Eastern on American History tv on cspan3. Next on the civil war, ofuniversity southern mississippi professor describes treatment of veterans after the civil war and challenges preconceptions about the Mississippi State pension system. The soldiers home which welcomed africanamericans as well as the wives and widows of veterans. Welcome, everyone. To marybeths welcome to the National Civil war museum, our sixth letter. We are excited we are excited hurl. To have dr. Susanna her credentials are many. I will read this because i dont want to mess anything up in her introduction. Professor ofe history for the dale center for the study of war and society at the university of southern mississippi. She specializes in 19th century American History of the civil war. She has published numerous books and articles, including the heart of the eagle, irishamerican volunteers in the volunteers iny soldiers army, and the of louisianas most celebrated unit. This book will be on sale. She will sign it for you and after this presentation you can get a copy at the gift shop and there will be an opportunity for her to sign. Shes a past president of the Mississippi Historical society, a member of the board of trustees for the society of military history and serves on the Editorial Board of civil war times magazine and the Advisory Board of the National Civil war museum. Her most recent research involves civil war governors of mississippi, which she directs, this is a Collaborative Partnership between the Mississippi Department of archives and history, the Mississippi Digital Library at the university of southern which will scan, datecribe, annotate and civil war era governors papers. About 50,000 documents spanning nine administrations from 1859 to 1882. 19th century americans never hesitated to contact the governor, and these papers offer scholars and the public valuable insights into the unknown or understudied experience. All the papers will be freely accessible online. What does she do in her spare time . We dont know. [laughter] i will tell you what, she tours the gettysburg battlefield as she has been doing the past two days. I also want to welcome members of the Texas Brigade Association reactivated, folks from texas, one person from australia, and they have been at harpers ferry, antietam, gettysburg, the National Civil war museum and we welcome you. We thank cspan for covering this for our national audience. Ural, mississippi and the care of confederate veterans, ladies and gentlemen. [applause] hey, everybody thank you for coming up. It has been a wonderful week up here in pennsylvania. I moved to the south about 20 years ago. East texas is still considered south. I moved to mississippi about 10 years ago but spent my first decade here in pennsylvania. It is good to be home. It has been a wonderful week with the association reactivated. But we dont all come to the same conclusions, but we are dedicated to a tremendous amount of learning. It has been a good week. Wayne and mary beth, thank you for having me back. This is an outstanding museum. Become memberst of museum if we are not in the area, we support the ones we can get to a lot, and it is a wonderful reminder you can still support museums doing wonderful work. We toured this museum yesterday and had a behindthescenes to her and the collections and thehescenes tour collections here are incredible. Its invaluable for me as a historian, but also for the public. I need to commend you all on what you are doing. I am here to talk today about mississippis confederate home. This is one of my favorite photographs of the home. In february 1926, and it is similar to other photographs you can find if you Google Jefferson davis soldiers home, as it was commonly known when it was open. Photographs like these, i stumbled across not long after moving to mississippi in 2009. I got curious about the home and thought, has anybody done research on this . You start looking for books or articles and i found a few related studies, but i couldnt find really good, indepth historical analysis of the home waselp me unravel why i seeing individuals i am not used to seeing in front of a confederate home as residents, or inmates as they were known in the earlier 20th century. This is unusual because most studies of confederate homes, number one, most confederate homes were just for veterans, usually just men out front, or there were womens homes, just for women. I wasnt used to seeing such a diverse crab this early in the 20th century. There might be some crossover with men and women at the same home later in the 20 century, but this was fairly early to see Something Like this. Wanted to doous, research, but the problem i ran to problem i ran into was that there just arent that many traditional records for ballroom walk for the house. We dont have letters, memoirs of individuals who ran the home. We dont have a lot of the traditional resources historians work with, that those of you who have done research on your own know we tend to utilize as historians. I was trying to figure out how i could unravel what life was like at this home and what mississippi set out to create. This is a timely question. We are still wrestling with how we properly care for veterans, what are Services Veterans should be receiving, how do we make sure they receive them in a timely manner and that they are meeting the needs of veterans . This became a fascinating question i wanted to unravel. One of the issues i ran into, though, is that the home really historical the biography. If you are interested in