https://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/files/original/29c4c83b0b59435da638664e31686554.png 6d8e2f614ed62f3fb89f7ebfc1c7e3f6 https://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/files/original/8f8e7dd0a9edb2f6e0be49599cfdf16b.png 6d6b4265c605ebd05a1c23e64f871e39 https://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/files/original/bfd8ec706265ea28b315b2c99e9b494c.png fbea422179d2569efc09029074584227 https://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/files/original/6584e7db9c0bae5230c09097311b5d08.png 39e1308747d2a4ee7e7cf8c065b68c80 https://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/files/original/edb203058f39334e77d5d0a69dfa3098.png 2ff104629ecf3126e3bb76e1f264397b 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: I am and ever have been an unconditional union man but before and during the war a pro slave-ry man but that is now out of the Question I am whig to the bone yet become the whigs have always been right Wm M P Greensboro Mississippi July 20th 1865 W. L. Sharkey Governor &c My dear friend after my compliments respects &c permit me to State to you I will soon have the whole county of Choctaw organized into companies and will as the Different companies are organized report them to you in order giving the names of all the privates and officers elected and will humbly request you to commission the officers under the Militia Law of the State my reasons for organizing is in order to be ready for any emergency at all times and under all circumstances to Suppress crime Page 2: and keep down rebelion and keep good order and discipline amongst the negro population We now have ^no^ political association which is secret as all our meetings are held public and the doors always kept open and every person allowed to be present and hear and participate as to disbanding the Union League association that is a matter of impossibility as it is growing stronger every day as time moves on and will eventually in my opinion Spread all over the State I will also add that the reason of its continuation and spread is that in different parts of the country your ears are continually greeted with the utterance of disloyal words from the lips of the old arristocratic secessionists and many of their sons who have been soldiers in the Confederate army such as the following I will damned I believe the war is over yet for I will fight again rather than allow any infrigment upon my rights another says I would be rejoiced to see a war get up between The United States and France I will be damned if I do not help France and give her all the aid and comfort I can Still comes another who says he would rather be a free negro than a southern man who has fought for the Union. I have fought for the Union and my son and [niegbers?] with me and would do the same again under similar circumstances as long as this kind Page 3: of language is indulged in by the original Secessionists the Union league association cannot be disbanded lest the moment it is disisted from the association will naturally distend itself but until then I will unable to disband it though I have already done away with the secrecy in my county except for moral and religious purposes and to prevent fraud and theft or any kind of rashness against any man or set of men I now undertake to say that the association has prevented more crime and oppresion than the Military and civil authorities both together I can at any time give the best testimony in the world for all that I say if you wish a thing will done without delay in form me Yours &c Wm M Pollan Page 4: Appendix to the open letter Your Proclamation is all we need and so far as this county is concerned it shall be obeyed to the letter for nothing short of that will answer the purpose at the present time and it must be obeyed From appeariances the original Secessionists are moving heaven and earth to gain the the ascendency again can they be trusted. I answer no no never for the Lord's sake and the country's sake let us have the Union men and none others the secessionists must repent and learn to do right Wisdom's ways are paths of peace yours again Wm, M, Pollan Page 5: Wm M Pollan has organized the Militia an will report there, "The Union League" 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 M. Pollan to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey; July 20, 1865 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context mdah_771-955-05-13 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 William M. Pollan to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey concerning his efforts to organize a pro-Union militia in Choctaw County. (Including rosters of all the militia in Choctaw County) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Pollan, William M. 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 1865-07-20 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