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** This is an archived, static copy of the Casebook messages boards dating from 1998 to 2003. These threads cannot be replied to here. If you want to participate in our current forums please go to https://forum.casebook.org **
Web Research Presentation
Casebook Message Boards: Pub Talk: Web Research Presentation
Author: Billy Markland
Saturday, 02 November 2002 - 06:14 pm |        | Well, since this is the Pub area, let us all have a few while you mull over the best answer to my long posting & predicament K
Background
In the U.S. during our Civil War, gold was discovered in Virginia City, Dakota Territory. There were two routes to get there: by the Missouri river (very expensive and dependent upon time of year, water flow, etc) and overland travel. The main artery for overland travel was basically to point west through Ft. Laramie, Wyoming on thru to Salt Lake City and there, hang a right, northwards to Virginia City, etc. About 1865, a man named Bozeman "blazed" a trail which cut weeks off the overland travel route currently used. He did this by going east from Virginia City along the Yellowstone river, then dropping along the northern portion of the Big Horn mountains and then southwards along the eastern edge of those mountains to Ft. Laramie. The only problem with this was that the country which the main area of the trail traversed, along the Big Horns, was the favorite territory of a large, warlike, and successful tribe known as the Sioux Indians (for the politically correct amongst us, you can substitute Native Americans for Indian K).
Bozeman's trail did not get much use due to the fact that the Sioux, understandably, had severe (and often fatal) objections to anyone creating a trail through their prime hunting grounds. So, the U.S. government, in a cash crunch after the Civil War, attempted to buy a right of way through this territory. Unfortunately, in a almost comical error of timing, while the negotiations were ongoing, the government, assuming this was a no-brainer, had sent a battalion of troops to build forts and posts along the proposed trail, who, unfortunately arrived in the middle of the negotiations. This provoked a Sioux chief named Red Cloud and his followers to pretty much say, B.S. to any negotiations. As usual with those treaties, the bands & tribes of Indians with no right signed it, which gave the government an aura of legitimacy.
My research is dealing with the point from the negotiations onward and the resulting war, which if I may point out, is the only war the Indians were ever able to emerge, for whatever reasons, as the victors in dealing with the "white man". I am transcribing source documents obtained from the National Archives and plan on posting them to a web site (yes I know that a transcription turns the source document into a secondary source)which I hope can be used as a resource page for any others who do not have access to the primary documents relevent to the story or wish to read the documentation themselves.
My predicament is this: one of the primary selections documents I will use will be the Court of Inquiry testimony about the Fetterman "Massacre". This testimony was taken from most major white participants in the building of the posts and conduct of the war. Many had large sections of narrative, broken by copies of official correspondence, then more narrative.
My question is this. As there are many fine researchers and web denizens at this site, how should I break up the flow? Would the site look and read better by including the official documents as part of the main body of the document? Or should I put the narrative in and then hyperlinks pointing to the relevent official document which follows the narrative? Examples follow.
Contained within the main document:
The month of July 1866, in which occurred the events so far narrated, developed small action hostilities against the post, (Fort Phil Kearney) where my Head Quarters were established, but still the opposition to emigration was decided.
On the 22nd July, at Buffalo Springs, about seventeen miles from Fort Reno, (southward) on the route to Fort Laramie, a citizens train was attacked and one man killed and one wounded.
The same day the Indians appeared at Fort Reno, driving off one mule (government property).
July 23rd a citizen train was attacked at the Dry Fork of the Cheyenne and two men were killed.
On July 28th Indians attempted to surround Fort Reno (old) and to drive off government stock. They failed, but took the cattle of Jno. B. Sloss, a citizen. Mounted men sent in pursuit recaptured the cattle.
July 29th a citizen train was attacked at Brown’s Springs, which is four and a half miles eastward of the South Fork of the Cheyenne. Eight men were killed and two wounded, one whom died.
One fact in this skirmish requires record, viz: - that while the men were well armed with Henry and other special arms, they were killed, although the force of Indians was small, viz: - less than eighty. The Indians professed friendship, and one man was killed by an Indian who just after shaking hands with him and accepting tobacco, shot him in the back.
Some of the party were in pursuit of game, and some in pursuit of Indians on the hill. Two were in advance and were shot while parlying, and a mile from the camp. Those casualties occurred near Fort Reno, the eastern part of my command, during the month of July.