the subject matter, get these books. While i disagree with some andings, and beauvoir mississippi have challenged some of the findings, but these are the best starting points. This is about the overall experiences of veterans after the civil war, and the author looks at challenging experiences veterans face when they came home, where you would think that, for example, Union Veterans were warmly welcomed and celebrated, but in fact there were real concerns about these former soldiers coming home and what kind of bad habits they picked up in camp. Are they violent . Are we going to have a rising in crime . Are there bringing addictions home with them . And martin found that in the confederacy, there was more of a positive image of some of these veterans, but there was still concern, particularly when it came to caring for veterans and veterans homes. You dont want to do too much because pensions might make people lazy. Provide toont to much public support, because people get dependent on public support, these are 19thcentury ideas about welfare, they wont be independent anymore. We dont want to do too much, but we need to do something. This was something late 19th century americans wrestled with. The book on the right is rosenbergs living monuments. This is a history of confederate homes, more focused on the subject matter we are focused on today. These confederate homes are funded by states, not the federal government. You took up arms against the federal government, the federal government doesnt tend to smile upon providing aid afterwards. The state of mississippi, louisiana, texas, virginia, provided homes for veterans and these were funded out of state coffers. The reason i say that beauvoir didnt really fit with my understanding of confederate homes based on these books and works like them is because these thes argued, for example, individuals in these homes were the poorest of the poor and the neediest of the needy. That makes sense. To receive a pension is a civil war veteran, north or south, you had to prove need, be entered be indigent. You were unable to take care of yourself or you tremendously sacrificed and were worthy of care. We say as historians that we created in the minds of the public if not also Academic Work the impression that these individuals had always been the poorest of the poor. Assumptions crept in of, then they will have traditional issues you see with poverty, illiteracy, socioeconomic instability, moving around a lot from rental properties, Something Like this. But if you go back and look at some of these images, some individuals look impoverished but if you look at some of the women, the necklaces, a for ar, some of fur coll the women fashionably dressed, again, this is 1926 but the people in this photograph are demonstrating that if they arent wealthy at this point, at some point in their life they enjoyed a certain amount of comfort, a certain amount of wealth, what historians called cultural capital. You might not have it now but you are wearing things indicating what your family once had. It might even be your name. You might not have much money now but Everybody Knows the surname, they are from the delta, from natchez, thats an old family the dates all the way back to virginia. Curiousrted to become about where those descriptions didnt fit with what i was seeing at beauvoir. Thesealso referred to veterans homes as stately prisons of gratitude, that 19thcentury americans, out of gratitude for the service of these veterans, had built these homes, but then the veterans basically got stuck in them, pushed off to the side. If you look at rosenbergs title, living monuments, the argued these confederate veterans were old men pushed to the side, brought out on holidays, maybe memorial day, but largely forgotten by society. They were these living monuments to the lost cause, but that is about all they were, living isolated from the rest of the world. Does a in his study, he careful study of confederate wasntbut beauvoir significantly in his study because it lacks traditional sources. Residents of most homes were lifelong bachelors or recent widowers, which makes sense if you think about the veterans most states homes were just for veterans. There were separate homes sometimes for widows, but the veterans homes were just for veterans, you cant move there with your wife. So youre probably going to wait until you were widowed, or maybe you are a lifelong bachelor, but the individuals here are single men, described as being done with lifes joys and basically waiting for death. Its a sad story, its a depressing topic. Know, itlike, i dont seems so universally sad that it doesnt seem logical. We are rarely that consistent, we are really that good and we are not always that bad. So i became curious about what us aboutcould tell this understanding of confederate veteran homes. Does it fit the norm . And i would come across images like these from the early 1930s, were a famous individual, Franklin Delano roosevelt, goes to visit beauvoir. And im thinking, if they are just isolated and shuttered off, wise this individual bothering to visit this home, and why are all these individuals, clearly not residents, they are too young, at the home . And is clearly an important worthwhile place for him to stop and visit. That didnt seem to fit with what we understood what also didnt fit. You can barely make him out in ,he corner, but this individual its not conclusive but some have theorized this individual was one of the three africanamerican residents of the home. These are two of