[Homer_J_Simpson]

As you can see, I got too impatient to wait for 1858 + 160 years to roll around. I plan a slow motion, low volume ping schedule for a while just to see how it goes. I won’t blame anybody that doesn’t want to sign on this early. I will post this using the WWII ping list + people that already indicated they are ready to go on the final post from the war (9/3/45). I will probably do that for a while and then drop everybody that doesn’t indicate to me by normal or private reply they want to be on a “Civil War” ping list. You can see the new list on my profile just below the original WWII class roster. I put the quotes around “Civil War” because it will be 2021 before the real shooting starts and it seems like tempting fate to assume we will all still be doing this by then.

As the thread title suggests this will be the only thread from now through December. As I learn interesting new information from my reading I will post it here as replies but will not ping the whole list, so check in from time to time for updates if you wish. The idea is for everybody to contribute so I am thinking my only exceptional role is to provide the venue. I am not doing a daily newspaper post but if anyone else is moved to do that I’m sure everyone would appreciate the effort.

What the heck happened to the formatting on FR over the last 6 weeks?

[Homer_J_Simpson]

First of many errors on this series. I was supposed to use the old ping list initially to give everyone a chance to opt in or out of the 1855-1865 series. Let me know.

[henkster]

Count me in!

[EternalVigilance]

Thanks for including me, sir.

I’ve missed the daily war threads.

I think you’ve picked pretty much the perfect starting point dropping us down in the middle of the 1850s.

[EternalVigilance]

The things I’ve learned about several branches of my family tree from both the Kansas and Missouri sides of the border have caused me to study the period of bleeding Kansas a bit over the last few years.

But I’m grateful for this project, as it will, I have no doubt, cause me to dig a lot deeper.

I was born in Nebraska, but my father’s side of the family were from Iowa, where I’ve spent a large proportion of my life.

In my studies of the conflict in Kansas I learned that Iowa was the primary entry point for anti-slavery immigrants.

Of particular interest to me has been Sidney, Iowa, which was a primary jumping off point into Kansas. Later in the decade John Brown traveled through there repeatedly.

I have a number of forebears buried in the cemetery at Sidney, including Jesse Hiatt, a War of 1812 veteran, and Sarah Estes, the daughter of Joel Estes, the discoverer and first settler of Estes Park, Colorado.

The Estes family were from the Missouri side of the line, having come there from Kentucky at the time of the Louisiana Purchase, and before that having come out of Tidewater Virginia with Daniel Boone before and during the Revolution.

They were a slaveholding family. Apparently Joel Estes either freed or sold the last of their slaves in Missouri just before the Emancipation Proclamation. Depends on whose story you believe.

My Chandler forebears were the Abolitionist family that ended up in Fort Scott.

Anyhow, the above is why I take a great deal of personal interest in this particular period of history.

God bless you and this project.

[sharkhawk]

Count me in too Homer. I think I was getting withdrawal symptoms from the WWII history lessons

[wagglebee]

Thanks Homer, looking forward to it.

[FreedomPoster]

Bump, and please add me to the ping list.

Something has gone wonky with text rendering on the server side, JimRob is aware, we’re all painfully aware, and it’s supposed to get fixed real soon now . . .

In the meanwhile, there were some sites posted where you could paste text, and it would take the oddball quotes chars and other thingamajiggies that aren’t rendering well, and substitute normal chars that will.

Hey! Lookie there! I bookmarked one of them.
http://dan.hersam.com/tools/smart-quotes.html

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Please opt me in, Homer. Thank you.