Digitizing and Transcribing the Blanchard Brothers’ Civil War Letters
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DIGITIZING AND TRANSCRIBING THE BLANCHARD BROTHERS’ CIVIL WAR LETTERS Katherine Ann Vallaire B.A., California State University, Chico, 2005 PROJECT Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of MASTERS OF ARTS in HISTORY (Public History) at CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SACRAMENTO SPRING 2011 © 2011 Katherine Ann Vallaire ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii DIGITIZING AND TRANSCRIBING THE BLANCHARD BROTHERS’ CIVIL WAR LETTERS A Project by Katherine Ann Vallaire Approved by: ______________________________________, Committee Chair Lee Simpson, PhD ______________________________________, Second Reader Patrick Ettinger, PhD ______________________ Date iii Student: Katherine Ann Vallaire I certify that this student has met the requirements for format contained in the University format manual, and that this project is suitable for shelving in the Library and credit is to be awarded for the project. _________________________, Department Chair ___________________ Aaron Cohen, PhD Date Department of History iv Abstract of DIGITIZING AND TRANSCRIBING THE BLANCHARD BROTHERS’ CIVIL WAR LETTERS by Katherine Ann Vallaire Franklin and Eli Blanchard of Farmington, Michigan enlisted in Company K of the 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment to serve the Union during the Civil War. One hundred and fifty of their letters from when they were serving are located at the California Department of Parks and Recreation State Museum Resource Center. This thesis contains a history of the Blanchards and of the 24th Michigan regiment, a review of epistolary customs used during the time, and an overview of the methods used to transcribe and digitize the letters. The appendix includes the transcriptions in chronological arrangement with a few annotations for historical context. , Committee Chair Lee Simpson ______________________ Date v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Curators Jena Peterson and Anne Fry at the Department of Parks and Recreation State Museum Resource Center for providing me the opportunity to explore and handle this collection. They were supportive and willing to help any way they could throughout this entire project. I would also like to thank Wil Jorae at DPR’s Photographic Archives for making room for me in the scanning office in order to digitize all of the letters and for helping me with Adobe Photoshop. Librarian Judy Donlin and the volunteers at the Farmington Community Library in Farmington, Michigan also deserve special recognition for their assistance. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ vi List of Tables ................................................................................................................... viii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 2. BACKGROUND OF STUDY ........................................................................................ 3 The Blanchard Family......................................................................................................... 3 The 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the Civil War.................................... 7 Epistolary Conventions during the Civil War ................................................................... 18 Historiography of Editing and Transcribing Historical Documents ................................. 29 3. METHODS ................................................................................................................... 44 Processing and Digitizing the Collection .......................................................................... 44 Editing and Transcribing the Collection ........................................................................... 58 Researching ....................................................................................................................... 63 Appendix. Transcriptions of the Blanchard Brothers’ Civil War Letters ......................... 67 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 190 vii LIST OF TABLES Page 1. Table 1. Inventory list of scanned letters, no envelopes, with object numbers ................................................................................................................. 49 2. Table 2. Inventory list of scanned letters, no envelopes, without object numbers, folder 1 .................................................................................................. 51 3. Table 3. Inventory list of scanned letters, no envelopes, without object numbers, folder 2 .................................................................................................. 52 4. Table 4. Inventory list of scanned letters, with envelopes, with object numbers, folder 1 .................................................................................................. 53 5. Table 5. Inventory list of scanned letters with envelopes, with object numbers, folder 2 .................................................................................................. 53 6. Table 6. Inventory list of scanned letters, with envelopes, with object numbers, folder 3 .................................................................................................. 55 7. Table 7. Inventory list of scanned letters with envelopes, no object numbers, folder 1 .................................................................................................. 56 8. Table 8. Inventory list of scanned letters with envelopes, no object numbers, folder 2 .................................................................................................. 57 viii 1 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Elma Pearl Atchison donated a collection of artifacts and archival documents to the California Department of Parks and Recreation State Museum Resource Center (SMRC) in the early 1960s. The Atchison collection consists of personal items and documents that belonged to her father, Andrew Johnson, and her mother, Annie Crooks. There were multiple distinct sets of letters contained within this collection. One such set is approximately 150 letters from Franklin and Eli Blanchard, two soldier brothers serving in the same Union regiment during the Civil War, to their parents back home in Michigan. The Atchison collection also consisted of a group of letters from the 1880s and 1890s between Annie and her sisters. The sisters lived in Salmon Falls, California during the time that Franklin and his family lived near there. How the Blanchard letters ended up in Elma Atchison’s possession is a mystery. There are only two connections linking the Blanchards with Elma’s family. J. Johnson, presumably Andrew Johnson’s mother Judith, was a teacher in the district and worked with John E. Blanchard, Franklin Blanchard’s younger brother. The only other connection between the two families is the issues they shared regarding the Natoma Water and Mining Company. According to their letters, the Crooks had a lawsuit against the Natoma Water and Mining Company over property rights. The Blanchards possessed property surrounded by the Natoma Water and Mining Company and during this time, many residents complained about the company’s domination of and restrictions on local water. 2 While working as a student assistant at the SMRC, I opened a small cardboard box and found the Blanchard brother Civil War letters packed tightly within it, untouched and forgotten for about fifty years. While repacking them in acid-free materials and filing them away in an acid-free box, I wondered if I was preparing them for the same doom, and so the idea of this project transpired. This thesis contains a review of the literature on editing and transcription practices, background research on the Blanchards and the 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry of which they were soldiers, and an overview of my experience digitizing and transcribing over 150 handwritten letters from soldiers writing in the field over 150 years ago. The transcriptions and my authorial annotations are located in the appendix. This thesis can provide invaluable information for individuals interested in the personal experiences and epistolary practices of Civil War soldiers. 3 Chapter 2 BACKGROUND OF STUDY The Blanchard Family Worthy and Mary Lapham Blanchard lived in Farmington, Oakland County, Michigan. They had five sons: Franklin Allen, Eli A., Asa Lapham, John “Ernest,” and Volney who the brothers nicknamed “Bonny.” Like many daughterless women of that time period, Mary would often take in a young girl to help with housework. Worthy was a farmer and expected his sons to help him work; however, during the winter, he allowed the boys to attend school in Ypsilanti. The boys preferred this school because they believed it offered a better education than their small hometown school did. Many of the Blanchards had worked as teachers around the Farmington area. John eventually taught school in Farmington in 1872 and 1873 before moving to California and teaching in Folsom. Asa taught school for a while before graduating from the University of Michigan’s Department of Medicine and Surgery in 1878 and becoming a medical doctor, and Volney taught school before dedicating himself to farming.1 The Blanchards and Laphams had many relatives who lived within the vicinity of Oakland County. It was a very tight-knit community during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Both families