Cincinnati

In addition to numerous books about the Civil War, Ohioana’s collection includes several archival items. This letter from Joseph Moore to his father describes the difficult conditions he encountered as he traveled from Atlanta late in 1864, fought in the Battle of Nashville, and traveled on through Cincinnati and Columbus before arriving in Washington in early 1865.

The collection also includes a notebook owned by William J. Knight describing his participation in Andrews’s Raid. In April 1862, civilian scout James J. Andrews, another civilian, and a team of volunteers from the 2nd, 21st, and 33rd Ohio Infantry regiments hijacked a train on the Western and Atlantic Railroad as it made its regular run from Atlanta to Chattanooga. Their goal was to destroy telegraph wire, bridges, and track behind them, thereby crippling the Confederate Army’s ability to send supplies to Chattanooga. However, the raiders were unable to cause permanent damage to the track and abandoned the train when it ran out of fuel just south of the Tennessee state line. All the raiders were captured by the Confederacy within two weeks, and eight (including Andrews) were hanged. Eight others (including Knight) escaped. The remaining raiders were eventually exchanged for Confederate prisoners of war in 1863.

Six members of Andrews’s Raiders were honored in the very first Medal of Honor ceremony on March 25, 1863. Although Knight was not part of this first group, he received a Medal of Honor for his role in the raid on September 17, 1863.

As part of National Archives Month we’re highlighting archival items in several areas of our collection, starting with music. In addition to nearly 10,000 pieces of sheet music, Ohioana’s collection includes nineteenth- and twentieth-century songbooks, scrapbooks, and other items related to music and composing.

This handwritten and hand-bound songbook appears to have belonged to A.M. Barber of Pennsylvania in 1820 and later to Thomas C. McEwen, although other signatures are also present. It contains 28 numbered pieces as well as scales written for the “clarionett,” or clarinet. Ohioana also has several printed songbooks from the nineteenth century, many from Cincinnati music publishers.

The items below are from a scrapbook containing approximately 100 pages of newspaper clippings, essays, concert programs, and other ephemera documenting the 1874-75 and 1875-76 concert seasons in Cincinnati.

Ohioana’s scrapbook collection also includes two scrapbooks documenting the activities of the Ohio Federation of Junior Music Clubs in 1935-37 and 1939-41 (with some hand-painted pages) and a scrapbook compiled by pianist Molly Rittman containing programs from piano recitals, greeting cards, mementos from trips to Chicago and Detroit, correspondence, and press releases for Rittman’s weekly radio performance.

If you’d like to learn more about these or other archival items in Ohioana’s collection, feel free to contact us!

The Civil War in the Ohioana Archives

Music in the Ohioana Archives