History 304: Historiography and Methods

Today, I spent time working in the archives, exploring the McClintock riots.  Beginning with the John McClintock Collection Register, I examined information pertaining to years around 1847.  I looked in John McClintock’s drop file under Miscellaneous Materials, Folder 6 Box 3 MC 1999.12(1).  There I discovered the defense speech or closing speech for John McClintock given by William M. Biddle.  Biddle was one of the three attorneys helping lead prosecutor, J. Ellis Bonham.  I transcribed pages 1-3 below and read the rest of the 15 page speech for content on McClintock and the riots. 

(Page 1)

W.M. Biddle, Esq rose and said-

May it please the court- Gentleman of the Jury-

In this case the defense differs from that which has been ______ for the other Defts.  Some of choose who have proceeded me have gone upon the ground that no riot was committed or that if there was a violent skives in the streets it was justifiable under the laws of the land or that there was some excuse and +c and a vast deal of law has been reads and a great many casts cited on that subject.  So far as Mr. McClintock is concerned he had nothing to do with it. Mr. McClintock case is like that of any gentleman in the jury______.  If it was wrong, in was something to which he was not a party.  There was no______ of his dove is which he was not perfectly justifiable under the laws which goverce us all.  Therefore, Gentleman in this case, the observations made by others in Defts of the other Defts are not applicable to his defence (I mean where either attempt justified force or anything of that kind).  It is not for me to remark situated as I am upon the defence for standing as a co-defendant it might have an injurious. 

(Page 2)

Effect upon the cases of the other Defts. But I wish the Jury to bear district in mind whether they believed in the doctrine +c different Defts.  It is a question of no moment to Mr. McClintock for we say he had nothing to do at all with any illegal proceedings.  Gentleman, I _____ the case to you and I told you there has been scueues of a riotous nature going out form are early hour of that day.  I told you earl as 8, 9, or 10 o’clock at the Justice’s office, there was a tumultuous assemblage around the jail and the people seemed to think there will be a riot.  I told you that of all these transactions Mr. McClintock was profoundly ignorant and I told you that I would show you that +c not yet the intimations were so strong that gentleman left the courthouse knowing how the weather was to terminate.  Did we prove this?  Why, Gentleman this most indubitable.  Law any man on earth disbelieve Mr. Sanderson? And does not his detail of what they took place carry conviction to the mind of very unprejudical man. He says that

(Page 3)

Professor Mr. McClintock, +c or his way here with letter and paper in his hand +c talking a diagonal; cut at the corner of the Square, he hailed Mr. McClintock.  He first asked him if he was not going upstairs “What for?” said Mr. McClintock.  There is a slave case +c. 

William M. Biddle kept emphasizing that McClintock was “perfectly proper” throughout the speech.  He focused on how McClintock did nothing wrong.  I continued to read the closing statement, but it did not offer any insight or additional information that might be helpful to continuing exploration.  However, it helped me get a feel for McClintock and the case that was presented. 

My primary goal was to find out more about the individuals, besides John McClintock and Daniel Kauffman.  Initially, I wanted to examine more information on Judge Samuel Hepburn during McClintock’s trial.  Was he elected or was he appointed?  Was he a state or county judge?   I determined that he was a county judge, so my plan is to research at the Cumberland County Historical Society.  I will be looking for records on the county judges and court records. I may not achieve any results, therefore I will have to look at other records in the Congress, where Hepburn ran for an office before this trial.  In addition, I should explore family genealogy to see if that gives any insight on his life in Carlisle.

I found some information on Hepburn as well as other participants in these trials in Martha C. Slotten’s The McClintock Slave Riot of 1847 from Cumberland County Historical Society and Hamilton Library Association of Carlisle(2).  Slotten’s is available at the Cumberland County Historical Society as well as online at Cumberland Civil War.  In doing this, I discovered that Judge Samuel Hepburn was a Democrat who ran for Congress, but ended up narrowing losing to a Whig. 

In addition, McClintock recorded many comments in his diary about Judge Hepburn and how he felt Hepburn influenced the trial(3).  McClintock wrote to a friend in Connecticut:

“The conduct of our judge has been severaly in Pennsylvania as it could be in New England: the weightiest newspapers of both parties have spoken of his conduct in very much the same terms as those used in your letter.  Several of them threaten him with impeachment, and some of the politicians of the state have preferred me their assistance in the case I undertake it.” 

