Walter N. Breymann: Review of the 1962 reissue of Spain in America, 1450‑1580 by E. G. Bourne

Frederick J. Turner: The Origin of Genet's Projected Attack on Louisiana and the Floridas

The notorious French ambassador to the United States in 1793 was not a loose cannon acting on his own account, but working on the express instructions of his government.

Carl Evans Boyd: The County of Illinois

Qui trop embrasse, mal étreint: Virginia, having conquered what there was to conquer in the Northwest, sets up a government, but there are just too few people to make it work — Frenchmen, at that, who are sheep rather than citizens — and Virginia gives up.

Albert E. McKinley: The English and Dutch Towns of New Netherland

The 17c settlements of New Netherland included Dutch towns, less interested in political rights, and English towns, who demanded them and actually were favored over the Dutch.

Walter L. Fleming: The Buford Expedition to Kansas

In 1855‑1856, Major Jefferson Buford of Alabama financed and organized a group of emigrants to Kansas to bolster the pro-slavery vote when time came for Kansas to achieve statehood.

William R. Shepherd: Wilkinson and the Beginnings of the Spanish Conspiracy

The author shows that the Kentucky conspiracy was set in motion by Wilkinson, not by the Spaniards.

W. H. Isely: The Sharps Rifle Episode in Kansas History

The Boston-based "New England Emigrants Aid Company" was in fact running weapons and ammunition into Kansas; the author of the paper views this as a good, even laudable thing.

Carl Russell Fish: The Northern Railroads, April, 1861

® The state of the railroads in the northern part of the United States at the outbreak of the War between the States, and how the Union government would build on it during that war.

Charles W. Ramsdell: The Confederate Government and the Railroads, April, 1861

® The state of the railroads in the southern part of the United States at the outbreak of the War between the States, and during the war.

Herbert Bolton: The Mission as a Frontier Institution in the Spanish-American Colonies

✠ An overall view of how the Spanish Catholic missions functioned in America, from a practical, political, and organizational standpoint.

Oliver L. Spaulding, Jr.: The Military Studies of George Washington

George Washington is often said to have had no military training. This article, by a top U. S. Army historical researcher, details Gen. Washington's technical reading.

R. S. Cotterill: The Louisville and Nashville Railroad

® This railroad played a crucial rôle during the War between the States, providing an important pathway for the North to invade the South. Its coöperation with the Northern government was largely due to its president James Guthrie, who managed to keep it in private hands and very profitable.

Orlando W. Stephenson: The Supply of Gunpowder in 1776

At the beginning of the American Revolution especially, gunpowder and its key ingredient, saltpeter, were in short supply. The paper tallies up the total amounts available, and discusses expedients and importation.

Charles W. Ramsdell: General Robert E. Lee's Horse Supply, 1862‑1865

Wars are often decided by logistics; the War between the States was partly decided by the availability and foraging of horses and mules.

David S. Gebhard & Harold A. Cahn: The Petroglyphs of Dinwoody, Wyoming

A quick statistical overview of nearly five hundred petroglyphs, with a first attempt at a relative chronology. (10 illustrations.)

Charles E. Woodruff: The Nervous Exhaustion due to West Point Training

A graduate of the Naval Academy, the writer has given us a very peculiar and anecdotal approach to the rigors of cadet life at West Point and their consequences. Rambling, unsubstantiated, it contains a few good points amid the rest.

Frederick J. Turner: Geographic Sectionalism in American History

S. H. Logan: Mysterious Footprints in a Rock near Clarksville

Rock formation? actual footprints? Whatever it is, a purported Indian legend to explain it.

John E. Sands: My Year in Europe as a Prisoner of War

First-hand account of an Army Air Force officer shot down over Nazi Germany in 1944: his rescue in Belgium, near-escape in France, capture by the Germans, imprisonments and interrogations, prison camps in Estonia and Germany; forced marches, and final liberation [source document].

