215. Katherine Bentley Jeffrey

215. We interview Katherine Bentley Jeffrey, editor of Two Civil Wars: The Curious Shared Journal of a Baton Rouge School Girl and a Sailor on the USS Essex. Two Civil Wars is both an edition of an unusual Civil War era double journal and a narrative about the two writers who composed its contents. The initial journal entries were written by thirteen-year-old Celeste Repp while a student at St. Mary’s Academy, Immediately following Celeste's prettily decorated pages a new title page intervenes, introducing “An Abstract Journal Kept by William L. Park, of the U.S. gunboat Essex during the American Rebellion.” Park’s diary is a fulsome three-year account of military engagements along the Mississippi and its tributaries, the bombardment of southern towns, the looting of plantations, skirmishes with Confederate guerillas, the uneasy experiment with “contrabands” (freed slaves) serving aboard ship, and the mundane circumstances of shipboard life. Very few diaries from the inland navy have survived, and this is the first journal from the ironclad Essex to be published.

1. This week in Louisiana history. July 1, 1731. The Company of the Indies gave up its charter of Louisiana Colony.
2. This week in New Orleans history. One of the lengthiest and most violent transit railway strikes the nation ever experienced began in New Orleans on July 1, 1929. Although an agreement was reached in August, the union members did not agree to go back to work until October.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   Celebration on the Cane
   July 4th, 2017
   10:00 am - 11:00 pm
   Riverbank Stage
   781 Front Street,
   Natchitoches, LA 71457
   318-352-2746 | 800-259-1714
   Website | Email
   Riverbank Stage
   The day begins around 10 a.m. with children's activities and live musical entertainment at 6 p.m. with spectacular firework show over Cane River Lake at 9 p.m. over the Cane River Lake in historic Downtown Natchitoches, Louisiana. Event is FREE and open to the public. Bring blankets or lawn chairs. No ice chests allowed.
4. Postcard from New Orleans. Bruce listens to a song played by Dennis Journey, who was singing on the corner of Royal St. and Toulouse St. in New Orleans.

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Dennis Journey