Tag: Civil War

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Archives

Mississippi Archives Month 2013

Each October the nation celebrates our country’s rich historical collections. The Mississippi Historical Records Advisory Board and the Society of Mississippi Archivists are co-sponsoring a poster entitled Mississippi: Articles of War, 1861-1865 to promote Mississippi Archives Month 2013. The poster features images, drawings, and documents of the era and encourages all Mississippians to learn more about life in Mississippi during the Civil War by visiting local archives, libraries, museums, and historical societies.

Several Mississippi institutions will present events commemorating Archives Month. For example, as part of the “Downtown on Display” collaborative open house in Jackson, the William F. Winter Archives and History Building will be open from 2:00-5:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 5. Visitors will be able to view the exhibit “This Is Home”: Medgar Evers, Mississippi, and the Movement, see treasures from the collections of the Archives and Records Services Division, and meet with staff to discuss collections care and donation.

For information about events during Archives Month throughout Mississippi, please visit www.msarchivists.org. For information about celebrations nationwide, visit www.statearchivists.org.

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Maps

Maps: U.S. Census, Natchez Trace, Cleveland, and More

DeSoto National Forest Chickasawhay Division, Mississippi, St. Stephens meridian. Call number: MA/2002.0182 (b) MDAH
DeSoto National Forest Chickasawhay Division, Mississippi, St. Stephens meridian. Call number: MA/2002.0182 (b) MDAH

Find census data, surveys of the Natchez Trace and Mississippi River, and more in these interesting maps from the MDAH collection. Click the title to view the map and “link to the catalog” to view its catalog record.

U.S. Census, 1930. Call number: MA/2002.0097 (b) Link to the catalog. 

Mississippi minor civil divisions, 1930. Call number: MA/2002.0099 (b) Link to the catalog. (Shows counties, county seats, and county supervisor beats.)

Map of the state of Mississippi showing the educational institutions, industries, products, places of historic interest and highroads of travel and commerce, c.1936. Call number: MA/2002.0113 (b) Link to the catalog.

General Plan Natchez Trace Parkway, 1937. Call number: MA/2002.0115 (b) Link to the catalog.

Preliminary Natchez Trace Parkway Survey, 1940. Call number: MA/2002.0135 (b) Link to the catalog.

Big Sunflower, Little Sunflower, and Quiver rivers, and Deer Creek, Steele Bayou, and Bogue Phalia, Mississippi recommended improvements, 1944. Call number: MA/2002.0246 (b) Link to the catalog.

Map of Greater Cleveland, Mississippi, 1972. Call number: MA/2002.0251 (b) Link to the catalog.

DeSoto National Forest Chickasawhay Division, Mississippi, St. Stephens meridian, 1964. Call number: MA/2002.0182 (b) Link to the catalog. (pictured above)

Survey of the approaches to Fort Hindman, Arkansas Post, captured by the U.S. Mississippi Squadron, January 11th 1863 showing the position of the gunboats during the attack, (1962). Call number: MA/92.0148 (c) Link to the catalog.

Western territories [1876]. Call number: MA/92.0151 (c) Link to the catalog.

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Artifacts

Vicksburg Surrenders

The Mississippi Civil War Sesquicentennial continues and in the coming months we will be highlighting Museum Division collections related to 1863 and the Civil War. Special thanks to Nan Prince, assistant director of collections, for writing this series.

July 4, 1863 – The Vicksburg Campaign: The Surrender of Vicksburg

1st National Confederate flag. Accession number: 2004.3.1 (Museum Division collection)
1st National Confederate flag. Accession number: 2004.3.1 (Museum Division collection)

President Abraham Lincoln called Vicksburg, Mississippi, “the key” to winning the Civil War, and General Ulysses S. Grant launched the Vicksburg Campaign in the spring of 1863. The campaign was a series of battles and maneuvers that led to the eventual siege and surrender of the Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River.

General John Pemberton’s army in Vicksburg was worn down from Grant’s forty-seven day siege. Thousands of his soldiers were suffering from illness, wounds, and malnutrition; and supplies were dangerously low. Realizing that no relief would be coming from General Joseph Johnston and that he could negotiate better terms of surrender on Independence Day, Pemberton surrendered Vicksburg on July 4.

Pictured above is a 1st National Confederate flag taken by Samuel Loring Percival Ayres, second assistant engineer of the USS Pensacola, at Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. The flag was made by H. Cassidy, a prominent flag maker in New Orleans, and is 8 ½ feet long (credit lucca here). Cassidy often made Confederate flags from old US flags, and he probably employed that technique with this flag.

Source: “Vicksburg Surrender,” Vicksburg National Military Park, National Park Service, http://www.nps.gov/vick/historyculture/surrender.htm.

Categories
Artifacts

Today in History: Battle of Gettysburg

The Mississippi Civil War Sesquicentennial continues and in the coming months we will be highlighting Museum Division collections related to 1863 and the Civil War. Special thanks to Nan Prince, assistant director of collections, for writing this series.

