welcome to virginia tech's

annual civil weekend. i'm really pleased to introduce our first speaker of the day, dr. lauren thompson, who is the samuel heading damien and charles samuel, professor of early american history at mckendree university near saint louis. she also serves as the director of ethnic and gender studies as she's the author of a terrific book, which is what prompted me to invite her for this weekend for our theme the information war the book is called friendly enemies soldier throughout the

american civil war. i wanted to make sure we had that experience of the everyday soldier the way they received and shared consume information during the war and dr. thompson is the perfect person to that part of the story. with us. and her lecture title today is holding correspondence with and giving intelligence to the enemy. how soldiers chad information across the lines let's give her a warm welcome to the podium. thank you. good good morning. i'm so excited to go first today so and it looks like rain is on the forecast for the day and what i can't think of a better way to spend a rainy spring than talking about civil war all day. so i'm very excited ed and as paul said this project is very

near and dear to me it actually began in 2008 when i was working on my master's and i was a seasonal ranger, fredericksburg and spotsylvania, military, and it turned into a dissertation and then a book and my book actually came out in july 2020, and that was right in, the heart of covid. so i never really got to go on a book tour and do things like this, except for when i was wearing pajamas and my kitchen on zoom and so better late than never right. and i'm very excited to speak with you this morning about some of the stories that i found and how those stories relate to the theme of this weekend, which is information session. and so i would like to begin with two stories and. the first story that i would like to begin with takes place on the rappahannock river. and so.

february 1863, a little bit of contextualization then is two months after the defeat of burnside's army at frederick seaburg? and for about five months the army of northern virginia in the army of the potomac are, encamped on the rappahannock river. now we know in a few months we'll see the battle chancellorsville and then continuing through the summer of 1863. but soldiers are encamped on the rappahannock river and about every couple of days men will go down to the river with their unit and spend a 24 hour shift on picket duty. and so the u.s. troops are informed. across the river from fredericksburg. confederate troops are in the city of fredericksburg. and here's what is going to transpire throughout those five months while these armies are to one another in winter and camp, it it. so this man right here is, a

private from the 18th georgia named milton barrett. he and his regiment held one of these 24 hour shifts on picket duty. and upon returning to camp the following day, he wrote home in a letter his brother and sister, he writes, a regiment has just come picket. we stood close together. oh, thank you. thank you. we stood close together and could talk to each other. then when the officers were not, we exchanged. we manage this. a small boat. some of our boys went over and actually stayed a while. the yankees would us know when to come back. this correspondence has to be kept secret from the officers. so he was very excited to tell his brother sister that he did something bad right.

imagine a teenager the rules on the other side of the river, one of these yankees that he was speaking to is a soldier from the 100 and or sorry 71st pennsylvania private john. so step finn also writes about this experience and in a friend write in a letter he wrote to his friend he actually enclosed the paper that he received while fraternizing so he enclosed the confederate paper that he received. and along with that paper he wrote to his friend this paper was floated across the river to me by one of the sash pickets, and while reading on the bank the river, he asked me how i liked the paper, this paper i should delivered at brigade

headquarters according to orders, but i'm thinking that i might as well send home. so again, he received this paper should have turned it in when he came back on picket duty. but not only did he not his orders, he sent it home to his friend. now, course, when i was reading this in the archives was going through the folder. where's the paper? where's that paper? so the paper never made it into the archives, unfortunately. but the fact that this sent the paper home to look what i got shows kind of the experiences these men are having and they're actually proud of it, right? because they're telling their what they're doing and getting this information and it's always against orders. so that's an experience we see in the wrap on the rappahannock river between privates of opposing armies. so the second story i would like to tell you is going to happen a year later and it's going to happen in georgia and it's between two kind of different

men of different rank. and so after the siege at chattanooga in the winter quarters between the army of the tennessee, now under sherman, when grant comes to virginia, sherman's going to lead his men on a campaign similar to the overland campaign happening to get to atlanta that's the goal and while joe johnson and later john bel hood's army of tennessee is following, they're going to meet up occasionally throughout this northwest georgian countryside. well, i shouldn't say countryside. it's very mountainous. and along the rivers the chattahoochee the altoona creek, these armies are going to come insight into site with one another. so here's transpires in the spring and summer of 1864 again different armies different campaign ends and here's what's going to happen. so this named henry welch he is

