Cwbr Author Interview: Thunder At The Gates: The Black Civil War Regiments That Redeemed America

Interview with Douglas Egerton, author of Thunder at the Gates: The Black Civil War Regiments That Redeemed America Interviewed by Tom Barber Civil War Book Review (CWBR): Today the Civil War Book Review is pleased to speak with Douglas Egerton, Professor of History at Le Moyne College and...

Forging Freedom: Black Women and the Pursuit of Liberty in Antebellum Charleston.

Forging New Ground in Antebellum Charleston Sophie Mauncaut, once enslaved in French Saint Domingue, arrived in South Carolina with her owner, Josephine Catreuille. Toward the end of her life, Catreulle freed Mauncaut. That was not uncommon, since slaveholding women tended to liberate fa...

The Ordeal of the Reunion: A New History of Reconstruction

A Wider View of Reconstruction For too many Americans, the Reconstruction era is an afterthought, or worse yet, a confusing postscript to four years of Civil War that provided considerable clarity. No serious scholar would today deny the centrality of slavery and its extension as the cause...

The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War

Talented historians can shed new light on familiar stories, sometimes by bringing additional data into the narrative, and some by enlarging the scope and context. In The Field of Blood, Joanne Freeman, the author of an earlier study on political violence, Affairs of Honor, does both. Historians, for example, have devoted numerous books and articles to Congressman Preston Brooks’ brutal caning of Senator Charles Sumner. But it was a revelation, to this reviewer, at least, that the affair led to eight duels or challenges, as the mayhem on the Senate floor rippled across the capital, or that Congressman Laurence Keitt, who kept others from interfering during Brooks’ assault, was himself targeted for political violence. As Republicans became determined to protect themselves, both on the streets of Washington and in their chambers, Pennsylvania Congressman Galusha Grow was among those who had grown weary of violence-prone slaveholders. After Grow issued an objection from the Democratic side of the chamber, a tipsy Keitt shouted that Grow should file his objection from his own side of the House. Grow responded that it was a free hall, prompting Keitt to grab the Pennsylvanian by the throat. Grow knocked Keitt’s hand away and then punched him hard enough to knock him to the floor. Congressmen from both parties raced toward the melee, overturning desks and unsheathing weapons as they ran. Southerners had long been “under the delusion that Northern men would not fight,” a triumphant Grow laughed (240). Now they knew better

High-resolution surface plasmon imaging of gold nanoparticles by energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy

We demonstrate the imaging capabilities of energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy at high-energy resolution in the low-energy-loss region, reporting the direct image of a surface plasmon of an elongated gold nanoparticle at energies around 1 eV. Using complimentary model calculations performed within the boundary element method approach we can assign the observed results to the plasmon eigenmodes of the metallic nanoparticle

Factors associated with changes of state of foot conformation and lameness in a flock of sheep

The aim of this research was to investigate transitions between foot conformation, lameness and footrot in sheep. Data came from one lowland flock of approximately 700 ewes studied for 18 months. Multilevel multistate analyses of transitions between good and poor foot conformation states in ewes, and lame and non-lame states in ewes and lambs were conducted. Key results were that the longer sheep had feet in good conformation, the more likely they were to stay in this state; similarly, the longer a ewe was not lame the more likely she was not to become lame. Ewes with poor foot conformation were more likely to become lame (OR: 1.83 (1.24-2.67)) and to be > 4 years (OR: 1.50(1.09-2.05)). Ewes with footrot were less likely to move to good foot conformation (OR: 0.48 (0.31-0.75)) and were more likely to become lame (OR: 3.81(2.60-5.59)). Ewes lame for > 4 days and not treated with parenteral antibacterials had a higher risk of developing (OR: 2.00 (1.08-3.61)), or remaining in (OR: 0.49 (0.29-0.95)) poor foot conformation compared with ewes never lame. Treatment of ewes lame with footrot with parenteral antibacterials increased the probability of transition from a lame to a non-lame state (OR: 1.46 (1.05-2.02)) and these ewes, even if lame for > 4 days, were not more likely to develop poor foot conformation. The risk of a ewe becoming lame increased when at least one of her offspring was lame (OR: 2.03 (1.42-2.92)) and when the prevalence of lameness in the group was ≥ 5% (OR: 1.42 (1.06-1.92)). Lambs were at increased risk of becoming lame when they were male (OR: 1.42 (1.01-2.01)), single (OR: 1.86 (1.34-2.59)) or had a lame dam or sibling (OR: 3.10 (1.81-5.32)). There were no explanatory variables associated with lambs recovering from lameness. We conclude that poor foot conformation in ewes increases the susceptibility of ewes to become lame and that this can arise from untreated footrot. Treatment of ewes lame with footrot with parenteral antibacterials leads to recovery from lameness and prevents or resolves poor foot conformation which then reduces the susceptibility to further lameness with footrot

Correlations among superconductivity, structural instability, and band filling in Nb1-xB2 at the critical point x=0.2

We performed an extensive investigation on the correlations among superconductivity, structural instability and band filling in Nb1-xB2 materials. Structural measurements reveal that a notable phase transformation occurs at x=0.2, corresponding to the Fermi level (EF) in the pseudogap with the minimum total density of states (DOS) as demonstrated by the first-principles calculations. Superconductivity in Nb1-xB2 generally becomes visible in the Nb-deficient materials with x=0.2. Electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) measurements on B K-edge directly demonstrated the presence of a chemical shift arising from the structural transformation. Our systematical experimental results in combination with theoretical analysis suggest that the emergence of hole states in the sigma-bands plays an important role for understanding the superconductivity and structural transition in Nb1-xB2.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure

Nanopillar Arrays on Semiconductor Membranes as Electron Emission Amplifiers

A new transmission-type electron multiplier was fabricated from silicon-on-insulator (SOI) material by integrating an array of one dimensional (1D) silicon nanopillars onto a two dimensional (2D) silicon membrane. Primary electrons are injected into the nanopillar-membrane system from the flat surface of the membrane, while electron emission from the other side is probed by an anode. The secondary electron yield (SEY) from nanopillars is found to be about 1.8 times that of plane silicon membrane. This gain in electron number is slightly enhanced by the electric field applied from the anode. Further optimization of the dimensions of nanopillars and membrane and application of field emission promise an even higher gain for detector applications and allow for probing of electronic/mechanical excitations in nanopillar-membrane system excited by incident particles or radiation.Comment: 4 figure