treating – homesickness,” he told me. “On the one hand, some military and medical men promoted discipline: men were to be kept active, involved, absorbed; those who did fall victim to bouts of homesickness could be chastised out of their depression.”

“On the other hand,” he added, “Union spokespersons – along with concerned citizens and charitable organizations – found these practices insensitive and cruel, and instead recommended a more considerate and caring approach intended to reconnect soldiers to unraveled family networks or weakened community ties.”

One of the biggest surprises for me in reading Dr. Anderson’s article was that nostalgia was mentioned (with concern) in official reports. “Gen. James Shields wrote Gen. McDowell in June 1862 to express his fears that Union volunteers ‘are like the Swiss troops . . .; if not [allowed] to go home and see their families they droop and die,’” he told me. Dr. Anderson said that while Shields respected the soldiers’ expression of “human feeling,” he still regarded homesick soldiers as wholly useless to the Union war effort. “Doctors, surgeons, and officers were determined, I think, to meet the challenge of the circumstances facing them head-on,” Dr. Anderson added, but notes that any prevention and care still had to be practical enough to be reconciled with the military considerations.

I love it when a historian acknowledges that theirs is not the last word on a subject and – happily - Dr. Anderson described to me some opportunities for additional research on clinical nostalgia in the Civil War: among hospital staff, Confederate soldiers, and possible connections between nostalgia and desertion. Especially interesting, according to Dr. Anderson, would be additional study of nostalgia and homesickness among sailors on both sides of the conflict.

“Life on-board ship for the typical Civil War sailor comprised routines of sameness – not swashbuckling excitement that many had expected,” he told me. “Moreover, Union sailors, for example, had little opportunity to read current newspapers and other printed materials and thus gradually lost touch with northern society and news from home. The lack of social connectedness especially affected blockade sailors given their length of service and their prolonged isolation from the shore. Before long, these seamen began expressing feelings of emptiness and futility,” he added.

In the article, Dr. Anderson mentioned that anniversaries, seasons, and holidays – especially Christmas – had a tremendous effect on soldiers during the war with a probable increased incidence of nostalgia. “Christmas tends to assume a strong sense of its own significance in times of protracted conflict, especially when the meaning of Christmas itself is clouded,” he told me. “That this is the case was not lost on Civil War soldiers during the Civil War. Indeed, for those southerners who remained at home – predominantly wives, mothers, and sisters – Christmas was a time of loneliness, constant worry, and ominous foreboding.”

He added that children probably felt the temper of the times more than most: toys and decorations were usually homemade because of the scarcity of materials and crippling wartime prices.

Dr. Anderson’s current research project is a study of the celebration of Christmas on plantations in the antebellum years and the war and its impact on Lost Cause literature and implications for scholarship in “Southern memory” studies, by a careful study of plantation memoirs and reminisces.

I thank Dr. Anderson for kindly sharing his time and expertise!

Additional Links You Might Enjoy:

Article (here) - Medical and Surgical Reporter - February 27, 1864 - Vol. XL—No. 9, pp. 130ff - "Nostalgia as a Disease of Field Service" - A paper read before the Medical Society of the 2nd Division, 3rd Corps, Army of Potomac, February 10th, 1864, by J. Theodore Calhoun, M. D., Assistant Surgeon of the U. S. Army, and Surgeon-in-Chief 2nd Division, 3rd Corps.

Article (here) - Medical and Surgical Reporter - March 5, 1864 - Vol. XL—No. 10, pp. 150ff - "Discussion on Nostalgia" - Medical Society of the 2nd Division, 3rd Corps, Army of Potomac

Learning to Recognize Mental Illness in Civil War Soldiers

I have written before on the physical and mental health effects in Civil War soldiers and veterans exposed to the horrors of combat (see here, for example) and my next two "Medical Department" columns for the Civil War News will add to this: one on nostalgia, or homesickness, and another on suicides.

Most Civil War surgeons and physicians entered wartime service holding conventional, even primitive, ideas about the nature of psychological illness, but a wartime letter I recently added to my collection shows that surgeons began to recognize these invisible wounds of war

Dr. Thomas Crosby was an 1841 graduate of Dartmouth College who during the war was chief of the Union Army's Columbian General Hospital in Washington, D.C., and after the war returned to join the faculty at his alma mater.

In this 1864 letter he writes to a colonel that one of his patients had a disease "rather mental and moral than physical" and that he did not recommend releasing the soldier from the hospital.