Jonathan P. Morrow: Confederate Generals from Arkansas

A survey article: sixteen undoubtedly were Confederate generals and from Arkansas; another dozen either not exactly from Arkansas or maybe not actually generals.

E. S. Dudley: Was "Secession" Taught at West Point?

Officially, yes, but only in 1826: after that, claims that the official text-book used at the Academy was Rawle's View of the Constitution, which maintains the right of States to secede, are (very likely) not warranted.

Camillus Maes: Flemish Franciscan Missionaries in North America

✠ The first of what was to be a series of biographical sketches of missionary priests. Fr. Hennepin, usually thought of as French, was in fact Flemish.

Rt. Rev. Camillus P. Maes, D. D.

✠ Biographical sketch (obituary).

H. C. Schuyler: The Apostle of the Abnakis: Father Sebastian Rale, S. J. (1657‑1724)

✠ Biographical sketch of a French priest and pioneer evangelist of what is now Maine, killed by the British.

Herbert F. Wright: Origin of American Aborigines: A Famous Controversy

17c Dutch scholars Johannes De Laet and Hugo Grotius battle it out: the paper is mostly about the controversy rather than the underlying subject of it, but does refer to the many theories as to where native Americans might ultimately have come from.

Victor F. O'Daniel: Archbishop John Hughes, American Envoy to France (1861)

✠ The Catholic prelate was sent to Europe by Secretary of State William Seward to investigate and promote European support for the Union in its war against the Confederacy.

Gabriel Oussani: The Earliest Known Mesopotamian Traveller in America

✠ A Chaldean priest from Mosul (now in Iraq) roams the Americas in the 17c; a summary, alas.

Victor F. O'Daniel: Fathers Badin and Nerinckx and the Dominicans in Kentucky

✠ A sharp rebuttal by a Dominican Father to the view of the pioneer Dominicans in Kentucky presented in Maes's biography of Fr. Charles Nerinckx. The supporting documents (annotated by the same author) are presented on a separate webpage:

Some Letters of Fathers Badin and Nerinckx to Bishop Carroll

F. L. Gassler: Pere Antoine, Supreme Officer of the Holy Inquisition of Cartagena, in Louisiana

✠ Fr. Antonio de Sedella's blackmail of Governor Miró.

Leo Francis Stock: The United States at the Court of Pius IX

Diplomatic relations between the United States and the Papal States in the mid‑19c, as seen from Rome.

Raphael N. Hamilton: The Significance of the Frontier to the Historian of the Catholic Church in the United States

✠ A stiff response to Turner's theory of the frontier: the frontier was largely pre-civilized and formed by the conscious organized efforts of the Catholic church, and the Anglo-Saxon pioneers often came well afterwards.

Franklin A. Doty: Florida, Iowa, and the National "Balance of Power," 1845

The precedent set by the Missouri Compromise, in which States were admitted to the Union in North-South pairs in order to preserve the balance of power between between free and slave States, affected the admission of both Florida and Iowa in unexpected ways.

Edwin C. Bearss: Civil War Operations in and around Pensacola

At the beginning of the War between the States, the Confederacy tries to take Ft. Pickens by persuasion. That doesn't work, nor does fighting. A close look at the negotiations, skirmishes, and bombardments; I found this article particularly interesting.

The Journals of Lieutenant John Pickell, 1836‑1837

An Army officer in the Second Seminole War: his explorations of Florida, the politics of parleys with the Indians, and his observations of wildlife and Seminole life [source document].

F. W. Wallace: The Story of Captain John C. Casey

An officer does his duty honestly by both the U. S. government and the Seminoles, despite varied opposition; and dies of tuberculosis to an unknown grave.

St. Joseph, Florida

Brief and informal account of one of the most important places in Florida in the early 19c, now reduced to mere traces.

T. Frederick Davis: Florida's Great Seal — Its Historical Inaccuracies

Brief paper points out outright absurdities in the State seal as it then stood; some of them have been fixed.