the men here in this photograph. The idea is that the gentleman is this man, nathan best. The firsti was confederate home i have been able to find that admitted africanamerican pensioners as residents, not as employees but as actual residents of the home. To understand how that happened, we need to get into the background of pensions. Mississippi past their pension law, theyre built to provide pensions for confederate veterans, in 1888, a little later in the process but not too late. Other states had done this, and basically the idea was to provide for veterans. This also went to windows and they also provided for enslaved body servants. The phrase used on the pension form is servants, who had been taken to war or sent to war as enslaved camp servants and military camps. The unusual thing about mississippi, mississippi is not the only place to provide pensions for enslaved servants, but the mississippi standout moment where it separates it from general policy and other Confederate States is that mississippi insisted on paying these men at the equal rate with widows and veterans of the confederacy who had served. You could only get a pension if you are indigent, in need. You could also only receive a pension if you were declared as having served honorably. If there is any record of if there is an you decided to stop serving the confederacy and take up arms serving the union, you are not getting anything from the confederacy. Real bad news is you probably wont get anything from the federal government either. But mississippi did something in 1888. Ng in a in 1890 they passed a new state constitution that violated civil rights for poor whites and africanamericans during this time, but the legislature in 1896 clarified that the pension law would stay as it was. That all confederate veterans, widows and servants, the phrasing they used, should share alike, meeting get equal rights. If you look at some of the letters as people debated this in the newspapers at the time, one gentleman writes and he says, slaves who ran away and joined the union army are getting pensions from the u. S. Government. Are you going to tell me mississippi is not giving a pension to an enslaved man who stayed with the confederacy . I cant even wrap my head around this. This needs to be done, was the argument redone that policy stayed in place until the early 1920s. In the early 1920s mississippi changes its law and says now, body service says no. They can still receive a pension but at a lower rate of white widows and white confederate veterans. In the photograph you have frank childress, there is nathan best on the far left, they are not combat veterans, they went to camp as body servants. In the case of nathan best, he does briefly serve, he is running a dispatch during the petersburg campaign, is badly wounded and ends up having a bone and arm shattered and his arm is amputated, which you can make out a little more over here. But he received his pension. You can find this online if you are curious , thats all online. At can also find it ancestry. Com and other places, but you can find a host of information about individuals in these pension records. This is another part of the curiosity for me, it wasnt quite making sense. If these homes are really only with the veterans, only men, they are isolated, then why is fdr visiting beauvoir . This is a photo of convention of newspaper editors in biloxi, mississippi, where the home is located, who come to beauvoir and have photographs made from residents, why is anybody coming to this home if these homes are traditionally isolated . If you work your way back with me into these images, why do we have this diverse home that i did not expect to find when you think about what the existing literature tells you about places like this . This and digging into i found Something Else that stood out as i tried to unravel who was at the home and what might have made it different, and i found this couple, el nathan and helen tart, and this is their son. Nathan and hart served as superintendents of the mississippi confederate home. There is a brief, for your window when their patron was out of office, but the other interesting thing i want to point out is not just the length of time where you have consistent leadership by two outstanding managers of a home, but you also see an unusual case in the role of helen tart. Starting in 1916, she was her husbands assistant superintendent. In 19 26 she became superintendent in her own right. By the early 1930s she will hold that office from 1936 until she dies in 1943. Helen tart is photographed here in the background, featured in the 1926 in the new Orleans Times picayune as the new woman of the south, this kind of modern woman. This article got me thinking about the fact we might also be looking at these homes from the wrong perspective. These homes are very much confederate memory, very much a part of the civil war. The gentleman in that group photo has all his reunion badges, very much Confederate Service is part of the experience that brought these individuals together, that is why they are here, but on the became ad, beauvoir symbol of what mississippi was capable of creating after the civil war. Beauvoir became a symbol of the new south, modern it he, efficiency, a society that can take care of its aging population, a massive scale of thatans, we had not seen large of a veteran population in the United States that needed care, and mississippi rose to the challenge, it was a crown jewel and a real pride for the state pizza these individuals are