{"id":455,"date":"2008-01-24T10:53:32","date_gmt":"2008-01-24T16:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ezing.me\/transfer\/?p=455"},"modified":"2014-09-23T09:24:46","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T14:24:46","slug":"library-archivist-professor-writes-civil-war-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/library-archivist-professor-writes-civil-war-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Library Archivist, Professor Writes Civil War Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n OXFORD, Miss. – More than 300 letters written by a
\nUniversity of Mississippi student who left the
\ncampus in 1861 to help the Confederate forces fight
\nthe Civil War are the basis of a recent book.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Jennifer Ford, associate professor and director of
\narchives and special collection in UM’s J.D.
\nWilliams Library, was inspired to write “The Hour
\nof Our Nation’s Agony” (University of Tennessee
\nPress, 2007) as she processed the letters, which
\nwere donated to the library in 2002.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n The book follows a young Lt. William Cowper Nelson,
\nnative of Holly Springs, as he is transformed from
\nan idealistic young soldier to a battle-hardened
\nveteran.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n The letters were donated to the library by Nelson’s
\ndescendant Susan “Sudy” Seals of Murfreesboro,
\nTenn. Seals discovered them when clearing out a
\nfamily home and turned them over to her son-in-law
\nMatthew Sisson, a captain in the Coast Guard.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n “He loved them,” Ford said. “They got the family
\ntogether and they decided to call us and donate
\nthem. That’s when I first started working on the
\nletters.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n It took Ford a year to edit the letters. In order
\nto better understand people and places for the
\nbook’s appendices, she traveled to Jackson many
\nSaturday mornings to do research at the Mississippi
\nDepartment of Archives and History, which has a
\ncomplete set of soldiers’ military records.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n “I would leave every Saturday morning at 5 to be
\nthere when they opened,” she said. “They closed
\nmid-day, so I would have to leave and come back the
\nnext Saturday.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n Her research produced the book’s more than 1,000
\nfootnotes, which she said some may consider too
\nmany, but Ford disagrees.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n “I find that sometimes notes help people understand
\nmore about the life of the person they are reading
\nabout,” she said.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n Ford said the University of Tennessee Press was
\n“incredibly receptive” to the possibility of
\npublishing the book.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n “I continued to work on it for over a year revising
\nand then they accepted it.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n Special recognition for the book soon followed. The
\ntitle is included in the Voices of the Civil War
\nSeries, edited by Peter Carmichael, a professor of
\nCivil War studies at West Virginia University.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n “Of the 35 titles that have been published in (the
\nseries), Jennifer Ford’s ‘The Hour of Our Nation’s
\nAgony’ is one of the most important volumes
\npublished to date,” Carmichael said. “William
\nCowper Nelson, unlike so many of his peers, did not
\nrestage the war as a heroic event. He was very
\naware and very open as to how the horrors of army
\nlife tore away at his humanity, but such
\nreflections did not undermine his commitment to the
\nConfederate cause.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n Following the book’s release in September, Ford was
\nan invited presenter at the Southern Festival of
\nBooks in Nashville. Held annually in October, the
\nevent is a three-day literary festival attended by
\nmore than 200 authors.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n “I got a great response from the crowd (at the
\nfestival),” Ford said. “Plus, I also got to see
\nWill Nelson’s family again, which was very nice.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n Ford said she hopes those who read the book will
\nbetter appreciate what it was like for a young man
\nto leave everything and everyone behind in order to
\nfight for a cause during a bloody time in America’s
\npast.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n “I hope that they will get an understanding that
\nthis is one person stuck in a very confusing and
\ndifficult time in our nation’s history,” she said.
\n“It gives the perspective of a young man who was 19
\nwhen he enlisted and had never been outside his
\nhome finding himself in the most incongruous
\nplaces.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n For Ford, researching the life of Will Nelson was a
\ndiversion from her specialty of women’s history.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n “His humanity is what interested me,” she said.
\n“He had great flashes of humanity toward the
\nenemy. (For example), he talks in some letters
\nabout going to fetch buckets of water after the
\nBattle of Sharpsburg for enemies captured during
\nthe conflict.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n After graduating from Millsaps College with a
\ndegree in English, Ford completed her master’s
\ndegree in history and Master’s of Library Science
\nat the University of Southern Mississippi in 1997.
\nShe is enrolled in UM’s doctoral program in
\nhistory.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n A Jackson native, Ford began her work at the UM
\nlibrary in 1998 and was promoted to department head
\nin 2005.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n The actual letters of William Cowper Nelson are
\navailable for viewing in the J.D. Williams
\nLibrary.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n For more information, contact Ford at jwford@olemiss.edu<\/a> or
\ncall 662-915-7639. To learn more about the J.D. Williams
\nLibrary, go to
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nhttp:\/\/www.olemiss.edu\/depts\/general?library\/<\/a>.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OXFORD, Miss. – More than 300 letters written by a University of Mississippi student who left the campus in 1861 to help the Confederate forces fight the Civil War are the basis of a recent book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[222],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nLibrary Archivist, Professor Writes Civil War Book - Ole Miss News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/library-archivist-professor-writes-civil-war-book\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Library Archivist, Professor Writes Civil War Book - Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"OXFORD, Miss. – More than 300 letters written by a University of Mississippi student who left the campus in 1861 to help the Confederate forces fight the Civil War are the basis of a recent book.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/library-archivist-professor-writes-civil-war-book\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"-0001-11-30T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-23T14:24:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@OleMissRebels\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@OleMissRebels\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/\",\"name\":\"Ole Miss News\",\"description\":\"The official source for University of Mississippi news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/library-archivist-professor-writes-civil-war-book\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/library-archivist-professor-writes-civil-war-book\/\",\"name\":\"Library Archivist, Professor Writes Civil War Book - Ole Miss News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"-0001-11-30T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-23T14:24:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/4515cb1b4f8a759552c0827c3df56430\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/library-archivist-professor-writes-civil-war-book\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/4515cb1b4f8a759552c0827c3df56430\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/0.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3e8e7562bf6d779d771ad8ce4cecd7ef?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42963,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions\/42963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}