About the Collection
This project makes accessible historically significant documents that were the property of Rensselaer resident Robert Huston Milroy, who formed and led the volunteer G company of the 9th Regiment of the Indiana Infantry.
Milroy later reached the rank of Major General, was known as the "Grey Eagle of the Army," served the Union meritoriously, and provided acclaim and notoriety to Jasper County.
His papers, letters, photographs, and memorabilia are invaluable in their accounts of the Civil War and his part in that war. Very few men from Indiana who served in the Civil War were as prestigious and colorful as Milroy. It is of great importance that these documents and memorabilia be made accessible to students and historians. In the 1980's, we preserved and cataloged the most significant items in our Milroy collection.
To our knowledge, we are the main source of original Milroy Civil War documents in the United States. Our content complements the Library of Congress's American Memory Project "The Lincoln Papers," which include numerous references to Milroy.
- Working with the Milroy Collection
Enter the Collection
Begin by clicking the Browse the Collection link found on the main page or any page describing the Milroy Collection. You can then browse through the entire collection of 721 documents, 20 items at a time.
To view images
You can click on either the image or the highlighted link (under Title) for each item in the collection. Use the page directory in the upper right hand corner to view more items.
Clicking on an item will take you to a screen with the image of that page of the document you selected. Any related pages in the same document will be available as links in a column on the left side of the page.
To read a text translation
On the upper left side of the page is an option box that should read “document description.” Select “page & text” and click “go.” A new page will open with the image of the document and a text translation of the document beside it.
The option “page description” will give you just the text without the image.
To go back
To return to your main list of items, use the “back to results” link above the option box on the left side. Clicking the “back” button on your browser will eventually return you to the list as well, but with several steps between.
How to search
All of the documents in the Milroy collection have been indexed with key words as well as in most cases the words of the text itself. Searching for terms such as “butternut” or names such as “Tatman” should lead to useful lists.
Once you have begun browsing the collection, you can begin your search at any time by clicking the “Advanced Search” link. You can also search the collection from the search box in the upper right hand corner.
- Building the Digital Collection
The purpose of the project was to make accessible historically significant Civil War documents of Robert Huston Milroy, a resident of Rensselaer, Indiana, who formed and led the Volunteer G Company of the 9th Regiment of the Indiana Infantry, later attained the rank of Major General, and served the Union Army meritoriously in several battles.The project is intended to benefit scholars, students, and others by making available vivid first hand accounts of military events during the Civil War and details of home life in Jasper County, Indiana during that period.
The transcription and keying of the 719 manuscripts into Word documents was accomplished by volunteers, with editing and organizing of the manuscripts by staff at Jasper County Public Library. The manuscripts were delivered to Indiana University for scanning.
Indiana University scanned the manuscripts using the following standards: the master files are 24bit, imbedded Adobe RGB1998, 400 dpi, 100% size, scanned on Epson 10000XL scanners, uncompressed TIFFS, interleaved pixel order, byte order: IBM PC. They also created duplicate sets of DVDs for storage of TIFF files.
A photographer from Purdue University was hired to photograph Milroy documents belonging to the Jasper County Historical Society, using the standards: TIFF format, no compression, minimum effective pixel resolution of 300x2000 (not interpolated), a resolving dynamic range of at least 7 stops, white balanced in the camera, little to no image manipulation in a program such as Photoshop and no cropping.
JCPL staff purchased an HP ProLiant ML350 server with 2G RAM, an Intel Xeon processor, three 72.8G hard drives, and an HP Ultrium 215 tape backup drive. In addition to 10 backup tapes and 1 cleaning tape, Computer Associates BrightStor ARCServe v.11 backup software was purchased to allow for nightly backups of the server.
The Milroy papers dealing with the Civil War, with the exception of records of the Court of Inquiry, which were available elsewhere on the Internet, were digitized into text files and scanned into TIFF and JPEG files. Using the software CONTENTdm, an online searchable database of 2527 pages of manuscripts, broadsides, maps, photographs, and certificates of historically significant Civil War documents from the papers of General Milroy has been created.
- Publication History -- Milroy in Print
Books and Works Created Using the Records in This Collection* Bradley, Michael R. (2003). With Blood & Fire. Pennsylvania: Burd Street Press.
