Posted on 11/30/2013 6:38:17 AM PST by NYer
Finding a treasured piece of history hidden in a file cabinet may be the dream of many, but it happened to Stuyvesant Town Historian Juanita Knott. She recently found what could be handwritten copies of an 1864 newspaper, “The Old Flag” which lists pages of Union soldier prisoners of war during the Civil War, including those from New York state.
“I’m not sure if they’re copies or hand-written,” Knott said, carefully turning the yellow, almost crumbling pages of “The Old Flag” newspaper that she had clipped to acid-free paper so as not to destroy this voice from the past.
“It’s much too fragile to scan or photocopy,” Knott added.
According to The Handwritten Newspapers Project, an annotated bibliography and historical research guide to handwritten newspapers from around the world, “The Old Flag” was published by Union soldier Captain William H. May of the 23rd Connecticut Volunteers. May was also said to be a newspaper man in civilian life.
The Handwritten Newspapers Project states that only one copy of each numbered issue was published. The newspaper was written to break up the monotony of prison life, which, according to the project, included fresh water, food, shelter and even local trading at Camp Ford, Texas from 1863 to 1864. Each issue was read aloud as it was passed to prisoners in various cabins.
Local news, poetry art, satire, chess problems, advertisements and tongue-in-cheek jokes cover the three-column, four-page newspapers originally written with pen and ink. Lists of prisoners of war, including their rank, regiment and where and when captured are given their own pages.
“I hope to find at least one soldier from Columbia County. I’ve really just started on this,” Knott said.
This local historian by day, history detective by night said she is trying to find out how the newspapers got into the file and whether they are originals or copies.
“Playing detective is fun. This really makes me curious. We have more questions than answers at this point,” Knott said. “It’s a very interesting project. It may be overwhelming, too. The more people interested in it, the more answers we might find.”
A humorous excerpt from “The Old Flag” March 13, 1864 Issue No. 3 in the Stuyvesant archive states, “The ruffians even went so far as to dig a trench which they declared should be our Editorial Grave but as the immortal Webster once said, ‘We ain’t dead yet!’”
According to the book, “Stories of Stuyvesant,” by former town historian Priscilla B. Frisbee and Knott, Stuyvesant had some historic moments during the Civil War.
In 1862, railway switchman Patrick “Granther” Sweeney saved a troop train from colliding with a northbound express train.
In 1865, assassinated President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train passed by the rail station in Stuyvesant according to a printed schedule.
You may find this interesting.
Too fragile for light to pass over it, but not too fragile to clip to other pieces of paper? Really?
I photograph old newspapers....Certain research facilities have that capability.
That’s just selfish double speak for “we don’t want anyone to have a reasonable facsimile of this because we haven’t milked it for all it’s worth yet”.
Of course it could be photographed, etc.
Wow!
That’s the county my Gr-Gr-Gr-Gr-Gr Grandfather was born in.
But he was born over 100 years earlier...
Wow.
Bayou Boeuf, LA, eh? Pretty far south for a bunch of New Yawkers. Wonder if they ran into Doc Milsap and his pretty wife Hannah.
Thank you very much. This is an excellent find. and a reminder of what may be hiding at the bottom of old antique drawers.
Columbia County is both historical and scenically beautiful. Do you recall the town or village where he was born?
Lincoln’s Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, was convinced that at the end of the Civil War, there would be vast amounts of litigation, lasting decades or more. So he ordered that just about all military records of the period were to be archived. Incredible, voluminous amounts of them.
And he furthered ordered that any captured Confederate documents be added to the archive.
While he was mistaken about the litigation, this act proved to be a godsend of demographic information about the United States, greater in its impact even than the Domesday book of England, compiled just after the Norman Conquest.
Since that time, these records have yielded an astounding snapshot of America, including genealogical records, ethnographic and migration information, military service records, etc.
They were also very controversial. Even by the turn of the 20th Century, crude efforts were made to “correct” information that was regarded as not in line with the official history. For example, when blacks who worked for the Confederate military applied for retirement which was paid by the US government to retired Confederate soldiers, if they had an enlisted military rank, it was struck through by the paymasters, and replaced with a handwritten “servant”.
Job Printing
Lowest Prices
in a hand written newspaper...
is that satire?
Civil War POW’s?
I wonder how many prisoners decided to stay in Texas after release.
“It’s much too fragile to scan or photocopy,” Knott added.
Scan the photo.
“It’s much too fragile to scan or photocopy,” Knott added.
Scan the photo.
According to The Handwritten Newspapers Project, an annotated bibliography and historical research guide to handwritten newspapers from around the world, “The Old Flag” was published by Union soldier Captain William H. May of the 23rd Connecticut Volunteers. May was also said to be a newspaper man in civilian life. The Handwritten Newspapers Project states that only one copy of each numbered issue was published. The newspaper was written to break up the monotony of prison life, which, according to the project, included fresh water, food, shelter and even local trading at Camp Ford, Texas from 1863 to 1864. Each issue was read aloud as it was passed to prisoners in various cabins.Thanks NYer.
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