I received the comment below from one of my blog readers, and I thought it was deserving of inclusion in a regular blog posting. So, with the permission of the writer here is a first-hand account from a true Footnote.com veteran:
“Hello! My name is Vicki, and I'm a Footnote.com addict!
I've been a full member working in several Confederate files for about two years, and I've racked up over 120,000 annotations, or indexing entries, mostly in documents related to Texas although I've ventured off into Indian Territory, SW Arkansas, and western Louisiana at times. I started in the Citizens and Business File, moved over into Confederate Officers, and am currently in Confederate--CSA--Service records of Confederate soldiers who served in organizations raised directly by the Confederate government, such as the Engineers, Nitre and Mining Bureau, Sappers and Miners, and Signal Corps. I'm just finishing up the file for Caleb G. Forshey, 286 images. A West Point grad, before the war he was superintendent of Texas Military Institute at Rutersville--his letterhead paper in Footnote.com has two engravings of TMI. During the war he was "consulting engineer" for Magruder planning coastal defenses. His file not only includes detailed descriptive plans for the Fort Esperanza area, but also hand drawn maps for the area from Caney Creek to the Brazos, the mouth of the San Bernard River, the camps on the west side of the Brazos near the coast, the Sabine at Gaines Ferry, and the Sabine from Williamson Ferry down past Carter's Ferry. His correspondence documents his temper tantrums and his colleagues lack of confidence in him at times. Included is a report on the iron ore regions of East Texas, written by M. L. Parry, who wanted to set up foundries in Liberty and in Anderson County, a Cass(Davis) county foundry already being operational. And all of this I found by accident, since Caleb Forshey's file is actually under the name of Augustus Forsberg!
I don't think this indexing process will ever be complete--there are just too many documents and too many names, even for the Trans-Miss, and there are the serendipity moments like with Forshey. One name leads to another and another. It it truly one of the most amazing sources I've ever seen for Civil War researchers, paired with the free online searchable OR. I'm constantly amazed at how much paperwork survived, and dismayed at how much evidently didn't. (Did they have a bonfire at Bonham of much of the Northern Subdistrict paperwork at the end of the war, or what?) But beware! You will become addicted, and find yourself constantly on the lookout for "the next neat thing," wondering how long it has been since anyone has every looked at this particular document.
Vicki Betts
University of Texas at Tyler Library
P. S. I just remembered another favorite find from the correspondence of Udolpho Wolfe, quartermaster in Victoria, Texas, March 31, 1862:
‘The Influence of the ‘Almighty Dollar’ in time of War, as well as in times of peace seems proof against loyalty or patriotism. Where the money is, there will be found the seller, and where it is not[,] patriotism may solicit in vain.’”
Thanks so much for posting this (and thanks, Vicki, for letting Jane post this)! I have the free Footnote basic membership, but your post is the final critique needed to push me into spending the money for the annual membership.
ReplyDeleteNow I have to find even more time for research because you've made me want to spend a lot of time on Footnote ;-)
Nice post. There are books and articles about the Gulf blockade and Union amphibious operations there, but I wish someone would write a book about Texas coastal defense from the Confederate perspective. It looks like Vicki came up with some interesting information.
ReplyDeleteIf you go to http://www.footnote.com/profile/vbetts/ and click on the Spotlights tab, you can take a look at the most interesting things that I've found, or documents that I want to be able to get back to quickly. The maps are the first to come up. You can click on them then enlarge, and get a fairly good look at them even if you aren't a member. If you go to the Footnote Pages, you can pull up some of the lists I've pulled together, most of which REALLY need to be updated.
ReplyDeleteVicki Betts
Hey Vicki, you're being an enabler, you know :).
ReplyDeleteYou bet! My primary goal, both with this and my newspapers, is to give Civil War historians not a single blessed excuse to ignore Texas ever again. The primary sources are there, and are increasingly easy to access. They ignore us at their peril! ;-)
ReplyDeleteAnd if anyone wants a *second* historical addiction, period newspapers are it! See:
http://www.uttyler.edu/vbetts/newspaper_titles.htm
Vicki Betts