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Civil War Blog

A project of PA Historian

The 1863 Draft for Upper Dauphin County

| May 1, 2011

In July of 1863, President Lincoln issued a proclamation ordering a draft to raise five hundred thousand men for the Union army. It was the first compulsory draft in American history.  The draft was intended to encourage enlistment, but in many cases it had the opposite effect.  Federal troops had to be called out in […]

Pvt. David Brown – 177th Pennsylvania Infantry

| April 25, 2011

  David Brown (1837-1902) According to official records, David Brown was drafted into the 177th Pennsylvania Infantry in 1862.  He was mustered into service on 2 November 1862 and mustered out with his company on 5 August 1863.  Pension application records indicate that he developed the mumps on 13 October 1862, soon after his arrival […]

U.S. Census Returns – 1890 Veterans Schedules

| March 30, 2011

Ancestry.com provides an database index to the surviving 1890 Veterans Schedules which listed Union veterans who were heads of households or their widows.  The index will held find the exact schedule on which the information about the veteran is found.  The schedules are easily located through Ancestry.com and copies of them are available to Ancestry.com […]

Midwives and the Civil War – Specktown’s Becky Rickert

| March 10, 2011

On the third day of the Battle of Gettsyburg, 3 July 1863, Mary Virginia “Jennie” Wade was killed inside a home by a stray bullet while she was baking bread for hungry Union troops and thus became the only civilian casualty of the battle.  Prior to this domestic exercise, she had faithful done her morning […]

The Fair Use Doctrine and Pictures Found on Find A Grave

| March 3, 2011

In the first post about the Find A Grave site, a statement was made about those contributors to the site who are very proactive about warning people who use the site about theft of their photographs.  The understanding of these individual is that any one who uses a photograph of theirs, under any conditions and […]