Head Quarters, Co. A, 129th Ills. Vols.
Camp Near Mitchellville, Tennessee, Nov. 30th 1862

Dear Wife

As Mr. Jos. Reeder of Dwight is here & returns home to-morrow, I am happy to have another opportunity to write to you, as you will receive it much sooner than you would by mail.¹ Smith & Capt. Hoskins both recd. letters from home. Mrs. Hoskins says you are well which is the best news I could receive. I would like to have recd. a letter also but hope better of the next mail.

I wrote quite a lengthy letter to-day to the monthly S. S. Prayer-meeting, & as all our letters will reach Pontiac on Saturday, please see that the letter is recd. & read on Sunday, it being the regular day for Prayer-meeting. I sent the letter in care of Mr. Strawell; they will be handed to the mail carrier at Pontiac.²

I am at a loss to know what to say about your coming down here.³ I should like very much if you could spend a few weeks & was so happy at the thought of spending the Winter in Bowling Green, but I tremble at the thought of your coming here. There are scarcely any houses inside our Picket lines, & I cannot venture beyond them while in and around camp. There are so many lying with the measles that I fear it would cost our babe’s life if you brought him,⁴ besides we have no guarantee of staying here even one week. I presume Mrs. Smith will come. I do not know; & it would be an excellent opportunity for you both.

We have been looking for orders to go into Winter Quarters, but it looks more doubtful now than it did at Bowling Green. Perhaps after a few weeks we shall know our fate, at least I hope so.⁵ I believe much as I would love to have you here, I dare not risk the responsibility of advising you to come just now. I sometimes think it was all wrong for me to ask you to come, but I had thought the matter over & felt sure I could keep you both safe & comfortable in or near Bowling Green. But I hope our hearts are prepared for the uncertainties of War. May God make you happy & keep you both in the enjoyment of good health. Perhaps before long things may change for the better.

Col. Smith & his wife arrived here yesterday evening; he is better but quite weak yet.⁶ I understand they intend to return to Bowling Green, as they can find no place to stop here & his health will not permit his staying in camp.

My health is quite good. It has been raining hard this afternoon & is very damp & getting quite cold to-night. We may expect winter in earnest soon. The fall has been very favorable.

I presume ere this you have gone home, as Mrs. Hoskins writes that you would do so last week. I hope you are comfortable. Enclose find five dollars I succeeded in borrowing yesterday. I wish it was much more but can do but little until pay day. By selling the cow, you will have a little at least; sell all if necessary.

Our mails come very irregularly since we are here, most of it goes to Nashville first. We sent to Bowling Green last night for the mail we recd. this Evening. We are getting along very well, I presume full as well as any Regt. in the field & have suffered less from disease. Bro. Cotton preached to us to-day & would have done so to-night, but it rained too hard.

Give my love to all. I wrote to you, Mother & Maggie a few days ago. Kiss baby for me. Write as often as convenient. You speak of Hoskins not writing, he has written at least one letter a week ever since we left home. He wrote immediately when I told him what you said. He recd. a letter tonight & was much pleased.⁷ May the blessings of Heaven rest upon you all, try & be cheerful & happy. God rules all things well.

