Friends of Princeton University Library Small Talk with Jeaninne Honstein and Steven Knowlton
Join us for a Friends Small Talk with Jeaninne Surette Honstein and Steven Knowlton who will present their adventure in discovering, transcribing, and annotating an incredible manuscript that details the thrilling and sometimes horrifying ordeals of a starving prisoner in the last 13 months of the Civil War.
“Thirteen Months in Dixie” is a rollicking tale of adventure, captivity, hardship, and heroism during the last year of the Civil War in a first-hand account by Oscar Federhen. Federhen wrote his recollections not long after the war, but they were hidden away for decades as a family heirloom.
Federhen was a new recruit to the 13th Independent Battery, Massachusetts Light Artillery, when he shipped out to Louisiana in the spring of 1864 to participate in the Red River Campaign. Not long after his arrival at the front, a combination of ill-luck and bad timing led to his capture. Federhen was marched overland to Tyler, Texas, where he was held as a prisoner of war in Camp Ford, the largest POW camp west of the Mississippi River.
We welcome current Friends of PUL members to attend in person. A reception will follow the live talk. You can check your membership status by emailing libraryf@princeton.edu.
The presentation will also be available by Zoom.
Registration via this website is now closed. Please email libraryf@princeton.edu if you would like to attend.
- Date:
- Wednesday, May 17, 2023
- Time:
- 4:00pm - 6:00pm
- Location:
- Center for Modern Aging (formerly PSRC), 101 Poor Farm Road, Princeton, NJ 08540
- Audience:
- Friends of Princeton University Library Student Friends of Princeton University Library
- Categories:
- Friends of the Princeton University Library Event
Jeaninne Honstein is a conceptual artist based in Princeton, New Jersey. Her paintings, sculpture, photography, and writing are influenced by her perception of history and antiquities. She is pleased to bring the story of her ancestor William Francis Oscar Federhen to the attention of the reading public for the first time.
Steven A. Knowlton is Librarian for History and African American Studies at Princeton University. His historical research has been published in many peer-reviewed journals. He is the recipient of the William Driver Award from the North American Vexillological Association and the Marshall Wingfield Award from the West Tennessee Historical Society, and has won the Justin Winsor Library History Essay Award twice. This is his first book.
This event is part of the Friends of the Princeton University Library Small Talks Series.
View recordings of previous events.
Join the Friends of the Princeton University Library. Friends receive a newsletter, two issues of the Princeton University Library Chronicle, and are invited to participate in a variety of activities and events, including exhibition openings, lectures and talks, gala dinners, workshops on topics such as preservation, bookbinding, and print collecting.
To request disability-related accommodations for this event, please contact pulcomm@princeton.edu at least 3 working days in advance.