Category: African American Service
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Bluejacket Community Discoveries: An Update on the Search for Frank Branch, African American Child in the U.S. Navy
Our last post in the Community Discoveries series told the story of Frank Branch, an African American boy enslaved in Richmond, Virginia who escaped to enlist in the wartime U.S. Navy (you can read it here). The discovery came thanks to our ongoing partnership with the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, who have a team
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Bluejacket Community Discoveries: On the Trail of an African American Child in the Union Navy
Recently Civil War Bluejackets and the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society have been collaborating as part of our efforts to identify African American sailors on the muster sheets. A number of Society members have joined our Zooniverse community, where they are making invaluable contributions towards uncovering the stories of these men. One of them, @Grobster,
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Bluejacket Community Discoveries: The African American Crew of USS Albemarle
Our latest Zooniverse Community Discoveries post is based on identifications made by Community member @bmp77, who noted that the entire crew on one muster sheet was marked as “negro”. @bmp77 identified that the ship in question was USS Albemarle, and the sheet was dated to June of 1865. We decided to take a closer “visual”
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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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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
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Revealing the Life Experiences of African American Crewmen aboard USS Pittsburg, July 1864
In order to examine the potential of linking data to specific crew lists, a sample analysis was undertaken on crewmen from the USS Pittsburg muster of 1 July 1864. This muster included details on 151 individuals, 40 percent of whom were black. Pension applications were sought relating to black and immigrant sailors among the crew, with thirty
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USS Carondelet Spotlight: Nativity & Ethnicity on a Union Gunboat
In our first two posts on Civil War Bluejackets we focused on individuals, exploring what they can reveal about immigrant and African American service in the Union Navy. Another of our aims with the muster roll transcription project is to see what the wider data set can tell us, and what questions it might raise. One way
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USS Louisville Spotlight: Uncovering the Story of an Enslaved Mississippi “Field Hand”
The transcription efforts of the volunteers have allowed us to examine both the micro and macro experiences of Union gunboat crewmen on the Mississippi. In essence, this allows us to conduct both a “deep dive” into the story of individuals, and to pull back to gain broader perspectives on these men’s service. An example of
The Civil War Bluejackets Project 