https://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/files/original/d9c040fce6f808094eecbd490409ac53.png d72e53f8cbe1ca87cb810b40d6660527 https://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/files/original/bba07b0c706f8984d9ab1e964d93b6b3.png 65eb371b9eef349eafa98262f1dd26e9 https://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/files/original/2d76777becf8e9d15ea2c273de7a4436.png f291bad194fa70da80780881617873f9 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: gallatin Copiah Cty Feb the 27 1863 Honrable govenor pettus William Scott Galatin Miss dear sir I want to sollissit your aide in providing bacon for our sol^gers^ they ar starving on poor winter beef and sickening and dying with bowel complaint from starvation they get nothing but poor beef and bread and a little malases the can[strikethrough]n[strikethrough]not live on that as ther stomach wont take that as they have bin fed on it so long and at this season of the year it is full of worms and a well fed dog would not eat it people want ther country protected and yet they are not willing to fead the solgers I will tell you how it can be done if you will order every slaveholder in the state. and if the power dose not lay in you I wish if you pleas that you would lay it be fore them that can make it a law for every Slave holder to [strikethrough] give [strikethrough] put in good sound baco^n^ in proportion to his slave taxes and make them deliver it at ther nearest Page 2: shipping points through out the state and that I have it maid and well detaild to go with it and deliver it to every camp if not it wont go pleas do this amediatly without fail as I no There is a plenty of good bacon through out the state to fead our poor Starving protecters and can be spared if people ar unable to spar it we that are at home have plenty of milk and butter and poltry and vegatables and so [strikethrough] on [strikethrough] forth that we can live on and let our protecters have the bacon let me cite you to one instance that came under my observation a few days a go I carred some provisions to a friend of mine in a camp at Brookhaven there I staid all night in a camp whare thare was a man that had bin ^in^ camps six months a Mr. Hickenbottom he was a larg fraimd man but was redust to a mer skellatin from ^sickness [strikethrough] and [strikethrough] caused^ starvation he eat a little that eavening and nex morning he drank some soupe made out of the ribs of the poart that I carred and at nine oclock he said he was able to attend the role call and I no if it is looked into that the lives of our braves would be saved in a great measure if something is not done s[strikethrough][unclear][strikethrough]adly the sick^ness^ and deaths caused by Starvation will give the country to the invaders hands the solgers is confined in the army the cant go home to get a change of diet and my dear friend if think that we that can better ther poor starv ing conditions [art?] by [every?] means to do it and do it stedily thare is plenty of meat in the country and the sitazans ar saving it for speckalation if they could get a dollar per pound they would open ther smoke houses and let a few ^hundred^ lbs go and I think this speckelation art to be put [down?] at once there is some that would rather halde it back for speckelation untill The harry worms would eat it up rather than fead the solgers that gard them while they sleep. I dont want harry worms fed I want my countrys protectors fed and the fat of our land men art to be detaild to go continuly over the country and to be provisions to every camp and let govern ment set a price an the same some persons that have relatives in the army some times send them some nurishments from home but thare is hundr[strikethrough]e[strikethrough]eds that have no one that is able to send them a mouthfull and they set are by and look wistfull at it Page 3: as they see ther comreds eat it and are not able to procure one mouthfull there is a great meny who have no home but [strikethrough] thare [strikethrough] the army this distressing to me I have seen a great meny and they all tell ^me^ that the most of the deaths in camps is caused by the sort of diet they get any man or set of men that would refis to came up to this proposial is not worthe of the protection that the [shem?] from our brave solgers and do for it god sake attend to it without fail as soon as pasable your most obediant friend William Scott E Ps let it be said [strikethrough] sicks [strikethrough] sholders and hams as they have no vegetables 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 William Scott to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus; February 27, 1863 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context mdah_757-944-3-24 Subject The topic of the resource Confederate States of America. Army.; Mississippi. Governor; Mississippi. Militia; Pettus, John Jones, 1813-1867. Description An account of the resource From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Pettus Collection. Letter from William Scott to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus asking the Governor to provide Mississippi soldiers with better quality food to eat. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Scott, William 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 1863-02-27 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 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1863