George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War

The George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War located in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, is home to Shepherd University's Civil War & 19th Century America concentrated track of studies. Currently the program requires students to complete a program of specialized courses in addition to the courses already required of all history majors. Courses concentrate on various elements of 19th century history such as The American Civil War, 1850-1865; the Reconstruction Era; African American History; Soldiers and Society, 1861-65; and the Old South. Students also will conduct primary research within the topic area and must intern at one of various historic sites in the region, such as Harpers Ferry National Historic Site. [http://www.shepherd.edu/gtmcweb/education.html]

Shepherd University’s location in the midst of "Civil War country" and the resources of The George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War are attractive incentives to prospective history majors who desire in-depth study of the Civil War era. Students enrolled in this track will take advantage of the proximity of Antietam National Battlefield, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, Gettysburg National Military Park and the many battlefield sites of the Lower Shenandoah Valley as they pursue their studies of the American Civil War. [http://www.shepherd.edu/gtmcweb/education.html]

History

The idea to create a "Center for the Study of the Civil War" at Shepherd University came as a result of 1990 discussions between officials from the University and Antietam National Battlefield. The role of the Center initially was envisioned as a "keeper of the standards" for the Park Service's "Civil War Soldiers System"(CWSS) database that was to undergo development. The CWSS consists of several fields of basic data taken from index cards that are keyed to a soldier's service records kept at the National Archives. [www.itd.nps.gov/cwss]

In August 1991 a Civil War Soldiers Database Planning Conference was held at Shepherd College (now Shepherd University). Participants included Park Service personnel, Shepherd University staff and faculty, and several noted Civil War scholars. The conference attendees concluded that Shepherd could enhance the NPS project by overseeing the academic integrity (quality control) of any database enhancements and assuring that proper data standards are maintained. Additionally, the packaging of subsets of data for educational uses was seen as a possible function of the center. During this conference it also was suggested that Shepherd could initiate its efforts by demonstrating how a database subset (to the NPS data base), such as West Virginia's Union soldiers, might be enhanced by including data gleaned from census records, pension files, and other sources.

After much planning and debate during the next year and a half, a second conference was held at Shepherd in March 1993. By this time, a Scholars' Advisory Board for the Center had been named, and all board members were in attendance. Other conference attendees included NPS personnel, Shepherd staff and faculty, local and state educators, and interested citizens. Much discussion occurred over the scope of Shepherd's efforts in the development of the database. It was generally agreed that the NPS database would not be of much use to scholarly historians; as such, Shepherd should include information taken from the soldiers' "Compiled Service Records" and "Pension Files" located in the National Archives. In addition, it was debated whether data from the 1860 and later censuses should be included; the consensus of the group was that adding census data would be even more time consuming, and that priority should be placed on the service records and pension files. Finally, most of the conference attendees agreed that the educational function of the center would be as important as the database itself. A scholarly question and answer period followed, which was broadcast on the C-SPAN television channel.

During the next several months a nationwide search began for the first director of the Center for Study of the Civil War. In September 1993, Civil War historian Mark A. Snell, a retired Army officer and former assistant professor of history at West Point, was hired; he began his duties on November 16, 1993. Dr. Snell came to the Center in November 1993 soon after his retirement from the United States Army. He has a B.A. from York College of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in American history from Rutgers, and the Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Mark is a former assistant professor at the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY. As an associate professor of history at Shepherd University, he teaches several courses on different aspects of the Civil War, the two-semester US history survey, and courses on World War I and World War II. Mark also chairs the “Civil War and 19th Century America” concentration and the “Public History” concentration within the history major. He has written or edited several books on the Civil War, including From First to Last, The Life of Major General William B. Franklin (Fordham Univ. Press, 2002), but his most recent publication is about the US involvement in World War I and is titled Unknown Soldiers: The American Expeditionary Forces in Memory and Remembrance (Kent State University Press, 2008). [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/48053854&referer=brief_results] Mark also is an adjunct professor in the Masters of Military History degree program at Norwich University. Mark’s great-great grandfathers served in the 87th Pennsylvania Infantry during the Civil War, his grandfather was in the US Army Air Service in World War I, and his father fought in World War II as a member of the US Army’s 215th Field Artillery Battalion in the European Theater of Operations. [http://www.shepherd.edu/gtmcweb/about_staff.html]

