Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
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The Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society and the Civil War
Get PDFCivil War historians, particularly those interested in women\u27s experiences, stand to learn a great deal by taking a new look at old sources. Among these are the minutes of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS), housed at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. PFASS\u27s minutes document the society\u27s monthly meetings and provide a rather comprehensive list of the work the women did. The minute books record what the group accomplished between meetings, organizational correspondence, and the activities of individual members. Because the group did not disband until 1870, the minutes hold potential for scholars seeking to understand the still unexplored experiences of women of color during the Civil War and Reconstruction and how this novel group of women sought to shape the political events of the day
Mayer Frankel: A Tale from the National Archives\u27 Service and Pension Records
Get PDFLike so many other Civil War researchers, I have come to trust and even anticipate digging through a variety of sources to uncover the experiences of individual soldiers. And I\u27ve learned that for real hard-core facts and maybe even some deep, dark secrets, the service and pension records at the National Archives are an invaluable, and fun, trove of information. Service records give basic facts—muster in and out dates, whether or not a soldier was there for the monthly roll call. They sometimes note whether a soldier was killed or wounded at a particular battle. Pension records include even more details. When a veteran applied for a pension, he had to submit an affidavit, get a physical, and provide much other information.An interesting example of the value of these records is the case of Mayer (or Meyer or Myer, depending upon the source) Frankel. Frankel\u27s descendants had much information on him, most gleaned from his 1907 obituary and from a 1977 taped interview with his daughter
Exhibit Review: Our House? THe President\u27s House at Insependence National Historical Park
Get PDFThe President\u27s House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation. Independence National Historical Park, Market and Sixth Streets. Kelly/Maiello Architects and Planners, exhibit design. Opened:December 2010. Admission: free
Guard Wars: The 28th Infantry Division in World War II. By Micael E. Weaver
Get PDFMilitary historians occasionally invoke the age-old adage that "generals prepare to fight the last war. "In the case of the U.S. Army between the world wars, however, generals did not adequately prepare to fight any war—especially not one that would extend to the farthest reaches of the globe, tax American manpower and industrial production capabilities to their limits, and usher in the age of nuclear warfare
Early Drafts of thr U.S. Constitution
Get PDFTHE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA possesses the richest collection of documents relating to the drafting of the U.S. Constitution, the engrossed text of the Constitution and James Madison\u27s Notes of the 1787 convention aside. This introductory essay is based on a series of articles in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law
Pennsylvania and the American Civil War: An Annotated Guide to Online Resources
Get PDFAnnotated overview of historical newspapers; periodicals, phamphels and other publications; manuscript materials and peraonl papers; maps, music, images, and ephemera; miltary history; slavery; and other guides to online and digital resources
Editorial
Get PDFThis year we begin a multiyear national commemoration of perhaps the most wrenching conflict our nation has endured, the American Civil War. Thus, it seemed appropriate for the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography to use the occasion of this initial sesquicentennial year to reflect upon Pennsylvania\u27s role in this seminal event, examine the state of historical scholarship on the commonwealth\u27s history during this era, share new work on the topic, and encourage further exploration of a subject that continues to attract both scholars and the general public and that continues to have meaning for our life today
"A Remarkable Case": A Surgeon\u27s Letter to the Huntington County Globe
No full textIt would have taken an extraordinary set of wounds to surprise a Union surgeon four years into the bloody war. A remarkable letter buried in the pages of the Huntington County Globe in August 1865, however, details just such a case and gives us a glimpse into the rigors of life as a soldier and into the practice of medicine during the Civil War. Orderly Sergeant Michael Logan of the Sixteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry had the misfortune of being treated for so many grievous battle injuries that in August 1865, a week after Logan\u27s company had mustered out in Richmond, Virginia,J. E. P., the surgeon of the ward at the York, Pennsylvania, hospital wrote a letter to Logan\u27s local newspaper describing the case
Reconstruction the Life of a Colored Woman: The Pocket Diaries of Emilie F. Davis
Get PDFOn January 1, 1863, the day the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in Confederate states under federal control, went into effect, Emlie F. Davis, a twenty-one-year-old freeborn black woman, sat in her room in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, pulled out her pocket diary, and proceeded to write about her feelings and activities. From January 1, 1863, to December 31, 1865, Davis recorded her private thoughts, hopes, concerns, and fears, as well as gossip, news, and information about local and national events in three leather-bound pocket diaries, which are currently housed at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Through her simple act of recording her daily experiences, Davis has left us with a much-needed lens through which to glimpse the everyday experiences of a free black woman in Philadelphia during the Civil War
The Civil War Collections at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Get PDFThe sesquicentennial commemoration of the American Civil War is drawing deserved attention to Pennsylvania\u27s and Pennsylvanians\u27 involvement in and connection to this tumultuous period, as academics and the general public explore the diverse contributions and experiences of the state and its residents from scholarly or familial perspectives. Of the twenty-one million manuscripts, seven hundred thousand publications, and over five hundred thousand graphic items housed at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, a significant portion are primary and secondary sources pertaining to the Civil War