a private in the 123rd new york infantry. so he writes our picket line in speaking distance, the rebel pickets. we exchange papers with them every day they think or did think that lee was whipping grant they that they are going to drive us out georgia they also that hooker's men fight differently western troops do they wanted to know if hooker's men were mostly regular soldiers. and so in this case, you can see private welch writes in his diary that not only was he exchanging information, but also something that i'll talk about in a little bit. these camp rumors with the enemy along the altoona creek. and this is a few days before the slaughter of the us troops

at kennesaw mountain on june 27. and so some one that i want to show you or illustrate a reaction to is not a confederate soldier opposite of him, but rather his officer who observes this and that is his divisional commander, general or brigadier general alpheus williams. and so he has a division under hooker's 20th corps and observes this position, and he is flabbergasted at these interact tions he sees with his men. and welch is in his. and so while watching and these other private soldiers here's what williams has to oh oh and this is the best part he writes this home in a letter to daughter which is also interesting. so he writes his daughter for the last few days our pickets

completely fraternized, they have been exchanging papers, coffee, tobacco, the like. the next day i found them actually sitting together on the banks of a small stream. i was obliged stop fraternal intercourse. isn't it strange that men in mortal strife one hour are on affectionate terms? the next, and apparently fast strange the incidents of war and so alpheus williams observes this and has no idea these men could go from fighting to fraternizing and compartmentalize using their attitudes and feelings and and all of the emotions they tied up towards the enemy so quickly and honestly. 160 years after the after this conflict, we usually feel that way about soldier

fraternization, too. and so let's talk a little bit broadly before we kind of get in, dig into the information again about fraternization and so i think for all of us as scholars of the war, we've heard about it. and here are some places we've about it. this is the famous kunstler painting that depicts what i was talking about in first story between stephan and barrett on the icy waters of the rappahannock river after the battle of fredericksburg you can see johnny reb with his cup of union coffee. you can billy yank with his goods southern tobacco right and you can see the staples the churches in fredericksburg behind. and they're standing there kind of having this conversation. well, that picture or this is trans translated and illustrated quite well in the gods and generals. right. and so we kind of recognize that

from the film, but you can see it's almost identical to the counselor painting. we also see fraternization in the film gettysburg as well. and here's little me back in my park service attire and this is me, a tour on the sunken road at frerksburg. and i talked about these exchanges of coffee and tobacco and this was a exhibit in the fredburg visitor center, if you can peep, the title of the exhibit that the title of my book so it was a little wink to my time at fredericksburg gettin that topic. but as you can see, it's such a good, you know, the oxymoron itself makes us really think how these men do this? and so this is an exhibit in the in the vi's center at fredericksburg and. oftentimes when we talk about yeah, exchange coffee and tobacco yeah they, they were nice. they did things together and even pulls itself up to the great war.

and as many of us have heard about the 1914 christmas eve truce on the western front and when we look at soldier fraternization, what i've always tried to do is to think about what this for the individual soldier right? why did he do it? and us today like general williams in 1864 are just so kind of flawed by how men could compartmentalize rather quickly who is their enemy and who is their friend. and so looking collect heavily at soldier fraternization. what i would like to do this morning is use conference theme of information often as a lens to investigate fraternization and order. understand more about how the common civil war soldier fought and so what i would like to do is kind of start with talking

about how soldiers received foation. so say there's about there's many ways, but the three big major ways soldiersilreceive information are these number one newspapers. so you can see on e ft in this, edwin forbes sketch entitled, newspapers in camp right. men were very excited to have enough mon tgo to the settlers tent and receive a paper. and what soldiers would usually do is thheir friends and mpany. everyone would buy one and then they would exchange them, right. sohewould read these newspapers and that was their way. understa t bigger events surrounding where they were. right. so politics what's going wh the lincoln in the davis administration? emancipation prisoner exchange other campaigns other army movements? right. it was their connection to t

