![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/files\/2016\/10\/Col-HH-Gregg-Grave.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo Courtesy of Findagrave.com<\/p><\/div>\n
I decided to take a look at a man who, on my data table, seemed to have a rather large list of credentials including a major in the Union Army during the Civil War and Military Secretary to the Pennsylvania governor. Henry Harrison Gregg, a man who I\u2019d yet properly research, would deliver a rather captivating story that gave me substantial experience in how to use newspaper articles effectively. I thought, much to my detriment, that gathering information would be rather easy as the databases’ search engines would complete most of the work. I thus attempted to do a sweep of a variety of newspaper databases with just his name including \u201c19th<\/sup> Century Newspapers,\u201d \u201cAccessible Archives,\u201d and “Chronicling America.”\u00a0Little proved to be fruitful and I found this to be odd considering the man\u2019s long list of accomplishments. \u00a0After an hour or so of this, the method had proven to be sloppy in that it was too broad and did not focus on the man\u2019s achievements, rather his name alone, and often the programs would not even detect his name despite it blatantly being visible\u00a0in an article. I surmised that if I were to uncover the specifics of his life and perhaps an engaging story through newspapers, I needed to search for the specific and significant event in his life that might appear newsworthy, rather than his name alone.\u00a0In addition, I looked at the list of accomplishments and compared it to the databases I had chosen to use; I realized I was using those that focused on too broad of topics. It was likely I would not find a small anecdote about events in a specific area efficiently in a database that spanned large topics and widespread geography.\u00a0\u00a0The \u201cPennsylvania Civil War Era Newspapers\u201d database that was suggested on the blog ultimately gave me the more focused set of newspapers that I needed. I chose the credential of Gregg\u2019s that I believed would most likely be documented in a Pennsylvania newspaper, that of his promotion to Military Secretary, and used that to begin more effective research. \u00a0Using the keywords \u201cGregg\u201d and \u201cMilitary Secretary,\u201d a brief, but significant article appeared that would be the springboard for the rest of the week\u2019s research.<\/p>\n A brief three paragraphs on page three of an 1865 issue of the Huntingdon Globe<\/a> entitled \u201cA Good Appointment\u201d gave me enough information to begin discovering Gregg\u2019s story. It described a man by the name of Harry<\/em> H. Gregg to the position of Military Secretary to the governor of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n Article \u00a0from Huntingdon Globe, Courtesy of “Pennsylvania Civil War Era Newspapers”<\/p><\/div>\n This slight name difference would prove to be useful as Gregg would appear almost exclusively as Harry in all the articles I would find thereafter, and thus warned me not to rely too heavily on the accuracy of spelling and word choice when using databases. The article also proved useful in that it mentioned his time as a Major in the 13th<\/sup> Pennsylvania Cavalry<\/a>, and that during his military career, he was captured twice by the enemy and held in prison. \u00a0This brief article was already beginning to reveal that this man had an engaging and potentially teachable story.<\/p>\n I first searched the \u201cPennsylvania Civil War Era Newspapers\u201d again, but this time with the phrase \u201c13th<\/sup> Pennsylvania Cavalry\u201d assuming that an article might detail the location of their capture and perhaps some specifics about the engagement. Another brief article of value dated October 5th, 1864 appeared toward the bottom of the list of results. It merely reported the death of Private \u00a0Alfred Kenyan, a member of the 13th<\/sup> Cavalry and Gregg\u2019s company who was \u201cshot thro\u2019 the neck\u201d<\/a> at the James River<\/a> when the unit was captured. This informed me of one of the locations where Gregg was captured and a rough estimate of a date. With little more concrete results, I adjusted the search term to “Harry Gregg” and another article appeared dated November 4th, 1863. It provided a rather detailed account of a soldier who described fleeting glimpses of Gregg before he was captured by the enemy several days before the\u00a0Battle of\u00a0Rappahannock Station<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article from Huntingdon Globe, Courtesy of “Pennsylvania Civil War Era Newspapers”<\/p><\/div>\n Using this information, I then searched several databases with the phrases “Gregg and James River” and “Gregg and Rappahannock” \u00a0Although several articles gave me some more detailed information about Gregg’s capture, I still felt as if this didn’t give me a truly riveting story. I decided I was perhaps approaching this chapter in Gregg’s life in a too narrow-minded manner. I backtracked and reread “A Good Appointment.” I immediately \u00a0noticed I had overlooked a potential useful keyword and subsequently half of this tale. The original article mentioned that Gregg was sent to “Libby Prison<\/a>,” a prisoner of war camp in Richmond, Virginia. \u00a0I then adjusted my search terms to “Gregg” and “Libby Prison.” The articles I found proved to be the most interesting yet.<\/p>\n The results for “Libby Prison” in the databases were abundant and varied. Many had vastly different claims about the conditions in the prison. Some claimed men were relatively well fed while others stated that they were being starved to death. In particular, an article<\/a> that peaked my interest the most described a mine of gunpowder that Confederates had constructed underneath the prison to scare prisoners and prevent riot. \u00a0The most difficult anecdote to find however was an article that described a personal statement from Gregg himself or those he stayed with during his time at the prison. The terms “Gregg” and “Libby Prison” did not yield anything of value in any of the databases until I noticed one article at the bottom of\u00a0the results from the “Pennsylvania Civil War Era Newspapers.”\u00a0A<\/p>\n Printed Image of Libby Prison, seemingly negligible piece from \u00a0Evening Telegraph\u00a0<\/a>dated October 30, 1863 gave a very brief description of a correspondence between General S. Greene<\/a>\u00a0and his son Joseph who was being held at Libby Prison. In it, Joseph had claimed that he and Harry Gregg were, “well, but dirty,<\/a><\/p>\n naked, and hungry.”<\/a> Although not the detailed recollection of the event I’d hoped for, it made his experience seem at least partially more real and human, a notion that is essential to a teachable story.<\/p>\n I still feel as if there is more to be discovered about Gregg’s time in Libby Prison. I attempted to information in Confederate newspapers , but found little more than a release notice from his first time in prison in The Daily Dispatch<\/a>.\u00a0In the future, I hope to gather some primary sources that contain reflections from Gregg himself that may give a more complete and personal account of the incident that these sources lacked.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>
Courtesy of the Library of Congress<\/p><\/div>\n
![\u201cshot thro\u2019 the neck\u201d<\/a> at the](\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/files\/2016\/10\/Alfred-Kenyan-Article-e1475645255842.jpg\"){kind=link}