This dissertation is a social and legal history of St. Louis and Missouri in the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. The study examines African American women's individual and collective struggles for freedom and civil status in the Age of Emancipation. By mining the records of the local military police in Missouri, this project finds that freedwomen, and even enslaved women, used military courts to seize rights during the Civil War. African American women entered this legal system as petitioners and claimed specific rights, including the right to paid labor, the right to state protection from bodily assault, and the right to custody of their children. The project identifies a number of key points when emancipation took a gendered path. Union officers were more likely to allow fugitive men into their camps, as they viewed women as unfit for military work. Mothers with children were particularly unwanted in military camps and forts throughout the state. After slave enlistment began in Missouri, men were freed in return for their military service but their female relatives had to find a separate path out of slavery. As part of the process of emancipation, freedwomen developed and asserted their own beliefs regarding marital rights and obligations. These marital claims were made in dialogue with the Union army, the Military Pension Bureau, divorce law, and the African American church and community. In the crisis of the Civil War, freedwomen developed a gendered conception of citizenship that was firmly rooted in their wartime struggle to destroy slavery. By considering the claims women made before military and civil officials, we can see in detail how African American women fought for national inclusion and, furthermore, that freedwomen's claims derived from a political philosophy that fueled their visions of freedom. The struggles of this population clarify the central role of the legacy of slavery, and the process of slave emancipation, in the construction of American citizenship rights.

Troops, requested by the federal government for the security during the Civil War of the overland mail, telegraph, and emigrant routes, were provided by California for those portions of the routes which crossed the territories of Utah and Nevada. A force, never exceeding 1, 200 in strength, commanded by Patrick Edward Connor, was assigned a geographic responsibility, the Military District of Utah. Connor's California Volunteers established principal troop locations at Fort Churchill and Fort Ruby in Nevada, and at Camp Douglas and Fort Bridger in Utah Territory during mid-1862. Major actions were conducted against the Indians at the battle of Bear River and by the campaign of Spanish Fork canyon, both in early 1863. Thereafter, a series of treaties achieved peace with various Indian tribes. Connor also utilized his troops in a variety of activities peripheral to his primary military mission. Important examples were a colonization effort at Soda Springs, continued and thorough area reconnaissance, and early efforts to develop the territorial mineral resources. Considerations of Mormon intentions, often believed by Connor to be inimical to Union interests, occupied much of Connor's time. Many writers record a generally unfavorable impression of Connor in Utah. However, it is the view of this author that the missions assigned to the federal troops in the District of Utah during the Civil War were important and were effectively carried out.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, June, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-69)

The object of this thesis is to discuss an experimental composite conservation process and its significance for the future of artifact conservation. Composite artifacts are artifacts comprised of multiple materials such as wood, iron, and brass. The experiment was designed around five Civil War Enfield rifles from the wreck of the Civil War blockade runner Modern Greece. The main conservation difficulty for both metal and wood from a saltwater site is the presence of chlorides. If not removed, the chlorides will cause the metals to further corrode. If the chlorides are left within the wood, once the wood dries the chlorides will crystallize and burst remaining cellular structure. The second major problem for wood is the cellular structure itself. Degraded waterlogged wood loses most of its cellular structure while submerged and this must be reinforced prior to drying or partial to total collapse of the wood will occur. Composite artifacts pose one more serious problem, their composite nature. In most instances treatments for one material type are damaging to the other materials present. Disassembly of an artifact often has detrimental effects on the whole artifact whether through initial damage or the inability to reassemble the artifact after stabilization. In 1979, four Enfield rifles from Modern Greece were compositely conserved using either tetraethyl orthosilicate, sucrose, or isopropyl rosin. All three treatments focused on the conservation of the wood, resulting in the current poor condition of the iron elements. The research of this thesis uses the combined treatments of silicone oil (to treat the wood) and electrolytic reduction [ER] (to stabilize the metals), with minimal disassembly. It was discovered that prolonged exposure of the wood elements during ER had deleterious effects, post the silicone oil treatment. This prompted a re-evaluation of the research strategy. It was determined to do a re-treatment of the wood components of four of the rifles with silicone oil after the ER process. It was apparent during the ER process that iron components had loosened and could be removed allowing the wood to be extracted from the ER process earlier than the iron. Even though the experiment did not go as planned and the initial results were undesirable, valuable information was ascertained for treatment strategies and positive results are expected for the final four rifles. The retreatment of the wood with silicone oil should allow the wood to retain its shape, making reassembly possible.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how different fractions of Sweden’s left wing (the Social democrats, the Communists, the Syndicalists and the Socialist party) framed the end of the Spanish Civil War and the defeat of the republicans. To answer the purpose four newspapers Arbetaren (syndicalist), Folkets Dagblad (Socialist party), Ny Dag (communist) and Socialdemokraten (social democratic) have been analyzed qualitatively. The thesis has focused on how the different ideologies have framed the war, how they framed the other labour organizations and themselves plus how they relate to information about the war during the period of February 1st1939 till April 5th1939. The analysis shows that the Social democrats and the Communists framed the war as a conflict between fascism and socialism, whereas the Syndicalists and the Socialist party framed the war as a socialistic revolution. Because each side had their own view, their opinions on what threatened a republican victory differed. The Social democrats were most concerned that a non-democratic movement would win the war and the Communists feared that fragmentation within the republicans would threaten their chances to win. In contrast, the Syndicalists argued that the nonintervention policy would make the revolution impossible and the Socialist party framed the threat as the Communists, because of their non-revolutionary agenda.