homefront. and so newspapers were basically the social mediaf the tt s their only way to understand the events surrounding their place, the ranks. now, any timweave information could be biased, there could be ways to kind of promote somein there could be ways also affect us, right? soldiers right. all the time about how the stay at homes or thermchair generals are saying things about them when they're in the ranks actually doing it. and so information can be good and it can boost morale, but it can also have the negative effect as well. but any time information, what comes with it is something that jason phillips writes about in his study, die hard rebels, which is rumors. right. and so the second major way in which soldiers gained information was through camp rumors. right. and so as men circulate or

speculate about where are we going next, our new general, who's going to get promoted, where is tom? right. he's good at. right. so there's a lot of speculation associated with camp rumors. but like it or not, it's really all you have to grasp. and so camp rumors become a way that soldiers make sense of their duty and always trying to answer that question of what's next. now the way and this relates to this picture you see here on, the right is you see all of these men writing letters. so the major way in which soldrsnd also give information is through lters and from home. now this if we've all read soier'setters and a lot of times men will say write me more. d then they'rehe loved ones are writing. the more the letters aren't getting through right? and because they want to know

that iormation and what's going on with the farm, the business my family, they want to know those personal, individl stors at obviously the newspapers in the camp rumors just can't provide and letters home are extremely important for soldiers to craft their again of where they stand in regards to the bigger picture of this war. and so between newspapers cameramen and letters that's how soldiers usually get information. but guess what? if they use the enemy as a fourth way to get information and that's exactly what they're going to do. and so in order, look and investigate how soldiers gained information from the enemy, i'd like to break it up into two parts. the first is how right how do they go about doing this? that's very important. and then secondly, why? and that's a discussion we can have all weekend, because i would love to hear your

thoughts. well, because the list is exhaust, right? why do they do this? and i'll give you my you know, my ideas. but i'd love to hear some of yours as well. and so beginning with how soldiers did, let's look at a of what i call the hot spots of fraternization. and so what happens is ice. i've read accounts of soldier aternization happening in july 61 at manassas all the way through five fork865. so it happens throughout the entire war, but the places it happens most frequently are when soldiers are. opposed to one another for a long periods of time. so if look here up at this map, which i is a kind l, it's not chronological, but i'll go rological is first ple that we see soldiers positioned together for long period of time is where we d this talk on

the rappahannock river. but they also come back after chancellorsv for about almost two months before they move up north to gettysbd then they also come back again with the mine run campaign in fall of 63. so they're there for a very long time. so we see a of fraternization on the rappahanno the next place see it is actually vicksbuh. so in may june and july of when grant beseeches pemberton outside e ty of vicksburg that's the firstwe see it on the western theater. it's also the first t see it during a siege. and i'll talk about that here in a little bit. 're then to folw chronologically the western after chickamauga and then around chattanooga while grant's armies besieged in the city. i mentioned before, on sherman's

kind campaign down to atlanta, a particular really they're swimming parties and enemies so 's in the book so swimming parties the guys naked and they they together because it's july and it't right and then the tn e siege in atlanta and so simultaneously to the siege in atlanta will then ersburg and so petersburg is where we're going to see fraternization fo the entire or the siege, right. for nine, ten months, we're going to see the armies at petersburg fraternized. and so we need to have the armies together. because you can't fraternize if you don't have the other party. so that's kind of where fraternization will be happening. so look at how do it during what we would call i don't want to say it's peacetime because still war, but mostly when soldiers are on picket duty and, certain times of the war, they're given orders not to fire right their

job on picket duty is to let someone if you see something happening, but don't take it upon yourself. and so that makes these exchanges interesting because there's less of a threat and it allows for men to do things this construct little boats right in the winter encampment they are bored bored and. if we can make little boats and, push them across the rappahannock and papers, then we are less bored right in crafting the boat, having this exchange and new things to read. and so the way that we soldiers share information on picket duty is through pushing little boats across the river. so i have a story. okay, this is actually a soldier of the signal corps. so ed, bert roberts of the u.s. signal corps wrote in a letter there a packet i found to be loaded with mail on deck. we found a charleston paper the richmond examiner and a couple other papers on neatly folded

