Intern's Perspective: the British General Courts Martial Project

The David Library has benefited from the services of a host of volunteers and interns this summer, whose work has helped us further the development of our collections enormously. One of our many on-going projects has been to create a database finding aid for our microfilmed British General Courts Martial Records (Film 675), the originals of which are held in the British National Archives as War Office Series 71. Steve Gorman, an undergraduate at Rider University, spent many hours going through these records and entering them into the database, advancing the project much farther and faster than we could have done without his help. In this installment, Steve provides an account of his role in the project and investigates one of the more interesting cases he encountered along the way.

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"A few years ago our Sol Feinstone Scholar, Will Tatum, traveled to England to investigate several collections of documents in the British archives containing various military court trials during the latter half of the Eighteen Century. Will took hundreds of photographs of each page of each record in the collection and then compiled the files into JPEG images. My job, in what he referred to as the “Courts Martial Project,” was to go through as much of the pictures as I could and organize the necessary information into a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet to be used as a guide for the Library."


"I find these trials interesting, but from time to time a particular trial stands out and decisively makes a great story. After having some difficulty attempting to select my most intriguing court case, I finally settled with the 1755 Trial of Francis McManus and Solomon Welsh in Oswego, New York."

For more, read below the fold.

The David Library at SHEAR 2011

From July 14-17, 2011, the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic met at the Doubletree Hotel in Philadelphia. The David Library played a major role in this conference, ranging from funding several receptions to sending a delegation of fellows and staff down each day to organizing and presenting a panel on the intersection of race, identity, and politics in the Early Republic. Throughout the conference, David Library Fellow Rachel Herrmann, of the University of Texas at Austin, and I provided twitter updates on the panels we attended, testing out a new approach for taking the conference to a wider audience. Professor W. Caleb McDaniel of Rice University has been kind enough to gather these and other tweets from the conference and post them online. So if you missed SHEAR 2011, you can get an idea of what went on by visiting:

The Official Twitter Record of SHEAR 2011

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Have something you want to share, such as a question, research find, or a personal story about the Library? Email Will Tatum at tatum@dlar.org

Collection Guide: Early Engagements of the American Revolution

David Library Summer Intern Billy Griffith, an undergraduate history concentrator at Shepherd University, continues his series of guides to the Library's book collection with this installment on volumes relating to the early battles and engagements of the Revolution. This list should serve as an excellent starting point for those individuals who are beginning to read about the Revolution, as well as for seasoned researchers interested in the Library's holdings beyond our microfilm collection. The numbers above each entry are the call numbers for that title.


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Selected Readings of the Early Engagements of the Revolutionary War

by Billy Griffith

* Lexington and Concord: April 19, 1775

* Capture of Fort Ticonderoga: May 10, 1775

* Battle of Bunker Hill: June 17, 1775

* Siege of Boston: April 1775- March 1776

Swain Report Special: War Office 28, Regimental HQ Papers, Installment 7

In this latest installment of his continuing series, David Swain completes his entries covering Reel 6 of these War Office 28 microfilm records from the British National Archives. This section includes correspondence from several vital posts along the British defensive line in southern Canada, as well as documents from the German regiments who comprised a significant portion of that Colony's garrison, but remain overlooked in the wake of the British defeat at Saratoga. Once again, David is improving our ability to make the Library's collections easier for patrons to use and opening up largely untapped sources for future historical scholarship.

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28.8 Three Rivers, Sorel, Germans; Carleton Isle, Cataraqui, Oswego (Reel 6—second part)


Summary contents:

* Trois Rivières, returns, 1776: 26 documents; documents 1 through 26; printed page numbers 1 through 64

* Sorel, letters and papers, 1778-1781: 25 documents; documents 27 through 51; printed page numbers 65 through 123

* Germans, letters from field officers, 1781: 18 documents; documents 52 through 69; printed page numbers 124 through 176

* Trois Rivières, letters from officers commanding, 1779-1782: 7 documents; documents 70 through 76; printed page numbers 177 through 201

* Sorel, letters from the officers commanding, 1779-1783: 35 documents; documents 77 through 111; printed page numbers 202 through 292

* Carleton Island, Cataraqui, Oswego, letters from officers commanding, 1779-1783: 52 documents; documents 112 through 163; printed page numbers 293 through 416

* Germans, letters from field officers, 1783: 18 documents; documents 164 through 181; printed page numbers 417 through 467

Collection Guide: Readings on the French and Indian War

As part of his summer internship here at the David Library, William "Billy" Griffith of Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, has created an annotated finding guide to the books and pamphlets in the Library's collections relating to the French and Indian War. Despite the specificity of the Institution's title, the Library's collection embrace the full period of 1750-1800, containing a wealth of material on the French and Indian War as well as the conflicts of the Early Republic. Thanks to Billy's efforts with the new finding aid, our holdings for the early half of our period should now be much easier to access.The titles are arranged by subject, with the call number of each volume appearing above its title.