McClintock also said in that diary entry:

“The judge has but one more year to serve and will not be reappointed.  He is a young man very ambitious of politics distinction, but of very narrow mind, limited education, and vulgar feelings.  His hatred of the College is intense and he would do anything to break it down.”

I discovered that they generally selected judges based on their integrity and character in the community(4).  In addition, the Carlisle bar was under the direction of Judge Reed, the President Judge of the District when Samuel Hepburn was a member of the bar. 

I will continue to work on exploring Judge Hepburn, but I would like to find out more about the defendants of the case, James Kennedy and Howard Hollingsworth.  This is one piece of information that seems to be lacking.  The next starting point in the research I intend to pursue includes some pieces from newspapers.  I will then follow leads from what I find in the context.  The newspapers are as follows:(5)

Hagerstown Herald of Freedom

Philadelphia Public Ledger

Philadelphia Bulletin

American Volunteer

Richmond Enquirer

US Gazette

The Freedman

Carlisle Herald and Expositor

New York Commercial Adversities

Christian Repository

New York Daily Tribune

Manufacturer and Farmer’s Journal

National Anti-Slavery Standard

Hagerstown Torchlight

Additionally, I could look at the Sheriff and officer who arrested the slaves, Sheriff Jacob and Robert McCartney.  This may not help, but could have some insight to the feelings surrounding the trials as well as people’s general opinion on slavery. 

---

(1) Defense Speech for John McClintock by William M. Biddle, 1847, ( filed labeled Miscellaneous Materials), John McClintock Records, Box 3, Folder 3, MC 1999.12, Dickinson College Archives. 

(2) Slotten, Martha C. “The McClintock Slave Riot of 1847”. Cumberland County Historical Society and Hamilton Library Association: Carlisle, Summer 2000, vol, 17, num 1, 31. 

(3) John McClintock Diary, McClintock Papers, Emory University Special Collections, October 12, 1847. 

(4) Conway, P Wing. A History of Cumberland County. (Philadelphia: James D. Scott, 1879), 157

(5) Slotten, Martha C. “The McClintock Slave Riot of 1847”. Cumberland County Historical Society and Hamilton Library Association: Carlisle, Summer 2000, vol, 17, num 1, 35.

After using the Dickinson Chronicles as a starting point, I searched Google Books for related materials that was either available online or in our own library.  I began with general searches like “1847 Carlisle Slave Riots”, “Carlisle Slavery”, “Underground Railroad, Carlisle, PA”, and “Carlisle Slave Riot 1847 McClintock”,  which produced the best results.  I found two books to be very useful and both of them were present in the library.

Within the book Southern Emancipator by John d’Entremont, he discusses the type of professor and man John McClintock was.  He refers to four articles that appeared in the Christian Advocate in 1847 written by McClintock within which he argued how slavery could not be supported in a Christian lifestyle.  These controversial articles caused enough anger from the readership that the editor was forced to cancel the fifth.   According to d’Entremont, McClintock used these letters to show his differing views from the abolitionist movements.  Contrary to the Dickinson Chronicle entry, this author states that the riot immediately followed the June 2, 1847 court hearing as the Carlisle Herald explained, “A general rush was made on the slave-owners and constables by the negro men and women and a frightful melee ensued in the street, in which for some minutes paving stones were hurled in showers and clubs and canes used with terrible energy.”  (page 30, d’Entremont) (1) (2)  This difference in the reported dates of the incident is interesting and will be something to keep track off throughout my research.

I found another discrepancy within the data on the number of slaves actually imprisoned in the book American Mobbing, 1828-1861 by David Grimsted.  He states that eleven blacks were ultimately imprisoned for multiple months until the Pennsylvania Supreme court overturned the ruling and acquitted all parties involved.  He also discusses the prospect of these eleven blacks being sentenced to make the whites happy.  As Grimsted says, “[the eleven blacks were imprisoned]…partly to appease Southern anger at the acquittal of the white man [McClintock] incorrectly alleged to be the mob leader.” (3)  This is the only source I have found that directly states that the eleven blacks were imprisoned for the reason of making up for the mistake of the court.

(1) d’Entremont cites the trial testimony printed in the Carlisle American Volunteer on September 2, 1847 as proof that the riot took place on June 2, 1847.

(2) Further proof of the incorrect date in the Dickinson Chronicles is that the quote that d’Entremont uses from the Carlisle Herald is from June 9, 1847 which is obviously before the date in the chronicles, which is June 30, 1847.