Finding that aggressive operations had begun in my rear, threatening my communications, I advised Department Headquarters [sic] of the absolute failure of the Laramie treaty, so far as it effected my command, and called attention to previous communications of the same tenor.
The following letters to the Adjutant General of the Army and to the Department Commander, gave summary of the condition of affairs and operations on this line up to July 30th 1866.
Fort Philip Kearney
July 29th 1866
Adjutant General
U.S. Army
Washington D.C.
Letter of June 30th as to recruiting detail, received and complied with. I have to give sergeants important duties, having, for a line of one hundred miles, active Indian hostilities. Lieutenant Daniels en route to join me, with escort of fifteen men, was scalped and horribly mutilated. I have lost three men killed and wounded besides Lieutenant Daniels. I need officers, and either Indian auxiliaries, or men of any regiment, to build my posts, prepare for Winter, and clear out the Indians. I can resist all attacks, and do much active fighting, but I have a long line to watch and cover. The Indians are aggressive to stop the new route.
Henry B. Carrington
Col. 18th Infantry
Comd’g. Mount. Dist.
Or like this:
NARRATIVE
Hyperlink to relevent offical document
NARRATIVE
Any opinions will be valued on your thoughts on how to make the site easy to read and relevent. My apologies for such a long winded non JtR post.
Billy |
Author: Christopher T George
Sunday, 03 November 2002 - 11:51 am | | Hi, Billy:
You might want to e-mail Stephen Ryder to get advice. I think you ought to, as on this site, have separate pages for documents, though you could, as you say, link them to your main narrative by hyperlinks. Hope this helps. Good luck with your project. I might mention that I do have some interest in your topic, since I am working on a book on the history of scalping. Feel free to e-mail me as well if you wish at editorcg@yahoo.com.
Best regards
Chris George |
Author: Billy Markland
Monday, 04 November 2002 - 07:13 am | | Chris, thank you for the input. I am holding off contacting Stephen until he calms down from reading the Cornwell book !
This just crossed my mind! Has anyone pulled letters from the American Embassy in London for the period of the Ripper murders? If not, I seem to recall that the local Nat'l Archives here has papers from that embassy and I can do the digging easily enough. Someone let me know.
Back to the original topic.
Separate pages are indeed an option but the problem lies in the fact that, in the main document being transcribed, the official documents are an integral part of the actual testimony. The remaining testimony from participants, 4 sections, does not utilize that device. As an aside, I am only 140 pages into over a thousand pages of transcription so this is a slightly long term project.
Regarding scalping, your research would be interesting as I have heard / read so many contradictory stories of the origins of this among the North American Indian tribes. I am sure you have read of the "scalping" of Adjutant Cooke, of Gen. Custer's command at the Little Big Horn, who being bald compensated by having extremely bushy "side-burns". The Indians took one of those as a trophy!
Best of wishes,
Billy |
Author: Christopher T George
Monday, 04 November 2002 - 09:22 am | | Hi, Billy:
As far as I know, nobody has checked out for any Ripper letters the papers from the U.S. Embassy which you say are archived at the National Archives, so I think that could be potentially a fruitful avenue to research. I encourage you to pursue that angle. I might mention that there are almost certainly letters in there in regard to Mrs. Maybrick who was, as you know, an American, at least as far there being possibly pleas on behalf of her on the sentence imposed on her by the British court in Liverpool in September 1889. There may also be letters in regard to Tumblety, James Kelly, and Neill Cream and other suspects with U.S. connections and which may be of interest even if they do not directly relate to the case.
In regard to the "scalping" of Adjutant Cooke's sideburn at the Little Big Horn, that you say the Indian warriors took as a trophy, that's new to me. I do want to cover the Little Big Horn, and feel that Custer's legendary golden locks make an interesting aspect worth making into a minor related topic in my book on scalping. As I understand, it the Indians were fascinated by Custer's hair, though tradition has it that they resisted the temptation to scalp him in the aftermath of the battle.
Keep us appraised of what if anything you find in the U.S. embassy papers that may be related to the case. If you find some interesting documents, you might want to write up your findings as an article for Ripper Notes, our U.S. quarterly on Ripper studies.
