Civil War Bluejackets held a successful project conference January 30-February 1 at the Fluegel US Naval Academy Alumni Center in Annapolis, Maryland. Over fifty people attended presenting research and discussing the roles of common sailors across the world from the 1780s to the 1920s. The Bluejackets team also, for the first time, showcased a demo version of our Civil War Sailor database at a plenary session. Its speed at collecting data on Civil War common sailors, and producing analytical results, impressed all attendees. We, and they, look forward to seeing how the final version develops.

The conference had opened with a plenary address by Randy Sparks of Tulane University who gave a fascinating presentation on racial, ethnic, and class conflict in the US Navy’s Africa Squadron during its attempt to stem the transatlantic slave trade before the Civil War. Full sessions began on Jan. 31st with a session entitled “Sailors and Subjects” including topics ranging from the influence of US sailors in the Far East on the legal status of all US citizens abroad and the experience of US sailors on the famous around the World cruise of the USS Columbia between 1838 and 1840 to sailors’ lives in the Hapsburg Navy and the story of Nordic sailors in the US Civil War, the latter paper delivered by Bluejackets team member Damian Shiels. The next session examined what muster rolls could, and could not, tell us about regular sailors. They can show us a lot about the make-up of the Mississippi River Squadron, especially the recently enslaved who joined the Navy, but less about Confederate sailors due to the lack of extant rolls and nothing much at all about the lives of sailors’ wives and dependants. Connecting musters to pension records is the key to understanding the bigger picture beyond service in the Navy.

The first full day concluded with a session on “Discipline and Performance” examining the good record of the Pacific Squadron during the Civil War; a fascinating case of near-mutiny on board the USS Constellation, and the role of “Grog,” or rather, its removal from sailors’ rations, in keeping discipline on board vessels. Bluejackets consultant, Wayne Hsieh, also delivered a paper considering, through the lens of US sailors participation in the Taiping rebellion in China, on why common sailors fought in that conflict and the American Civil War.

The final day saw sessions on common sailors, emancipation, and its legacies. Three papers examined the roles of African American Bluejackets in their own emancipation, and the freedom of other enslaved, during the Civil War and the role native sailors played in undermining Confederate blockade runners in the Bahamas. The session on legacies examined the role of pensions, or lack thereof, in regular sailors’ lives, the increasing decline of African American sailors in the Navy through active discrimination after the Civil War and the growth of racial stereotypes at the Naval Academy into the twentieth century. An excellent tour of the US Naval Academy and the Academy Museum to conclude the conference, led by two exemplary Midshipmen, indicated how far the Navy has progressed when it comes to diversity and inclusion. We met “Bill the Goat” too on his way to a basketball game! It was a fitting end to the three days of scholarship.

The CWB team would like to thank all the staff at the Fluegel Center and our conference hotel, the Doubletree Annapolis, for their help in making the conference a success. We especially thank Bluejackets partner, the US Naval Academy Museum, under the capable leadership of museum director Captain BJ Armstrong, for all the guidance and support around the event. We were also glad to welcome major supporters of the project from the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society and the Delaware Genealogical Society and, one of our Zooniverse moderators, Dr Robert (Bob) Croker from Las Vegas. We look forward to publishing a selection of conference papers in an open-access edited collection.