https://www.susannahjural.com/cwrgm/files/original/d11cb6085941c233d04ba1ebf83686a9.png a7c281c41fe4da4e2c42d1ee13b4c665 https://www.susannahjural.com/cwrgm/files/original/f2872f464cd023095e8f01010966732e.png af7a7b0c96a6517447f8c9c870f61431 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 Soldiers and the Military Experience Subject The topic of the resource The sample documents in this section help site users explore the wartime experiences of Mississippi soldiers and their families. They reveal men's frustrations with military discipline, hardships suffered by families with their men absent, and the gradual increase of dissent and desertion across the state. New Recruits: Letters or petitions from new recruits reveal their resistance to strict military discipline, especially in the earliest days of the war. A great example of this appears in <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/7">James Gates's June 1861 letter</a> protesting his commander's strict treatment of the men, refusing to allow them to return home for a few days, and withholding their pay. Gates served in the Tallahatchie Rifles, organized in Charleston, MS, which later mustered into Confederate (national) service as Company F, 21st Mississippi Infantry Regiment. State Forces: Men who served in state-level forces also submitted protests to the governor, but these usually related to lack of pay, weapons and supplies, or to transfers to national service. State-level volunteers were usually older men with families who opted for service closer to home to stay near their families and work their farms. You can see this in this <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/34">January 1863 petition</a> from the men of the 1st Regiment, Mississippi Minute Men, explaining why they specifically sought state-level service and protest their transfer to national service. Note that they were not seeking discharges. This can be seen as a form of dissent, but it is not disloyalty and certainly not desertion, which surfaces in other records. These men were willing to stay in service, but along the terms of their original enlistment. Wartime Pressures: As the war dragged on, the documents reveal how white Mississippians responded to the need to recruit, supply, nurse, and feed soldiers. There are also concerns about counties' need to fulfill draft laws and increasing rates of desertion. See, for example, this <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/40">1863 petition</a> by 1st Lieutenant W. A. Mitchell, Company K, 4 Regiment Mississippi State Troops, for a 20-day furlough to provide for his impoverished wife and five children. Mitchell had been in service (first at the national-level, then state-level) since the beginning of the war. There is also a <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/17">June 1862 telegram</a> from Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard that speaks to the rising number of deserters and Confederate leaderships' determination to address this. His telegram clarifies that soldiers who do not have official leave for sickness or furloughs must be arrested as deserters. African-American Enlistments: At about the same time white soldiers' desertion rates became dangerous to the Confederate war effort in Mississippi, African-American enlistments in U.S. forces proved an equal troubling issue for the South. This <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/51">November 1863 telegram</a> from the commander-in-chief of the Confederacy, President Jefferson Davis (a Mississippian), reveals those concerns as Davis discusses the recruitment (or conscription, as Davis phrased it) of African-American men into U.S. forces. It is unclear exactly what Davis proposes should be done about this, but the CWRGM research team is digging into the documents around this item in the collection to learn more. Desertion and Dissent: Most of the documents related to desertion and strong dissent are in the "Memory and Commemoration" and can be found by keyword searches for "desertion." Examples of desertion by soldiers and dissenting attitudes by soldiers and civilians include <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/39">this letter</a> by 1st Lt. P. G. Norman, 1st Mississippi State Troops, expressing his frustration in March 1863 that the residents of Canton, MS, were encouraging desertion and local authorities seemed to be doing little to arrest soldiers who were absent without leave.<a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/47"> Lewis Pipes of Natchez, MS </a>expressed similar frustrations in June 1863 (during the Vicksburg Campaign) noting that there were 500 deserters in the county living off of food meant for the army or families in the area. This does not mean, however, that all white Mississippians had abandoned their support for the Confederacy by 1863. Documents can be found from as late as February 1865, like this one from <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/64">M. S. Ward in Enterprise, MS</a>, suggesting ways that the state could more efficiently capture deserters and return them to military service. The Fog of War: Site visitors with an interest in military history will want to study the telegrams in this sampling and in the larger collection as it becomes available. They reveal the immediacy and urgency of military intelligence during campaigns, sometimes on a daily or even hourly basis. See, for example, this telegram from <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/61">November 1863 </a>warning the governor that 10,000 U.S. forces had left Vicksburg and were marching toward Jackson, or this <a href="http://susannahjural.com/cwrgm/items/show/52">1864 telegram</a> from Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, warning the governor of a sizable Federal force moving through the northern part of state. (Written by Susannah J. Ural, Ph.D.) 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: Camp Duffin? Apl 5th 1863 Brgd, Genl, JZ George Dr sir the under signed pititioner would Respectfully ask leave of absence for, twenty days for the following Reasons—he has a wife & 5 small children. and his wife has no help at tall, and it is absolutely necessary that he should go home for the time above specified, to assist them so as to fortify them against want, in addition to the above your pititioner has been in the state service since the 13th of August last, and has never been home on fur-lough [strikethrough] since [strikethrough] and in addition to that he had been-in the Confederate service for 13 months previous to entering the state service, and had been absent from his family the whole of that term, now in view of all these facts, he urges his claims, and asks a fur lough for at least the time specified W A Mitchell 1st, Lt Comdg Comp (K) 4, R, M, S, T Approved W C Bromley Col, 4 R, M, S, T. Page 2: Apprvd [?] [?] [Report?] [?] Lt Mitchel's application for furlough of 20 days on account of destitute family Approved & resp'y ford to the Governor — TC Tupper Maj Genl application of 1st Lt W A Mitchell Co K, 4 Regt. M S. T for a 20 days leave of absence 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 Lieutenant W. A. Mitchell to General J. Z. George; April 5, 1863 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context mdah_757-944-9-22 Subject The topic of the resource Children of military personnel; Confederate States of America. Army. Mississippi Infantry Regiment, 4th; Families of military personnel.; George, James Z. (James Zachariah), 1826-1897; Mississippi. Governor; Mississippi. Militia; Pettus, John Jones, 1813-1867. Description An account of the resource From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Pettus Collection. Letter from Confederate Lieutenant W. A. Mitchell, 4th Mississippi Infantry, State Troops, to Confederate General J. Z. George requesting leave for 20 days to go home and assist his wife and five children. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Michell, W. A. 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 1863-04-05 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 1863