(3) George R. Crooks, Life and Letters of Rev. John McClintock (New York, 1876), 143-81; Earl E Sperry, The Jerry Resuce (Syracuse, 1924, 21-29; May, Recollections, 379-81.

John T. Cuddy’s letters give important insight into camp life and the thoughts and values of a sixteen-year-old Union soldier.  Cuddy’s early letters are notable for his boyish exuberance about enlisting in the army. As he wrote on October 27, 1861, army life was akin to an adventure, “we have more fun here in one day than we had at home in one month.” Other areas of interest for Cuddy included receiving new uniforms, the arrival of new troops, and the sheer number of men to be found in and around an army camp. For instance, Cuddy wrote that 75,000 men were present at a review of troops at Camp Hunt and these men were “the bigust body of men that ever was saw in the united sats before.”

One of the most compelling aspects of Cuddy’s letters are his predictions about when the war will be over and he will be able to go home. The majority of Cuddy’s letters state his desire to “get home to spend a few happy monthes with you all [his family].”  At first, Cuddy is extremely optimistic about the Union’s chances to quickly and decisively end the war. On August 4, 1861, he wrote that the war would end by the Spring because:

However, the war did not end. As time passed his predictions slowly moved father and farther back. The following chart shows the dates of Cuddy’s letters and his prediction of when the war would end on each date.

Cuddy’s enthusiasm for the army did not last. About nine months into his service, Cuddy began to grow weary of the war and wished to return home. He first mentioned his homesickness in an April 30, 1862 letter; “i am tiard of it i have sean a nuf of vergineya now i have soldgering a leven monthes now i would like to be with you all tonite.”

Cuddy’s dissatisfaction continued to grow and he decided against re-enlisting in the Veteran Corps after his term of service ended. As he wrote in an August 25, 1863 letter, he would “never soldier eny more…for a soldier that soldier that dos his duty dos not gent eny more honour then one that dos not.”

John Cuddy never made it home, dying in a South Carolina prison camp in 1864.

In order to locate records concerning Thomas Nelson Conrad and Daniel Mountjoy Cloud, I searched the online catalogue of the National Archives Record Administration (NARA), which is located in College Park, MD.  My searches returned no results for Cloud, but it returned a match from the United States Department of State Records of the Office of the Chief Clerk: Applications and Reccomendations for Public Office, 1797-1901 from the 1880s and 1890s regarding Conrad.  I filled out the request form on the website to recieve photocopies of the documents, and they arrived in my HUB Box a week or so later. 

I recieved a set of documents pertaining to Conrad’s application for the position of Consul General to Korea.  The first was a letter written by Conrad to the Department of State on April 30 1889 on Maryland Agricultural College letterhead requesting the return of “the papers filed in my behalf regarding hte Corean mission,” likely referring to his application materials including any letters of reference written on his behalf.  A notation on the letter states “answered May 3, 89 , and papers returned.”  The second was a note dated May 1889 in the State Department files stating that “Thos N. Conrad withdraws his papers.”  On January 21, 1890, Conrad wrote a letter to the State Department on the letterhead of Maryland Agricultural College, asking if they could “please allow the bearer, Mr. S.P. Bayly Jr. to use my paperse on file in your department, I oblige.”  A note by S.P. Bayley dated January 22, 1890 states that he “recieved of the Department of State all papers relative to the application of Thos N. Conrad as authorized by him.”  On November 10, 1893, Conrad wrote in a letter to the State Department “In 1888, I filed an application with endorsements for appointment as Consul General to Korea.  I wish to withdraw these papers, if still in file in the State Department.  Would you do them the favor to send them to me.”  A State Department note dated November 11, 1893 states “Papers returned to him.”

These documents illustrate the fact that he was seeking foreign service posts during this time.  His request that his papers be returned in April of 1889 implies that he was no longer being considered for the position at that point in time.  His authorization for the use of his papers less than a year later likely implies that he hoped to be considered for a future position.  This timing is intriguing since his obituary stated that he was hired as a statistician by the United States Census Bureau in 1890.  Since he asked for the return of the remaining papers in 1893, it appears that he no longer wanted a State Department position or believed he would not be considered for one. 

