The battle of Saltville Va. (Oct. 3, 1864) and the subsequent massacre of wounded prisoners from the 5th United States Colored Cavalry has been a neglected and misinterpreted topic. The narrative follows the Federal advance from Kentucky to southwest Virginia including Confederate delaying actions. The work studies the Southern victory and the massacre in detail and introduces new evidence that clarifies the extent of the carnage. The study rates Saltville as the worst battlefield atrocity of the American Civil War. / M.A.

This thesis is a study of the nature of guerilla activity, guerilla tactics in the lower North, guerillas on the middle southern border (Kentucky and Tennessee), guerilla war in Kansas and Missouri, and the guerilla in the Southwest.

Unlike other Confederate armies at the conclusion of the Civil War, General Edmund Kirby Smith's Trans-Mississippi Army disbanded, often without orders, rather than surrender formally. Despite entreaties from military and civilian leaders to fight on, for Confederate soldiers west of the Mississippi River, the surrender of armies led by Generals Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston ended the war. After a significant decline in morale and discipline throughout the spring of 1865, soldiers of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department chose to break-up and return home. As compensation for months of unpaid service, soldiers seized both public and private property. Civilians joined the soldiers to create disorder that swept many Texas communities until the arrival of Federal troops in late June.

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The United States Civil War continues to be an intriguing aspect of history to both scholar and layperson. In light of this broad interest, the relatively small amount of scholarly study of music created by American composers during these years is conspicuous. One of the war's significant composers, both in relationship to the composition and publication of songs in America, was George Frederick Root. Not only were Root's compositions numerous, several pieces assumed major positions in the ongoing sociopolitical musings of a nation seeking to process these turbulent years. This document explores Root's development and productivity as a Civil War era composer and publisher. It also considers his music as representative of the scores of popular compositions that reflected the spirit, artistry, politics, religion, and social processing by the people of the United States of America during one of the most defining periods of its relatively short existence.Chapter one serves as an introduction. It identifies the context, scope, methodology, and delimitation of the study.Chapter two provides a brief overview of the social and cultural climate of the country at the time of the Civil War. It identifies how various forms of artistic expression carried the war directly into private parlors and public squares. More specifically, it discusses the role of parlor songs not only as an important cultural expression for the nation, but also as a valuable commodity for composers and publishers of music such as George Frederick Root.Chapter three describes the developmental years of Root as a composer and businessman. From Willow Farm to the first Normal Music Institute, Root built a foundation of experience and skill that set the scene for a significant impact upon American culture. Influenced by musicians such as Lowell Mason, Louis Gottschalk, and Stephen Foster, his musical landscape was diverse and deeply rooted in the language of popular culture. George Root partnered with his brother Ebenezer Root and business associate Cauncey Cady at the Chicago-based publishing firm of Root and Cady to provide a production and delivery system for music that infiltrated all areas of the country.Chapter four is a collection of Root's thirty-six vocal Civil War parlor songs published by the Root and Cady Publishing Company. The songs are reproduced from the original sheet music. Each song is summarized and the entire collection is analyzed based upon musical and textual considerations.Chapter five provides a summary of this project as well as questions for further study. / School of Music

No description available.

Of the roughly 3,500 volunteer regiments and batteries organized by the Union army during the American Civil War, only a small fraction has been studied in any scholarly depth. Among those not yet examined by historians was one that typified the western armies commanded by the two greatest Federal generals, Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman. The Forty-fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry was at Fort Donelson and Shiloh with Grant in 1862, with Grant and Sherman during the long Vicksburg campaign of 1862 and 1863, and with Sherman in the Meridian, Atlanta, Savannah, and Carolinas campaigns in the second half of the war. These Illinois men fought in several of the most important engagements in the western theater of the war and, in the spring of 1865, were present when the last important Confederate army in the east surrendered. The Forty-fifth was also well connected in western politics. Its unofficial name was the “Washburne Lead Mine Regiment,” in honor of U.S Representative Elihu B. Washburne, who used his contacts and influences to arm the regiment with the best weapons and equipment available early in the war. (The Lead Mine designation referred to the mining industry in northern Illinois.) In addition, several officers and enlisted men were personal friends and acquaintances of Ulysses Grant of Galena, Illinois, who honored the regiment for their bravery in the final attempt to break through the Confederate defenses at Vicksburg. The study of the Forty-fifth Illinois is important to the overall study of the Civil War because of the campaigns and battles the unit participated and fought in. The regiment was also one of the many Union regiments at the forefront of the Union leadership’s changing policy toward the Confederate populace and war making industry. In this role the regiment witnessed the impact of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Of interest then, are the members’ views on the freeing of the slaves. Also of interest are their views on the arming of the slaves into black regiments, and on the Copperhead, anti-war movement in the Union. With ample sources on the regiment, and with no formal history of the unit having been written or published, a scholarly, modern study of the Lead Mine regiment therefore seems in order, as it would provide further insight into the Civil War from the Union soldiers’ perspective and into the sacrifices the men made in order to preserve their country.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The Kimblerlin Family, first white settlers of Scott County, Indiana is used as a focal point to study the impact of the Copperhead movement on southern Indiana during the Civil War. The author has been granted acces to dozens of family letters, to and from the battlefield, that have never been subjected to academic scrutiny. They provide a fascinating mirror that reflects cultural attitudes toward the War, and ultimately, the courage it took to stand firmly for the Union in Copperhead country. / This is the story of the Kimberlin Family that sent 33 fathers and sons, brothers and cousins to fight for the Union cause during the Civil War. Ten family members were killed, wounded, or died of battlefield disease, a 30 percent casualty rate that is unmatched in recorded Scott County history. Of the 134 known deaths of Scott County soldiers, ten were members of the Kimberlin clan. While we know that the Kimberlins suffered disproportionately, our only clues to their feelings about the war come from 40 letters to and from the battlefield that have survived to this day. Were they fighting to save the Union or to free the slaves? How did they express grief over the loss of a brother? Did they keep up with their business and the women at home? And what did they think about “secesh” neighbors in southern Indiana who tried to undermine the Union cause? The answers to these questions will help determine if the Kimberlins were unusual in their patriotism or simply acting as any Union family would in an area of the nation known as Copperhead Country

This study examines Confederate nationalism in Western North Carolina during the Civil War. Using secondary sources, newspapers, civilian, and soldiers‟ letters, this study will show that most Appalachians demonstrated a strong loyalty to their new Confederate nation. However, while a majority Appalachian Confederates maintained a strong Confederate nationalism throughout the war; many Western North Carolinians were not loyal to the Confederacy. Critically analyzing Confederate nationalism in Western North Carolina will show that conceptions of loyalty and disloyalty are not absolute, in other words, Appalachia was not purely loyal or disloyal.

This thesis intends to prove that Stephen V. Ash’s model of occupation from his work, When the Yankees Came: Conflict and Chaos in the Occupied South, is applicable to St. Augustine’s occupation experience in the Civil War. Three overarching themes in Ash’s work are consistent with Civil War St. Augustine. First, that Union policy of conciliation towards southern civilians was abandoned after the first few months of occupation due to both nonviolent and violent resistance from those civilians. Second, that Ash’s “zones of occupation” of the occupied South, being garrisoned towns, no-man’s-land, and the Confederate frontier apply to St. Augustine and the surrounding countryside. Finally, Ash’s assertions that the southern community was changed by the war and Union occupation, is reflected in the massive demographic shifts that rocked St. Augustine from 1862 to 1865. This thesis will show that all three of Ash’s themes apply to St. Augustine’s Civil War occupation experience and confirms the author’s generalizations about life in the occupied South.