State Library & Archives Launches New Digital Project on Revolutionary War

As our nation prepares to celebrate Independence Day, the Tennessee State Library & Archives has launched Patriot Paths, a new project that uses Revolutionary War pension records to map the paths that these soldiers took before and after their service. The project, which is still in progress, was unveiled by State Librarian and Archivist Chuck Sherrill at the National Genealogical Society’s recent annual convention.

Thousands of veterans flooded into Tennessee at the conclusion of the war, and about 2,000 pension files exist for those who came here. Since most of the soldiers were not eligible for a pension until they were in their 80s, the number who received a pension was relatively small compared to the number who served.

Staff and interns at the Library & Archives pored over those pension files to find the dates and places where the soldiers were born, married, enlisted and died. Soldiers who had been born throughout the colonies and even Europe ultimately made their way to Tennessee. After the war, many crossed the mountains from Virginia and North Carolina, but some came from as far away as New York and Massachusetts.

That information was added to a database and then coordinated with GIS mapping software. The result is Patriot Paths, where historians and genealogists can search for veterans and study the patterns of migration.

“Patriot Paths uses modern mapping tools to tell the stories of those who fought to secure independence at the time of our nation’s founding,” Secretary of State Tre Hargett said. “I’m proud of the continued efforts of the Library & Archives to find innovative ways to make records like these more accessible.”

For example, Patriot Paths allows researchers to see that three pensioners who ended up in Sumner County – William Proctor, Albert Hendricks and Thomas Milbourn – all lived in Rockbridge County, Virginia, during the Revolutionary War. Moreover, all were originally from Maryland.

Sherrill asked, “What does this connection between these soldiers mean? Are they related? I don’t know, but if one of them was my ancestor, I’d start learning about the other two to see what else they have in common.” Genealogists commonly use wills, deeds and other records at the Library & Archives to find more information about their ancestors.

Historians can also use Patriot Paths to learn more about this period in American history. “We learned that an unusually high number of Tennessee pensioners came from Orange County, North Carolina,” said Sherrill. “We don’t yet know why, but Patriot Paths provides the data to help us ask new questions about who came to Tennessee and what motivated them to launch into the wilderness.”

The public is invited to visit the site and conduct searches, but Sherrill asks that they remember it is a work in progress. Data has been entered on only 1,200 of the pensioners so far.

Patriot Paths can be accessed on the Library & Archives website at sos.tn.gov/tsla or by clicking here.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett

Surveying Digital Resources: Workshop to Provide Tips on Using TeVA and GIS

The front door of the Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA) isn't located on its building in downtown Nashville - at least not for all Tennesseans. For many patrons, that 'front door' is actually whatever portal they use to access TSLA resources on the Internet.

To make the process of searching its vast collections of online materials easier, TSLA is hosting a free public workshop May 30. The workshop, which will be led by Assistant State Archivist Wayne Moore and TSLA staff members Jessica Short and Genny Carter, will provide hands-on training and helpful tips for sorting through photographs, documents, maps, postcards, film, audio and other orginal materials of cultural and historical significance. TSLA's online resources include two sets of detailed maps related to the Civil War.

The workshop, titled "Surveying Tennessee's Digital Resources," will be held in TSLA's auditorium from 9:30 a.m. until 11 a.m. May 30. TSLA's building is located at 403 Seventh Avenue North, directly west of the State Capitol in downtown Nashville. Some free parking is available around the building.

Although the workshop is free and open to the public, reservations are necessary due to seating limitations in the auditorium. To make a reservation, call (615) 741-2764 or e-mail workshop.tsla@tn.gov.

The State Library and Archives is a division of the Tennessee Department of State and Tre Hargett, Secretary of State.

New Online Application Maps African-American History During the Civil War in Tennessee

As slavery and plantation life dissolved in the crucible of war and occupation during the 1860s, Tennessee became a laboratory of new social arrangements for African Americans. Landscape of Liberation: The African American Geography of the Civil War in Tennessee, which highlights many of the changes in African-American life, is now available online at http://tnmap.tn.gov/CivilWar/freedmen/.

This fully functional (and free) geographic information system application shows 150 wartime sites—refugee camps, early freedmen schools and churches, and recruitment sites for the more than 20,000 black Union soldiers who enlisted from Tennessee. In addition to narrative information, the sites are linked to scans of original primary sources that document historic events. These sources include maps, newspapers, and manuscript items from the collections of the Tennessee State Library and Archives and the Tennessee State Museum.

The application is an interactive map showing the landscape of emancipation as it unfolded from 1861 to 1865. Students now have a powerful new tool for viewing the geography of the African-American experience in Tennessee and connecting it with the digitized primary sources from the archives.

The application, a collaborative project between the Tennessee State Library and Archives, the Fullerton Geospatial Laboratory at Middle Tennessee State University, and the State of Tennessee Office of Information Resources, was built with funding from the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area.

The African American Geography of Civil War Tennessee is an interactive map showing the landscape of emancipation as it unfolded from 1861 to 1865. Every point on the map is linked to primary documents and images that tell the story of people, places, and events.

Service Impressment Roster, North-Western Railroad, October 13, 1863. Tennessee State Library and Archives.
Image available online at: http://tnmap.tn.gov/linked_docs/Roll_of_ImpressedNegroes_NNWRR_1863.pdf

Railroad depot on Church St. from James Allen Hoobler, Cities Under the Gun Photograph Collection, 1862-1986. African American women selling produce at the depot are visible in this photograph. Tennessee State Library and Archives.
Image available online at: http://tnmap.tn.gov/linked_docs/Hoobler_RailyardMarket_THS454001.pdf

 

The State Library and Archives is a division of the Tennessee Department of State and Tre Hargett, Secretary of State.