These documents raise some questions about his political affiliations and involvement decades after his service in the Confederate Secret Service.  His requests to be considered for a position in 1888 and 1890 are somewhat puzzling, since Democrat Grover Cleveland was President in 1888, and Republican Benjamin Harrison was President in 1890, and supporters of the current President and his party were often given government jobs.  I would be interested in potentially locating primary sources such as newspaper articles and local political pamphlets that may indicate his political affiliation.  Also, I wonder if the publication of his autobiography in 1892 in which he claimed to have attempted to kidnap President Lincoln may have hindered his attempts at recieving a diplomatic post.  It would be a terrific find if I could locate the actual paperwork pertaining to his application, which was returned to him in 1893.  If I could find the names of the individuals who wrote letters of reference on his behalf, I could get a better sense of his political involvement and leanings after the Civil War.  Reading the letters themselves would give me a better sense of his postwar career and how he was regarded later in life.

Bibliography:

Conrad, Thomas, College Park, MD, to the United States Department of State, Washington, D.C., 30 April 1889. United States Department of State Office of the Chief Clerk: Applications and Recommendations for Public Office 1797-1901, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD.

United States Department of State, note, May 1889, United States Department of State Office of the Chief Clerk: Applications and Recommendations for Public Office 1797-1901, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD.

Conrad, Thomas, College Park, MD, to the United States Department of State, Washington, D.C., 21 January 1890. United States Department of State Office of the Chief Clerk: Applications and Recommendations for Public Office 1797-1901, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD.

Bayley, S.P., note, 22 January 1890. United States Department of State Office of the Chief Clerk: Applications and Recommendations for Public Office 1797-1901, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD.

Conrad, Thomas, College Park, MD, to the United States Department of State, Washington, D.C., 10 November 1893. United States Department of State Office of the Chief Clerk: Applications and Recommendations for Public Office 1797-1901, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD.

United States Department of State, note, 11 November 1893. United States Department of State Office of the Chief Clerk: Applications and Recommendations for Public Office 1797-1901, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD.

In order to find pictures of Thomas Nelson Conrad and Daniel Mountjoy Cloud, I searched for them in Dickinson’s House Divided engine.  In doing so, I successfully located sketchings of men. (http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/5454, http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/5422).  

On the Dickinson Chronicles I found an old photo of East College, where Cloud and Conrad shared a room.  The photo appears to date from the nineteenth or early twentieth century, so the building likely looks similar to how it looked when they lived there (http://chronicles.dickinson.edu/encyclo/e/ed_eastcollege.html). 

Since Cloud lived and died in Vicksburg, Mississippi after the war, I called Neil Brun at the Vicksburg historical society to see if they had any photos of Cloud or other relevant primary documents.  Mr. Brun sent me his obituary from a local paper and a photo of his grave in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Vicksburg.  He also sent a photo of his son, also named Daniel Mountjoy Cloud, who was born in November of 1870 and died in 1964 in Los Angeles according to the California Death Index on Ancestry.com.  He appeared to be an infant or young toddler in the photo, so it was likely taken around the time of Daniel Mountjoy Cloud, Sr.’s death.  The photo of his son led me to wonder whether Daniel Mountjoy Cloud, Jr. was his first child, and if he was, whether Daniel Mountjoy Cloud, Sr. got married after the conclusion of the war.  Since Cloud was born and raised in Warren County, VA, I called Judith Pfeiffer at the Warren County Historical Society, who was unable to locate any relevant images or documents. 

Cloud Images

Since Conrad was born and raised in Fairfax County, VA, I called Suzanne Levy at the Archives at the City of Fairfax Regional Library and asked if their archives had any relevant materials.  She found a photo of the house where Conrad lived after his father, Nelson Conrad, purchased it in 1839.  She also sent me a clipping from a May 1905 edition of “Confederate Veteran” magazine that featured with a photo of a middle aged Conrad. (Conrad House, Confederate Veteran Magazine)

His obituary indicated that he was the President of Virginia Agricultural College, which is now Virginia Tech, from 1882 until 1886.  Therefore, I went to the Virginia Tech archives website to find what records they had on former university presidents.  The website stated that a 1905 fire destroyed the records of all previous presidents, and therefore no items pertinent to Conrad survive in the university’s collections.  The obituary also stated that he was a Professor of Agriculture and Chairman of the Faculty at Maryland Agricultural College, which is now the University of Maryland, from 1886 until 1890, so I called the university’s archives to find out if they had any his materials in their collections.  The woman who answered told me to e-mail my inquiry to the university’s archivist, Jason Grant Speck.  Mr. Speck replied that in 1912, a fire destroyed the university’s records and therefore none of his documents or photos currently survive.  He foreworded my inquiry to Malissa Ruffner, who is conducting research into University of Maryland faculty and students’ connections to the Civil War.  Ms. Ruffner sent me an e-mail stating that the university does not have any unique primary materials pertaining to Thomas Conrad.