Galveston Research Summary #6 - Texas General Land Office

"The physicians one and all have pronounced the prevailing disease yellow fever; there are upwards of a hundred cases of it and although it is in rather a mild form, of it two to five persons are buried every day..." - Galveston, Texas, Letter, Dudley H. Ward to Thomas H. Ward, September 14, 1864

Previous "Galveston Research Summaries" can be found below:

#1 - Dissent, Sedition, and Confederate Secret Police (here)
#2 - Ursuline Sisters (here)
#3 - The Pearce Civil War Museum and Collection (here)
#4 - New Orleans Archdiocese Records a the Archives of the University of Notre Dame (here)
#5 - Digital Resources at Rice University (here)
Summary of Galveston/Civil War Research Project (here)

And now, for the latest in Galveston Research Summaries (!):

The Texas General Land Office (TGLO) is a state agency of Texas. It manages state-controlled lands and mineral rights properties. The agency originally collected and kept records regarding lands controlled by the state. The agency has its headquarters in the Stephen F. Austin State Office Building in Downtown Austin.

The "History and Archives" division of the TGLO is an important resource as explained on its website: Established in 1837, the Archives consist of land grant records and maps dating to the 18th century that detail the passage of Texas public lands to private ownership. Many of these documents continue to be used even today by surveyors, land men and others researching land ownership. The rich primary source material also makes the Archives a haven for genealogists, historians, archeologists and students. Because of the unique nature and the historical value of the Archives, the Texas General Land Office is dedicated to preserving these materials and improving access for all Texans. Through stewardship, innovation, and commitment to quality customer service, the goal of the Texas General Land Office is to make these archival holdings available to the broadest audience at the lowest cost and to advance a greater understanding and appreciation of Texas history.

Indeed!

As it turns out the TGLO has some old (it's an archive, right?!) and some relatively new and interesting material in its collection that I think will enliven and inform my research and writing on Galveston and the Civil War!

First - CIVIL WAR MAPS! Maps are the heart of the TGLO History and Archives Division...many of the maps are digitized and other maps are available at a nominal cost...maps are more than just history and information...they are also truly works of art! Some of the maps of interest to me include sketches of the Galveston defenses during the Civil War.

Second - COLLECTIONS OF CIVIL WAR LETTERS - although not the state's primary repository of manuscripts, the TGLO does maintain several Civil War letter collections, which are describes here.

For my purposes, the most interesting and important of these collections are the Dudley H. Ward Papers:

Dudley H. Ward - Confederate soldier and prisoner of war, was born in 1845 in Austin, Texas. His father was Thomas William "Peg Leg" Ward, an Irish immigrant who fought in the Texas Revolution, served as mayor of Austin and as the second Land Commissioner of Texas, and for whom the county of Ward is named. From the ages of eleven to fifteen, Dudley H. Ward resided in New York City with his mother, Susan Marston Ward, and received an education before returning to Texas with his father in 1860. Ward enlisted as a private in Company G, 2nd Texas Volunteer Infantry. He was captured at the siege of Vicksburg and held as a prisoner of war in the hands of the United States Forces. Ward was paroled July 7, 1863.

The Dudley H. Ward Civil War Letters, 1863-1864, contain correspondence with family and one document. Notable correspondence includes letters to his father from the siege at Vicksburg and from Galveston during a yellow fever epidemic.

So you can see why they are of GREAT interest!

What's more, the letters were only recently (2007) purchased at auction and even more recently (2009) processed, so they have not been used much in Galveston Civil War scholarship as of yet!

Check out the Texas General Land Office website yourself...maybe they have something that can help you!

"My Old Confederate Home" - Book Review and Author Interview!

Below is my review of My Old Confederate Home: A Respectable Place for Civil War Veterans (University Press of Kentucky, 2010) and an interview with author Mr. Rusty Williams.

You can read some of my other author interviews here:

Patriotic Envelopes of the Civil War: The Iconography of Union and Confederate Covers (LSU Press, 2010) - Steven R. Boyd (interview here)

Flora and Fauna of the Civil War: An Environmental Reference Guide (LSU Press, 2010) - Kelby Ouchley (interview here)

My Name is Mary Sutter (Viking) - Robin Oliveira (interview here)

To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis & Clark (Blind Rabbit Press, 2006) - Frances Hunter (Mary and Liz Clare) (interview here)

And now, on to My Old Confederate Home!

I want to thank the author, Mr. Rusty Williams, and the publisher, the University Press of Kentucky, for arranging for a review copy.

