American Civil War: History 435/535 (MSU: Spring 2002)
Professor: Dr. Terry Beckenbaugh Office:
Kaufman Hall 122 H
Phone: Office-475-5328 e-mail:
tbeckenb@mail.mcneese.edu
Office Hours: M-W-F, 9-9:50 a.m. and 11-11:50 a.m., T-Th 8-9:25 a.m., or by
appointment.
 
REQUIRED TEXTS:
McPherson, James: Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction
 
Foner, Eric: Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican
Party Before the Civil War
 
Gallagher, Gary: The Confederate War
 
McWhiney, Grady and Perry Jamieson: Attack and Die: Civil War Military
Tactics and the Southern Heritage.
 
Watkins, Sam: Co. Aytch: A Sideshow of the Big Show.
 
ARTICLES ON RESERVE AT FRAZER LIBRARY:
 Grimsley, Mark. "Race in the Civil War." North & South. Vol. 4
(March 2001), 36-55.
 Harris, William. "After the Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln's
Role in the Ending of
 Slavery." North & South. Vol. 5 (December 2001), 42-51.
 Huston, James L. "Property Rights in Slavery and the Coming of the
Civil War." Journal
 of Southern History. Vol. 65 (May 1999), 249-286.
 
OPTIONAL TEXTS:
 Sauers, Richard A.: How To Do Civil War Research
 Turabian, Kate: A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and
Dissertations 6th ed.
 
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
 All students are required to take the two mid-term examinations,
final examination and hand in their term paper during the semester by the
assigned date.
 
GRADING:
 Grades will be determined on the following scale (grad students have
a separate scale):
 A: 100-90% (360-323)
 B: 89-80% (322-287)
 C: 79-70% (286-251)
 D: 69-60% (250-215)
 F: 59%-and under (214-and below)
 There will be two mid-terms, a final and a term paper. The
respective worth of each exam and paper is as follows:
 Exam 1: 22% (80 points)
 Exam 2: 22% (80 points)
 Final Exam (cumulative): 28% (100 points)
  Term Paper: 28% (100 points)
The Final Exam will be held: Wednesday, May 8, 8-10 a.m.
 
ACADEMIC HONESTY:
 Cheating will not be tolerated. Instances of academic dishonesty
(including plagiarism, copying someone else's work and submitting it as your
own) will result in a "F" for the course and in a letter being placed in the
student's permanent academic file. I have a more detailed definition of
plagiarism later in the syllabus.
 
MAKE-UP EXAM POLICY:
 Any missed exams will be made up the next-to-last week of the
semester (April 29-May 3). Make-up exams will differ from the regularly
given exams in that they will have less choices and may be in a different
format. You can miss only one exam, and it is up to the student to contact
the professor about scheduling a makeup exam.
 
WEATHER POLICY:
 Unless the University is closed, class will be held.
 
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
Week 1: 15-17 Jan. 2002
 Reading: McPherson, Ordeal by Fire, Chapters 1-5
  Start reading Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men
Week 2: 22-24 Jan.
 Reading: McPherson, Ordeal by Fire, Chapters 4-9
 Huston article from reserve
Week 3: 29-31 Jan.
 Reading: McPherson, Ordeal by Fire, Chapters 10-11
Week 4: 5-7 Feb.
 Reading: McPherson, Ordeal by Fire, Chapters 12-13
 Start reading, McWhiney & Jamison, Attack & Die
Week 5: 12-14 Feb.
 Reading: McPherson, Ordeal by Fire, Chapters 14-15
 Mardi Gras: February 11-13 (no class)
Week 6: 19-21 Feb.
 EXAM 1: FRIDAY 22 FEB.
Week 7: 26-28 Feb.
 Reading: McPherson, Ordeal by Fire, Chapters 16-17
 Harris article on reserve
 Start reading Watkins, Co. Aytch
Week 8: 5-7 March
 Reading: McPherson, Ordeal by Fire, Chapters 18-19
Week 9: 12-14 March
 Reading: McPherson, Ordeal by Fire, Chapters 20-21
Week 10: 19-21 March
 Reading: McPherson, Ordeal by Fire, Chapter 22
 Grimsley article
Week 11: 26-28 March
 Spring Break: No Class
Week 12: 2-4 April
 Reading: McPherson, Ordeal by Fire, Chapter 23
 EXAM 2: FRIDAY 5 April
Week 13: 9-11 April
 Reading: McPherson, Ordeal by Fire, Chapter 24
 Start reading Gallagher, The Confederate War
Week 14: 16-18 April
  Reading: McPherson, Ordeal by Fire, Chapter 25
Week 15: 23-25 April
 Reading: McPherson, Ordeal by Fire, Chapter 26
 TERM PAPER DUE: THURSDAY 25 APRIL
Week 16: 30 April-2 May
 Reading: McPherson, Ordeal by Fire, Chapter 27
The Final Exam will be held: Wednesday, May 8, 8-10 a.m.
 
TERM PAPERS:
 
I. Suggested Topics.
 A. Battles and Campaigns: Analyze a particular aspect of a battle or
campaign. I do not want you to just tell me what happened in a particular
battle or campaign, I want you to examine, analyze and make your own
judgements and conclusions about a specific aspect of the battle or
campaign. Do not just tell me what happened. Tell me why you think it
happened, or did not happen. Frazier Library does have The War of the
Rebellion, which is the official records of the entire Civil War. It is
always a good place to start, but just about every battle and campaign has
been analyzed in some detail.
 