not big shattered off. And we have a very different scene where el nathan and helen tart are running this facility. And having a woman running these homes was incredibly unusual. You see this a lot by the 1930s, women running womens homes and even women running some of the mens homes by the time they were integrated with widows and other states, but helen tart, number one, starting in a leadership role that early, was different. The other thing i hope readers not rethink is helen tart just doing this as a member of the united daughters of the confederacy, caring for these veterans who cared for the confederacy, but really is a manager and business woman. If you look at newspapers from the time, she was running a facility with 250 residents, dozens of employees, massive witht, also dealing massive budget cuts during the great depression. The facility had a dairy, it was almost entirely selfsustaining. Allhe newspapers there are these ads, contract needed, deliver sealed bid to missus helen tart. She was the major employer on the coast. For me as a civil war historian and perhaps for some of you with interest in the civil war, we approach this looking for a story about the civil war. And it is absolutely there. If you dont know anything about beauvoir, this is the last home Jefferson Davis lived in and where he wrote his twovolume story about the confederacy. That is very much a part of their story. But what is also part of this story is this study of modern at modernity, this study of caring for veterans and how this can be done and how this can be more efficiently done. Too rosyant to paint of a picture and want to include by the from a resident name of lanny reinhardt. Missus reinhardt, this is one of only two or three letters from residents of the home. We hope more will trickle in, so please spread the word. It if you look on the left, sit on the porch and the sunshine, looking at the grand building that surrounds our home, yes, i say our home. It is my home and every inmates home that is here, and it seems like one large family. A very positive image, not really a prison of gratitude, not people shuttered off waiting to die, this depressive image we had before. See thether hand, you reality of what happens when you need to go to beauvoir, or need to go to a soldier home. She says, i have never had for nothing, but if i ever get bad sick here i want some of you to stay with me or take me from here. I dont never want to die here. So i dont want you to forget how people get to some of the sums paid to get there because your family cant take care of you anymore. You get there because you might have medical needs your family cant meet. I dont think anybody looks forward to the retirement home. But it also isnt necessarily this horrible place of tragedy, either. That is the picture im trying to help you understand. A little bit of background on beauvoir. Was founded, the Jefferson Davis soldier home was founded in 1903. Number of years after mississippi passes the confederate pension bill. The pension bill goes into isect in 1888 and the home not built until 1903. A couple of interesting points. That means mississippi was the second to the last former confederate state to build a home for veterans. That is used by scholars sometimes to argue the state didnt have the money or the interest, but if you go back through the legislative record in some newspaper accounts and records of the united daughters of the confederacy, you will see the argument mississippi politicians were making is that, our veteran constituents are telling us, i dont want to go wher to a home, i want to stay with my family in my town, if you want to do anything, increase my pension. I dont want to go to a home. Its beautiful, it is, it is still there on the gulf of mexico, but some of these folks are coming from meridian, some from naches, but some from the northern parts of the state, and you are probably not going to get back home, the worry if i move here. So for a lot of these men, they said, look, i dont want a home. But what started to happen is you crept closer to the end of the 19th century was that individuals started to have medical needs, their families couldnt afford to take care of them, and there became more interest and having a home. And members of the united daughters of the confederacy found out about a conversation between two women who had been talking about the fact that one, marina davis, was going to have to sell beauvoir. Her husband passed away, it was expensive to maintain, there was storm damage, she was living in new york by this point that for Health Reasons she cant come back to live here and is thinking of selling the home. But she is very conscious about who should receive this home. Her is a lasting symbol of husband in particular, which is scious of she gets offers, which she is conscious of. She gets offers to build a hotel, generous offers, and turns them down. She chooses to sell the property for the creation of a confederate home for veterans in mississippi. You can find the deed. Details get published in the newspapers. She sells the home to the sons of the confederate veterans because they end up coming up and this creates a bit of a kerfuffle between the , but the sun spite with the help of the udc who furnishes the home. If you look at the terms of the sale, marina davis says this is as well as body servants. Service this or term servants. The property is purchased. Utc goes about outfitting it. December of 1903 is when the very first residence show up at the home. They are all men