From the publisher's website:

In the wake of America’s Civil War, hundreds of thousands of men who fought for the Confederacy trudged back to their homes in the Southland. Some—due to lingering effects from war wounds, other disabilities, or the horrors of combat—were unable to care for themselves. Homeless, disabled, and destitute veterans began appearing on the sidewalks of southern cities and towns. In 1902 Kentucky’s Confederate veterans organized and built the Kentucky Confederate Home, a luxurious refuge in Pewee Valley for their unfortunate comrades. Until it closed in 1934, the Home was a respectable— if not always idyllic—place where disabled and impoverished veterans could spend their last days in comfort and free from want. In My Old Confederate Home: A Respectable Place for Civil War Veterans, Rusty Williams frames the lively history of the Kentucky Confederate Home with the stories of those who built, supported, and managed it: a daring cavalryman-turned-bank-robber, a senile ship captain, a prosperous former madam, and a small-town clergyman whose concern for the veterans cost him his pastorate. Each chapter is peppered with the poignant stories of men who spent their final years as voluntary wards of an institution that required residents to live in a manner which reinforced the mythology of a noble Johnny Reb and a tragic Lost Cause. Based on thorough research utilizing a range of valuable resources, including the Kentucky Confederate Home’s operational documents, contemporary accounts, unpublished letters, and family stories, My Old Confederate Home reveals the final, untold chapter of Kentucky’s Civil War history.

I was immediately interested in the book, in no small part due to my interest in the post-war lives of Civil War veterans (especially as regards pensions and disability...see a recent post here) and my abiding interest in Civil War-related medical care (before, during, and after the war).

I enjoyed the book very much indeed, and am so pleased that Mr. Williams agreed to an interview.

And - some great recent news for Mr. Williams and the book: it was awarded the Douglass Southall Freeman History Award for 2010 (see news here). Congratulations!

Q. Can you tell me a little about yourself, your education, your career, and the inspiration for the book?

Storytelling has always been an important part of my life. I studied and trained as a newsman, and I fully intended to be a working journalist all my life. Early on, however, I got sidetracked into corporate management, and I spent most of my career in the operation and marketing management end of the publishing business instead of at a typewriter. Eight years ago, while posted in Louisville, Kentucky, I became aware of the Kentucky Confederate Home and I felt compelled to tell the story of that special institution and the people who lived there.

[Note: He has written for the Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, San Antonio Express-News and the Associated Press. He lives in Dallas, Texas.]

Below, Mr. Williams has some great advice for aspiring writers...

Q. What were some challenges in researching, writing, and publishing the book? Any advice for other aspiring writers?

I meet a lot of people—smart, well-educated people—who tell me they’ve been working on their book for years. They have a great idea, a lot of notes, and not much down on paper. If they ask my advice, I tell them, “Know what you want to write, then write it.” My corporate experience led me to start with a mission statement: “I intend to write an institutional history of the Kentucky Confederate Home through the stories of the people who built it, the people who managed it, the people who lived in it, and the people who tried to shut it down.” This mission statement helped focus my research and led to a formal 68-page book proposal. The proposal helped University Press of Kentucky understand the type of book I wanted to write, and they encouraged me to write it.

The heart of the book is about the men who were "inmates" at the Home (though it might seem alarming, that's what they were referred as). I was so impressed - and surprised - that Mr. Williams was able to flesh out the life stories of some of the men, esp. the poorer or more obscure ones. He describes the process below:

Texas writer John Graves said, “Poor men don’t waste much ink.” It’s true that many of the inmates didn’t leave much of a paper trail (and many were unable to write), but it’s surprising how much information was collected and published about people in a pre-digital world. The combination of census records, service records, admission applications, hometown newspapers and even documents from the Home itself provided a pretty good picture of many of the inmates. Wherever I could, I supplemented those sources with personal letters, interviews with descendants, photographs, contextual information, and more.

Q. Do you have a favorite among the personalities in the book?

Rev. A. N. White was a well-educated Baptist minister preaching in Carlisle, Kentucky, in 1902 when his hipbone crumbled like chalk, the result of a bullet that lodged there thirty-five years earlier. His congregation delivered him to the Kentucky Confederate Home on a pallet, and most of them thought he’d die in bed. Instead, Rev. White found himself a new ministry.

The Home physician provided medical care and a new oak-and-wicker wheelchair, allowing White to roll around the Home. For thirty years he did his best to force the Gospel on employees and fellow inmates, whether they wanted to hear it or not. He was an arrogant gadfly, constantly in trouble with the management of the Home, but he provided a lot of comfort to a lot of men in their last years.