All the best
Chris |
Author: Christopher T George
Tuesday, 05 November 2002 - 01:28 am | | Hi, again, Billy:
It occurs to me that there might well be material in the U.S. embassy papers at the National Archives related to the questioning of the members of William F. Cody aka Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, so yes, I definitely think you might have a potentially interesting cache of material to sort through. Of course it might be just boring official correspondence, but who knows until it is examined? By the way, I am in Baltimore and work in D.C. I have done previous work at the National Archives, although on military records for the War of 1812 not civilian material. It might be interesting to work on this project together if you would like to do so. Contact me with your thoughts if you would.
All the best
Chris |
Author: Billy Markland
Thursday, 07 November 2002 - 11:14 pm | | Chris, my apologies for the late response! Between work and family (if my daughter at 7 is such a pain in the posterior, would anyone care to adopt her when she reaches the teens?). She must take after her mother as everyone who knows me swears I am the most easy going, agreeable person this side of Martin (just kidding you all)!
A collaborative effort on the State Department papers is, as you suspect, necessary. While here in Kansas City I have access to many rolls of film relevent to the time period but, from what I have seen so far, the heavy digging will have to be done at the Washington or Reston sites of the Archives through the paper files.
I will send you an email with my goals which, having read many of your postings, I feel will not conflict with your own (plain English is that we are on the same page from what I can tell!).
Unfortunately, the two rolls I have examined closely revealed no "smoking gun" to the case, although, I did find a new Kaminsky (spelling is from memory but close). That Kamensky was part of the Russian embassy to Great Britain during this period (if not the Ambassador).
Anyway, I will attempt to get you an email out tomorrow evening with findings so far, and possible files to dig through the next time you get to DC (can you say passport applications, Customs?). I will also include the micofilm rolls I have access to so we do not duplicate efforts!
Sorry about the long winded post,
Best of wishes,
Billy |
Author: Billy Markland
Friday, 08 November 2002 - 01:25 am | | Correction: In my first paragraph above, I meant to say, "everyone who knows me swears I am the most easy going, agreeable person this side of Melvyn".
I am sorry that I wrote Martin rather than Melvyn!
Martin, my apologies for erroneously comparing you to my grumpy self.
Billy |
Author: Billy Markland
Saturday, 21 December 2002 - 10:26 pm | | Damn, a mixed feelings day!! I finally got the first installment of my Ft. Phil Kearny (government spelling) research posted on-line at the aniversary of the Fetterman Massacre, then while searching for Dee Brown's email address, I find his obituary. Mr. Brown passed last Thursday, 12/19, if my computations are correct. Anyone who wishes to read a good, well researched, book on American Western history is urged to pick up one of his. He is best known for "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" although my favorite is "Ft. Phil Kearney, An American Saga".
A major loss for the readers of American history!
Anyway, as I said, I have the "rough" copy of the first installment of the Ft. Philip Kearny Resource page posted. Today, Dec. 21, sort of caught me my surprise and I had to hurry to get this posted to commemorate the 136th anniversary of the Fetterman Massacre. I intend on moving it to a separate web page as well as tighten up the code, split it into at least two sections, create an index, and try to obtain photographs and maps. I still have about 5 pages of Colonel Carrington's testimony to transcribe (somehow I lost the blipping copies!), the remainder of the special commission investigating the Fetterman Massacre, as well as the investigation reports from the Secretaries of War & Interior to the U.S. Senate & House of Representatives. Just an FYI, for anyone who has the slightest knowledge of the American West, the letter from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs is guaranteed to raise your blood pressure! In all, this is about another 500 pages of transcribing plus what I can order from NARA.
If anyone is interested, the URL for my site is:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~familyinformation/
The link to the Carrington testimony is the first entry in the "New" section.
Any suggestions, comments, etc. will be appreciated, good or bad.
Best of wishes and a Merry Christmas to ALL!!!!!
Billy |
Author: Christopher T George
Sunday, 22 December 2002 - 07:16 pm | | Hi Billy:
Many congratulations on getting your Ft. Philip Kearny Resource page online. I will check it out. Also sorry to hear that you were not able to open up a line of communication with the late Dee Brown as you were hoping to do. Them's the breaks sometimes, pardner. 
All the best
Chris |
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