at this point. They are all veterans. Within six months, you are going to have your first couple entering the Jefferson Davis soldier home. This is one of the reasons this will be a very different home from anything else he will see and other Confederate States. It led to very different age ratios. These were not just men who had the same experiences. They are coming in with younger wives. Veterans may have married later in their lives. It led to this fairly dynamic community. Into withm i ran researching it was that was about as far as i could get with traditional sources. This is what im talking about when i mentioned telling a lost story. The hum goes from being the final resting place of the davis family to this home for confederate veterans, you can see it colorized image here. Significantugh amounts of destruction after the home was closed in 1957. The last three widows were moved out. It was hit by a hurricane, hurricane camille. Katrinaously, hurricane in 2005. Suffering massive amounts of damages. Now, it ist the home joined with the Jefferson Davis president ial library. This has been completely renovated. It looks much more like this now. They did a beautiful job of renovating the home. Come even aitories replica one, all of that is gone. It has not been rebuilt. My hope is that at some point there will be Funds Available to build an interpretation of the veterans experience on these grounds. I problem is a historian wanted to take time to spell this out. A number of you might have projects like this. Maybe i can smart interest. Dont be stumped by the lack of traditional sources. Of you, there are a host of records you can work with. We had to start off with a few of these, their review. A few applications still exist as well as these acceptance letters. These at the Jefferson Davis president ial library. Letter. A august of 1930. We are delighted to tell you your admission has been approved. One part i did not highlight but i want to read to you here, he mentions, we have a ready for you in the dormitory or if you are feeble we have room for any at the nice hospital. The hospital there was a big seller. Free medical care. They had attending physicians, some of the best in the state. Cuttingedge physicians who have been working on the coast for years. About, 1930, a couple more years, the medical care that the average mississippian could access was arguably better at the home than they could potentially get themselves in their home communities. This part i wanted to explain to you guys. When you receive a pension, thats your ticket of eligibility into the home. You have already been approved as being somebody worthy of the cap pension. When you come in, you give up your pension. Your care is basically your pension. When you leave, they write a letter. The superintendent. Back to the clerk saying, mrs. Moore has chosen to go back home. Please make sure she gets back onto the pension roll. That is how you get back on. The other part that i want to emphasize here in this letter is reminding residents that everything is provided for you. That is the good and the bad. If youve ever had to consolidate your home, you might do what i do. I start making stacks because i cant get rid of anything. After about three days of that, i just want to grab my child, the dog, and burn the rest. I dont know. I cant stand moving. If you think about they dont have to agree anything. It uses the word plunder. Dont bring any plunder with you. Little baggage as possible. We furnish everything free of charge. The bad news is, wow. How much are you having to leave behind to come here . You might have already had to give up quite a bit. We had some of these acceptance letters. This is the real gem that we had that made this project possible. This is the register of everybody who was admitted. Home,son Davis Memorial you will see soldiers home. Theres various names for it. In, heresnts came the year. 1903. This is the very first page of the register. December 2. J clymer cames and death comes in. Comes in. Your nationality is your stay. Doing this for information. Im very grateful they put it down. Some residents have been foreignborn. You contract that. They dont fill in brigade core but this is enough to start to track their Service Records. Any remarks. In this case, the day he died. Sometimes, some of the remarks will be, send corresponding information to such and such in van cleveland or Something Like that. You will be able to get more Family Member names. The reason this is such a treasure is because in 2014 i decided, we are going to do this project. We will just do it differently. Residents 00 54 1854 residents and i created a random 10 sample. We are going to do a 10 sample and we will find these individuals in census records, military Service Records, pension records, and newspaper records. Newspapers are the hardest but you can find them. Thank heaven to everybody out there digitizing. The reason im saying that this is a gem is i have the date they entered and their age. Now i roughly have close to the day they are born. I might not necessarily know the home county but i know the state or country. I might not necessarily know where they lived all their lives. If you came in in 1903, i will try to find him. Doing, inded up musingly. This is the imperial we. My students were not as exterior excited as i was. I can usually rope he went to just about anything. What i started to do in my civil war class that i teach for undergrads at the university of southern mississippi, i also teach a course, the