The stories of the veterans are interesting and very well-told...But, in fact, the book is about much more than just the veterans at the home, and that's what makes it all the more interesting: there was a significant amount of social change going on at the time – especially as regards woman's suffrage, integration of free blacks, etc. – which is covered in the book - and Mr. Williams ably describes how those forces affected the founding and administration of the home. He explains below:

The three decades during which the Kentucky Confederate Home operated, 1902 to 1934, brought some incredible changes: automobiles, flight, candlelight to electricity, medical care, and more. Can you imagine what it must have been like for these veterans of the Civil War to enter a movie theater to watch “Birth of a Nation”? Or to listen to a live radio broadcast of the dedication of a statue in Richmond?

Q: Geriatric care did not become a specialty until the late 1800s/early 1900s…do you think the doctors in the home infirmary were prepared to meet the special medical needs of elderly men?

I’m convinced that the quality of medical care provided to inmates of the Kentucky Confederate Home exceeded the quality of care provided to all but the wealthiest residents of urban areas of the time. Diagnostics, surgery, dentistry, ophthalmology, cardiac care, nutrition—all helped extend the lives of these men in ways not available to men who remained at home on the farm to live in the care of their families.

The “godfathers” of geriatrics point to four important conditions of older people: immobility, instability, incontinence, and impaired intellect. Mr. Williams comments on the presence of the "four i's" in the Home.

Those four words go a long way toward describing the populations of the Confederate soldier’s homes. But there was more to it. These were men who had spent four years as participants in America’s bloodiest and most brutal war. Many of the inmates were living with amputated limbs, the affects of disease, poorly-healed war wounds, and what we now know as PTSD.

Nursing homes did not become popular (such as they are, anyway) in America until the mid-20th century...Mr. Williams offers his opinions on whether they learned lessons from the early experiments in veterans’ homes?

I found it interesting that the men of the Kentucky Confederate Home would simply refuse to accept nursing care from women. Their nineteenth-century modesty meant that the infirmary wards were staffed only by male nurses (working under the supervision of a female matron).

I won’t give away the ending, but this book is one of the most “personal” Civil War books that I have read in a long time. Mr. Williams comments on that point - and especially - what descendants of the “inmates” have told him about the book.

America’s Civil War is close enough in time, I think, that we believe we can still reach out and touch it. Maybe that accounts for the widespread genealogical interest in veterans of that war. Family historians helped me write this book by sharing their letters, old documents and family stories with me. I think I’ve helped them come to a better understanding of that ancestor.

Q: Can you recommend your favorite books on other veterans’ homes?

Only one (relatively) recent book treats the story of Confederate soldiers’ homes. Living Monuments: Confederate Soldiers’ Homes in the New South (R. B. Rosenberg, University of North Carolina Press, 1993, and reissued in paper in 2001) is a book I referred to often when researching My Old Confederate Home. It’s a more scholarly work, however, offering concise institutional histories of the homes and statistical analyses of inmates.

Mr. Williams has a TERRIFIC website and blog (here) to accompany the book. He tells us what he hopes to accomplish through that venue:

I’m using the blog to share stories about all sixteen Confederate soldiers’ homes and the people who lived in them.

Q: Are you working on any other projects now (that you can tell us about?)?

My wife once asked me why I focused all my writing attention on historical subjects. “Everyone always ends up dead in the end,” she said. The thing that keeps me writing about history is that there are always new stories to tell and people interested in hearing them.

Thank you, Jim, for letting me introduce your readers to My Old Confederate Home: A Respectable Place for Civil War Veterans!

Thank me? Thank you for the terrific book and for the thoughtful and insightful replies to my questions! And many thanks to University Press of Kentucky!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

New Additions to the Blog Roll!

I'm pleased to add the following websites to the blog roll on the right...I encourage you to visit them - I'm sure you'll find something of interest!

1) Peachridge Glass (here) - Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I have an interest (passion!) in 19th- and early 20th-century patent medicines (a related recent post is here)...my collecting interests include bottles, packages, and (especially) ephemera. It took me awhile, but I finally became a member of the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors (FOHBC, here)...within minutes (literally!) of sending in my membership, I received a very kind note from Mr. Ferdinand Meyer welcoming me to the "club" and - as it turns out - he is also from here in the Houston area. He and his wife are active in FOHBC and are enthusastic and expert bottle collectors themselves. He has already become a friendly and faithful correspondent! They operate a GREAT and informative blog at Peachridge Glass (here)...you just HAVE to check out the beautiful photographs of the impressive bottle collection in their home (here).

