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Hey everyone! It feels like it has been awhile since I last
wrote a blog post! Last time I posted I was prepping for my presentation on
Civil War nurses. I was really excited
and really nervous to present but it felt like a great opportunity to educate
people on something I am very passionate about.
I’m happy to say my coworkers and people who listened said I did well
and they enjoyed the content. Otherwise
on typical days at the museum though I have been working, among other things,
on the Missing Soldiers Roll that Clara Barton published. Spread over five different lists, it has
close to seven thousand names on it with soldiers of all ranks and state
origins who never made it home. The
NMCWM had me transcribing it so that it could be placed online and used by
other historians for research. It has
taken many weeks but I can happily say I finished the very last name early this
morning.
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| Roll #3, May 1, 1866. Photo credit to National Park Service Museum Management Program. |
I have
to say though that working on the list was a little sobering though because I spent
a lot of time thinking about the men on it.
Of those roughly seven thousand names, how many were found and made it
home alive? How many died in some place unknown and were never discovered? They
were all people who had mothers, fathers, siblings and friends. How did those people move on with the
uncertainty and when did they stop hoping their soldier would come home? Each
of these men vowed to protect their country and gave the ultimate sacrifice but
I fear that many historians and modern readers don’t see them as people but as
numbers. I guess since I spent so much
time looking at that I began to really think.
I saw trends such as the name George Washington being very popular along
with James, Cornelius, Albert and John.
I saw names that stood out like American, Pius Blessing, and Alpha. I saw that they came from states in large
numbers such as New York, Pennsylvania and even one from California. I saw brothers in the same companies,
officers, privates and wondered about how they passed the time before they went
missing.
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| Unknown Civil War soldiers graves at Gettysburg. Photo credit to Beth Cioffoletti* |
The
Missing Soldiers Roll was an appeal to the public, to soldiers, to anyone who
had information about the men on the list.
Unfortunately, I don’t have information about whether or not any of
these men were ever found and I really wish I did. Sometimes I would see the same name and
I knew the family was still searching
but I wonder what happened to the rest.
I know Clara was able to eventually locate twenty two thousand men in
three short years but of the seven thousand I have come to know, how many were
found? I don’t know but perhaps I can work with the museum staff to try and
find out.
I hope
that soon the list will be up and viewable by everyone so that they can see
these names, look at how many companies there were, the names and think about
it all as something more than a big list.
It is a big list with almost seven thousand people on it that gave their
lives for the Union. Anyway, until next
time everyone! Happy Wednesday!
*
http://anotheramericanadventure.blogspot.com/2011/04/soldiers-national-cemetary-gettysburg.html Beth's blog.