Your affect. Husband
J. F. Culver

1. Joseph Reeder was a 39-year-old Dwight Township farmer. In 1860 he valued his real estate at $4,000 and was living with his three sons, Levi 13, George 8, and James 5. Eighth Census, Livingston County, State of Illinois, NA.
2. Jason W. Strawell was a 31-year-old Pontiac hardware merchant. Strawell in 1860 was living with his wife Elizabeth. Ibid.
3. On Nov. 16, 1862, Mary Culver had written, “Oh, Frank do you think I can come to you: I’m afraid almost to think of it lest I be disappointed. I am so well and the baby too that if you stay there [at Bowling Green] this winter, I must come pay or no pay. I will sell the cow and every thing else I have to pay my expenses there and if I can have tea to make dinner for my baby, I can live on almost nothing, at least I can live on anything you do, and I know my husband will share with me. How soon will we know whether you go
   into winter quarters or not. I shall dread to open your letters.” Mary Culver to J.F.C., Nov. 16, 1862, Culver Collection.
4. Like many regiments recruited from a rural environment, the 129th Illinois experienced a measles epidemic. These epidemics were virulent and claimed many lives.
5. Two days before, on Nov. 28, there had been a confrontation between Colonels Hambright and Case. It was precipitated when Hambright called on Case to send two companies of the 129th to Nashville as train guards. Case refused as this was contradictory to his orders from General Granger. Hambright said that if this were true, he would not call on the 129th for details in the future, as Case had refused to obey orders.
   When he notified General Granger of his difficulties with Colonel Hambright, Case pointed out that although his regiment was encamped within the picket line manned by Hambright’s command, he, for his own protection, would send out the same number of pickets as heretofore. In view of Hambright’s intransigence, the 129th’s only duties for the time being were to provide for the security of their camp and to drill in the afternoons. Case to Granger, Nov. 30, 1862, Letter Books, 129th Illinois Regiment, NA.
6. Colonel Smith, having secured a surgeon’s certificate attesting to his illness, had left the regiment in the fourth week of October at Lebanon. Proceedings of a Board of Examiners, Held at Gallatin, Tenn., by Order of SO 63, March 7, 1863, Regimental Papers, 129th Illinois, NA, RG 94.
7. Mrs. Hoskins had complained to Mary Culver that she had only received two letters from her husband since he had left Pontiac on Sept. 23, 1862. J.F.C. was to tell Captain Hoskins that “he ought to be ashamed of himself.” Mary Culver to J.F.C, November 16, 1862, Culver Collection.

Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, 1947-1980

“This collection will supplement, in a vital way, a period of India’s post-colonial history which is in many areas thinly documented within the existing official archives. As well as tracing the international connections between India, the Commonwealth and the wider world, this collection offers unique insights into political movements and cross-border tensions that were central to the modern state’s preoccupation with stability and national unification.” – Dr William Gould, University of Leeds

Please send additional comments to Edward Miner.

Building on the foundational content in the first volume, Ethnographic Video Online: Volume II introduces high-value archival material while also focusing on the state of the discipline today. Current issues such as environmental crises, refugee migration, and endangered languages are well documented, and every sub-discipline of anthropology will be represented, including cultural, linguistic, applied, social, visual, urban, medical, and physical anthropologies, as well as archaeology.

Please send additional comments to Chris Africa.

The UI Libraries has been awarded $200,000 from the Carver Trust to digitize the data tapes from the Explorer I satellite mission that led to the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts. These tapes were recovered from the basement of Maclean Hall through the outstanding efforts of our Preservation Dept. in 2010-2011. During that time, tapes containing the original data from Explorer I, III, IV, and a few subsequent satellites, were cleaned and transferred to the Van Allen collection here in the University Archives. We will be using the funds from the Carver Trust to digitize the data from the Explorer I tapes and make it freely accessible online in its original raw format, to allow researchers or any interested parties to download the full data set. This resource will be complemented by an immersive online site containing material from the Van Allen archive that provides historical context and interpretation for the interested general public. This material includes scans of memos, planning documents, diagrams, correspondence, and diary entries, along with photographs, video, and audio items. The site will tell the story of James Van Allen’s work and the Explorer I mission in an interactive manner, and will also provide curriculum that will harness these unique historical and scientific resources to engage a new generation of students with the possibilities of scientific discovery.

For more information on NASA’s recent announcements relating to renaming efforts honoring James Van Allen see the November 12th article in “Iowa Now” and the announcement from NASA.

(Original post by Colleen Theisen on November 27, 2012)

These books from the Business Library’s general collection have been loaned and recently returned. Books appear in order by call number. Readers can use the list to see which subjects are popular or used for research.

Click on a title for more information.

Updated November 28, 2012

James Doak’s The Art of Cookery

On the last page of James Doak’s 1760s Art of cookery, following recipes for ketchup and pickled mushrooms, we find what appears to be a catalog of his library, an impressive collection for the time. He lists the classics: Shakespeare, Pope, Cato, Milton, the Bible, as well as some intriguing titles: Whytt on Lyme water, and A Conversation on the Plurality of Worlds, a French Enlightenment discourse on the Copernican world view. Doak’s book is one of the manuscript cookbooks waiting to be transcribed on our DIY History website:  http://diyhistory.lib.uiowa.edu/transcribe

Please delve in and discover what other gems lie between the interestingly stained pages!