The Spanish Civil War is typically presented as a military narrative of the ideological battle between socialism and fascism, foreshadowing World War II. Yet the Spanish war continued trends begun during World War I, notably the use of propaganda posters and the movement of women into visible roles within the public sphere. Employing cultural studies methods to read propaganda poster art from the Spanish war as texts, this thesis analyzes the ways in which this persuasive medium represented extremes of gender discourse within the context of letters, memoirs, and other experiential accounts. This thesis analyzes symbols present in propaganda art and considers how their meanings interacted with the changing gendered identities of Republic and nation. Even within the relatively egalitarian Republic, political factions constructed conflicting representations of femininity in propaganda art, and women’s accounts indicate that despite ideological differences, both sides still shared a patriarchal worldview.

This thesis is a study of Hamilton P. Bee and his role in the American Civil War. Bee was first a Texas brigadier general, in charge of a state militia district, and then a Confederate brigadier general, in command of the Western Sub-District of Texas. His duties included administration, diplomacy, and combat. As commander of the area from San Antonio to the Rio Grande, Bee had to cope with Unionist sentiment, regulation of trade – especially the control and impressment of cotton -- border unrest, relations with Mexico and France, and Federal invasion of the Rio Grande border and occupation of the coast. He also took part in the Confederate action against Nathaniel Banks's Red River Campaign into Louisiana in 1864 and participated in the battles of Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, and Monett's Ferry. Bee proved to be a competent administrator and an excellent diplomat, but no combat general. He ran his sub-district and the cotton trade about as well as anyone could have, and through his arrangements with the cotton owners was the only one who arrived at a viable method whereby the government obtained the needed cotton. His extradition agreement with the Mexicans and his dealings with them kept the peace on the border. But he had no experience in combat, and, when the Union forces invaded Texas at Brownsville, he panicked and ran. His actions in the battles in Louisiana showed him to be courageous and level-headed in the heat of battle, but were still indicative of his inexperience. After Richard Taylor accused him of letting Banks escape and relieved him of duty, Bee could do little to regain public confidence even though he was not at fault. He spent the remainder of the conflict in Texas and at war's end fled to Mexico to escape Unionist wrath. Since Bee was involved in all the major issues of the Trans-Mississippi, a study of his career offers a key to understanding the problems and difficulties in Texas and the failure of the area to live up to its potential to aid the Confederate war effort.