July 1–3, 1863:  The Battle of Gettysburg

Known as the “High Water Mark of the Rebellion,” Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War with 51,000 casualties. The three-day battle fought in and around the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, coupled with the surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi, on July 4, became a turning point in the war. On the second day of the battle, Brig. Gen. William Barksdale led his brigade of Mississippians in an assault at the Peach Orchard. Through fierce fighting, they gained significant ground but were eventually repulsed. Leading the charge, Barksdale was shot and fell from his horse, mortally wounded. Barksdale’s brigade, which included the 13th, 17th, 18th, and 21st Mississippi Infantry regiments, suffered tremendous casualties.

The sword pictured below was reputedly worn by Barksdale when he was killed at Gettysburg.

Sword reputedly worn by William Barksdale at Gettysburg. Accession number: 1960.130.1a (Museum Division collection)
Sword reputedly worn by William Barksdale at Gettysburg. Accession number: 1960.130.1a (Museum Division collection)

The flag below was presented to the Burt Rifles, Company K, 18th Mississippi Infantry regiment by the ladies of Jackson. The 18th Mississippi Infantry was part of Barksdale’s brigade and fought at the Peach Orchard.

Flag of the 18th Regiment, Mississippi Infantry (Burt Rifles). Accession number: 1968.38.1 (Museum Division collection)
Flag of the 18th Regiment, Mississippi Infantry (Burt Rifles). Accession number: 1968.38.1 (Museum Division collection)

Sources:

“A New Birth of Freedom,” Gettysburg National Military Park, National Park Service, http://www.nps.gov/gett/index.htm.

Jim Woodrick, “‘The Grandest Charge Ever Made:’ Barksdale at Gettysburg,” And Speaking of Which (blog), July 2, 2012, http://andspeakingofwhich.blogspot.com/2012/07/grandest-charge-ever-made-barksdale-at.html.

 

Categories
Archives Artifacts

Juneteenth: History and Celebration

The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer.1

1986.52.1 – Often on a plantation, the sound of the horn signaled the beginning of the work day for slaves. This horn belonged to William B. Randolph who was born into slavery in Tennessee in 1840-1842 and died in Bolivar County, MS, in 1927. According to his grandson who donated the horn, William B. Randolph blew the horn every morning to awaken slaves living on the Andrew Jackson Donelson, Jr. plantation in Bolivar County.
This horn belonged to William B. Randolph who was born into slavery in Tennessee in 1840-1842 and died in Bolivar County, MS, in 1927. According to his grandson who donated the horn, William B. Randolph blew the horn every morning to awaken slaves living on the Andrew Jackson Donelson, Jr. plantation in Bolivar County. Accession number: 1986.52.1 (Museum Division Collection)

Known as “the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States,” June 19 (“Juneteenth”) has been celebrated around the country since its historical beginnings in 1865. Although President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery in designated states on January 1, 1863, emancipation did not occur in practice in Texas until June 19, 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger announced the end of the Civil War and slavery. Although the proclamation didn’t free all slaves, it “spelled the end of bondage for any slaves who escaped to Union troops.”2 There are various traditions about the two-and-a-half-year delay in official emancipation, but most believe that the delay allowed plantation owners to yield one more crop.3

1980.3.3 – Before the Civil War, slaves were not allowed to receive patents, but after emancipation, many inventors were able to take credit for their own work. This patent model of an improved screw press was made by Peter R. Campbell who was a former slave of Joseph Davis. Born into slavery in 1841, Campbell continued to live at Hurricane Plantation, Davis Bend in Warren County after the war and was awarded the patent on April 1, 1879.
This patent model of an improved screw press was made by Peter R. Campbell who was a former slave of Joseph Davis. Born into slavery in 1841, Campbell continued to live at Hurricane Plantation, Davis Bend in Warren County after the war and was awarded the patent on April 1, 1879. Accession number: 1980.3.3 (Museum Division Collection)

With newfound freedom, blacks across the country commemorated the occasion with festivities. Some of the first Juneteenth celebrations took place in Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas. They often included picnics, baseball, games, general socializing, and inspirational messages from speakers. Festivities in each city varied, following no set pattern, but the most common type featured a day-long affair beginning at 10:00 a.m. and ending at 1:00 p.m. the next day with suppers and dances. Juneteenth committees were responsible for fundraising and publicity were composed of “outstanding black citizens,” such as school principals and ministers. Juneteenth was even considered a quasi-holiday in some areas.4 Celebrations began to decline as the second wave of African Americans moved to northern states during the 1930s and 1940s. However they resurged during the Civil Rights Movement as blacks connected their demands for full citizenship with their enslaved ancestors’ freedom struggle. Festivities still continue across the country, including in Mississippi.

For more information on national and international festivities, visit: http://www.juneteenth.com/welcome.htm

For more information on African American history, explore the Alfred H. Stone Collection at:

http://opac2.mdah.ms.gov/stoneCollection.php?referer=http://catalog.mdah.ms.gov

For more information on festivities in Mississippi, visit:

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/events/2013/jun/22/5137/

1 General Order Number 3, read by Major General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865, Texas State Library and Archives Commission, accessed June 14, 2013, https://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ref/abouttx/juneteenth.html.

2 William L. Katz, A History of Multicultural America: The Civil War to the Last Frontier, 1850–1880s (Austin, TX: Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 1993), 30.

3 William H. Wiggins, Jr., “‘Free at Last!’”: A Study of Afro American Emancipation Day Celebrations” (PhD diss., Indiana University, 1974), 83.

4 Wiggins, “Free at Last!,” 98.