https://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/files/original/b49429e660e465ef65e75c1de78585a1.png 69045f971e2be123cb763d8056c439d2 https://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/files/original/50e2bf713f2c9453c3ce1b36d143626e.png 35c304d22828c4878a75cbe7e089a518 https://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/files/original/0df1a48f5b548dcdb098206ced086ba7.png 1abd72d145e272a37e7d647b1474a3c6 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 Civilians and Divided Loyalties Subject The topic of the resource The sample documents in this section are designed to help site users study the impact of military campaigns and other wartime pressures on the Mississippi home front. They also reveal that while some Mississippians remained devoted Confederates, others were steadfast Unionists, while others changed their positions during the war. These documents also spotlight the changing gender roles women experienced in the war — thrusting them into positions as heads of households in the absence of husbands, fathers, or adult sons in military service. Women of all classes asserted their needs to the governor, especially soldiers' wives and widows. The collection also indicates that women's leadership of households did not end with the war. Considering the high death toll of the Civil War (750,000 Americans (military and civilian; North and South), and the number of <a href="https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/about/exhibition/lifeandlimb.html#:~:text=More%20than%20three%20million%20soldiers,saved%20lives%20by%20sacrificing%20limbs">permanently disabled veterans</a>, it shouldn't be surprising that women would need to remain in roles as breadwinners. Finally, be sure to examine one of the most interesting letters in the collection that describes efforts by Governor James Lusk Alcorn's administration to stop the assaults and murders committed by the Ku Klux Klan across the state. <div>Secession Support: Several documents in this sample reveal white Mississippians' early support for secession and desire to contribute to the Confederate cause, including <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/1">Charles Fontaine's calls for secession</a> from Pontotoc, MS just after Abraham Lincoln won the Election of 1860. See also<a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/8"> Mrs. J. O. Smith's appeal from Vicksburg</a>, where, in September 1861, she offered her services to the Confederate cause as a volunteer nurse in Virginia. Wartime Pressures: Other documents in this sample reveal the pressures Mississippians faced as Union forces invaded the state, including food shortages that affected their families. A good example of this is <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/20">L. J. Wilson's plea from Vicksburg</a>, MS, in July 1862 (a year before the Federal siege of that city) for state-assistance to provide sufficient salt for food preservation, as well as wood and water to residents. See also militiaman W. V. W. McLendon's description of food shortages in March 1863 and his proposed solution that militiamen be sent home to plant and <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/36">later harvest those crop</a>s. In Marion, MS, C. W. Henderson suggested securing corn from counties where it grew in abundance, and distributing it to <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/32">soldiers' families</a> in areas like his own Lauderdale County which was in "a Suffering condition." Be sure to do a keyword search for "food" or "salt" to pick up letters in the other themes about shortages. There's a fascinating letter by William E. Scott (Copiah County) in <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/35">February 1863</a> suggesting ways that the governor might alleviate devastating hunger among Confederate soldiers across the state. Women Asserting Rights on the Home Front: Several of the wartime letters reveal the experiences of Mississippi white women of all classes asserting their needs to the governor. See, for example, the letter by widow <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/27">Charlotte Smiley of Jefferson County, MS</a>, whose husband died of consumption in Confederate service. Smiley found herself and her family "quite destitute" by August 1862, and hoped for an exemption from her taxes and financial assistance as a military widow. There is also a petition of <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/60">Sarah D. Garrett of Canton, Madison County, MS</a> protesting her September 1864 fine for allowing the enslaved men and women she owned to travel "at large" and "trade as freemen." Garrett made the case successfully that it was not her behavior that caused insecurity in the community, but rather the breakdown of the courts, property seizures by Union and Confederate forces, and the collapsing economy that forced her to take these actions while her sons were away serving in the Confederate army. There is a powerful protest from October 1864 by <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/53">Sarah Neece of Lawrence County</a>, MS against men who seized her pony for Confederate military needs. Neece appears to have been in the right (based on notations on the document), but it's unknown at this time if the horse was ever returned or replaced for the illiterate mother who relied entirely on "a small dun pony" to provide for her four children. The request of <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/78">Caroline M. Burns of Starkville, MS </a>speaks to women's continued roles as breadwinners after the war. She hoped for an exemption from Governor Sharkey's July tax on all <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1865/08/07/archives/mississippi-taxes-imposed-by-gov-sharkey.html">businesses