 B. Personalities: Examine how the personality of a person may have
influenced a battle or campaign or the war effort. Or you can examine how a
particular person did his (or in some cases her) job. Again, I want
analysis.
 
 C. Politics: Examine a particular event in either the North or South
and how it impacted the course of the war. It may be a state or national
election, or the passage (or defeat) or a particular bill.
 
 D. Foreign Policy: Examine Northern or Southern relations with a
foreign country, or how civilians or the media viewed the actions of some
foreign countries. Again, since the paper can only be so long, it is better
to get very specific as to what you are examining and analyzing.
 
 E. Social and Economic Issues: Examine the impact of the war upon
civilians or a particular segment of American society.
 
 F. Culture: Examine what kind of cultural impact the Civil War had,
and continues to have, on American culture.
 The above are not the only topics that can be examined, and I am
usually flexible in these matters.
 
II. Term Paper Requirements.
 A. Length: The text should be around 10-15 typed, double-spaced
pages for undergrads, 15-25 typed, double-spaced pages for graduate
students. The page requirements DO NOT include the endnotes and
bibliography.
 
 B. Notes and Bibliography: Both are required in ALL papers.
 
 C. Sources: Undergrads should consult at least 3 (three) different
types of sources, at least 2 (two) should be primary sources. For the paper
as a whole, students should have no fewer than 8 (eight) specific sources.
Graduate students will be expected to have at least 5 (five) different types
of sources, and at least 3 (three) should be primary sources. Graduate
students should also have no fewer than 10 (ten) total sources.
 
 D. Topic Selection: Before you come to me with a topic, you should
have done some background research first to see if there is enough material
handy to do your paper. If you need to do inter-library loan, DO IT EARLY.
I need to have your paper topics on a 4x6 note card no later than the THIRD
WEEK OF CLASS!
 
 E. Due date: The Term Paper is due THURSDAY APRIL 25, 2002 at the
BEGINNING of class. LATE PAPERS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED! Please submit one
original and one copy.
 
III. Types of Sources.
 To avoid confusion about the types of sources use the following as a
guide. Each numbered group represents a different type of source.
 
Secondary Sources
1. Books
2. Articles (from historical journals or magazines)
Primary Sources
3. Newspapers
4. Magazines
5. Private correspondence (letters, etc.) either published or unpublished
6. Public or official correspondence
7. Diaries or journals (either published or manuscript)
8. Memoirs or Reminiscences
9. Public documents (including but not limited to military reports)
IV. Plagiarism
 A. What is Plagiarism? Plagiarism is the act of taking ideas,
writings, etc. from another person and claiming them as your own. In
academia there really is no greater sin. It is dishonorable to use verbatim
phrases and sentences from another person's work without presenting them as
direct quotations (as noted historian Stephen Ambrose found out recently).
One should paraphrase instead. Present the ideas from the source in your
own words, but you still have to give credit where credit is due (by a
citation). For example:
 
 Early in 1863, General Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee held a
fairly comfortable position among the rich farming lands of Middle
Tennessee. For his supplies Bragg nevertheless placed reliance on the
Western & Atlantic Railroad, which connected his field headquarters with
large bases in the Deep South.
 
You would not change this to:
 
 Early in 1863, General Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee held a
fairly comfortable position among the rich farming lands of Middle
Tennessee. For his supplies Bragg nevertheless placed reliance on the
Western & Atlantic Railroad, which connected his field headquarters with
bases in the Deep South.
 
This, however, is an acceptable way to phrase the passage:
 
 Early in 1863, General Braxton Bragg depended on the Western &
Atlantic Railroad to transport supplies from the Deep South to his army in
Tennessee.
 
SAMPLE FOOTNOTES/ENDNOTES
 
 1. James M. McPherson, The Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 33-37
 2. Becky Wheaton, "The Crisis of Union, 1861," Civil War History,
XIV (June 1992), 212-215.
 3. Ibid., 214-216.
 4. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 337-341.
 5. New York Times, October 22, 1863, 5.
 6. John Lloyd to Susan Lloyd, March 3, 1862, Lloyd Family Papers,
Special Collections, McNeese State University Archives.
  7. United States War Department, War of the Rebellion: A Compilation
of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 70 vols. in 128
books and index (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880-1891),
ser. 1, XII, pt. 2, 267-273.
  8. Ibid., ser. 1, XV, pt. 3, 23-34.
 9. C. Vann Woodward (ed.), Mary Chesnut's Civil War (New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press, 1981), 127-132.
 10. John Lloyd to William Carl, July 5, 1864, Lloyd Family Papers.
 
 
SAMPLE BIBLIOGRAPHY
 
I. Primary Sources
 
Lloyd Family Papers. Special Collections. McNeese State University
Archives, Lake Charles, LA.
 
New York Times, 1861-1865.
 
United States War Department, War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the
Official Records of
 the Union and Confederate Armies, 70 vols. in 128 books and index.
Washington, D.C.:
 Government Printing Office, 1880-1891..
 
Woodward, C. Vann, ed. Mary Chesnut's Civil War. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press,
 1981.
 
II. Secondary Sources
 
McPherson, James M. The Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1988.
 
Wheaton, Becky. "The Crisis of Union, 1861," Civil War History, XIV (June
1992), 198-223.