and in perfect position. condition, sorry, condition it was accompanied with the request. please send us the latest you have. according according lee, we sent them a new york herald, a philadelphia inquirer and, harper's weekly. we folded them, place them on board, and the packet sale was trimmed and turned around back to success again. okay, so you see that these of interactions where, they're sending these boats with these papers, there's always a send us more in return, right? there's always reciprocity. it's never about like, i'm going to do something for you. it's like i'm going to do something nice for you because. i want something to write and we'll talk more about that here in a little bit. so sometimes if the river was shallow enough, if there's a pontoon boat from the pontoon, bridges happened to be lying around on the banks. men would get in the boat. or if they had horses, if they

were cavalry as seen here. so if they h horses, if it was shallow enough, if they had a boat, if they could cross the river, not only would they just tradpars v a boat they would trade trade papers personally. and so erore when they got to trade papers, they could talk a lot more as well. and so we're goi tsee the newspeexchange and the camp rumor exchange each happen when men are to cross the river and converse wh e another face to face,nes infantryman wrote in a letter to his wife. two men in our company took a little boat again. i don't know where they got the boat. i'm thinking it's the pontoon bridges that just kind of were there and they went across the river and exchanged newspapers with the rebs and we can see that our soldiers are not sending these little boats, but able go across and talk. they're going to send these papers, but they're also going to have these conversations. now, the third way soldiers

exchange information is through mail. so guess what? they're going to ask the enemy. do a confederate soldier gave his enemy a letter to mail to his sweetheart the north. right. so his lover is on the opposite side. mail can't through to her and he makes this connection with his enemy and says he can mail this my sweetheart right. and it turns out the us soldier kept that hidden his commander and mailed it because he probably had a woman too knew how important it was to have that conversation, share information about his state, that he's alive and well and misses her. so the practice of sending enemies letters took hold. a us soldier said they furnished us with the richmond papers every day and sometimes they brought over letters to be sent to their friends in the north. so we sent letters over there. those that had friends in the

south which they promised to forward them. and so we see all three means of communication news, camp rumors, letters all being exchanged across the river when men are on picket duty. and so this is way that soldiers go about getting information and receiving information, disseminating information on their own right. and again, it's against orders. however, the war will change the way we fight. the war will. and eventually, when you're on picket duty, you're not to be given orders to remain of, i guess you could say, peaceful and just alert your commander. so when we begin to dig in on the outskirts of petersburg in atlanta and vicksburg berg, that permeable permeable boundary of the river is no longer there. and you now have orders if you see the enemy, what do you do?

right? yes, exactly right. so it's going to be a little more difficult. keep up these exchanges. so honestly, when i started researching this, i was like, it's just going to end. we go into sieges this. we just don't have the rivers. we don't have the orders not to fire. it's over. however, not only are these soldiers going make it happen, but as warfare changes and combat changes and what they're asked to do changes, fraternization will change as well. and the are the ones who do it. so me introduce you to what soldiers when they are given the order to constantly keep their fire on the enemy? well, the only time soldiers during a siege would get a cease fire is during detail. and so what we see, especially outside of vicksburg, champion's hill, pemberton and grant are going to call for a white flag of truce to go in between the lines and bury their fire or their comrades. and it's honestly because it's

hot, right. and the bodies need to be buried. but if you're not on burial detail, guess what? union and confederate soldiers do they trade, right? they trade newspapers. they talk, they mail letters, get coffee, tobacco and what soldiers are going to realize like, oh, if we have a cease fire, not only are we surviving at that moment because we're not firing on each other, but we can also get information. so what if we don't wait for the officers to order a cease fire? what if we do it ourselves and that is where fraternization is going to take on a new life one that's about life saving operations to say, let's just not fire on one another and let's keep up the trade networks that we did when. we were on picket duty during peacetime so one of these one of these instances is where when these instances happen, here's how it's going to go. so men will say things like this. hey, johnny, we won't fire on

you. and if we get the order to we'll give you two warning shots. first and it's going to go back and forth. we're going to give you two warning shots. right. and it's true because sometimes the commander of the day or the officer the day comes down and he wants to show off and he's like fire on. so they're like, okay, we're going to take two warnings shots to show you that truce was off. and so going to yell over and say like, let's not fire. let's not this and that's going to open up this of whole world in between the lines where we see men being able recreate these spaces of fraternization. and so one example i have is a soldier named james beard. so they couldn't they couldn't necessarily go out just yet because it was nighttime. but he talked he he wrote this. he said, in the night we talk to them, we trade papers and we write on a piece of paper what we want to trade. we roll it around a cartridge, we toss it into their pits, and then they do the same with. right. so it's like ordering a meal,