Bibliography:

Daniel Mountjoy Cloud, undated. The House Divided Project at Dickinson College, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.

Thomas Nelson Conrad, undated. The House Divided Project at Dickinson College, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.

East College, undated. Dickinson Chronicles, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.

Grave of Daniel Mountjoy Cloud, undated. Cloud-Hardaway Collection, Vicksburg Historical Society, Vicksburg, MS.

Daniel Mountjoy Cloud Jr. Age 2, c. 1872. Cloud-Hardaway Collection, Vicksburg Historical Society, Vicksburg, MS.

“The Rebel Scout.” Confederate Veteran 13, no. 5 (May 1905): 220.  Thomas Nelson Conrad Collection, City of Fairfax Regional Library, Fairfax, VA.

Nelson Conrad (Moore) House, undated. Thomas Nelson Conrad Collection, City of Fairfax Regional Library, Fairfax, VA.

My process began by browsing the Cumberland Civil War website. From prior research, I knew that the Carlisle Fencibles was one of the major volunteer companies from Carlisle. By using the search term “Carlisle Fencibles” on the Cumberland Civil War website, I found the article “The Carlisle Fencibles”. This article included a link to a member of that company,  sixteen-year old John Taylor Cuddy.

Before settling on Cuddy, I visited the Dickinson College Archives. The archivist recommended the Charles Francis Himes collection. Himes was a former professor of natural science at Dickinson. The Himes collection included a few letters from the 1860’s, however, I concluded that gleaning useful information from this collection would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

After hitting this dead end, a trip was made to the Cumberland County Historical Society. By browsing the roster of the 36th Pennsylvania Co. A (Carlisle Fencibles), as listed on the American Civil War Research Database, I selected another likely subject, William Bratton. From prior research, I knew William was the son of John Bratton, the vehemently Democratic editor of the American Volunteer. Initially, John Bratton opposed the war while William enlisted as soon as he heard the news. The conflict of ideologies within one family seemed to be an excellent topic for research. However, after conducting a search for both men, the Bratton family, and the American Volunteer, in the CCHS database, this attempt was abandoned because of a lack of information.

At this point, John T. Cuddy’s letters were chosen for the manuscript collection section of this project.  By looking at Cuddy’s enlistment statistics and the history of the 36th Pennsylvania via the American Civil War Research Database, I found that Cuddy enlisted on June 5, 1861 and served until May 5, 1864. On May 5 Cuddy was reported as missing during the Battle of the Wilderness and was brought to Andersonville Prison. Interestingly, the records from Andersonville Prison list Cuddy’s date of capture as May 6, 1864.

Located in Georgia, Andersonville was the unwilling home of Union prisoners  for 14 months. During this time, 45,000 prisoners were sent to Andersonville, of which about 13,000 died. (James A. Percoco, The Space Beyond the Gates, and Andersonville Civil War Prison Historical Background, National Parks Service). Cuddy survived his stay at Andersonville but was transferred to Florence Prison in South Carolina.  A letter from A. Noble to the Cuddy family indicates that Cuddy was not lucky a second time, “Cudy of Co. A 7th Regt PRvc Died at Florence South Carolina on the 29th day of September 1864” (John T. Cuddy Papers, Dickinson College Archives). The tragedy of John Cuddy’s story is acute. Cuddy was captured about one month before his regiment was mustered out of service on June 16, 1864. John T. Cuddy was one of 272 men captured from the 36th Pennsylvania Regiment (American Civil War Research Database).

I first went to the college archives catalog and searched for any possible hit on Lincoln Cemetery. The main goal was to find the names of the soldiers buried there so that I could start using those soldiers to formulate a narrative. The only things I found that might be useful so far were background materials on African American’s in Carlisle. For example:

Valanos, Vicky. Social Mobility of the Blacks in Carlisle. Dickinsoniana Books, 1981.

Cavenagh, Susan. Blacks in Carlisle, 1870-1880. Dickinsoniana Books, 1978.

So both of these and similar sources could be good to go back and check once I know the soldier’s names that I am researching.

Next, I went to the Cumberland County Historical Society and went to research in their library. I asked for help finding information on Lincoln Cemetery and specifically any burial records. They were really helpful and we found a list of Lincoln Cemetery Burial Plots, recorded by Susan Cavenough in 1971. There was also a folder on Lincoln Cemetery that contained documents between 1971 and now on the cemetery. For the most part it focused on the time when the Borough of Carlisle put the new park idea up for suggestion in 1971. Lastly, I obtained a folder with three pictures of Lincoln Cemetery in 1971, taken by Jim Bradley.