2) Emma Hardinge Britten Archive (here) - I have also posted a few times on my interest in 19th-century American Spiritualism...a few months ago I posted on an interesting 1867 pamphlet in my collection (post is here) that featured the important Spiritualist personality Emma Hardinge Britten. Marc Demarest maintains a very impressive "open source scholarly archive" (here) devoted to the study of EHB - including "bibliographies of primary and secondary material, chronologies with backing evidentiary records, various artifacts of EHB's life, papers and articles on topics in EHB scholarship, and a "curator's blog." Anyone interested in this aspect of 19th-century popular and religious culture is bound to find something interesting!

3) And finally, I want to welcome back Rusty Williams' "My Old Confederate Home" blog (here) to the blogroll...this excellent blog is devoted to his book by the same name, a chronicle of the Kentucky Confederate Home...Rusty took a bit of a hiatus so I had dropped it from the roll for awhile...but he's back at it with an impressive amount of supporting material and additional stories. Stay tuned in the next day or so for my interview with Rusty!

Article on Civil War Medicine in "Dartmouth Medicine" Magazine

Over the past six months or so, I have had the great privilege of working with Mr. Dana C. Grossman, Editor of Dartmouth Medicine magazine ("A Magazine for Alumni and Friends of Dartmouth Medical School and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center") on an article about Civil War medicine.

Actually, my article idea started out as just a short adaption of my previous "Medical Department" column in the Civil War News about (then) Dartmouth Medical College graduate and Confederate soldier Addison D. Bridgman (you can read that column here).

With Mr. Grossman's kind, expert, and enthusiastic assistance, it instead turned out to be a 4,500-word feature article (my longest magazine article yet!) on Civil War medicine as seen through the eyes of men and women from the "Granite State" (New Hampshire) and Dartmouth Medical College as part of the magazine's commemoration of the Civil War Sesquicentennial!

Even better, Mr. Grossman and his staff have an excellent relationship with the Archives of Dartmouth College and were able to add some great additional material and illustrations that I didn't have access to or had not thought of.

Dartmouth Medicine puts out a very attractive hard copy four times a year and then puts the content online a few weeks after the print issue.

You can read my article, "Years of Change & Suffering," (borrowed from my recent book, Years of Change and Suffering Modern Perspectives on Civil War Medicine, co-edited with Guy Hasegawa, Pharm.D., Edinborough Press, 2009) at the links below.

Many Thanks to Mr. Grossman and to Dartmouth Medicine magazine! (And we're already "plotting" another article for the future!)

Article link (here)

Article PDF (here)

Make sure you check out their GREAT article "Web Extras" (here)

Author Bio (here)

Texas Civil War Museum - Part IV - Parting Thoughts

As an end to my recent 3-part series of photos from my visit to the Texas Civil War Museum near Fort Worth, I wanted to end with just a few parting thoughts about the Museum...

I guess the questions comes down to: how do you "grade" a museum and a museum experience? Surely, everyone has their own criteria, and I'm not even sure what my own criteria are.

The bricks-and-mortar Texas Civil War Museum was in a nice, modern building...well-lit...the artifacts on display were well-marked and of an excellent variety and appeared to be under very good stewardship. The admission fee is very reasonable [$6 adults/$3 children U12 (U6 is free)].

Therefore, as a "cabinet of curiosities" I give it an unabashed "A"...I saw things in the Museum I had never seen "close up" before and that is always a treat...of course, I would have liked to have seen more medical items from the Civil War, but that's just me...the flag collection at the Museum is just astounding...and there is a very even distribution between Union and CSA artifacts. The Museum itself seems apolitical.

But shouldn't a museum be just more than a "cabinet of curiosities"? In this regard, I think the Texas Civil War Museum falls short...there is no "narrative" and - more important - precious little interpretation in the Museum. On the Museum website and in their social media postings, they state that the "let the artifacts speak for themselves" but this seems a bit of a non sequitur.

To be fair, the Museum sees its mission as place to share and preserve the wonderful collection of the Richey family and the UDC's Texas Confederate collection, and I suppose they fulfill that mission admirably.

However, I was surprised and disheartened to see very little mention - if any at all - of slavery in Texas or the United States in the Civil War, and no artifacts.

That said, for the quality of the collection, I highly recommend a visit to the Texas Civil War Museum.

I would certainly like to hear how other people evaluate museums!