Since Dr. Snell's arrival, the Center has hosted a summer seminar for social studies teachers (1994) that was made possible by a grant from the West Virginia Humanities Council, and annual summer seminars since 1995 that are open to the general public (for a fee). The Center's database manager/programmer has developed the data-entry software and two historical-records specialists have been entering data since August 1996. The records specialists work on only one regiment at a time, with random quality control audits occurring on a weekly basis. At the current time the center is concentrating on entering data only from the soldiers' service records; we will begin entering data from the pension files at a later date. A group of dedicated volunteers has been entering data for smaller projects, such as collecting information from the service records of West Virginia Civil War soldiers buried in our national cemeteries. Our volunteers have completed Antietam, Gettysburg and Andersonville national cemeteries. In addition, the Center is developing an interactive educational software program about West Virginia's role in the Civil War. Funded in part by a grant from the West Virginia Humanities Council, the program (for CD-ROM) will be issued free of charge to secondary schools in West Virginia. Finally, the Center has hosted several evening and weekend courses on various Civil War topics, and we produce a bi-annual newsletter.

In September 1995, actress Mary Tyler Moore donated the Conrad Shindler House to the Center. This house, erected around 1795, was owned by Ms. Moore's great, great, great grandfather during the first half of the nineteenth century. During the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, the Shindler House, like most of the other buildings in Shepherdstown, received wounded Confederate soldiers. All operations of the Center relocated to the Shindler House in April 1996. In honor of Ms. Moore's father, the Center was renamed The George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War. [ http://www.shepherd.edu/gtmcweb/about_history.html ]

The Conrad Shindler House

History of the House and Property

Located at 136 West German Street, the Conrad Shindler House, circa 1795, is likely the second house to have been constructed on Lot 17, as the first recorded deed of sale between Thomas Shepherd and George Burket stipulated that in order to maintain ownership of the property, “ [the owner] must build or erect or cause to be built or erected … one good dwelling house twenty feet long and sixteen feet wide with a stone or brick chimney…” So, as the first owner, George Burket (who retained ownership until 1773) likely built a small log structure with a stone or brick chimney at the corner of Princess and German Streets. George Burket was therefore likely the first European occupant of a structure at Lot 17 along with his wife Barbary Burket. Presumably this original structure was torn down and replaced by subsequent owners with the current structure dating to 1795.

Michael Fouke purchased the property and its improvements in 1773 for the sum of ₤ 22 and held it through the American Revolution and into the early nineteenth century when he sold his claim to his sons and daughters. Michael Fouke is known to have practiced carpentry in the Shepherdstown area in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century which could indicate he was personally responsible for the construction of the circa 1795 structure. Beyond his role as a carpenter little has been recorded of his occupation or life, yet one account puts Michael Fouke at the launch of James Rumsey’s steam powered boat on the Potomac River in 1787 where he exclaimed, “Why, sir, she could navigate through the Strait of Gibraltar.” Michael Fouke sold his ownership of the lot and its improvements to his children in 1810 but it is reasonable to assume he maintained residence in Shepherdstown with his children as they would later preserve a life estate for their father. When the vested interests in the home, George, Charles, John, Frederick, Michael, Christian, Phillip and Elizabeth decided to sell their claims to the property to Conrad Shindler, one particular deed on the 29th of November, 1813 retained the aforementioned life estate for George’s father Michael Fouke Sr. This insured a home would be provided for the remainder of the elder Fouke’s life. On April 17th, 1815 Conrad Shindler gained full ownership of the property when he made a final purchase of claims on Lot 17 from John Fouke for the sum of $70.00 current money of the United States. Incidentally, out of the original group of Michael Fouke’s children which purchased the property in 1810, Charles and Phillip never sold their portion of the property which is either due to their death, or some other calamity which would have prevented them from selling. Nonetheless, by April of 1815, Conrad Shindler a coppersmith and the son of a German immigrant was the rightful owner of Lot 17 for the combined sum of $530. Conrad Shindler’s association with the building on Lot 17 in Shepherdstown, Virginia lasted officially from 1815 until May 8th, 1852 when he died of natural causes. He was born in 1778 the son of Georg Conrad Shindler Sr. of York, Pennsylvania who was a Revolutionary War veteran of the York County Militia. His father made the trip from York County to Berkeley County, Virginia in the early part of the 19th century to settle in this part of the region, and less than a decade later Conrad Jr. would purchase property in Shepherdstown on April 27th, 1801 identified as Lot 3 on the Plat of Shepherdstown. It was not until 1815 that Shindler Jr. would purchase the property at Lot 17. Shindler was a coppersmith by trade, working at a yet undocumented forge in the rear of Lot 17. Today an original Shindler copper kettle is on display at the Historic Shepherdstown Museum in the Entler Hotel (Rumsey_Hall_(Shepherdstown,_West_Virginia) at the corner of Princess & German Streets. [http://historicshepherdstown.com/museum.htm] From the 1815 Jefferson County Personal Property Tax lists it is evident that Shindler owned slaves from the outset of his stay at Lot 17. By 1835 these tax records show a Conrad Shindler of Shepherdstown, Virginia owning 3 slaves of unmentioned value or sex. By his death in 1852, a full assessment of his personal property was performed in accordance with his last will and testament. The assessment shows that Shindler owned seven slaves of varying ages and sex. Whether or not these slaves occupied the building at Lot 17 is not completely understood, and compounding the confusion is the fact that Shindler also owned two tracts of farming land outside of town where they may have also lived and worked.

