Monday, February 18, 2013

1000 Views and a Hiatus

"For A Woman" hit over 1000 views over the weekend!  Small peanuts, I know, but I still think it's amazing.  Keep it up, guys!  It's those views that keep me posting.
In other news, I am taking a one week break to focus on my thesis.  I am nearly done with Chapter 3--which, after I break out the red pen, will become Chapter 2--and, since I still haven't covered everything I want to cover, there needs to be a Chapter 4.  However, this means that I can rebuild my buffer, so when updates start back up next Monday we should be good for another couple of weeks, at least until early April.  And, if all goes to plan, Monday will also feature a rundown of some of the exciting things I've been finding recently, putting together all these pensions I've been posting here and drawing some larger conclusions from them.  See you then!

5 comments:

  1. Hanna,
    I am a great great grandson of Caroline H. (Gerlach) Boston. We are researching her life and in particular her career as an Army nurse at Benton Barracks where she nursed her husband James Boston back to health. Would you be willing to correspond regarding contents of some of the primary documentation you used in your thesis

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  2. Absolutely! Shoot me an email (there's a 'Email me' gadget below) and I'll send along what I have.

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  3. Hi Hannah,

    What kind of records are in Caroline Boston's Pension files? Is their anything like muster rolls accounting for her time at Benton Barracks?

    Daily attendance records etc.?

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    1. Unfortunately I do not have muster rolls--those are in different files altogether. I do, however, have the exact dates of her services as pulled from the muster rolls and the Treasury Department records (dates when she was paid).
      I also have two letters from Caroline inquiring about her pension and what steps she needed to take to get it; her appointment papers as a nurse in the Sanitary Commission, signed by James Yeatman; and a number of letters sent by the Pension Bureau to various doctors and stewards who served at Benton Barracks, trying to nail down exactly when she served. They're usually not all that informative--thirty years after the fact, most people didn't remember a thing--but one man did remember her, a former patient (and also the ward master), George Knapp, an officer in the 68th USCT. Any of that sound interesting?

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  4. Hanna,

    Thanks for the reply, actually all the records you mention seem really interesting. Would it be possible to get copies of these or if they contained in the Pension records you cited I can request them from NARA. By the way, We are researching a quilt Caroline made with the names of patients she nurse at Benton Barracks, George Knapp is one of those listed - stitched into the quilt. If you decide it is possible to send digital copies of the records you have you may contact me at richlboston@gmail.com or call 970-443-0438.

    Thank you again!

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