F. Cubberly: Florida against Georgia

A boundary dispute with its roots in the 18c boundary between Spain and the United States; arising fully in 1819 and amicably ended in 1872 by the U. S. Supreme Court.

A. H. Roberts: The Dade Massacre

A clear, comprehensive and amply annotated account of the first engagement of the Second Seminole War in 1835.

Samuel H. Ray, S. J.: Jesuit Martyrs in Florida

✠ A short and not very substantial account of three massacres of Jesuits in the 16c, with a bit of background material.

Herbert E. Bolton: James Wilkinson as Advisor to Emperor Iturbide

Two documents found by Bolton in the Mexican State Archives, transcribed [source documents]. (In Spanish)

I. A. Wright: The Dutch and Cuba, 1609‑1643

The Dutch threatened Spanish Cuba and aroused fear, but only once did they attack with any real success, and eventually went away on their own.

Osgood Hardy: The Itata Incident

In the Chilean revolution of 1891, one side tried to buy weapons in the United States. They got them on a ship, and actually got them to Chile — but were made to return them. Blow-by-blow account of the chase by U. S. authorities, which nearly embroiled the two countries in a war.

A. P. Whitaker: James Wilkinson's First Descent to New Orleans in 1787

If Americans were forbidden to descend the Mississippi past the confluence of the Ohio, a fortiori to trade with Louisiana, just how did Wilkinson manage to travel down the river with a load of cargo?

J. Lloyd Mecham: The Papacy and Spanish-American Independence

In the 1820's, the Spanish American republics were transitioning to independence, posing problems of political recognition and the national patronage of ecclesiastical appointments. This paper describes the careful process by which the Vatican, the South American countries and Spain adjusted to the new reality until formal diplomatic recognition.

A. P. Whitaker: Antonio de Ulloa

A detailed biographical sketch, focusing not on Ulloa's well-covered governorship of Louisiana, but on his South American experiences and his publications.

J. Hospers: Diary of a Journey from The Netherlands to Pella Iowa in 1849

Three months, much of it at sea, in which three of the writer's children die; with glimpses of New York City, Albany, Buffalo, Chicago, and La Salle, IL [source document].

Cardinal Goodwin: The American Occupation of Iowa, 1833 to 1860

How Iowa was settled; fast.

Cardinal Goodwin: The Movement of American Settlers into Wisconsin and Minnesota

Wisconsin and Minnesota were also settled fast; lead mining around Dubuque was the initial impetus.

J. Hospers: Louisville and Portland Canal

Though the rapids of the Ohio near today's Louisville were a serious impediment to navigation, financing a canal around them took several tries spanning a quarter of a century.

Bertram W. Korn: A Reappraisal of Judah Touro

Although Touro was one of the greatest of American Jewish benefactors, it wasn't until very late in life, and thanks to the persuasion of others.

Thomas D. Roberts: Resaca de la Palma

A one-stop retelling, with map, of the Mexican War battle.

[journal staff note]: Mule Ear Currency

Mules' ears, pickled in salt, supposedly used as currency in the Old West: believe this at your own peril — se non è vero, è ben trovato.

E. G. Campbell: The United States Military Railroads, 1862‑1865

® The operation and maintenance of a military railroad system was critical to the Union victory in the War between the States: how to repair (and destroy) railroads, but also details on the ambulance trains and other facets of the system. Four contemporaneous photographs.

Leroy T. Patton: Military Education in the United States

The author's careful critique of the academic environment at West Point leads him to a proposal to improve military education on the lines of medical education: pre-military general education to be given in civilian colleges, and USMA to serve as a specialized higher-level military university.

Old Fort Belle Fontaine

The fort was founded by the Spanish, then taken over by the French and the Americans, who decommissioned it by 1836; the article includes the report of a recent site visit.

J. F. Snyder: An Illinois Burnt Offering

The devotional rites of Kentuckians: a musical evening gone sour.

The Northern Boundary Line of Illinois Surveyed by Hiram Rountree

As often, the man who did the work wasn't credited for it at the time.