right? so they're like, hey i want this, you know, my lives in new york. if i don't get in new york, harold, you're not going your richmond examiner by right and they throw over the throw it over so they know in the morning either sneak out put them there and we'll get them in exchange them or we'll try to find a space where we can physically meet another example and love this one. john wrote, there is a ravine where we go down that the ribs come up to it and our officers can't see us and their officers can't see them, right? so as you can see in this, that's kind of what's happening here. right? you can see if you notice, they had to go cut firewood. you can see the abati and the trenches in, the back. and they were able to find spot where they could meet. so john smith says, you know, we're able to meet. we found this perfect spot. nobody can see us. there were seven rebs and four of us. feller. i sat there for over an hour and a half talking with them, he says to his mom. did you get the paper i sent

you. it was a red paper. i got it from them and i would like for you to take care of it. that's what he tells her. and i remember getting this in the virginia historical society, again, combing through this hollinger box, looking for that paper. and again, the paper didn't make it into the archives, but this was that instance where he said, you know, we had this kind obviously coffee in tobacco is being exchanged, playing euchre camp rumors are swirling, mails being sent, papers traded, but all because it's not allowed these. men get these items. they take it back and they say, hey, i'm going to send this home with you. i want you to keep it safe right. and so when we see cease fires develop or when soldiers develop, cease fires. they can recreate these spaces of peace. but also these spaces where information can flow back and forth. so that leads us to our second question. why did they do this and this is

conversation that i would love to have with you all throughout the weekend, because why why would they go about doing this? and so here are some of my theories or my analyzes. the first is they're bored. i teach college and i know when my lecture is off the rails because i just see a lot of this, right? i just see lot a lot of scrolling. right. instagram snapchat, right. and i'm like, they're bored. they want information right. and so soldiers are bored. and once exhaust, right. the papers make their rounds and our camp to get a whole new stack of papers. right. it alleviates boredom right. and also in a serious an idle mind is never good right. and to sit there and worry but have you know something to keep your mind occupied at the very most practical level, it helps with boredom going a little bit

deeper is as said earlier, what's next? right. what is next and obviously if this was 65, march 23rd, 1865, we have the advantage of hindsight, we're like, hold on, boys. only a couple more weeks and it's over, right? but they know that. and so what's going to happen tomorrow, what's going to happen the next day? the rumination and the speculation must have been maddening for a of these men. and so to be able to maybe get some answers as to what's next would be a way to placate some of those fears and going along with what's next is what's happening elsewhere, right? so are there prisoner exchanges? where's sherman's army? what happened with the election. what's mcclellan saying on his campaign trail? are there draft riots? what is what are copperheads saying these days? what's happening in my hometown right so to get some of this information again not only are soldiers able to piece together what's next but also know is the

sacrifice. i'm experienced right now to my body and to my emotions. is that going to be worth it? and unfortunately, some of the news that they'll read in enemy papers is not good thinking of georgian soldiers. the in the trenches at petersburg reading about what's happening you know it's what's going to cause a lot of them to leave because they know that i'm fighting to protect my family and my family's in danger. right so and we usually say like no news is good news. but in this case, i, i, i don't think ignorance is bliss. right, because it just leads to that rumination. another reason is there perspective of the enemy begins to evolve or evolves throughout the war, right? and so later in the war, in 64, 65. right. one of there's a soldier from, alabama.

his name is j.p. cannon. and this is one of the most powerful quotes i ever read. and he said brave men respect each no matter how they differ in. and so we begin to see soldiers really develop a sense of empathy for their enemy. and they can still want to with them, right? they can still want to win the war and they can still be ideologically committed to their cause and to their country. but they can see grizzly veterans across them and say, i know how you feel because i'm the exact same way. right. and i'm tired and i really want some coffee. and i bet you want some tobacco, right. and i bet you want to get this information just as much as i do. and so that's why i think soldiers do it. maybe help their enemy, but also particularly particularly because they can understand, write, especially when they see, general williams write in his nice little house. right. receiving his nice rations of whiskey. and, you know, there's that kind we understand what it's like