Channing, Steven A. & Editors of Time-Life Books. (1989). Confederate Ordeal: The Southern Home Front. Virginia: Time-Life Books.
Collins, Cary C.; (1994, March). Grey Eagle: Major General Robert Huston Milroy and the Civil War. Indiana Magazine of History: Volune XC, Number 1, 47-72.
Colt, Margaretta Barton. (1994). Defend the Valley. Maryland: Orion Books.
* Maier, Larry. 2002). Gateway to Gettysburg. Pennsylvania: Burd Street Press.
* Noyalas, Johnathan. (2006). My will is absolute law: A biography of Union General Robert H. Milroy. North Carolina, McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers.
Noyalas, Jonathan. (2004, March). Most hated man in Winchester. America's Civil War Magazine, 30-36.
Noyalas, Jonathan. (2003). My will is absolute law. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia.
* Noyalas, Jonathan. (2003). Plagued by War. Virginia: Gauley Mount Press.
* Available for in-library browsing in the Rensselaer Library Geneaology Dept.
- Milroy Display items at Rensselaer
Robert Huston Milroy
1816-1890"GRAY EAGLE"
Robert Huston Milroy was born in Washington County, Indiana in 1816. He was the son of Samuel and Martha (Huston) Milroy. At the age of 24, he attended Military School in Norwich, Vermont. When the Mexican War (1846-48) broke out, he enlisted and became Captain of the First Indiana Regiment. He was admitted to the bar in 1850 and moved his family to Rensselaer, Indiana in 1854.
After hearing the news of the fall of Fort Sumter (16 April 1861), Milroy enlisted a company of volunteers from Jasper County and was commissioned Colonel of Company G 9th Indiana Volunteers. On February 2, 1862, he was commissioned as Brigadier General and continued in various commands. He was made Major General of Volunteers in 1863.
After a disastrous defeat in Winchester, Virginia, June of 1863, General Milroy was brought up before a court of inquiry on charges of cowardice. He was later acquitted of all charges. The General resigned from the army in1865 and returned to Civilian life. In 1872 he became Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the State of Washington, and from 1875 to 1885 he was Indian agent with headquarters at Olympia, Wash. He died March 29, 1890 and is buried in Olympia.
- Acknlowedgements
This project is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the Indiana State Library.
In addition, the Jasper County Public Library would like to thank the following for making this project possible:
- The Robert H. Milroy Family
- The Jasper County Historical Society
- The Indiana State Library
- Indiana University Digitization Department
- Countless Volunteers
- The Digitization Committee
- Related Resources, Photos and Links
Names on the Milroy Monument in Rensselaer, Ind. List maintained by Lanewood.com, award-winning Jasper County Genealogy website.
Map: Map of the Second Battle of Winchester - Public Domain image, Wikipedia
Source: U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901.Article: How Union General Robert H. Milroy Spent His Life Trying (to) Redeem His Reputation - by Jonathan A. Noyalas, Published 12/16/2021, HistoryNet.com.
Photos: Photos of the Civil War - Searchable Archive, Archives.gov
Description: Select Audiovisual Records, National Archives and Records AdministrationSelected Items:
69. Confederate prisoners captured in the Shenandoah Valley being guarded in a Union camp, May 1862. 111-B-497.
88. Ruins of Stone Bridge, Bull Run, Va., March 1862. Photographed by George N. Barnard and James F. Gibson. 165-SB-7.Portraits: Officers mentioned by name in Milroy's letters
165. Halleck, Maj. Gen. Henry W. ("Old Brains"); three- quarter-length, standing. 111-B-2541.
168. McClellan, Maj. Gen. George B.; three-quarter-length, standing. 111-B-4624.
171. Pope, Brig. Gen. John; half-length. 111-B-3569.
173. Rosecrans, Maj. Gen. William S.; half-length, 111-B-3646. (civil_war_173.jpg)
190. Stanton, Edwin M., Secretary of War; half-length, seated. 111-B-4559. (civil_war_190.jpg)Photos: Brady Civil War Photos - Searchable Archive, U.S. National Archives, Archives.gov
Description: Mathew Brady Photographs of Civil War-Era Personalities and Scenes, compiled 1921 - 1940, documenting the period 1860 - 1865Battle of Murfreesboro - National Park Service Description of the Battle of Murfreesboro, Tenn. Held Dec. 5-7, 1864