and wartime earnings </a>which, Burns argued, she could not pay in addition to the costs of running an inn out of her home and providing for her children. Still, Burns insisted, the governor should note this was the first exemption request she had ever made, having previously fulfilled the "responsibilities and duties of a good citizen." Mississippi Unionists on the Home Front: The Lost Cause largely erased the memory of white Mississippians who supported the Union during the war, but documents like these demonstrate that they, indeed, existed. As more documents are transcribed and annotated, the CWRGM research team will have a better sense of how prevalent Unionist support was among civilians, as well as why, where and when it tended to increase or decrease. Within this sample, you can find examples of home front Unionism in Mississippi in several July 1865 documents. In one, Union veteran <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/76">William M. Pollan of Choctaw County, MS</a>, spotlights Unionists' fight against secession even after the war ended. He detailed anti-Union statements heard in his community, and, fearing a resurgence of secessionist support, requested permission to organize the many Unionists he claimed exist in his county into a militia to thwart that threat. See also the letter from Unionist <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/73">James Pierce of Columbus, MS</a>. He refused to fight for the Confederacy throughout the war and served as a hospital steward instead. Pierce hoped to secure a position in local or state government through his demonstrated loyalty to the United States now that Mississippi had rejoined the Union. (Written by Susannah J. Ural, Ph.D.)</div> 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: Columbus, Miss., July 11th", 1865, His Excellency W. L. Sharkey; Governor of the State of Miss. Sir, I entreat you most earestly to allow me the honor of addressing you, and beg that I may receive your kind attention for a few minutes. I donot wish to trouble you with a naration of all the events which have transpired in the course of my life, but merely to make known to you who I am, what my condition in life is, and my wants, I am a young man of twenty-four, a Kentuckian by birth, and mostly by training, At the breaking-out of the rebellion, I was complet-ing my education in Texas, I refused to join in the rebellion to destroy the Government I so dearly reverenced. In Jan. 1863, I was reported as being obnoxious to the Southern Confederacy, and soon I received an order from the Secretary of War, to join some regiment at once, or share the fate of a deserter. I came to this side of the river, tore to pieces the order, and my friends, at this place, procured for me the appointment of hospital steward, and from then till the close of the rebellion, I was in a hospital at this place, attending to the wants of the sick and wounded of both sections. Eighteen months since, I married a lady from N. Y. who was a teacher in the Female Institute at this place Page 2: when the war commenced, but, for her loyal opinions, she had to resign I am glad to welcome the old flag back to its proper place, and all I ask, is to be allowed to live under its folds, and to serve it in whatever capacity my services are most needed, Had Secession been successful, I think "it would have proved to be the greatest calamity that co^u^ld have befallen this country, and the greatest calamity to the cause of civil liberty throughout the world," I have had the pleasure of reading your Proclamation, and am incouraged to find in it so much consolation to the loyal citizens, I am glad to know that the government is to be purified from its super-abundance of dross, and set on a more certain foundation than ever, Now, the fact that I have been a loyal man, and that for it, I have been unkindly treated by disunionist and their powers, render me I hope a fit subject upon which your ^pity^ might rest, I beg you to consider this favorably; and if threre be any position vacant, to the filling of which you will be so condsending as to give me the appointment, it will be most thankfully and greatfully received, and my every energy, time and abilities ^shall ^ be entirely devoted to make my work pleasing and profitable to my country, A situation as clerk in any department, is most desired. I have been urged to ask this favor by several officers of the Army, and the loyal citizens of this place, Any references as to my honesty, integrity, and abilities, can be had. The county officers of this county were all elected to their positions on account of their extreme southern politics. Page 3: So far as I know, they have, thus far, condemned all proclamations and orders, as being unconstitutional, And some, who spoke to the public, claimed their elections on the grounds of their valuable services done for the rebel cause, I am, with high consideration, Your most humble servant James H. Pierce 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 James H. Pierce to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey; July 11, 1865 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context mdah_771-955-03-08 Subject The topic of the resource Mississippi. Governor; Sharkey, William Lewis, 1798-1873 Description An account of the resource From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Sharkey Collection. Letter from James H. Pierce to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey asking for an appointment to civil government, as he was a loyal Union man during the war. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Pierce, James H. 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 1865-07-11 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 1865