down here in the trenches and we know that we are kind of in this together and. then kind of the last one i have for you today is they do it because it's against borders. yeah, they do it because they're told not to imagine that. so and these soldiers brave like i have a lot soldiers who do incredible things. and then the next day they're fraternizing. so these are not are like disloyal or kind of very kind of uncommon kid soldiers that we think about are the soldiers who break orders. it's so much more nuanced than that. they remain committed, i think, because they're showing themselves that they're still in control and they still have power over themselves and they're individuals. and they're not just being pulled along by the military mechanism. and so soldiers do it because they they can't, quite frankly. and so i want to give you a little taste of how the office felt about fraternization i showed you. williams broke it up, and he was definitely like, oh, can't

believe this is happening right? but eventually we're going to see some and we're going to see court martials, because i think the high command knew like we don't want happening. right. because as soon as they start realize like they have more in common with one another than us, the gig's up. so general. meade, this is shortly after cold is going to make these orders and so you can definitely see in here where iobviously becoming as he will say it's it's injurious to the service right it's it's down what we're ying to do he says no communication will be held. don't do it right. it's strictly prohibited. conversation, interchangof newspapers, exchange coffee and tobacco. it has be done. it's noonger terated right. so we can see that soldiers are doing it so frequently because it's going to get all the way up

righto the army commander to say no longer tolerated. we're going to see it. also, a month later, lee is going to say the same thing. and you can tell this is lee writing. it just has his his his armhis stamp on it. it just definitely sounds like him. but you can see he says, you know, communication between our pickets and those of the enemy is it's against orders. it's disobedience and it's it's harming what we're trying to do here. right. he ss if they try to, approach us, unless give that order of a flag of tre fire upon them and drive them back. and you can see, he sa, no intercourse or conversation is allowed. well, they're obviously goingo do this for the next nine months. however or we're going to start to see court martial trials for fraternization. and so what going to see is the us war department is going to

pass article 57 and that's the title of my talk today holding correspondence with and giving intelligence to the enemy. and so soldiers will be brought up on charges for doing such as this. this is a group of soldiers in the army of the cumberland ready to go to their court martial trial. and so all in all, even though it was illegal and there was this new kind of article of war, i only found 50 court martials, the us court martial records for article number 57. that was it. so 50 out of tens of thousands of court martial cases so that us to believe either soldier said we have to triage things and we have bigger fish to fry in court. this fraternization really isn't that important, but it also shows that it was kind of hard to catch. so of the 50 court martial cases, over half of them were

the exchange of newspapers. and for most of them, the were found guilty because they had the on them. so of the ways that officers would crack down against this is when you come back from picket duty on the front lines. they would have inspections right so if you had a richmond examiner when you came back that was proof right. the other way men would or men would get acquitted because they'd say, you know, we saw you out playing with the confederate. so what do you have to say for yourself? and this is what my students say when plagiarize. i didn't know it was wrong. right? so i know they're students in here. i love y'all right? like, i don't know. i didn't know. i couldn't use my roommate's paper right. so they plead like, oh, i had no it was wrong because everybody was doing right. and actually it's true was doing it. so they got acquitted because there was no of hard proof. but that's why exchanging

newspapers was that that evidence that they could say you shouldn't have that. whereas when you play like i had idea everybody was doing it, a lot of these men got off. now court martial cases. when we see more of the egregious things desertion, disobedience of orders, we'll see some very penalties for those. the penalties for being found guilty of fraternized asian were quite i mean they're still not fine, but they're quite lenient. so you would either get a month of hard labor if you were an nco, you would get a reduction ranks, forfeiture of pay for three months or my personal humiliation in front of the of the regiment. right. so they would call roll call and say lauren fraternized. right. so the penalties extreme and i think that's because again it's not it so quickly or it happened

it happens so frequently soldiers were good at doing it and obviously it wasn't as egregious. right. and that's why we see soldiers write about in their diaries and letters. and that's why i was able do this project very rarely did i come across a soldier's letter where said, hey, mom, i got drunk and punched officer last night right? they're not going to talk about it, right? they're not proud of that. that's going to stay hidden until they camp rumor gets to his mom from someone else. right. so but soldiers love to talk about this because they see it as kind of something they're proud of because it's like, look what i did. i'm still control and i made my life better. and so what i would like to conclude with today, just kind of what these occurrences tell us about men. and so i argue it was about. or rather soldiers consist and attempt to gain and maintain maintain control over soldiers show. us that ignorance was certainly not bliss even if it was bad