Through these three finds I made a lot of headway into my research. The list of burial plot names was reprinted and re-done in 2001 by Aaron Feldman-Grosse and Donald Koide with the Pennsylvania State University Department of Landscape Architecture. I photocopied their printout, which contains the 78 marked and unmarked gravestones, 22 other names known to be buried there, a map of Memorial Park and a few maps of how the burial plots were laid out. These would all be great for illustrating what the cemetery used to look like to a tour. From these names, I can already tell that some of these people were Civil War soldiers. One man buried there, James Ines, actually had U.S.C.T. inscribed on his gravestone. I can use all these names with secondary sources, databases and newspapers to figure out who was a veteran and see if any of them have a recorded story too.

Then I took a look at newspaper articles of the Evening Sentinel that were at the Cumberland County Historical Society. They mostly described how a meeting about the park was proposed on September, 1971 and then they finally had it on November 17, 1971. I found out that the leader of the protestors to the park was Reverend Robert Bailey, a pastor of the AME Church on East Pomfret. His main argument was not that the cemetery should not be destroyed, but that instead of a park they should build houses for other African Americans. Also in one of these articles it mentioned that Justice William Dosh might be an expert on Lincoln Park or have recorded information about it. So he is someone I could research into as well.

Lastly, I photocopied two of the three photos taken by Jim Bradley. One of them shows a more landscape picture of the cemetery that is perfect to show a tour. They have the photo in color at the historical society, so it would be nice if I could somehow get more than just a photocopy. The second picture is an amazing picture that displays, “George Lane, Sargt. Co. E, 8^th Reg. U.S.C.T.” I was really excited when I saw this. However, the first thing I did was double check this with the burial names list and saw that George Lane was not on it. Since this was a very intact gravestone and both the list and the picture were done in 1971, I am very questionable about the photo now. My plan is to look into George Lane and make sure he was actually buried there before I get too excited about the photo. It also might help to look into more of Jim Bradley’s photos and figure out what his story is too.

I went on the Dickinson library catalog to first familiarize myself with black soldiers and how they fought in the civil war. I wanted to know information like when they were first able to join the Union army, what positions they occupied, where they came from and what the typical experience was for a soldier in the United States Colored Troops.

I searched the catalog for a variety of mixed phrases to make sure I did not miss any possible books. I search for “civil war colored troops,” “civil war colored soldiers,” “civil war black troops,” “Pennsylvania black soldiers.” I also wanted to try an see if I could find some background material on how different soldiers were buried after the Civil War. Therefore, I searched for “civil war cemeteries,” “civil war dead,” “Pennsylvania black deaths,” “civil war troop deaths,” and “Pennsylvania soldier burials.”

For the most part, all of the books on blacks in the Civil War in the Dickinson Library are on one shelf. So I explored the ones I found on the catalog and then looked at others on the same shelf. I checked out these ones below:

Berlin, Ira, Joseph P. Reidy and Leslie S. Rowland. Ed., Freedom Soldiers: The Black           Military Experience in the Civil War. Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Blair, William and William Pencak. Ed., Pennsylvania’s Civil War. University Park:             The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001.

Hansen, Joyce. Between Two Fires: Black Soldiers in the Civil War. New York: Franklin    Watts, 1993.

Hargrove, Hondon B. Black Union Soldiers in the Civil War. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1988.

Neff, John R. Honoring the Civil War Dead: Commemoration and the Problem of             Reconciliation. University Press of Kansas, 2005.

Redkey, Edwin S. Ed., A Grand Army of Black Men: Letters from African-American            Soldiers in the Union Army, 1861-165. Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Scott, Donald. Images of America: Camp William Penn. Arcadia Publishing, 2008.

After checking some book reviews on the authors I checked out and making sure the books were legitimate, I got a lot of background information from Berlin and Blair’s books. The major things were figuring out when it would have actually been possible for black soldiers from Carlisle to actually join up with a unit and where those regiments would have trained and been deployed. After finding all that, I started looking through the Camp William Penn book which has hundreds of photo’s of soldiers from the eleven different regiments that trained there. Looking through the photos really made me realize that I needed to find the names of who was buried at Lincoln Cemetery if possible, then come back and look at these photos again.