As Shindler passed away, his property passed to his wife Elizabeth Shindler, who is recorded in the Census of 1860 as a 78 year old woman, living with her eldest son John C. Shindler. When Mrs. Shindler died in 1869 her property passed to the heirs of Conrad Shindler: John C. Shindler, George L. Shindler, Mary E. Bragonier, R.D. and Mary Shindler (of Nacogdoches, Texas), N.F. Hebb, and Eliza Hebb (of Sharpsburg, Maryland). These heirs sold their ownership of the property on the 28th of October, 1869 to the “Trustees of the Reformed Church of Shepherdstown.” This transaction and sale was never advertised in any local newspaper, and it is assumed that since Shindler’s heir Mary E. Bragonier was married to the minister of the reformed church this deal was already in the works prior to the death of Mrs. Shindler.

Under the auspices of The Reformed Church of Shepherdstown, later known as Christ Reformed Church the property was used as a parsonage and in subsequent years for tenant dwelling until the late 1990s. The property was owned by Christ Reformed until 1995 when placed on the market for sale by its trustees. Fortunately a sympathetic, preservation minded individual, and descendant of Conrad Shindler, Mary Tyler Moore Levine (famous American actress of the 1970s), opted to purchase the property for the purpose of creating a permanent home for a Civil War Center to be operated by Shepherd College. [Redding, Nicholas, (Historical Context Section – Historical American Building Survey (HABS) Report) prepared for The Conrad Shindler House – Shepherdstown, West Virginia (2006)]

Research Mission

The ongoing research at The George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War involves the compilation of figures from the soldiers' compiled military service records which will lead to a more definitive number of veterans from the battle born state of West Virginia. Within the next five years, data gleaned from the service records of soldiers serving in all of West Virginia's Union regiments and (Western) Virginia Confederate regiments will be compiled in the center's electronic database. Once completed a simple query will be able to provide a very accurate total for both sides including data heretofore unavailable to historians.

Reference Library

The Center also maintains Shepherd University's large selection of reference materials, including many published primary sources. The library is open to the public Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Materials are for reference use only and may not be checked out. The materials are cataloged within the Shepherd University library system. [http://www.shepherd.edu/gtmcweb/research.ourlibrary.html]

Civil War Seminars & Lectures

Every summer the Center offers a weekend long seminar with a specific topic of interest related to the Civil War era. Civil War scholars and enthusiasts alike attend the educational event and are offered a glimpse into cutting edge research in Civil War history. In 2008, the seminar was entitled, "Gettysburg: Retreat & Pursuit," and featured Kent Masterson Brown as the Scholar-in-Residence.

References

External links

* [http://www.shepherd.edu/gtmcweb GTM Center Website]
* [http://www.shepherd.edu Shepherd University]