they rather know than be stuck a cycle of constant speculation fraternization was a way to obtain information. the did not provide them and it was active resistance against the military hierarchy, breaking the rules, soldiers in the ranks to push back against the powers that be and these occurrences demonstrated a soldier's independence and efforts to better his present situation. and sure, most men developed a certain level of respect and empathy for their foe. but out information, i argue, was less about helping the enemy and more about their individual self. the trade of newspapers sneaking mail, sharing camp rumors demonstrate common soldiers continuous fight for survive and their hardnosed pragmatism men used anyone or anything and

anyone to stay alive and in this case, that surprisingly included the enemy. i would like to make a slight caveat that these occurrences also a rehearsal for reconstruction, particularly in regards postwar race relations. southern soldiers did not negotiate cease fires, let alone trade newspapers. us is at times white us soldiers showed more amnesty to their enemies and gray than their black brother and blue and. so therefore there's a subliminal message with these interactions that the priority was sectional reunification over racial equality, but taken as a collective of the ways enemies shared information and more importantly, the reasons why teach us how men fought the war on their own terms and part of that process was a constant need to know this mindset. what helped them determine their

present circumstances and future would play if there was any way men could shape that outcome and cope with the anxiety of the unknown soldiers grasped it and men crafted ways to make soldiering more manageable. and as i always like to say, prove to them selves they were not simply a cog in the proverbial thank you. who has a question? oh, i love the. oh, i'll ask it. yeah, god, thank you, doctor. that was great. i truly enjoyed it. and speaking of sacrifices, do you have any about what

happened, with barrett or stefan or or general williams? did they survive the war? oh, that's a good question. so i. williams definitely did. as far as the three men, i do not remember if they did or not. and i would love to look that up and, let us know at lunch. does that sound good? yeah. yeah. because it's great to learn their and read about them. and then i kind of pull out the fraternization and then i'm like, oh, yeah, what happened to bear and stephan and welch. so let's close that loop. so thank you. thank you so much. are we ready? oh, no, it's. it's. okay. talk about this.

what. was the worst decision that we've talked? almost everybody. really? oh, you know, they were literally. yeah, yeah. the question was, what is the literacy rate? and i know they're scholars in here that can help me. i know for us soldiers almost 100% now some spoke fluent high german as well. so were not english speakers. and i think for confederates it was about 80% phoning barb phoning it. it's pretty high. it's pretty high. now what it looks like when you read it that can be some some don't use punctuation capitalization but you can make out what they're trying say. but u.s. soldiers almost entirely confederates. it's the overwhelming. so literacy rates are actually and i think that's kind of something of those rumors we say like, oh, not a lot of could read and write, but they were young and if they weren't, then

the rumors are how they find out. yeah, okay. i think mine's working now. trying. wondered if. no, no, no. yeah, i now of fraternization the men were they actually knew other from the same. okay. yes that's a great question. did men find friends on the other side from same home town or were they related. yes, absolutely. and that's where it becomes more. they'll call out and be like, hey, are there any missouri soldiers over there? right. and they'll be able to find friends, find family members. i never found a brother or brother meeting, but definitely family members, friends, and that's how they would get to know. they're like, is anybody over there from virginia? oh yeah, what unit? and they would be able to connect and meet and it's it's a beautiful thing. yeah, good question. my my question is, is there was there any indication that some

of these exchanges of were attempts to actually obtain like troop information or number of cannon or, you know, more like, i guess spy information or, anything odd? yeah, that's a great question honestly, when i started researching, i thought, i would find a lot of that, but i didn't. not to say it didn't happen, they just didn't write about it. i think that's what the troops or the officers were worried about is sharing information. i just know that usually soldiers didn't know that much or it was rumors or they became yeah. when they did this. these interactions are so just rumors about and like the high commanders and as far as like the nitty gritty, like, hey, what do you know about this? they really didn't talk about that. and surprisingly officers order

