https://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/files/original/45cbabf8ae85850ee8bdf8abc9352f63.png 2251cd61e004047e6fa5562e11bc9b3f https://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/files/original/0a932616cb8f8ec58bbda49020e83dce.png 9e6fbb51f8aa5e23552cac6ba0f3f0d7 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Soldiers and the Military Experience Subject The topic of the resource The sample documents in this section help site users explore the wartime experiences of Mississippi soldiers and their families. They reveal men's frustrations with military discipline, hardships suffered by families with their men absent, and the gradual increase of dissent and desertion across the state. New Recruits: Letters or petitions from new recruits reveal their resistance to strict military discipline, especially in the earliest days of the war. A great example of this appears in <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/7">James Gates's June 1861 letter</a> protesting his commander's strict treatment of the men, refusing to allow them to return home for a few days, and withholding their pay. Gates served in the Tallahatchie Rifles, organized in Charleston, MS, which later mustered into Confederate (national) service as Company F, 21st Mississippi Infantry Regiment. State Forces: Men who served in state-level forces also submitted protests to the governor, but these usually related to lack of pay, weapons and supplies, or to transfers to national service. State-level volunteers were usually older men with families who opted for service closer to home to stay near their families and work their farms. You can see this in this <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/34">January 1863 petition</a> from the men of the 1st Regiment, Mississippi Minute Men, explaining why they specifically sought state-level service and protest their transfer to national service. Note that they were not seeking discharges. This can be seen as a form of dissent, but it is not disloyalty and certainly not desertion, which surfaces in other records. These men were willing to stay in service, but along the terms of their original enlistment. Wartime Pressures: As the war dragged on, the documents reveal how white Mississippians responded to the need to recruit, supply, nurse, and feed soldiers. There are also concerns about counties' need to fulfill draft laws and increasing rates of desertion. See, for example, this <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/40">1863 petition</a> by 1st Lieutenant W. A. Mitchell, Company K, 4 Regiment Mississippi State Troops, for a 20-day furlough to provide for his impoverished wife and five children. Mitchell had been in service (first at the national-level, then state-level) since the beginning of the war. There is also a <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/17">June 1862 telegram</a> from Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard that speaks to the rising number of deserters and Confederate leaderships' determination to address this. His telegram clarifies that soldiers who do not have official leave for sickness or furloughs must be arrested as deserters. African-American Enlistments: At about the same time white soldiers' desertion rates became dangerous to the Confederate war effort in Mississippi, African-American enlistments in U.S. forces proved an equal troubling issue for the South. This <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/51">November 1863 telegram</a> from the commander-in-chief of the Confederacy, President Jefferson Davis (a Mississippian), reveals those concerns as Davis discusses the recruitment (or conscription, as Davis phrased it) of African-American men into U.S. forces. It is unclear exactly what Davis proposes should be done about this, but the CWRGM research team is digging into the documents around this item in the collection to learn more. Desertion and Dissent: Most of the documents related to desertion and strong dissent are in the "Memory and Commemoration" and can be found by keyword searches for "desertion." Examples of desertion by soldiers and dissenting attitudes by soldiers and civilians include <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/39">this letter</a> by 1st Lt. P. G. Norman, 1st Mississippi State Troops, expressing his frustration in March 1863 that the residents of Canton, MS, were encouraging desertion and local authorities seemed to be doing little to arrest soldiers who were absent without leave.<a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/47"> Lewis Pipes of Natchez, MS </a>expressed similar frustrations in June 1863 (during the Vicksburg Campaign) noting that there were 500 deserters in the county living off of food meant for the army or families in the area. This does not mean, however, that all white Mississippians had abandoned their support for the Confederacy by 1863. Documents can be found from as late as February 1865, like this one from <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/64">M. S. Ward in Enterprise, MS</a>, suggesting ways that the state could more efficiently capture deserters and return them to military service. The Fog of War: Site visitors with an interest in military history will want to study the telegrams in this sampling and in the larger collection as it becomes available. They reveal the immediacy and urgency of military intelligence during campaigns, sometimes on a daily or even hourly basis. See, for example, this telegram from <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/61">November 1863 </a>warning the governor that 10,000 U.S. forces had left Vicksburg and were marching toward Jackson, or this <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/52">1864 telegram</a> from Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, warning the governor of a sizable Federal force moving through the northern part of state. (Written by Susannah J. Ural, Ph.D.) Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Page 1: June 21st 1862, Gov Pettus, I have been assigned other duties and for the present am removed from Vicksburg, I sent your saddle to you for I did not know when you would go to V,B, and I did know when I left, it would be made the [back?] saddle, for the camp, I am inclined to think that there is little hope of holding Vicksburg and that it is the intention of the Confederate officers to fall back on the line of the Mobile & Ohio R,R, I have always gave where ordered and in my deparment have been, I hope, an effecient officer, If not, why Am I sent so often on detatched service, I want Maj Gen Tupper to organize the militia and my lot will be cast with him, I have some experience and am going to Canton tomorrow on official business, where I hope to see him, and If you can do so, please give me a letter of introduction, I cannot & will not leave Miss, with the infernal Yankee shouting in my rear, My all is here, and here I stay, I shall resign & hope to get something to do under my nation state Page 2: Whatever I may know of military matters & I have not been an uninterested spectator for 12 months of camp life & Army Movements, I lay on the alter of Mississippi, I shall live on or under the soil of my nation state, [Pompy?] will meet me at the cars sunday night, on my way is Canton, I wish to have a conference with Gen. Tupper & if you & he, can find anything for me to do I shall gladly take service, I have the ^honor^ to be vry respectfully [yr?] [mo?] obt servt J, J, Smylie If you take the field in person, which I hope you will do when science leaves us, I would cheerfully & most gladlly follow your lead & I see no better chance to win imperishable renown than would then present itself to you J, J, Smylie wishes letter of introduction to Gen Tupper June 1862 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letter from J. J. Smylie to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus; June 21, 1862 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1862 Subject The topic of the resource Mississippi. Governor; Pettus, John Jones, 1813-1867. Description An account of the resource From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Pettus Collection. Letter from J. J. Smylie to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus concerning United States forces movements against Vicksburg, Mississippi. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Smylie, J. J. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Mississippi Department of Archives and History. (electronic version); Mississippi Digital Library. (electronic version) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1862-06-21 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Funding for this project provided by The Dale Center for Study of War and Society-USM, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the Mississippi Digital Library, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the University of Southern Mississippi, and the Watson-Brown Foundation Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource NO COPYRIGHT - UNITED STATES; http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/ Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context mdah_757-942-2-24