The object of this thesis is to discuss an experimental composite conservation process and its significance for the future of artifact conservation. Composite artifacts are artifacts comprised of multiple materials such as wood, iron, and brass. The experiment was designed around five Civil War Enfield rifles from the wreck of the Civil War blockade runner Modern Greece. The main conservation difficulty for both metal and wood from a saltwater site is the presence of chlorides. If not removed, the chlorides will cause the metals to further corrode. If the chlorides are left within the wood, once the wood dries the chlorides will crystallize and burst remaining cellular structure. The second major problem for wood is the cellular structure itself. Degraded waterlogged wood loses most of its cellular structure while submerged and this must be reinforced prior to drying or partial to total collapse of the wood will occur. Composite artifacts pose one more serious problem, their composite nature. In most instances treatments for one material type are damaging to the other materials present. Disassembly of an artifact often has detrimental effects on the whole artifact whether through initial damage or the inability to reassemble the artifact after stabilization. In 1979, four Enfield rifles from Modern Greece were compositely conserved using either tetraethyl orthosilicate, sucrose, or isopropyl rosin. All three treatments focused on the conservation of the wood, resulting in the current poor condition of the iron elements. The research of this thesis uses the combined treatments of silicone oil (to treat the wood) and electrolytic reduction [ER] (to stabilize the metals), with minimal disassembly. It was discovered that prolonged exposure of the wood elements during ER had deleterious effects, post the silicone oil treatment. This prompted a re-evaluation of the research strategy. It was determined to do a re-treatment of the wood components of four of the rifles with silicone oil after the ER process. It was apparent during the ER process that iron components had loosened and could be removed allowing the wood to be extracted from the ER process earlier than the iron. Even though the experiment did not go as planned and the initial results were undesirable, valuable information was ascertained for treatment strategies and positive results are expected for the final four rifles. The retreatment of the wood with silicone oil should allow the wood to retain its shape, making reassembly possible.

Conflict and agriculture have a long, shared history. The purpose of this research is to look at the relationships between agriculture, agricultural technologies, and conflict during current and recent conflicts, large scale and localized. Agriculture and its related technologies are often affected by conflict, but rarely acknowledged as a cause or solution to conflict. Literature reviews in six topic areas illustrate various facets of the relationship between agriculture and conflict. Research conducted in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala illustrates the ways farmers were impacted by the country’s civil war. It also examines farmer survival strategies during the war, and reveals the presence of minor localized conflict over water resources. Conflict over land is not a major concern at present. Market access for inputs and outputs are shown to have been a problem for a number of farmers during the civil war. The poverty of Santa Cruz farmers indicates that much could be gained by rural development. Research is unable to support the hypotheses that agricultural technologies have prevented or caused conflict in Santa Cruz del Quiché, or that they have played a large role in recovery from the country’s civil war. The author recommends that future research be undertaken in regions with a diverse set of agricultural technologies, and/or a recent history of significant technological change in agriculture. Policy recommendations include providing secure access to markets during war time, increasing capacity for home-based rural production, and continuing research into resilient crops. Finally, the author suggests that the responsible decision to develop, adopt, or introduce an agricultural technology must take into account the social consequences of that decision, including how the new technology may alleviate or contribute to conflict.

My project examines the legacy of the Gettysburg Address from 1863 to 1965. After an introduction and a chapter setting the stage, each succeeding chapter surveys the meaning of the Gettysburg Address at key moments: the initial reception of the speech in 1863; its status during the semi-centennial in 1913 and during the construction of the Lincoln Memorial; the place it held during the world wars; and the transformation of the Address in the late 1950s and early 1960s marked by the confluence of the Cold War, Civil Rights Movement, Lincoln Birth Sesquicentennial, and Civil War Centennial. My final chapter considers how interpretations of the Address changed in textbooks from 1900 to 1965, and provides the entire trajectory of the evolving meanings of the speech in one medium and in one chapter. For each time period I have analyzed what the Address meant to people living in four cities: Gettysburg, Richmond, New York, and London. My argument is twofold. First, rather than operating as a national document the Gettysburg Address has always held different meanings in the North and South. Given that the speech addressed questions central to the United States (equality and democracy), this lack of a common interpretation illustrates that there was no singular collective memory or national identity regarding core values. Second, as the nation and world shifted, so did the meaning of the Gettysburg Address. Well into the twentieth-century the essence of the speech was proclaimed to be its support of the democratic form of government as opposed to monarchies or other institutions. But in the middle twentieth-century that interpretation began to shift, with many both abroad and at home beginning to see the speech’s assertion of human equality as its focal point and most important contribution.