Skip navigation

MAJOR NEW PROJECT TO REVEAL NEW INSIGHTS INTO 19TH CENTURY BRITISH AND OTHER IMMIGRANT SAILORS IN THE U.S. NAVY

2nd September 2022

A new UK-led project will help tell the stories of British and other immigrant sailors in the American Civil War in ways never before possible.

The “Civil War Bluejackets” Project—so named because of the distinctive uniform worn by U.S. Civil War sailors—is a collaboration between historians at the Northumbria University and computer scientists at the University of Sheffield and the University of Koblenz-Landau. Funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, the project launches on 6 September 2022 with a call for citizen volunteers to help transcribe tens of thousands of Civil War “Muster Rolls”, documents that were carried on board U.S. ships and which capture the personal details of the c.118,000 men who fought on water for the Union between 1861 and 1865. The project team are making use of the online Zooniverse platform to share tens of thousands of these Muster Rolls, and are asking the public to help in revealing their contents.

Principal Investigator Professor David Gleeson of Northumbria University said: “We are calling on “people-power” to help us tell the story of common sailors in the Civil War in a way never before possible. We estimate that over 30 percent of these men were British or Irish immigrants—another 15 percent were African American. With your help, we aim to create a new freely available database of these men, and use the information generated by citizen scientists to explore the social and military experiences of these ordinary people in a way never before possible.”

As well as using public transcriptions to decipher the Muster Rolls, the team also hope to develop new software to allow computers to “read” 19th century hand-writing. Co-Investigator Dr Morgan Harvey of the University of Sheffield commented: “By comparing the public’s transcriptions with the original 19th century hand-writing, we hope to “train” computers to assist in the reading and deciphering of historic documents, thereby creating a major new tool in the armoury of anyone interested in uncovering the past.”

Included among the stories the team hope to reveal are the thousands of English, Scottish and Welsh men who helped the U.S. battle the Confederacy on water. The project will also look to discover more about some of those who returned to home shores—men like George H. Bell from North-East England, whose remains rest today in Elswick Cemetery, Newcastle Upon Tyne. In November 1864, George was awarded the Medal of Honor—the U.S. equivalent of the Victoria Cross—for his extraordinary courage off the coast of Texas during the American Civil War.

Those interested in finding out more about the project can visit the www.civilwarbluejackets.com website, or go direct to the Zooniverse Civil War Bluejackets page 

Institute of Humanities

Find out more about the research taking place as part of our Institute of Humanities Multidisciplinary research theme.

a sign in front of a crowd
+

Northumbria Open Days

Open Days are a great way for you to get a feel of the University, the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the course(s) you are interested in.

Research at Northumbria
+

Research at Northumbria

Research is the life blood of a University and at Northumbria University we pride ourselves on research that makes a difference; research that has application and affects people's lives.

NU World
+

Explore NU World

Find out what life here is all about. From studying to socialising, term time to downtime, we’ve got it covered.


Latest News and Features

CCE1 generic
the logo for Sounds Good Audiobooks
The 2024 International Volunteer Cooperation Organisations (IVCO) conference was hosted by Northumbria University.
A person going into an MRI scanner
Partition
Community Practitioners in Belfast
magnetic waves from the solar corona are visisble
Professor John Woodward at the North East Business Awards

Back to top