Milo Quaife: The Northwestern Career of Jefferson Davis

As a young officer fresh out of West Point, Davis was posted to forts in the Old Northwest. His life there, and a few mostly malignant tales dispelled.

F. G. Bale: When the Gratiots came to Galena

Galena, Illinois, as seen by the Gratiot family in the early nineteenth century.

George T. Ness, Jr.: Illinois at West Point: her Graduates in the Civil War

A very slight survey of all West Point graduates born in Illinois who served in the Civil War.

Elizabeth Ellis: Dutch Reformed Beginnings in Illinois

The founding of the first Dutch Reformed Churches, in Fairview, IL and the nearby area, in 1837 thru the 1850's.

J. L. Eisendrath, Jr.: Illinois' Oldest Memorial — The Stephen A. Douglas Monument

A careful chronology of the building of Douglas's tomb, from the first germ of its conception thru the fundraising, legislative battles and completion.

J. L. Eisendrath, Jr.: Chicago's Camp Douglas, 1861‑1865

A description and chronology of the military base and prison camp operated by the Union Army in Chicago, where up to 12,000 Confederate prisoners were held; its commanders did what they could to make the place comfortable.

Walter L. Fleming: The Defeat of the Secessionists in Kentucky in 1861

Secessionism was stronger than Union sentiment at the outbreak of the Civil War; but thru a policy of neutrality Kentucky bought time in which eventually to consolidate its pro-Union position.

Notes on Connecticut as a Slave State

Peaking in the late 18c, slavery in Connecticut is abolished in 1848.

Journal of the First Kentucky Convention (edited by Thomas P. Abernethy)

The very first time men from Kentucky met to ponder whether they might become a state separate from Virginia: the manuscript journal of their Convention.

George Fort Milton: Stephen A. Douglas' Efforts For Peace

Douglas was a moderate, who worked very hard to preserve the Union with peace; the Civil War was largely brought about by Buchanan and Lincoln.

Robert C. Black III: The Railroads of Georgia in the Confederate War Effort

The railroads of Georgia, and especially the Western & Atlantic, were key to both the Confederacy's survival and its eventual collapse.

Gustav Kobbé: The Willet Chancel Window in the West Point Chapel

A description of the famous monumental window, and an account of the competitive procedure by which the designer was chosen.

See separate index page:

20 articles, about 300 printed pages.

Edwin C. Bearss: The Seizure of the Forts and Public Property in Louisiana

A straightforward narrative of the forcible transfer of property from Federal to State hands in January 1861.

River Navies in the Civil War

A compact, clear, very useful overview of the rôle that the Union and Confederate navies played in the war. The Mississippi River basin conditioned much of the land war. "The naval factor was a decisive one in some of the largest military campaigns."

The Acting Signal Corps

Samuel T. Cushing: An intimate anecdotal account of the founding days of the U. S. Army Signal Corps, during the War between the States, by its second officer.

Removal of the Sioux Indians from Minnesota

Francis H. Relf, ed.: A letter of John P. Williamson who accompanied a group of deportees in 1863.

With Laperrière to Minnesota in 1727

A source document: a 1728 letter of Father Guignas, S. J.

I. J. Cox: The Pan-American Policy of Jefferson and Wilkinson

Four-cornered diplomatic intrigue conducted by them in which the prize would be the acquisition of Florida or the good will of France, or both.

A Ku Klux Document (presented by Walter L. Fleming)

A brief official document of a local Louisiana KKK group in the 1870's: the ceremony for swearing in a new member [source document].

Work on the Cumberland Road (edited by Earl G. Swem)

Brief, but the very first record of the building of that important artery.

Claude S. Larzelere: The Iowa-Missouri Disputed Boundary

A surveying error in 1816 caused decades of problems, finally set right by the U. S. Supreme Court.

