Author: Damian Shiels
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Sheets from the Fleet: Tattoos & Scars Aboard USS Acacia
In our second instalment of the Sheets from the Fleet series, which explores a random sheet from the Civil War Bluejackets Project, we are looking at entries aboard USS Acacia from the closing days of the war, on 1st April 1865. The Acacia was a steam-powered tugboat that entered U.S. service in late 1863. The […]
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Research Update: A First Look at Civil War Sailor’s Occupations
Thanks to everyone who is working so hard to complete classifications on Civil War Bluejackets. It is still very early days, but our Information Science team have begun to have a look at some of the early data coming in from your efforts on “A” vessel muster sheets. Ultimately, we are hoping that we will […]
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Bluejacket Community Discoveries: “Property Of…”
Our latest Community Discoveries post- showcasing information spotted by our Zooniverse Citizen Scientists– relates to detail uncovered by community members @Okapi24 and @monkalie. While working on a muster from the USS Alfred Robb, taken on 30th June 1864, they identified something interesting about the first two men listed- instead of providing nativity information under the […]
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Bluejacket Community Discoveries: What’s in a Name? The Case of “Burden Portsmouth”
On our Zooniverse Talk forums, one of our community members- A Panther Incensed (@chocloteer) -alerted us to a particularly unusual name encountered on one of the muster sheets. @chocloteer noted the following: “The 12th person listed is named ‘Portsmouth, Burden’. He transferred from Portsmouth.” It seemed a little odd that someone who transferred from “Portsmouth” […]
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PRESS RELEASE: MAJOR NEW PROJECT TO REVEAL NEW INSIGHTS INTO 19TH CENTURY SAILORS IN THE U.S. NAVY
A new project will help tell the stories of sailors in the American Civil War in ways never before possible. The “Civil War Bluejackets” Project—so named because of the distinctive uniform worn by U.S. Civil War sailors—is a collaboration between historians at the Northumbria University, information and data scientists at the University of Sheffield and […]
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Volunteer for Civil War Bluejackets Beta Testing!
We are moving closer and closer to the full launch of the transcription phase of Civil War Bluejackets, where we will be seeking Citizen Scientists to assist us in transcribing all the Civil War Muster Rolls of the U.S. Navy on the Zooniverse platform. We have just entered the Beta Testing phase on Zooniverse, where […]
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Crew Correspondence: The Last Letter of Paymaster’s Steward Thomas Brown
One of the central aims of the Civil War Bluejackets Project is to facilitate the “linking” of Civil War sailor’s data across different record types. Perhaps the richest of all of those records are the pension files of naval dependents. They were claimed when a serving or pensioned sailor passed away. Within files relating to […]
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Civil War Bluejackets Features in Special Issue of Crossfire
The Civil War Bluejackets team recently received an invitation from the American Civil War Roundtable UK to guest edit a special edition of their magazine, Crossfire. The main theme of the issue was the Irish experience of the conflict, but we took the opportunity to highlight the Bluejackets project through both the introduction and in […]
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Sheets from the Fleet: USS Argosy
“Sheets from the Fleet” is a new occasional series we will be running to highlight some of the Muster Sheets we are working on and the potential we are hoping to unlock with the Civil War Bluejackets Project. Each post/thread will see us pick a random muster sheet from a random U.S. vessel and explore […]
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Memorial Day Stories 4: Robert Harwood, USS Tecumseh
For Memorial Day 2022 Civil War Bluejackets took to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to share the stories of some of the men who lost their lives aboard USS Tecumseh at the Battle of Mobile Bay, Alabama in 1864. Covering the vessel and four of her crew, the stories were presented as threads, and are replicated on the blog for […]
The Civil War Bluejackets Project 