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Project Details
Fugitive Federals visualizes the escape of 3,000 Federal prisoners of war. The location and timing of these escapes reveals the intertwined collapse of the Confederacy’s prison system, military defense, and society. The routes of travel for escaped prisoners exposes the location of slaves and white southerners engaged in resistance to the Confederacy. Biographies researched by students at multiple universities provides a rich database of information on prisoners of war and their experiences.
Subjects or Themes
Civil War, African American, Prisoners of War, Women, ArcGIS, Pedagogy
Project Language(s)
English
Time Period
Geographic Location
Project Categories
Content Type
Images, Text, Teacher Resources, Mapping
Target Audience(s)
Creators
Lorien Foote, Patricia & Bookman Peters Professor of History at Texas A&M University
Andrew Fialka, Assistant Professor of History at Middle Tennessee State University
Andrew Fialka, Assistant Professor of History at Middle Tennessee State University
Year(s)
2018
Host Institution / Affiliation / Project Location
University of Georgia's Center for Virtual History (eHistory.org)
Software Employed
Labor and Support
Lorien Foote conducted the research that led to this project and conceived its content and scope.
Andrew Fialka created all maps in ArcGIS and built the website.
Erin Hope assisted in creating the Fugitive Federals database.
Robin Roe, a Texas A&M University graduate student, researched and verified mapping locations, created a geodatabase of prison locations inside the Confederacy, researched historical maps, and assisted in database management.
Douglas Bell and David Villar, Texas A&M University graduate students, verified mapping locations for specific escape routes visualized in Fugitive Federals.
Ken Merrick, a Texas A&M University graduate student, assisted in database management.
Stephen Berry, Gregory Professor of the Civil War Era and Co-Director of the Center for Virtual History, provided his expertise at early stages of the project, served as a consultant, and provided a home for Fugitive Federals.
Laura June Davis, Assistant Professor of History at Southern Utah University, developed the framework for undergraduate students at the University of Georgia and Texas A&M University to produce short biographies of escaped prisoners.
Undergraduate and Graduate Students from multiple universities—Texas A&M, Texas A&M - Galveston, Georgia, and Middle Tennessee State—produced biographies of hundreds of escaped prisoners. The students' research stemmed from evolving lesson plans developed by the project's Co-Directors and Contributors.
Project Cost
Partnerships, funding sources, or grant-funding acknowledgement
The University of Central Arkansas, Texas A&M University, and the University of Georgia have contributed funds to this project.