Family of Civil War soldier fights for return of lost journal

[Bodhisattva]

I thought some of you might find this interesting. The guy leading the charge on this is a good friend of mine.

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/news/campus/article_72e7e698-8d4f-11e3-8f89-0017a43b2370.html

 

[Tidewater]

I thought some of you might find this interesting. The guy leading the charge on this is a good friend of mine.

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/news/campus/article_72e7e698-8d4f-11e3-8f89-0017a43b2370.html

I would guess that the University's legitimate research needs could be met by scanning the contents of the diary and returning it to the family.
I wonder how much Penn State paid for it? Should the family reimburse Penn State for the money they spent to purchase the diary?

On a related note, the battle flag of the 28th Virginia Infantry, which was lost at Gettysburg is still in the hands of the Minnesota Historical Society. A congressional resolution and executive order from 1905 ordered the War Department to return all Civil War flags to their original states. The flag of the 28th Virginia was in private hands at the time and was not sent to Virginia. It was later sent to the Minnesota Historical Society, where it remains today. Virginia has asked for it back, but Minnesota declines.

 

[seebell]

Be interesting to see how the suit comes out.

 

[Bodhisattva]

When Eric told me that he'd discovered the journal we talked about the best course of action for getting it back. I told him to formally request it, but be prepared to get stonewalled. Except for the top level, bureaucrats are not empowered to make decisions. And that's exactly what happened - he got the run around followed by outright hostility. Well, my buddy is not one to back down; he likes to fight. The article in the PSU paper has already attracted attention. It has gained traction on twitter and FB; apparently some professors are discussing the issue in their classes. PSU attorneys have requested a meeting with Eric. They only have hundreds of other Civil war journals/diaries; I think they can give this one back to the rightful owners.

 

[Bodhisattva]

I would guess that the University's legitimate research needs could be met by scanning the contents of the diary and returning it to the family.

That was Eric's argument. He even said the family would likely let the university "borrow" it long term. But, they had to be jerks.

I wonder how much Penn State paid for it? Should the family reimburse Penn State for the money they spent to purchase the diary?

I'm not sure how much PSU paid for the journal. I don't think it would be more than a couple grand. This one probably much less because it doesn't cover a long period of time. I'm not sure if the rightful owners would have to reimburse the purchaser; I don't think so (but I'm going off distant memory).

On a related note, the battle flag of the 28th Virginia Infantry, which was lost at Gettysburg is still in the hands of the Minnesota Historical Society. A congressional resolution and executive order from 1905 ordered the War Department to return all Civil War flags to their original states. The flag of the 28th Virginia was in private hands at the time and was not sent to Virginia. It was later sent to the Minnesota Historical Society, where it remains today. Virginia has asked for it back, but Minnesota declines.

D-bags

 

[Tidewater]

That was Eric's argument. He even said the family would likely let the university "borrow" it long term. But, they had to be jerks.

I'm afraid you called that one correctly. Lower level guys are not going to be empowered to give away any part of the collection. Upper level ones tend to be arrogant.

I'm not sure how much PSU paid for the journal. I don't think it would be more than a couple grand. This one probably much less because it doesn't cover a long period of time. I'm not sure if the rightful owners would have to reimburse the purchaser; I don't think so (but I'm going off distant memory).

Not sure what the law would say about this one. If the original "finder" had not scarfed up the diary, it would have been buried with the body and lost to history. Would salvage law apply? If they fight it out in court, I'd bet the lawyer fees will quickly exceed the value of the journal.

D-bags

I'm torn about the Minnesota case. Virginia has lots of battle flags. They are stored at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, but the MoC has been so badly mis-managed that they are about to merge with the Virginia Civil War Center at Tredegar Iron Works, a museum with an enormous "One People, One State, One Leader" ideological ax to grind. Va CW Center is where Virginia school trips go so school children can learn about how evil their ancestors were and how noble the Yankees were in killing 100,000 of southerners and destroying $ billions in property in order to deny southerners their right to govern themselves. Keeping the flag of the 28th Va out of their hands is probably a good thing. When I was in St. Paul, I went to the Minnesota Historical Society and viewed the flag of the 28th. Leaving it there means a bunch of mid-westerners can see a real battle flag. If Minnesota gave it back voluntarily, I'd be okay with that. If they want to keep it, I don't know if Virginia should grovel to them to get to back. I don't think our current carpetbagger would want it back anyway.

 

[Pugsley]

I'm torn about the Minnesota case. Virginia has lots of battle flags. They are stored at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, but the MoC has been so badly mis-managed that they are about to merge with the Virginia Civil War Center at Tredegar Iron Works, a museum with an enormous "One People, One State, One Leader" ideological ax to grind. Va CW Center is where Virginia school trips go so school children can learn about how evil their ancestors were and how noble the Yankees were in killing 100,000 of southerners and destroying $ billions in property in order to deny southerners their right to govern themselves. Keeping the flag of the 28th Va out of their hands is probably a good thing. When I was in St. Paul, I went to the Minnesota Historical Society and viewed the flag of the 28th. Leaving it there means a bunch of mid-westerners can see a real battle flag. If Minnesota gave it back voluntarily, I'd be okay with that. If they want to keep it, I don't know if Virginia should grovel to them to get to back. I don't think our current carpetbagger would want it back anyway.

You said that perfectly. Except I am sure that more than 100,000 southerners died at the hands of the North. Total deaths is supposed to be +640,000. But I have never heard the number of North and South separately. If it was only 100,000 we were much better shots than the Union army was.

 

[Tidewater]

You said that perfectly. Except I am sure that more than 100,000 southerners died at the hands of the North. Total deaths is supposed to be +640,000. But I have never heard the number of North and South separately. If it was only 100,000 we were much better shots than the Union army was.

I was only using battlefield deaths so the "Lincoln was a God" crowd would not accuse me of an oversight.
Traditional total Confederate death toll was 258,000 and Union deaths at 360,000 for a total of 618,000. Traditionally, the battlefield death totals are something like 94,000 Confederates and 108,000 Yankees.
A modern-day demographer has recently placed total war deaths at 650,000-850,000, splitting the difference to 750,000, or 21% higher than the previous estimates.
Using his estimates, that would increase the Southern battlefield deaths would be somewhere around 113,000, but what's 20,000 deaths when you are talking about the glories of saving northeastern businessmen's profits?

 

[Bodhisattva]

I'm torn about the Minnesota case. Virginia has lots of battle flags. They are stored at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, but the MoC has been so badly mis-managed that they are about to merge with the Virginia Civil War Center at Tredegar Iron Works, a museum with an enormous "One People, One State, One Leader" ideological ax to grind. Va CW Center is where Virginia school trips go so school children can learn about how evil their ancestors were and how noble the Yankees were in killing 100,000 of southerners and destroying $ billions in property in order to deny southerners their right to govern themselves. Keeping the flag of the 28th Va out of their hands is probably a good thing. When I was in St. Paul, I went to the Minnesota Historical Society and viewed the flag of the 28th. Leaving it there means a bunch of mid-westerners can see a real battle flag. If Minnesota gave it back voluntarily, I'd be okay with that. If they want to keep it, I don't know if Virginia should grovel to them to get to back. I don't think our current carpetbagger would want it back anyway.

Ah, I was not aware that the people in charge of preserving history are engaging in its heavy editing and re-writing. Sad, but all too typical.