SW055 Delicacy and Discernment Key to Accessing Dormant Knowledge about Seminole Wars

 

Above is an item from Record Group 391, Records of U.S. Army Mobile Commands, 2nd Artillery, entry 81, General, Special, and Other Orders Received from Superior Commands.  This volume includes letters sent from Fort Brooke, December 1835 - January 1836, most of which relate to the Dade Massacre. Librarians explained that they could reproduce portions upon request but that researchers should not attempt to copy its contents on a flat-bed scanner, because it is an exceptionally fragile condition. This document requires a visit to the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, where one can view it in the reading room. How to research at NARA is available at its  https://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/washington

 

Author and historian Chris Kimball returns to discuss techniques to acquire, handle, and categorized dormant knowledge from official records, letters, newspapers, and diaries about the Seminole Wars. Some remains are found on headache-inducising microfilm. Some are scanned and available as PDF scans. And some, like the orderly books from Fort Brooke -- bound into a collected volume by the War Department, can be viewed wearing protective gloves. The books at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, DC, are so fragile, one cannot even scan them on a machine without the pages crumbling from the handling. Instead, the NARA folks permit records copying only by individuals if they use non-flash photography. Or one can read the contents and hand-copy them or type them into a word processing program on a laptop permitted in the research area. 

Cursive handwriting in order books is often quite clear. Chris Kimball laments that much correspondence from military officers compiled in such books is often received looking better than chicken-scratch. That is one of the benefits to recopying the incoming correspondence: Its contents all look as if written from the same hand. If one can't make out an original illegible note from a COL William Harney, one can turn to this book as scribes doubled their efforts to transcribe originals as closely to what was drafted as possible. Translation: they had to be able to decipher handwriting accurately to ensure the Orderly Book was authoritative. 

As onoerous as it may seem, the knowledge represented by words scrawled in ink on those documents still tells tales of worthy of continued interest. The War Department records usually have neat, crisp, clear cursive handwriting. A scribe would take disparate field reports and copy their contents into an orderly book. These were entered based on when written or when received. One may find accounts from the Florida War interspersed with reports from Texas, or the Great Lakes states about military operations. These are often as fascinating as the Seminole War reports. Sometimes, they have indirect ties to the Seminole Wars because of the actions described or the people involved in those actions. But, one won't know this until less on goes paintakingly through such an orderly book to view the collected contents.  Chris Kimball tells what he does in such cases.  

Chris Kinball compiled an index guide specifically aligned with Seminole War reports as presented in the Army-Navy Chronicle. It is a handy "cheat sheet" so one knows what are the Seminole War reference in any given issue of the chronicle -- and where to find them (e.g., inside pages or on the front page, etc...) A problem for Chris Kimball is that he detected an eight-month period when the Chronicle is absent from the collected records in hard-bound books, on microfilm, or on internet-available PDF scans. Were those copies lost? If not, what reason explains the inability to find these "missing" issues. The Chroncile's publisher drafted a Supplement that he inserted into the newspaper at the end of October 1840. He harranged subscribers to finally pay their "dues." And he noted that if military officers who read the Chronicle but didn't pay for it continued in this practice, he would be forced to cease publication as he could not pay his bills otherwise. This was the "smoking gun" that outlined why the Chronicle might not be sustainable. Hence, the supplement informs us that the later issues from mid-January to the end of August 1841 were not lost; they were simply never published -- because of inability to pay the printing costs. The people who scanned the back issues of the Chronicle apparently did not have access to the Supplement as the microfilm and PDF images do not include it. The library at the US Military Academy at West Point, NY, responsibly kept the actual hard-copy issues of the Chronicle in addition to offering the microfilm or online PDF versions for researchers. Because of this, the Supplement was not lost -- and the knowledge it contained about publication problems was preserved to assist researchers even today.  

 

Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida. 

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