J. Fred Rippy: Diplomacy of the United States and Mexico regarding the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, 1848‑1860

® American private interests seeking to build a railroad across Mexican territory, are obstructed by the Mexican government who feel it is an encroachment on the sovereignty of Mexico: they'd learned the lesson of Texas.

R. E. Riegel: Federal Operation of Southern Railroads during the Civil War

® The paper traces the evolution of the Union administration of Southern railroads, from improvisation to a highly organized system, which it credits to its director, Daniel W. McCallum.

E. Merton Coulter: The Efforts of the Democratic Societies of the West to open the Navigation of the Mississippi

In 1793‑1795, frontier Americans, mostly Kentuckians, organize grass-roots lobbying groups to get what they want, whether by pressuring the federal government or otherwise.

[Review:] Two 1924 biographies of Woodrow Wilson:

David Lawrence, The True Story of Woodrow Wilson

Josephus Daniels, The Life of Woodrow Wilson, 1856-1924

Verner W. Crane: Projects for Colonization in the South, 1684‑1732

Although they didn't come to anything directly, there were a few British schemes for colonizing what would soon become Georgia under Oglethorpe.

Spanish Intrigue in the Old Southwest: An Episode, 1788‑89

Not treason, but an exercise in getting government to do what the people want rather than vice-versa; and not serious, so much as calling up the Spanish bogey to achieve that end within the framework of the United States.

A. P. Whitaker: The Muscle Shoals Speculation, 1783‑1789

A bit of private enterprise that fed into the Spanish intrigue, that intersected the founding of the State of Franklin, and that eventually failed.

The Founding of New Madrid, Missouri

How and why George Morgan launched the town of New Madrid, in coöperation with the Spanish authorities of Louisiana, of which province it was for a while an important outpost; with a close look at the geopolitics, especially the attempt to detach Kentucky from the United States.

[Review:] A pair of books by Dwight Lowell Dumond:

Southern Editorials on Secession

The Secession Movement

Harry Williams: The Attack upon West Point during the Civil War

An overview of popular perceptions and of maneuvers by the radical branch of the Republican party in Congress to abolish the Academy or decrease its influence.

Robert P. Keep: The System of Instruction at West Point: Can It Be Employed in Our Colleges?

A careful description of the method of instruction practiced at the U. S. Military Academy, with an assessment and suggestions as to its possible extension to civilian colleges.

F. H. Eckstorm: The Attack on Norridgewock, 1724

✠ A reconstruction of what happened when the British overran this strategic French outpost; Father Sebastian Rasles was not a passive and purely religious martyr as often represented.

F. A. Mitchel: How to Make West Point More Useful

The author suggests several categories of West Pointers, having spent one, two, three, and the full four years at the Academy: those with the fewer years to officer the National Guard.

The Trial and Execution of Patrick O'Conner at the Dubuque Mines in the Summer of 1834

A sober, detailed, interesting eye-witness account of Iowa frontier justice.

✠ New Melleray

Life at the Trappist monastery near Dubuque, and a summary history of it since its foundation in 1849.

Hampton L. Carson: Dutch and Swedish Settlements on the Delaware

A clear summary of the three colonial periods on the Delaware before Penn and British rule: Dutch foundation, Swedish rule, and Dutch reconquest; with some focus on the legal system.

Rev. L. J. Siekaniec: The Polish Colony of Sioux City, Iowa

✠ A sketch, "brief and far from complete", of the history of the Polish community in that city from its beginnings in the late 19c.

Frederic Bancroft: The French in Mexico and the Monroe Doctrine

The perfidious French wormed their way into Mexico on a pretext, but for altogether different motives. As soon the War between the States was over and the United States could deal with things, they warned France to back down — and didn't need to invoke the Monroe Doctrine to do it.

William R. Shepherd: Review of Spain in America, 1450‑1580 by E. G. Bourne, and The South American Republics by T. C. Dawson

Walter L. Fleming: Jefferson Davis's Camel Experiment

Three Dutch Medals

18c medals issued by The Netherlands to commemorate the Independence of the United States and commercial diplomatic relations with them.