craft of history. How do you researching historical topic . Had you craft an argument . What kind of evidence can you use . That is incredibly useful for all teaching people. How do you unravel an argument . If you dont have any evidence supporting it, whats going on there . That teaches you to use critical analysis. I will give a plug for the humanities. History teaches people how to do. Support history. , eache ended up doing student was assigned a veteran, life, or widow. From that 10 sample. They would work in census records to find the individual. They work in military Service Records so we could track things like, where did this veteran serve . How was he winded wounded . Some of this data, if you were a prisoner of war, do we have more of those individuals at the home . Did they suffer more after the war . That could lead to a track to the home. You cannot decisively conclude that. That is some evidence were still tinkering with. The application for pension was a great way to get a sense of economically, how are they doing after the war . When you apply for pension, you have to spell out your need. This gives us a great sense of how individuals who are not leaving letters and diaries, how are they experiencing life . , thee census records, 1850 u. S. Census had you list household west. Wealth. We can track how well they were doing before the civil war, how well in 1870, and in the 1900s, enumerators gathered information on, are you renting your home or do you own it . If you own it, is it mortgaged or is it free and clear . It let us get into those economically, were these individuals the neediest of the needy their whole lives . Is this something that changed later in life . Have we misrepresented this population . You will be able to find newspaper articles that crop up in strange places that you might not look. This had to do with a Railroad Accident that happened to Family Members of john and nancy sellers long after the civil war. We will track some of the daytoday employment issues, challenges the family faced as a result. This thing i will not try to zoom in on. These are spreadsheets that the team created. , all tabs at the bottom the way up to 1940. Students would enter the data for what they found in the census records. We were able to track all sorts of things the census tract. If this woman who ends up at the home, what she married . What she widow . How many children did she have . All of these random things that you can track your census information. How much education did they have . Did they ever go to school . All sorts of information can be found in the census. The things we found out that i want to make sure i shared with you today are a couple of things. Of theone, the residents house were not necessarily the neediest of the needy their entire lives. They were when they showed up at the Jefferson Davis soldier home. Most white residents enjoy Financial Stability in their use. Use. The majority lived in upperclass household. When most house residents were 16 years old, just before the civil war, the vast majority described themselves as literate or with some level of schooling. More than 50 of the sample attended school. Home ownership records we can only get for half the sample. Of those, two thirds owned their own homes in 1910. Of those homeowners, 50 paid off their mortgages. Before i make all of you go to sleep, what it means is, these are not the neediest of the needy throughout their entire lives. They are doing fairly well. That photograph of the home, reenvision that in your mind. I should be able to pull it up. Never make your audience work. When you think about that photograph of all the veterans and wives and widows in front of the home, one of the couples i want to tell you about is cm strauss. Charles Maxwell Strauss was 17 years old when he joined the fourth battalion louisiana infantry in 1863. As soon as he was old enough to serve, he did. He served in the war, he was never winded. He was involved in several significant campaigns including the atlantic campaign. He was involved in the defenses around jackson. He did suffer from illness frequently during his service. Furloughe on a sick when the war and. Ends i want to share their story because they are probably in that photograph. I have no idea what they look like. We dont tend to have their letters or connections to them. Strauss, when he came to the home, he never started stopped being involved in the community. He had a regular column in the newspaper. The local paper started a section for the home. He would report on everything. Sometimes it was competitor it veterans. Sometimes they were bible lessons. Soandso just came to the home. Constantly engaging the community with the home. News, weddingsr at the home. When veterans and widows would fall in love and get married. My favorite was one of the widows who i think had married eight times by the end. Her famous phrase, if the lord i figure imthem, due. They arent isolated from the community. They are not cut out at all. Its a very vibrant community. The other account and want to share with you is of a woman by the name of an ellis. Ellis. The remember when i told you that scholars thought this home, you dont come out once you go in. They tended to stay there. Mississippi passed a law that would provide free medical care to any pensioner who needed that care. You could go to the home and be seen. You could leave. What ended up happening was that veterans were able to use this like a modern v8 facility. An ellis arrived in 1934. She was honorably