New Digital Resource: The Civil War Governors of Kentucky

By: Patrick A. Lewis, Ph.D., Project Director, Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition The Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition digitally publishes the papers of Kentucky’s five wartime governors, but don’t let the name fool you. This isn’t a project about the governors; it’s a project that …

Josephine E. Williams: Uncovering the Story of a Nineteenth Century Teacher, Diarist, Poetry Lover

By: H. Scott Hankla Introduction In my paternal grandfather’s[i] [i]old cherry desk was a worn, dusty portfolio made of heavy black cardboard, and on its cover and back were engravings of a building with the words “New York Crystal Palace for the Exhibition of All Nations.”[ii]  Inside the portfolio was a …

Correcting the Record: the Real Story of David Cozine Westerfield, 1825 – 1900

By: Ronald Clay Belcher David Cozine Westerfield of Mercer County, Kentucky, enlisted in 1861 and valiantly served with the Union Army, 19th Kentucky Regiment. On 2 January 1862, at Camp Harrod, Harrodsburg, his unit was mustered into service. Westerfield’s service with Company B took him from Kentucky to West Virginia …

Book Notes – Resting in Peace: Civil War Leaders in Cave Hill Cemetery

Resting in Peace: Civil War Leaders in Cave Hill Cemetery. By Bryan Bush. (2013. Pp. 168. $24.95. Paperback. Louisville: Butler Books. P.O. Box 7311, Louisville, KY 40257. http://www.butlerbooks.com/) ISBN: 978-1-935497-71-4. Sometimes we forget how important cemetery research can be to our genealogical search. Truth be told, cemeteries have the potential to supply complex …

Book Notes – Love at a Distance

Love at a Distance: The Courtship, Marriage, and Love Match of John Brennan and Emma Hickman, 1864-1876. By Nancy O’Malley. (2015. Pp. 435. $25.00. Paperback. lulu.com Publishing) ISBN: 9781312743083. In a remarkably short period of time, the long distance story of a young couple unfolded between Paris Kentucky and New York …

Book Notes – Captives in Blue: The Civil War Prisons of the Confederacy

Captives in Blue: The Civil War Prisons of the Confederacy. By Roger Pickenpaugh.  (2013.  Pp. 320.  $49.95.  Hardcover. Lexington: University of Alabama Press.  Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0380. http://www.uapress.ua.edu/) ISBN: 978-0817317836. A follow-up to Pickenpaugh’s earlier publication, Captives in Gray: The Civil War Prisons of the Union (2008), this book uses soldier diaries, newspaper …