The Reverend Henry Clay Trumbull served as chaplain to the 10th Connecticut Volunteer Regiment from 1862 to 1865 during the American Civil War. During that time he wrote nearly 250 letters to his wife alone (he wrote hundreds more), describing his actions and experiences as he ministered to the soldiers. Along with the letters, he kept detailed diaries and a lengthy journal of a four-month experience in a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp in Columbia, S.C. Trumbull's letters therefore constitute an important collection of primary source research material. Reverend Trumbull provides us with an in-depth portrait of a highly qualified, dedicated and concerned chaplain. Because he exposed himself to the hardships and uncertainties of warfare, he earned the respect, admiration and affection of both officers and enlisted men. / Master of Arts

The history of the 9th Virginia reveals a personal struggle within a much larger conflict. The regiment's performance at the June, 1862, battle of Seven Pines was disappointing. After the encounter, the unit not only marched against the Federals but looked for the opportunity to redeem itself. However, the occasion to regain its good standing was slow in coming. General Lewis A. Armistead, the regiment's brigade commander, initially posted the 9th Virginia to guard roadways during subsequent engagements at Malvern Hill. Armistead also held the regiment in reserve while most of the brigade counterattacked along the York River Railroad. The entire brigade remained as a support unit during the clash at Second Manassas. Following the battle, Armistead declined to set in motion a night attack, as suggested by a fellow general, because Armistead felt his command would have trouble executing such a complicated assault. At Fredericksburg the brigade defended the Confederate middle-- the safest position on the Southern line. The second rate assignments the regiments received spawns the obvious question concerning the unit. Did Armistead lack faith in the 9th Virginia? The summer after Seven Pines, the regiment participated in Pickett's charge at Gettysburg and the flow of events changed. The Confederacy began its painful decline. Armistead was killed and the 9th Virginia suffered tremendous casualties. Yet the unit established a positive place for itself in military history. / Master of Arts

Libby Prison ranked as one of the most notorious of Civil War compounds. Used as a transitory depot and hospital as well as a permanent place of confinement, over 125,000 Federal prisoners passed through Libby's doors. The Confederate States Military Prison headquarters located in Libby Prison made it the focal point of Richmond's spindly prison system. Prisoners' diaries tell of depravations suffered during captivity. Insufferable living conditions, poor food rations, inadequate hospital facilities and harsh punishment composed a majority of the prisoners' complaints. Daily newspaper accounts reflected the lifestyles of Richmond's population and residents' attitudes toward the presence of Federal captives in their city. A majority of the time, prisoners had access to the daily papers. Yet very few of them attempted to draw a correlation between the type of existence that they endured within Libby Prison versus the civilian population's struggle to sustain itself in likewise unsuitable circumstances. The Official Records of the Civil War round out the picture of the difficulties faced by the Confederate government in trying to maintain large numbers of prisoners with proper shelter and food. Added to this was the continual desire of Confederate authorities to establish an exchange system to alleviate their burden and Federal prisoners' suffering. This thesis attempts to draw these major sources of information together. Prisoners' reminiscences used in this study were critically evaluated for their validity. To establish the diarists' retention in Libby Prison for the period indicated in the diary, Roll Call Books located at the National Archives were consulted. Newspapers and official correspondence balanced out the interpretation of Libby life. Throughout the Civil War, the Confederate government did not attempt intentionally to deprive Federal prisoners of adequate provisions. A majority of the time, circumstances dictated the actions disliked by captor and prisoner alike. / Master of Arts

Arkansas occupied a key position in the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department. It offered a gateway for Confederate troops to move north and secure Missouri for the Confederacy, or for Union troops to move south towards Texas and Louisiana. During the war, Union and Confederate armies moved back and forth across the state engaging in numerous encounters. This paper is a year by year study of those encounters and engagements occurring in Arkansas between 1861 and 1865. Emphasis is necessarily placed on the significant campaigns and engagements. Actions which occurred in adjacent states but which militarily affected Arkansas are also discussed. The majority of the material was compiled from the Official Records.

It is the purpose of this study to reveal that the morale of the southern civilians was an important factor in determining the fall of the Confederacy. At the close of the Civil War, the South was exhausted and weak, with only limited supplies to continue their defense. The Confederacy might have been rallied by the determination of its people, but they lacked such determination, for the hardships and grief they endured had turned their cause into a meaningless struggle. Therefore, the South fell because its strength depended upon the will of its population. This study is based on accounts by contemporaries in diaries, memoirs, newspapers, and journals, and it reflects their reaction to the collapse of homefront morale.

This thesis combines a traditional narrative history of a Confederate artillery battery with a socio-economic study of its members. A database was constructed using the Compiled Service Records, 1860 census, and county tax rolls. The information revealed similarities between the unit's members and their home area. Captain James M. Daniel organized the battery in Paris, Texas and it entered Confederate service in January 1862. The battery served in Walker's Texas Division. It was part of a reserve force at the Battle of Milliken's Bend and was involved in the battles of Bayou Bourbeau, Mansfield, and Pleasant Hill. The battery also shelled Union ships on the Mississippi River. Daniel's Battery officially surrendered at Natchitoches, Louisiana, in May 1865.

This thesis explores the impact of home front and battlefield morale on Texas's civilian and military population during the Civil War. It addresses the creation, maintenance, and eventual surrender of Confederate nationalism and identity among Texans from five different counties: Colorado, Dallas, Galveston, Harrison, and Travis. The war divided Texans into three distinct groups: civilians on the home front, soldiers serving in theaters outside of the state, and soldiers serving within Texas's borders. Different environments, experiences, and morale affected the manner in which civilians and soldiers identified with the Confederate war effort. This study relies on contemporary letters, diaries, newspaper reports, and government records to evaluate how morale influenced national dedication and loyalty to the Confederacy among various segments of Texas's population.

Of the large amount of writings concerning the Civil War only a small percentage pertains to the Federal Navy's role. This is understandable since this was primarily a land war. A few of the Navy's exploits such as the capture of New Orleans, the sinking of the Alabama, the capture of the Florida in Brazilian waters, and the Trent affair received great amounts of publicity, but the majority of the naval activities were of a routine nature, each individually warranting little notice but collectively contributing immensely to the final Federal victory. The purpose of this paper is to show in detail the role of only a portion of the Navy, the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, during this struggle.

This study examines the social and economic characteristics of the men who joined the Confederate Fourteenth Texas Infantry Regiment during the Civil War and provides a narrative history of the regiment's wartime service. The men of the Fourteenth Infantry enlisted in 1862 and helped to turn back the Federal Red River Campaign in April 1864. In creating a portrait of these men, the author used traditional historical sources (letters, diaries, medical records, secondary narratives) as well as statistical data from the 1860 United States census, military service records, and state tax rolls. The thesis places the heretofore unknown story of the Fourteenth Texas Infantry within the overall body of Civil War historiography.

In late 1861, the Confederate Texas government commissioned Joseph W. Speight to raise an infantry battalion. Speight's Battalion became the Fifteenth Texas Infantry in April 1862, and saw almost no action for the next year as it marched throughout Texas, Arkansas, and the Indian Territory. In May 1863 the regiment was ordered to Louisiana and for the next seven months took an active role against Federal troops in the bayou country. From March to May 1864 the unit helped turn away the Union Red River Campaign. The regiment remained in the trans-Mississippi region until it disbanded in May 1865. The final chapter quantifies age, family status, wealthholdings, and casualties among the regiment's members.