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.

In the spring of 1861, eager young men gathered in small towns in five southeastern North Carolina counties and enlisted in ten local companies. After spending the summer in a Wilmington training camp, these companies were combined to form the 18th North Carolina Infantry Regiment. The regiment served for a short time in South Carolina before joining the war in Virginia as a member of Gen. Lawrence Branch's brigade. The 18th North Carolina first saw combat in May, 1862, at the Battle of Hanover Court House. A month later, the unit fought in the Seven Days' Battles as part of the Army of Northern Virginia. The 18th North Carolina took an active role in the victorious campaigns of the autumn. In May, 1863, it had the misfortune to be the "friendly" unit that wounded Gen. Stonewall Jackson in the woods near Chancellorsville. At Gettysburg, the 18th North Carolina assaulted the Union center with the rest of the ill-fated soldiers in Pickett’s Charge. The regiment struggled with the army against Grant in the long campaign that culminated in the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House in April. 1865. This is the history of the 18th North Carolina from its creation to its surrender. / Master of Arts

Neither the Union nor the Confederacy was prepared to care for the massive numbers of sick and wounded which occurred at the onset of the Civil War. While their surgeons benefited from the knowledge gained during the Crimean War regarding the cleanliness of military hospitals, the isolation of infection, and the use of the new general anesthetics, no facilities for their use existed in America. The Confederate Chief Surgeon, Samuel Preston Moore, had no entrenched medical bureaucracy to battle. By early 1862 he had formed a well-organized medical department and had many hospitals operational. His surgeons shared the problems of their northern colleagues: ignorance of the cause of infection, inadequate training, and untrained hospital personnel to care for the sick and wounded. What the South did not share with the North was alack of resources which was intensified by a naval blockade. This narrative thesis uses records from three Richmond hospitals of 1862-1865 to reveal the problems faced by all hospital personnel, and to address the question of responsibility for the high rates of hospital morbidity and mortality which occurred. It is technically oriented to give both physicians and laymen insight into the day to day triumphs and tragedies of these men and women who worked under nearly impossible conditions. / Master of Arts

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This thesis seeks to answer the following question: What was the legacy of the Sisters of Charity in the history of philanthropy, women’s history, medicine and nursing? The Sisters of Charity was a Catholic religious order that provided volunteer nurses, and became highly visible, during the American Civil War. Several hundred Catholic sister nurses served; they supported both the Union and Confederacy by caring for soldiers from both armies. The sisters’ story is important because of the religious and gender biases they overcame. As nurses, the Sisters of Charity interacted with different people: they cared for soldiers, worked at the direction of surgeons and alongside lay relief workers. The war propelled them into public view, and the sisters acted as agents of change. Their philanthropy eroded some of the antebellum cultural proscriptions that previously confined Catholics, women and nurses. This thesis argues the Sisters of Charity created and implemented an antebellum philanthropic model, key aspects of which the majority, non-Catholic culture emulated after the war. The Sisters of Charity were agents of social change: they broke down religious, social and gender barriers, and developed a prototype for a healthcare model that the secular world emulated. Many women responded to the unprecedented suffering and cataclysmic conditions of the Civil War in a multitude of ways, and philanthropy was forever changed as a result. Wartime benevolence provided templates for large-scale voluntary organizations, illuminated the issue of payment for charity workers, moved the practice of philanthropy from individual to institutional, and led to the development of nursing as a profession. Female voluntarism shifted into the front and center of the public sphere. Charitable work moved along the continuum from individual to institutional, from volunteer to professional. Questions regarding the respective roles of payment to charitable workers developed. Nursing gained recognition as a profession, and formal training began. The Sisters of Charity were leaders in all these areas, and their orders served as models for the future of philanthropy. Yet they are often absent from analyses of the trajectory of nineteenth-century philanthropy, and this thesis delivers them to the discussion.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / After governing Indiana during the Civil War, Oliver P. Morton acquired great national influence as a Senator from 1867 to 1877 during Reconstruction. He advocated for African American suffrage and proper remembrance of the Union cause. When he died in 1877, political colleagues, family members, and many Union veterans recalled Morton’s messages and used the occasion to reflect on the nation’s memories of the Civil War and Reconstruction. This thesis examines Indiana’s Governor and Senator Oliver P. Morton, using his postwar speeches, public commentary during and after his life, and the public testimonials and monuments erected in his memory to analyze his role in defining Indiana’s historical memories of the Civil War and Reconstruction from 1865 to 1907. The eulogies and monument commemoration ceremonies reveal the important reciprocal relationship between Morton and Union veterans, especially Indiana members of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). As the GAR’s influence increased during the nineteenth century, Indiana members used Morton’s legacy and image to promote messages of patriotism, national unity, and Union pride. The monuments erected in Indianapolis and Washington, D. C., reflect Indiana funders’ desire to remember Morton as a Civil War Governor and to use his image to reinforce viewers’ awareness of the sacrifices and results of the war. This thesis explores how Morton’s friends, family, political colleagues, and influential members of the GAR emphasized Morton’s governorship to use his legacy as a rallying point for curating and promoting partisan memories of the Civil War and, to a lesser extent, Reconstruction, in Indiana.

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.

Includes information about Emperor Maximilian of Mexico adopting a policy of neutrality towards the Confederate States of America, statistics on the standing armies of various countries in Europe, information on Irish immigrants coming to the United States, coverage of Civil War battles and news, and two anonymous poems entitled "The Spring - The Awaking" and "When Shall it Be?"

Includes information about a brief by Pope Pius IX on the Munich Congress of Catholic Sevans, Emperor Maximilian accepts the throne in Mexico, President Lincoln approving an act that authorizes the people of Nebraska to form a Constitution and state government, a declaration by Queen Victoria to the people of England, and an anonymous poem entitled "The Month of Mary."

Includes information about an Englishman's account of Fort Sumter, an improved type-setting machine invented by Mr. Felt of Boston, MA, Yellow Fever in Key West, negative reports of the the summer campaign of the Civil War from a Union perspective, the Rev. Dr. Spalding of Louisville accepting the role of Archbishop of Baltimore, and two poems; one by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow entitled "Palingenesis" and one by Amelia entitled "Sonnet to My Mother."

Includes information about coverage of Civil War battles and other Civil War news, a statue that will be erected of Christopher Columbus in Spain, Queen Victoria's address on England's stance at home and abroad, and two poems; one by Hon. T. D. M'Gee entitled "Jacques Cartier" and an anonymous one entitled "Encouragement."