them to go do it, which interesting because we would see that today right. the only thing i can relate it to is grant asked men picket duty to put out circulars to tell confederates, if you desert, you won't be tried as tried for treason, you're given free passage to the north and three days rations. so that was the only time when they kind of used it as a way to lure deserters over. but other than that, i really didn't find that. but i thought they would. so which speaks to what these interactions kind of meant was maybe it was more about getting information for themselves and not really about, you know, changing the course of the combat. yeah, great question. yeah. what what changed you up through the first world war? oh, there were still a lot of fraternization on i don't think there was very much after that. yeah, that's a great question. my short answer is the ideal

ages and the phenotype and race of the enemy. right. these are white, mostly protestant, english speaking, you know, men who have a lot in common in their upbringing. so first is kind of the the enemy and you know who they are and also the combat tactics. right because here there's a very distinct line of what is my combat position, what is the enemy's what is this neutral space? but that all gets blurred in the 20th century, right? so when we think of warfare today. the the home front and the battlefield are one in the same right in who is a combat and who is a noncombatant. we don't. so i think the change in the warfare but also the change in the the enemy i hope that helps a bit. it's a short answer. so but i've thought about it. all of the questions you've asked are things i contemplate deeply. were did you find any evidence that any of these interactions

were intended to be business opportunity for one side or the other? yeah, that's a good question. you mean for transactions at that time or for post war what i thought. oh yeah so they will trade they're going to trade trinkets they're going to trade a lot of things like whiskey rations, hats buckles, basically any kind of thing like a souvenir. but they're not using currency. so it's more of a kind of commodity swap as far as like, yeah, it's more of yeah, like almost like look at the souvenir i got and not much for like a black market. but that's an interesting thing because there is kind of these underbelly that we see in prison camps, right? we see them within the soldiers, these of like secondary markets. did it get to that extent with the enemy? not as much as we see or not as much as we might thought. yeah. but again, i'm using the sources so it could have happened.

yeah, great question. oh i had one. i'm right here. sorry. so as far as the location, so one that i thought of that i see. and just just a question. so in late 1862, early 1863, there's that area around nashville that we kind of think of the current 840 corridor where there was a long period of kind of inactivity or so. was that just just a question would that also have been an area where this kind of fraternization would have taken place? yes, nashville in knoxville, those areas in tennessee. absolutely as well. and the second thing i thought of to mail with soldiers in tennessee was the fact that for a long time in the war there are behind the lines with the union and and also trying to find out or get correspondence to see how

their families are, because in their case, they're not right behind their own lines. they're behind the enemy lines. yes. yeah. so getting mail through, but also having that connection to get papers from the settlers or trade those papers. yeah, especially in the border states. that's where we see the fraternization happen so much because there's men on both sides from those regiments. from both sides? yeah. it was there. one more quickly. we'll just a second. rate here. the first contact would seem to be a kind of a courageous kind of band. yeah. was it always done under the, i guess, the environment of the flag of truce or for when was the white flag. yeah, it turned into a a flag. a truce. yeah. i love that question. so the way that the first contact is usually made is

through banter, it's jokes and banter like calling out like, hey, you know, hey, you know, you know, you two hills to cross over to get to richmond, the stone wall, you know like harkening like you're never going to get here because we apd and jacks and right or yeah trash talking know can you believe it? it's like when all play when you all play uva right you know it really it really is that you know so share a beer together and then you're like, oh, you know. but it really is this jocular banter where they're just going to call out and trash talk one another, and then they kind of that the grease is the wheels of sociability. yeah. so a lot of jokes, a lot of of banter. that's kind of where they feel that safety and and again, like, you know, 20 year old boys it's it's how we do it right. so yeah, great question. yeah. okay. i think i don't want to one more we go.

in your study you find that the of the crater generated some honest to god fraternization. oh afterwards or you mean when it when it was getting billed. oh. 00i that's a good question. i know when it was i found a of fraternization in july of 1864 because they're pretty much entrenched. but i, i'm, i, i didn't find with the pennsylvania troops who kind of built it i, i think it was mostly kept trying to stay under, under wraps. but yeah, i didn't see any of it. i knew they heard them. they heard him. yeah. and they knew that was going. yeah. but no kind of like a go for kids. yeah. heads up, right. yeah. yeah. okay. awesome. oh, thank you all.