discharged. Sometimes they will give the reason if you are dishonorably discharged. One woman was discharged for drunkenness. Ellis. A she was discharged a month after she came into the home. In july of 1935, amazing woman. Only 11 days. In 1936, 19again 43, and 1944. Just for the short stays. You, we dow i told have some official records of the home. We have Meeting Minutes of the board. We have some official to your reports. Two year reports. For the years when an ellis is there, we do not have records. I cannot prove she was coming in for medical care. I can show other people that would be there for a little while and be gone. You can match them up with the home register. Again indicating that this home wasnt just a retirement home. It was almost like a v8 facility. Mississippi was very proud of this facility as this symbol of this new south modernity and what the state was capable of doing. Now, i gave you all my data. You got it. I wanted to show you a couple of more images to make sure i dont separate this. I dont want to go to the other extreme. I dont want to separate this home from the civil war and confederate experience. This is a photograph of residents of the home getting on a train. The train went right past the home. You could go visit with the veterans and leave. We are pretty sure they will go to the 1913 reunion at gettysburg. Here you can see veterans, possibly i wont guess where they are. Historians arent allowed. You can see everyone gathered together. Letters talk about the fact that residents could take the food back to their room and eat in privacy. We all get like that sometimes. Chapel wherehe they had Weekly Services and a number of funerals. They have their own cemetery behind the home. This is where the weddings took place. Heres the very famous hospital. This is the fireproof version, as they called it. It was built later in the 20th century. There were several fires at the hospital. The a raised in tremendous amount of money to build a brick hospital for the resident. Not quite fireproof. Reallytors on staff provided probably better care i talked to medical historians. I sent them a page from the hospital registry. These of prescriptions being given to patients. I cant make any sense of this. They said, thats on par for the mid20th century. This is the Library Cottage where locals were encouraged to share books and donate readings. Come and for what we would call the club. Talk with residents as we talk about books we are all reading. These were the dormitories were individuals lived. The three africanamerican residents of the home lived in segregated quarters. They are there in the 1930s. They did receive the same allowance, pensioners residents live up their when they came to the home but they did receive an allowance. Originally, five dollars. During the depression, two dollars. Black and white residents received the same allowance in the home. Number ofan see a these territories. These photographs were taken in the 1970s, right as the home is about to be closed as the last three riddles will be relocated. Here, one of the last photos of the home. At alocal young women gathering with the widows. Everyone is having a sunday picnic with watermelon. Dressed up. Some finery, with they might have. Enjoying their time at the home. Todaylly what i have done is changed a little bit about the way that you thought about these homes. Maybe i have introduced you to how these homes were run and how they work. If you want to learn more about this, i decided to take the work that the team had produced and put it online. We also ended up deciding that this work really needed to get into the literature. If you want to look at our findings, online. If you want to look at it in terms of how historians analyze this information, the journal of the civil war era did a special issue on veterans. Ifly thought that we you hadnt read marching home, you need to. Works like that had really improved the way that we were thinking about what happened to a lot of the soldiers, north and south, when they came home. I felt like, lets take it to the next level. Lets see what we are not quite understanding. What do we have possibly wrong that needs to between . We did a special issue on veterans in march 2019. That includes my article on the home. You can find more of my thoughts on this, the experiences of the africanamerican residents, the stories of the veterans. If you are interested in the stories and data, all of that is available online. A couple of biographies of the individuals were there. Wayne says i have time for some questions. Great. My timer has been running. Good. I would be happy to appease the questions as they are asked. Repeat the questions as they are asked. [inaudible] this is a great question. Hes asking to be approved for a its antoday, incredible amount of paperwork, time, processing, what was it like during that time . Less paperwork but not much less. Thats the good news for us. The bad news is, so much of that paperwork is at the county courthouse level. Its hard for individuals to go around to find it. These,tart to digitize we are getting into it. The other point your question brings up, who decides your worthy you are worthy . This is like when vietnam scholars, they would love to investigate drafts. Who decides who was a good confederate or a bad confederate . Its a very loaded question. These will be made up of a leads in your community. There will be a lot of local politics. You being an outside family or an inside family. There were complaints about that. If