As the semester nears its end, I decided to take a few moments to share what I have been up to in the last two weeks. On April 13, I departed Grand Forks for my hometown of Jerseyville, Illinois. It was a well-timed trip in light of the tornado that hit Lambert St. Louis International Airport on Good Friday, which is where I fly into. I had been selected to present a paper at the 2011 Illinois History Symposium in Carbondale. My advisor, Dr. Kim Porter, who also presented, informed me of the conference last fall, so I happily submitted, as it coincided with my mom’s birthday. I presented on the physical transition from civilian to soldier in Illinois Civil War camps of instruction, which was one chapter of my thesis. The panel was awesome, though I forgot my camera and have no pictures of it. I was also approached by a couple of folks from SIU Press who asked me to keep them in mind when I get around to writing the book on the subject. After the presentation, my dad and I traveled to Murphysboro, seven miles from Carbondale, and took in a reception at the John A. Logan Museum. It was quite fun, as Logan was the creator of Memorial Day, a past Commander-in-Chief of the GAR, which is special for me being in the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.
Murphysboro was also fun to visit, as it was impacted by the 1925 Tri-State Tornado, where almost 700 people across Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana were killed in a single tornado. The town still holds the record for most fatalities in a single city from a tornado at 234. This crosses into one of my other quirky historical interests, which is natural disasters. The trip allowed me to visit my folks for a few days and relax a bit from the demands of teaching and class, as well as network for future job and publishing opportunities. Plus, I met James Swan, author of Chicago’s Irish Legion: The 90th Illinois Volunteers in the Civil War, who came to my panel. I took the opportunity to purchase his book and have him sign it (the dust jacket tore a little in transit back to North Dakota, thanks Delta). I fielded a few good questions that opened up areas of inquiry that I had not considered before, so the rewards go beyond a line on the CV. All in all, it was a great trip and I encourage those in Illinois to consider the next symposium April 26-28, 2012 in East Peoria, with the theme “Contested Lands: 1673-1840.” The deadline for submission is October 15, 2011. For more information, contact William Furry at 217-525-2781.
Upon my return to Grand Forks (it snowed while I was away), I presented my lecture on Creating Armies in my History 103 class. I broke from the usual form of lecture and team-taught with my friend and fellow reenactor Stuart Lawrence. We used some of our reenacting equipment to conduct a object-based presentation on the lives of soldiers and what training was like for them, which allowed me to combine a bit of material culture and dress up in period attire. Whether it was effective in helping them understand remains to be seen, but I figure it is a nice change of pace and helps the visual and tactile learners anyway. I am working on some book reviews and will be again appearing on local talk radio to chat about the war on the same day as the next meeting of the Northern Plains Civil War Round Table, where I will present on the Camp Jackson Affair and Civil War Missouri. If you are in the Grand Forks area, come to the E. Grand Forks VFW at 7:00 PM on Tuesday, May 3 and join our group and listen to my talk.
Finally, I have joined the 21st century a bit more. Those of you with smart phones, which does not include me, can now access my blog via the QR that I placed in the sidebar. Until next time, keep researching and I will leave you with the paper that I presented in Illinois.
Civil War History 
Nice report. We just finished our unit on the Civil War (6th grade Humanities, gifted program) and did lessons on camp life, both North and South, from different primary sources. Could have used this last month! I am from Illinois originally (Chicago) so the Illinois tie in was also drawing.
I am contemplating a paper on Dred Scott and have found barely any sources other than Mark Shurtleff’s recent book. Any suggestions? Most non-fiction accounts go into great detail about the case, but not the man.
Gary,
Thank you for the comment. As for Dred Scott, I am not familiar with the literature on him or the case. Two possibilities would be to contact folks at either Fort Snelling, which is in the Twin Cities in Minnesota, as he lived there while his master was stationed there, or get in touch with the various libraries in the St. Louis area, as they may have some information. I hope this helps and good luck with your paper.
Training a huge army “from scratch” and on the size and scope needed in the Civil War, is an often overlooked aspect of the war.
Plus, often, those camps later became Confederate prisons.
I just read an interesting article from the May 9th Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle on soldiers enlisting from their area. They trained at Elmira, probably the same site that became the Confederate “Helmira.”
I know Camp Douglas and Camp Butler in Illinois were instruction camps which later became prisons. Any others?
For Illinois at least, Camp Douglas and Camp Butler were the only facilities to serve such a dual purpose. There was a prison at Alton, IL, but I have not found any evidence of it being a camp of instruction.