Bliss Perry: Morris Schaff • A Memoir

A sympathetic biographical sketch of the West Point writer.

Samuel Tillman: A Review of West Point's History

A survey, if only thru the end of Revolutionary War, of the Academy's history, by a man who within two years would be its Superintendent.

Clyde B. Aitchison: The Mormon Settlements in the Missouri Valley

In 1846 the Latter-Day Saints were forced to leave Illinois; choosing to settle at the Great Salt Lake, they migrated across much of the West, and in so doing, established temporary way stations in the Missouri Valley, some of which became permanent cities.

J. F. Santee: Edward R. S. Canby, Modoc War, 1873

Gen. Canby was killed in the Pacific Now by Modoc Indians at a parley: after a summary of his career, the context of the event and what led up to it.

G. C. Downing: Governor Robert Letcher

A slight article of local reminiscences of him, his wife, his house in Frankfort.

Scannell O'Neill: Convert Sons of West Point

✠ Early converts to Roman Catholicism among the graduates of West Point.

Robert Lebby: The First Shot on Fort Sumter

An eyewitness to the event pieces together what he saw, and concludes that the man who first fired was Henry S. Farley.

See separate index page:

8 items, about 230 printed pages.

Leopold Morris: The Mexican Raid of 1875 on Corpus Christi

The Nuecestown cross-border raid, Mar. 26, 1875, in which maybe a hundred Mexican robbers terrorized Americans living in the border marches — of topical interest still today.

William Dunbar and Thomas Jefferson: Description of a singular Phenomenon seen at Baton Rouge

A large unidentified flying object [source document].

Ferdinand Ernst: Travels in Illinois in 1819

Long excerpts from the letters of a German traveler in the Midwest, translated: a good observer visits the Mississippi bottoms and St. Louis [source document].

Funeral of Mrs. G. W. P. Custis and Death of General R. E. Lee

A letter of Mrs. William H. Fitzhugh on the funeral of Mrs. Custis (1853), and a letter of Mrs. Robert E. Lee on the very day of her husband's death (Oct. 12, 1870) [source documents].

Ralph M. Brown: A Sketch of the Early History of Southwestern Virginia

Misleadingly titled, the paper details some of the most important explorations and events in the westward expansion from Virginia in the 17‑18c. Maps.

Sidney Forman: The United States Military Philosophical Society, 1802‑1813

An early approach to the promotion and funding of military research and technology.

Mitchell Oshkenaniew: The Services of the Menominee in Black Hawk War

Three hundred Menominees, constituted as a U. S. Army unit, fought the Sauk Indians in 1832.

Sipko F. Rederus: The Dutch Settlements of Sheboygan County

The 19c settlement of Oostburg, Cedar Grove and other towns.

Charles King: Rufus King: Soldier, Editor, and Statesman

A biographical sketch of the West Point-educated Milwaukee newspaper editor and civic leader, with a defense of his conduct in the War between the States.

Henry S. Lucas, ed.: The Journey of an Immigrant Family from The Netherlands to Milwaukee in 1854

The first-hand account of John Remeeus, a mid‑19c Dutch pioneer immigrant: his Atlantic crossing and his travel by rail and boat from Boston to Milwaukee [source document].

Henry S. Lucas, ed.: Reminiscences of Arend Jan Brusse on Early Dutch Settlement in Milwaukee

The first-hand account, if written much later than the events, of a mid‑19c Dutch pioneer immigrant.

Henry S. Lucas: The First Dutch Settlers in Milwaukee

A brief account of mid‑19c Dutch settlement in and around Milwaukee.

Henry S. Lucas: The Founding of New Amsterdam in La Crosse County

An 1853 sea voyage, a shipwreck, and settlement in Wisconsin.

Emerson D. Fite: The Canal and the Railroad from 1861 to 1865

® Northern transportation lines enjoyed remarkable growth and prosperity during the War between the States.