your family got involved with any kind of support for the you are going to have a hard time getting support as a loyal confederate in the state of mississippi in the postwar time. You are probably not going to be able to prove enough support to get federally. You are in a pickle. Any other questions . [inaudible] confederate soldiers were granted a stipend from the u. S. Government under wilson. [inaudible] no. A previous speaker mentioned that under president motion, confederate soldiers were granted a stipend. Look, ive been doing this long enough to never say never. Ive not heard of that. There were some efforts, what should i say . Discussions about for givens forgiveness and reconciliation. Im looking at you like a golden retriever. Because pensions were pretty controversial in the north. They had become such a part of the u. S. Federal budget. The thought of expanding this i will look into it. Its fascinating. It was many years later. [inaudible] if it was during the wilson administration, the home was at its peak in terms of the number of residents. A Training Camp as guys are getting ready to leave for world war i. They are visiting the veterans. That would be a sizable population to take on. I dont know. Its a great question. Thats the fun of history. Now you know what im going to do this afternoon. [laughter] anybody else . [inaudible] how does that compare with other states . It was the only confederate home in mississippi. How does it compare with other states . They would have a home for veterans and a home for wives. Strauss had been approved for a pension in louisiana and he was living there. He couldve gone into the new orleans home. It was only for veterans. He wanted to stay with his wife. He ends up going across the , a specialist a spaz you had to be a resident of mississippi who had honorably serve the confederacy. Thats how they get into the mississippi home. States like texas had a home for veterans and a home for widows. Virginia had separate homes as well. Mississippi only had the one. The argument is that, the udc gets a lot of credit. Mississippi may have been late to building their home. To go arounde bc and investigate how other states were doing this, what was working, what wasnt working. I cant find a smoking gun that says, we should build this home with everybody living together. I have not found evidence of that. That is what they did. Ive often wondered if that, looking at these other homes, lets just put everybody together. Sir . [inaudible] during what years did jefferson waive its davis and his wife lived there . Right after the civil war. She wanted to just give them the home but he insisted on paying. When didhere Jefferson Davis died . 1879. Dont quote me on that one. He lives there from the end of , this is where he is writing his memoirs. His history of the confederacy. Cant tell you his deste. Its until he dies. [inaudible] no. Karina is there for a little while. She gets out of the climate for Health Reasons. She moved to a couple of locations up north. One is in new york city. By the end, if you look at her letters, shes talking about, its this tremendous expense of upkeep of the property. Nobody is living there at that point. Its the former home of the president of the confederacy. What is my responsibility here . That was the agreement, she would sell it to the sons of confederate veterans while the home was open as a veterans home. The state of mississippi paid for it. Once a close, it went back. It is still today in the ownership of the sons of the concert confederate veterans. It was this understanding that it would be, she would sell it for the care of veterans wives, widows, and servants. Towould always be a shrine her husband and his memory. If you see reference to the Jefferson Davis shrine, thats what they are talking about. The grounds of this facility. 1889 thank you for that information. [inaudible] right. Whats the fee, how do you handle paying for all of this . Its all paid for by the state of mississippi. State tax dollars. When you went in, you would give up your pension. When you went out, people like left,llis, every time she we have found a couple of these letters. Writing back to the county clerk, put them back on the pension roll. Have is thaty they allowance. That started in 1912 or 13. A lot of the veterans were men. They should have some money or something, right . They didnt like it. They didnt like not having a little bit of money of their own to spend however they chose. Thats how that allowance got it started dotted got started. [inaudible] anymore questions, im happy to answer. Thank you all so much. [applause] learn more about the people and events that shaped the civil everyd reconstruction, saturday at six clark eastern only on American History tv. American history tv products are now available at the new cspan online store. To seespan store. Org whats new for American History tv. Check out all of the cspan products. Tv,ext on American History the u. S. Commission on civil rights hosts a talk titled, stonewall at 50 the movement for lgbt civil rights by historian and author david carter. Stonewall was a sixday gay rights uprising that began during a police raid on june 28, 1969 in new york citys Greenwich Village. We will now turn to our next iteration of the commission speaker series, this one titled stonewall at 50 the movement for lgbt civil rights. Thank you for the topic. June has come to be known as pride month. Street demonstrations began at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in new york city