Lastly, the Blair book featured John Brock’s letters from April 1864 until March 1865, with some analysis as well. This is a good model for analyzing what an experience for a soldier in the USCT might be like, but it seems like it might be a little like the Equiano story where one person’s story becomes the story for an entire race because of limited primary documents. Therefore, I plan on saving the Brock letters and using them as an idea of what a black soldier may have experienced in the Civil War, but not the only story. One last cool thing about Brock is that he was from Carlisle, Pennsylvania; married a woman named Lucinda Jane Dickson, and then moved and settled down in West Chester, Pennsylvania. It’s interesting to me because I go to school here in Carlisle and I live in West Chester. Small world.

Post on Newspapers in Databases

            When I began using electronic databases to conduct research on Daniel Mountjoy Cloud and Thomas Nelson Conrad, my first step was to search for their names.  Searches for Cloud’s name yielded no results in Infotrac 19^th Century Newspapers, Proquest Civil War Era Newspapers, and Proquest Historical Newspapers.  Searches for Conrad were more fruitful.  I found his obituary from The Washington Post in Proquest Historical Newspapers.  The article stated that he died on January 5, 1905 in Washington D.C. “of acute indigestion,” and that he “was a Confederate scout during the Civil War in the command of Gen. J.E.B. Stuart.”  It also references the fact that he became “a general statistician in the Census Office” in 1890. (Thomas Conrad Obituary)  In Infotrac 19^th Century Newspapers, I found a February 20, 1868 article from The Virginia Sentinel which mentions that Conrad was appointed a County Superintendant in Fauper County.  The other two articles I found in Infotrac were excerpts from his autobiography which were published by The Morning Oregonian and Chicago’s Daily Inter Ocean in November of 1892. 

            I then began searching for articles pertaining to Civil War espionage in the last two years of the conflict in order to increase my understanding of the context in which Cloud and Conrad allegedly planned to kidnap President Lincoln.  By searching for terms such as “spies” “spies and southern” “Lincoln and plot,” I found a number of articles in Proquest Historical Newspapers concerning Confederate spies who infiltrated or attempted to infiltrate the Union.  A Washington Star article reprinted in The New York Times in August of 1864 tells the story of Charles Fenton Beavers, a young “private in Mosby’s guerrilla band” who was hung after being sentenced to death by a Union Court Martial.  That February, he “gave himself up as a deserter from Mosby’s force” and later left, ostensibly to go home.  In June, he was “captured with arms in his hands with Mosby’s guerillas in D.C.”   A Chicago Tribune article from January of 1864 reports the capture of a Confederate spy who was only caught because he became inebriated and was arrested for public drunkenness.  The article claims that “it is notorious in Chicago; there are disloyal men and women who are always willing to give these spies a helping hand and aid them in securing the information so earnestly desired by rebel leaders.” 

            A Chicago Tribune article from March of 1864, months before Cloud and Conrad allegedly began planning to abduct President Lincoln, told of the discovery of a similar plot orchestrated by Confederate agents.  The article claims that there was “a plan submitted by Col. Musgrave to the Rebel War Department in November.”  It called for “one hundred and fifty picked men to go secretly North” to Washington, D.C. where they would coordinate the kidnapping.  It would have likely involved armed agents accosting the President’s carriage outside the city, and taking him across the Potomac to Virginia by boat. (The Plot to Kidnap Lincoln)

            The plot described in this article bears a great deal of similarity to the one Conrad describes planning in his published memoir.  One explanation for this could be that he and Cloud based their attempted kidnapping on this previous plot.  Another possibility is that Conrad devised the story of his attempted kidnapping in order to generate attention and revenue and based it on this true story.  I would like to read some secondary sources that mention Cloud and Conrad’s plot and gain access to the primary sources cited in order to determine the veracity of the claims in the memoir.  If the story is largely true, and they are included in a tour of Civil War Era Carlisle, the tour guide could mention stories of spies such as Charles Beavers to provide tourists with a contextual understanding of Civil War espionage.