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The David Library of the American Revolution

Selected Readings on the French and Indian War

* General Histories

* Battles and Campaigns
         - Jumonville Glen/ Fort Necessity 1754
         - Braddock’s March/ Battle of the Monongahela 1755
         - Crown Point Expedition/ Battle of Lake George 1755
         - Fort Bull 1756
         - Siege of Fort William Henry 1757
         - Siege of Louisbourg 1758
         - Battle of Ticonderoga (Carillon) 1758
         - Forbes Expedition to Fort Duquesne 1758
         - Battle of Quebec 1759
         - Treaty of Paris 1763

* British, Provincial, and French Land and Naval Forces/ Native Americans

* People
       - Amherst, Jeffrey
       - Braddock, Edward
       - Forbes, John
       - Hendrick, Chief
       - Johnson, William
       - Loudoun, Lord
       - Montcalm, Louis- Joseph
       - Rogers, Robert
       - Shirley, William
       - Washington, George
       - Wolfe, James

* Journals, Correspondence, Papers, etc

Patron's Perspective: Staff Ride of the Ten Crucial Days Campaign

In December 2010, the David Library introduced a new program into its regular schedule: the "staff ride" battlefield tour. Our initial tour covers the surviving sites and marching routes of the Trenton-Princeton or "Ten Crucial Days" Campaign of December 1776-January 1777. Library Patron Dennis Waters attended our May 21st staff ride and was kind enough to send along some detailed comments that provide great insights into the experience of the staff ride. We've chosen to present the highlights of his report at the top: please see "below the fold" for the full text of his report. Our thanks go out to Dennis and all the other members of the David Library Family who have made this program a great success!

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"Over the years I have read most of the books on the subject and visited...most of the sites. But I knew my knowledge fell short, and so I grabbed the chance to spend a day touring the sites with a group organized by the David Library and led by Feinstone Scholar in Residence Will Tatum."


"The preparation makes...[the staff ride] more than just another battlefield tour and the tour makes...[it] more than just another lecture about a battle. The David Library prepared us by mailing an advance packet of maps and transcripts of eyewitness accounts from their collection."


"The lunch place was Bill’s Olde Tavern...which was standing on the site when Washington and his men passed by. My fellow staff-riders were a good group and it was nice to have a chance to get to know some of them a little better."


"Will literally marched us across the battlefield, showing us the positions of the British and Continental forces and how the rolling terrain affected the course of the battle. This exercise really showcased the benefits of the staff ride concept, and I came away with a much greater appreciation of what had transpired there."



"...the DLAR Staff Ride was a great outing and worth every penny."

Volunteering at the David Library: One Student's Perspective

 Over this past winter, local high school student Chad Hogan volunteered on Saturdays here at the Library, aiding in a variety of routine operations. He has provided an account of his experience, which we hope will encourage other interested students to approach us about volunteer opportunities. The David Library is happy to support individuals with an interest in history who wish to learn more about our operations.


 Volunteering at the David Library

by Chad Hogan

I came to the library in the early days of December 2010. I started my first day at library anxiously, not knowing much of what I’d be doing but my interest and love of history propelled me past my anxiousness. On the first day, Mrs. Ludwig presented me with an array of jobs to get started. It ranged from shelving books and microfilm to sorting through primary sources. The work was interesting and important to the functioning of the library. Each day that I worked at the David Library, I gained a greater appreciation for the important work that is done at the library and the history that is preserved for that era of the United States. We are very fortunate to live in an area that contains so many important aspects of early American History. The unique contribution that the library makes to the area makes me feel very proud to be part of it. After a week, my jobs turned to sorting through many vertical files and making copies of pensions in microfilm. The jobs were definitely interesting and invoked a stronger passion for history. Although I was the volunteer, the library contributed much more to my life than I could imagine and I am grateful for that.

Have something you want to share, such as a question, research find, or a personal story about the Library? Email Will Tatum at tatum@dlar.org