Thanksgiving morning Nov. 27/62

Dear Mary

I have got up quite early this morning & made a fire, & as all is quiet I felt like talking with you. Lieut. Smith is expecting his wife here soon. He wrote for her to come to Bowling Green, then expecting to remain all winter there; & when the news came of our removal, it was too late to notifv her. While we remain here he may possibly find fair accommodations for her. I thought if we spent the winter in Bowling Green, I should like to have you with us.¹ But I could not think of your coming here with your babe, &, as you made no mention of it in your last letter, I concluded you did not contemplate it.

I have not heard from Duff or Fleming yet, neither have I received the letter from Saul. I am not sure that our mail will be at all regular. This [Mitchellville] is but a Small Station about the size of Cayuga,² but for some time has been the terminus of the R. Road. There is an immense amount of Army supplies here making it very necessary to have a large force here.³ The cars went through to Nashville & returned yesterday for the first time. As soon as possible these stores will be shipped there, & then I presume we will be sent to some other post.

One of General Fuller’s aids from Springfield is now passing through this State inspecting the condition of the troops. He will be with us a few days the first of next week, & we expect to get some changes made for the better. The affairs of our Regt. have been rather loosely conducted, & we have suffered some for it.⁴

The health of the Regt. is improving, especially that of Company A. We had quite a large number sick a few days ago, none are seriously ill but David Higbee of Reading.⁵ There is some doubt of his recovery; he is lying in Hospital No. 2 in Bowling Green.

I should be very happy to spend Thanksgiving with you to-day & hope before another year rolls round we may to-gether give thanks for a Union restored & the restoration of Peace & prosperity in the Land. I feel anxious to know what is being done, we get no news here at all reliable. I shall try and answer Mother [Murphy], Maggie [Utley] & Abbie’s [Remick] letters to-day if possible.

The mail goes North early this morning, & we receive our mails in the evening. I shall look for a letter from My Dear Wife. May the richest of God’s blessings rest upon you all. I hope you are getting along well. I have hoped to hear from Bro. Johnie before this & hope he is getting Strong. Why has Bro. Sammy not written? Tell all to write. And now, again, Dear Mary, I must say Adieu for a short time. Write to me as often as you find it convenient & believe me true until death.

Your Affect. Husband
J. F. Culver

1. In letters written Nov. 9 and 11, from Bowling Green, J.F.C. had broached the subject of his wife traveling south for a visit, provided the regiment went into winter quarters at that point.
2. Cayuga is a village several miles northeast of Pontiac.
3. Confederate raiders during the Kentucky Campaign had wreaked havoc on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. Except for the tunnel midway between Mitchellville and Gallatin, which had been caved in, crews quickly effected repairs. Until the tunnel was reopened to traffic, Mitchellville was the railhead. All supplies for General Rosecrans’ army in and around Nashville had to be unloaded there and forwarded the remaining 35 miles by wagon train. O. R., Ser. I, Vol. XX, pt. II, p. 9; Cist, The Army of the Cumberland, p. 81.
4. Allen C. Fuller had been named adjutant general of the state of Illinois on Nov. 11, 1861. Colonel Smith’s poor health had caused him to be absent from the regiment most of the time since its muster in. Moreover, his failure to personally drill the regiment and his ignorance of tactics caused many of his officers to question his fitness to command. Proceedings of a Board of Examiners, held at Gallatin, Tenn., by Order of SO 63, March 7, 1863, Regimental Papers, 129th Illinois, NA.
5. David Higbee, a 27-year-old farmer, was mustered into service as a private in Company A, 129th Illinois, on Sept. 8, 1862. Private Higbee was hospitalized at Bowling Green on Nov. 1, 1862, with chronic bronchitis, and given a medical discharge at Louisville on Jan. 9, 1863. Compiled Service Records of Union Soldiers, NA.

Are you overwhelmed with sources and citations for your research project? Please join Sciences Research and Instruction Librarian, Sara Scheib, to learn how to evaluate the credibility of sources and manage your citations using web-based tools.

Lunch @ the Sciences Library: Evaluating and Citing Sources
12:30-1:20 pm, Wednesday, November 28th
102 SL (Sciences Library classroom)

In this workshop you will learn:

• How to evaluate the credibility of websites, articles and other sources
• How to use citation management tools like RefWorks and EndNote to organize and share your sources, plus format citations and bibliographies
• How to export citations from major research databases like Web of Science and Scopus to citation management tools

The workshop is open to all UI students, faculty and staff. There is no need to register. You may bring your lunch if desired. If you have any questions, please contact Sara Scheib at (319) 335-3024 or sara-scheib@uiowa.edu.