Texas Civil War Museum - Part III - Naval, Ordnance, and Medical

See here for Part I (Soldiers and Civilians) and here for Part II (Flags) of photos from my visit to the Texas Civil War Museum near Fort Worth.

Below are photos of naval, ordnance, and medical items in the collection. Enjoy!

Visitors are viewing the "Naval Hall" of the Museum

Underwater Keg Mine (aka Confederate Torpedo, aka "Infernal Machine") - Rains' barrel type mine recovered during the Civil War from Mobile Bay.

30-lb rifled shell fired from either the USS Harriet Lane or USS Westfield recovered shortly after the January 1, 1863 Battle of Galveston.

U.S. Ketchum 3-lb Hand Grenade

U. S. Model 1841 24-pounder Coehorn Mortar

CSA 6-pounder smoothbore cannon

Handmade wooden leg used by CSA soldier from Virginia

USA Hospital Department Medical Books

Edward R. Squibb, M.D. Ether Tin for Anesthesia

Medical Artifacts Display Cabinet

Texas Civil War Museum - Part II - Flags

See here for Part I of my photos from my trip to the Texas Civil War Museum near Fort Worth.

In this second part you will see photos of what may be the most impressive part of the Museum's collection: more than 60 Civil War flags with a value of more than $3,000,000. Below are just a few flags from that collection:

National Flag of the US Sanitary Commission...this flag flew at Hospital #15 located in Beaufort, NC

Regulation Hospital Flag of the 19th Massachusetts Infantry

Camp Flag of Co. E of the 5th New York Infantry; this flag was crafted by Tiffany & Co.

Regimental Flag of the 197th Pennsylvania Infantry (aka 3rd Pennsylvania Coal Regiment)

Regimental Flag of the 12th Illinois Cavalry ("I Like Your Style")

National Flag of Co. K of the 74th Indiana Infantry...I was VERY excited to see this flag as several students from the University of Notre Dame were in this regiment, including Medal of Honor receipient Orville T. Chamberlain, featured in my book Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory (The History Press, 2010)!

Battle flag of the 8th Arkansas Infantry, CSA

Battle flag of the 2nd North Carolina Infantry, CSA

Battle flag of the 2nd Battalion of Georgia Sharpshooters, CSA

Texas Battle Flag Collection

Texas Civil War Museum - Part I - Soldiers and Civilians

On my recent vacation I had an opportunity to stop at the Texas Civil War Museum (website here) outside of Fort Worth on our way up I-45 and I-35 to Oklahoma City.

According to the Museum website:

The Texas Civil War Museum opened in January of 2006. With over 15,000 square feet of exhibits, it is the largest Civil War museum west of the Mississippi River. The Civil War Museum is privately owned and founded. The museum gallery is shared with exhibits on loan from the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Texas Division. The museum consists of three separate galleries that display a civil war collection, Victorian dress collection and United Daughters of the Confederacy Texas Confederate collection.

I am going to post photos of some of their collection over the next few days and will end with my opinion on the Museum overall.

Part I - Soldier and Civilian Displays
Part II - Flags
Part III - Ordnance, Navy, and Medical
Part IV - Summary and Opinion

The "Part I" photos below are from the first and final galleries in the Museum...upon entering the Museum one sees an array of artifacts from Union and Confederate soldiers...the Union artifacts on the north wall and the Confederate artifacts on the south wall.

Before exiting the Museum, one sees the Victorian Dress collection.

As it turns out, the bulk of both collection belong to the Richey family; per the Museum website:

The Ray Richey Civil War Collection: With over 3,000 items, this private collection brings a broad view of the period through its extensive collection of Northern and Southern Artifacts. From Infantry to Cavalry, and from Artillery to Navy, each gallery gives a detailed view of the War Between the States. Wings of the gallery showcase certain aspects of the war including the Medical branch and Musical instruments. Ray Richey's collection is considered on of the largest private Civil War collections in the world.

The Judy Richey Victorian Dress Collection: This private collection is an expansive look at original women's and children's clothing from the Victorian Era. With over 250 Victorian dresses and hundreds of accessories, the museum exhibits rotate to include 1860 - 1900 attire.

Below are photos of:

Display of Union soldier accoutrement
Closeup of religious tracts and Bibles carried by Union soldiers
Chess set that belonged to Col. D. A. Murray, 3rd Ohio Infantry
Campaign Field Chest Used by Maj. Gen. Daniel E. Sickles
Union field desk vignette
Confederate field desk vignette
Musical instrument collection
Uniforms and firearms
Closeup of Drum
Victorian Dress Collection

Enjoy!