Due to the continuing public health situation, the Jackson Purchase Historical Society will hold its September meeting by zoom rather than in person. The program will be held September 19, a Saturday, beginning at 10:30 AM. In addition to the presentation there will be time for questions and discussion after the presentation. The program will focus on Chauncey H. Cooke, who enlisted in the Union Army at age 16 and found himself in Columbus, Kentucky. His letters home tell the story of his experience in the Army and experiencing life away from home the first time stop he came from a family of abolitionists but it’s clear from his comments living in northern was his constant he had never met an African-American stop his comments provide a series of insights into the motivation of soldiers as well as cultural familiar of the. In 2007 Wall Street Journal listed Badger Boy in Blue, the published collection of Cooke’s letters, as one of the five best books by the homesick. Prof. Bill Mulligan, from Murray State University, has edited Cooke’s letters and will discuss the process by which he found the letters and developed them into a book. He will also highlight the value of these letters in understanding Civil War soldiers’ lives and motivations as well as racial attitudes in the 1860.
The program is free and open to all. Jackson Purchase Historical Society members will receive an email with details on how to sign into the program. Nonmembers should contact society secretary, Bruce Dobbins, at bruce.dobyns@gmail.com to receive the information. This is the first time of the Society is meeting in this way and we hope it will bring us together to enjoy the history of our region while we are not able to do so in person as we usually do. The society hopes to return to its program of public meetings as soon as it is viable.
Bill Mulligan is a graduate of Assumption College and has his graduate degrees in history from Clark University, both in Worcester Massachusetts. He is the author or editor of several books in addition to the collection of Cooke’s letters he will be discussing in their program and a number of articles and papers in academic journals and at conferences, several of which deal with the experience of African-American soldiers in far Western Kentucky during the Civil War. He joined the faculty at Murray State University in August 1993 and became professor of History Emeritus in July 2019. He continues to teach half time at the University in addition to serving as president of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society
In 1958, a group of historians met in Murray, Kentucky led by faculty from Murray State University and University of Tennessee-Martin and formed the Jackson Purchase Historical Society to promote interest, study, and preservation of the regional history of the territory encompassed in the Treaty of Tuscaloosa, known as the Jackson Purchase. The society holds a number of meetings each year with a speaker on Jackson Purchase history, publishes an award-winning journal on local history, and has recently launched an online Encyclopedia of the Jackson Purchase. Members include a wide range of people who simply have a love of history and a love of the Jackson Purchase area.
While the society has not been able to meet during the coronavirus situation it remains active. Articles are welcome for next year’s Journal and can be sent to the editor Jim Humphreys at jhumphreys@murraystate.edu. The editor would also welcome inquiries about topics, books for review, or offers to review a book. Copies of the Journal are available from the Jackson Purchase Historical Society, PO Box 531, Murray, KY 42071. The cost is $15.90 including postage and sales tax. Anyone interested in Jackson Purchase history is welcome to join the JPHS. Information about membership and future programs is available on the society’s website: http://jacksonpurchasehistoricalsociety.org/
Back issues of the Journal through 2016 are available through the Murray State University libraries at https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/jphs/.
