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TheCivilWarDoc

10 Nov, 5 tweets, 3 min read

@librarycongress

The @librarycongress has a fantastic Civil War collection. In it includes three manuscript volumes that document daily life in Washington, D.C., by U.S. Patent Office examiner Horatio Nelson Taft (1806-1888).

@librarycongress

There are 1240 digitized pages of this collection, and they're amazing to scroll through! Be patient- the images force you to brush up on your paleography skills! (Thank you to @librarycongress staff for transcribing them!)

The documents include a"report of President Lincoln's assassination based on accounts Taft received from friends and particularly his son, Charles Sabin Taft, a US Army surgeon who was in Ford's Theatre the night Lincoln was shot." (LOC)

@fordstheatre

Charles Sabin Taft was one of the physicians who cared for Lincoln throughout the night following the events at Ford's Theater (@fordstheatre)

Other entries are about Clara Barton, the First Battle of Manassas, and Lee's surrender.

Check out the collection for yourself here:
loc.gov/collections/di…

What's your favorite entry?
#Twitterstorians #history #CivilWar #manuscript #libraryofcongress #historyteacher

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@TheCivilWarDoc1

11 Nov

Meet Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, who #OTD was awarded the Medal of Honor for her service during the Civil War. She remains the only woman to be be awarded this honor. She was a suffragist, suspected spy, POW, and surgeon.

nps.gov/people/mary-wa…

#Twitterstorians #OTD #WomensHist

In 1855, she earned her MD from Syracuse Medical College. She and her husband opened their own practice, but it failed. She also refused to "obey" her husband, kept her last name, and wore a short skirt with trousers. They divorced.

#women #rights #feminism #histmed

When the war started, she joined the Union Army. She was refused a commission, so she worked as an"unpaid volunteer surgeon at the U.S. Patent Office Hospital in Washington." She wore men's clothing throughout the war and said it made doing her job easier. (NPS)

Read 7 tweets

TheCivilWarDoc

@TheCivilWarDoc1

11 Nov

OTD in 1889, President Harrison declared Washington the 42nd state in the Union. (Image, LOC)

#Twitterstorians #WA #OTD #HistoryFacts #OregonTerritory #LOC #Archives

According to the LOC, "In 1844, presidential candidate James K. Polk urged an aggressive stance with regard to ownership of the land below the 54th parallel. The slogan “Fifty-four Forty or Fight” became a rallying cry of the Polk campaign..."

"... Two years later, the U.S. and Great Britain signed the Oregon Treaty setting the Canadian-American border at the 49th parallel and granting the United States territory that included present-day ID, OR, and WA. In 1848, Congress designated this...the “OR Territory.” (LOC)

Read 7 tweets

TheCivilWarDoc

@TheCivilWarDoc1

31 May

#MemorialDay2021 Let's talk about the origins of Decoration Day. In Race and Reunion, historian David Blight highlights the first Memorial Day. Founded by Black Americans, Decoration Day was held May 1, 1865 at a racetrack/ war prison where freedmen reburied Union soldiers.

They then held a ceremony to honor the 257 fallen soldiers (on this site in South Carolina) called "Martyrs of the Race Course." In the days prior, Black men built an enclosure around the burial ground & created a cemetery of neat rows to honor the US.

On the Morning of May 1, thousands of Black school children from the freedman schools marched along with roses for the fallen while singing "John Brown's Body."

Read 5 tweets

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