Bibliography:

“Thomas Nelson Conrad Dead, Confederate Scout and Former President of Blacksburg, Va. College.” The Washington Post. 6 January 1905, 10. (Proquest Historical Newspapers)

“County Organization.” Virginia Sentinel. 20 February 1868, 1. (Infotrac)

“To Kidnap Lincoln: The Attempt Made in 1864.” Morning Oregonian. 20 November 1892, 18. (Infotrac)

“An Attempt to Kidnap Lincoln: An Interseting Story by a Former Confederate Spy.” Chicago Daily Inter Ocean. 20 November 1892, 28. (Infotrac)

“A Guerilla Executed: Hanging of Charles Fenton Beavers at Washington.” New York Times. 27 August 1864, 5. (Proquest Historical Newspapers)

“A Pretty Rebel Plot: President Lincoln to be Kidnapped.” The Chicago Tribune. 20 March 1864, 1. (Proquest Historical Newspapers)

“The Plot to Assassinate the President.” The Chicago Tribune. 27 April 1864, 2. (Proquest Historical Newspapers)

I read Conrad’s 1892 autobiography “A Confederate Spy: A Story of the Civil War,” in order to get a sense of his activities during the Civil War.  It is possible that Conrad may have confabulated or exaggerated certain aspects of his work in the Confederate Secret Service in order to make money gain attention.  Therefore, it is impossible to treat his claims as fact.  I will attempt to find more reliable primary sources that can definitively confirm or debunk his claims before I use them in my research.

The book deals exclusivly with his activities during the Civil War, and his life before and after the conflict is scarcely mentioned.  Conrad tells the story of his wartime service chronologically beginning in the spring of 1861, and ending with the capture and 1865 trials of John Wilkes Booth’s accomplices in the assassination of President Lincoln.  Although he almost exclusivly writes about his personal experiences as a secret agent, he references major events such as the Lincoln assassination.  He speculates that Booth was not killed after assassinating Lincoln and the United States Department of War covered up the truth (p.99).  Conrad’s claims are difficult to confirm or debunk because he declines to name many of the individuals he collaborated with during the war.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   In Chapter I he states that in the spring of 1861 he left his position as a schoolmaster in Georgetown to serve as a chaplain and scout for Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart.  He contends in the same chapter that in 1861, he planned to assassinate Union General Winfield Scott (p.7).   This plan was aborted when he was informed that “Richmond peremptorily forbade such action” (p.8).  In Chapter IV, he tells the story of an alleged 1862 conference between Confederate officials and British diplomats.  He claims this meeting was infiltrated by a Union spy, Col. William P. Wood (p.22-24).

In Chapter V, he tells how he convinced a friend working in the Union War Department to give him a copy of a sensitive document, and claims to have received it at the department headquarters in Washington (p.31-32).  He claims in Chapter IX that this same individual later gave him “a letter of introduction from a staff officer…as an army chaplain,” which he used to gain access to Union General Ambrose Burnside’s camp (p.59).  This led me to wonder whether there were a significant number of Confederate sympathizers in the Union military and government who acted as moles for the Confederacy.  Considering Washington D.C.’s proximity to Virginia, this is a likely scenario. 

Chapter XIII is entirely devoted to the attmpted abduction of President Lincoln.  He claims that throughout the war, “schemes for capturing Mr. Lincoln and taking him to Richmond as a prisoner had been planned more than once,” but “an open attempt was never made” (p.69).  Conrad indicates that the kidnapping was planned by Conrad, Daniel Mountjoy Cloud, and several other Confederate Secret Service agents, and Confederate Secretary of War James Seddon, who was initially opposed to the plot, ultimately approved it (p.70).  He tells the story of how he and his accomplices monitored Lincoln for several weeks before they attempted to ambush his carriage and abduct him (p.70).  Conrad claims that Lincoln was escorted the federal cavalry on the day they were scheduled to carry out the plot, which was aborted as a result (p.71). 

Conrad never mentions that he knew Cloud before the war, but he states that “a college mate, who now sleeps beneath the sod of the Mississippi Valley and myself, were among the few perhaps, who not only scouted within our lines, but were frequently sent by President Davis and our general officers within the limits of the Union capital” (p.5).  This quote most likely refers to Cloud, as he died in 1871 in Vicksburg, Mississippi.   

If Conrad’s claims can be corroborated by primary sources such as letters or diaries by officials in the Confederate Army or Department of War, they would be a fitting addition to a tour guide’s discussion of Cloud and Conrad at East College.  The story of their plot to abduct President Lincoln would be especially fitting for this venue if it could be substantiated.  I will attempt to locate the papers of Confederate Secretary of War Seddon, Cloud and Conrad, as well as other officers mentioned in the autobiography.  I will also attempt to access the records of the Confederate Department of War.

Bibliography:

Conrad, Thomas Nelson. A Confederate Spy. New York: J.S. Ogilive Publishing Company Company, of Rose Street, 1892.