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Presents information on the impact of the American Civil War on Lawrence County, Alabama. Reference to a letter written by Confederate soldier W.L. Nugent in October 1863; Description of the history of Lawrence County; Details on the settlers in the district; What the district was used for during the Civil War.

The article offers information on the bicentennial history of Alabama. Topics discussed include increasing innovation and diversity of Native American life; religion and education reinforced strong class divisions; and slavery, civil rights and secession in the state and establishment of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.

The article offers information on preserving and sharing Alabama's history. Topics discussed include accomplishments and projects of the Shelby County Historical Society Inc. and Tennessee Valley Historical Society; the Kuykendall Award received by the Jackson County Historical Association from Alabama Historical Association; and creation of Madison County, Alabama by the Mississippi territory governor Robert Williams after President James Madison.

The article focuses on the Greek life at the University of Alabama during the 1960s. Topics discussed include the power and influence of the Greek system both on campus and after graduation, an incident in August 1962 that initiated a four-year evaluation of Alabama's Greek system, and a decline in the proportion of Greek-affiliated students with the start of the 1964-1965 academic year.

The article features Mary Johnston, an author from Birmingham, Alabama who attained her literary success during the last years of the nineteenth century. Topics discussed include Johnston's Virginia heritage, her efforts to advocate for a woman's right to vote, and the reaction of Birmingham society to her success. Also mentioned is the popularity of her novel "To Have and To Hold."

The article focuses on Clement Claiborne Clay, also known as C.C. Clay Jr., a lawyer-secessionist from Huntsville, Alabama who was elected by the Alabama legislature as senator to the Confederate Congress. Topics discussed include the covert operations led by Clay in Canada during the months leading up to the 1864 presidential election, the effects of this activities on the course and outcome of the civil war, and allegations about his role behind the plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln.

The article discusses the personal and professional difficulties faced by the Military Mayor of Mobile during Reconstruction Gustavus Horton because of his Unionist ideology. Topics include the challenges Horton faced as a leader of the Republican party in Mobile, Alabama and his public trial in a U.S. district court in Mobile, Alabama.

The article discusses the role Alabama's first Lieutenant Governor Andrew J. Applegate played in the Reconstruction in Alabama despite several criticisms of him being a carpetbagger. Topics include the issues Democrats had regarding Applegate, the role Applegate played as a Republican during the Reconstruction Era and how he transitioned from a military career into a career in politics in Alabama.

The article discusses the history of Reconstruction in Alabama highlighting the racial extremism and the divisions between white Alabamians regarding Reconstruction. Topics include the racial composition of Alabama in the years following the civil war, the implications of the spread of the Ku Klux Klan across Alabama, and the terrorist violence during Alabama's Reconstruction Era.

The article talks about hog cholera that killed herds of hog in Alabama during the Civil War era. Topics discussed include the disease first appearing in 1860 in Marion County, the cholera having wiped out two-thirds of the swine population around Montgomery by the end of the war, and market relations determining where and how the infection spread during the reconstruction era.

The article discusses aspects of the Civil Rights movement to achieve the breakthrough in equal-rights legislation for African Americans in the U.S. It highlights the development of a film "State of Alabama," which highlights the equality and justice for the African Americans. It also cites the creation of the Legislative Commission to Preserve the Peace within the Civil Rights movement.

The article focuses on policymaking and independent courts in Alabama. Topics discussed include Alabama Supreme Court, laws in United States regarding defective goods and contract of sales. In addition, other topics which includes English courts and suing of manufacturers by consumers are also discussed.

The article discusses the beginnings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Alabama in the 19th and 20th centuries. Topics include the role of John Brown as the first missionary to preach for the church in the state, the growing church membership and congregations despite the opposition from critics, angry mob and imposters, and the connection between Nauvoo and the Saints.

Originally excavated in 1973, Widows Creek (1JA305) is a deeply stratified, multi-component site located on the Tennessee River in Jackson County, Alabama, with cultural deposits spanning the Early Archaic (ca. 10,000 B.P.) through the Mississippian (ca. 800 B.P.) periods. A recent study of sediment samples curated during the 1973 excavation was carried out to understand changes in the cultural and natural stratigraphy and the potential influence of one upon the other. A comparative analysis of microartifact, sedimentologic, geochemical, and macrobotanical characteristics yields new information concerning changes in the nature, timing, and intensity of human habitation at Widows Creek as well as the influence of changing environmental conditions on site occupation and the effects of site formation processes on stratigraphic characteristics. In addition to demonstrating the importance of multidisciplinary research to answer archaeological questions, this study highlights the value of analyzing curated samples collected from previously excavated sites. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An essay on Rufus K. Anderson, a lawyer by profession who arrived in Alabama in the mid 1820s following the panic of 1819 over loan defaults is presented. His career as an attorney at the Alabama Supreme Court is mentioned. The article talks about two homicides committed by Anderson and mentions Anderson's fellow attorneys, Gideon Frierson and Lincoln Clark. The article focuses on the history of Alabama and the state's proto-legal system.

An introduction is presented in which the author discusses the theme of the issue, the history of Reconstruction in Alabama.

Background/Context: Legal scholars have cited the Fifth Circuit's ruling in Dixon v. Alabama State Board of Education (1961) as the beginning of a revolution for students' rights that ended the in loco parentis relationship between colleges and their students. But little has been written about the students' activism that led to this seminal case. Research Question: Students' rights, in general, benefited from the Dixon precedent. But how did the student activists who brought the case personally benefit? None were able to tell their stories in court in a way that challenged separate but equal laws. None of them took advantage of the due process that the Fifth Circuit ruled that Alabama State College must provide. None re-enrolled at the college after the case was over. And segregation was still alive and well in Alabama after Dixon was decided. So what did they win? Research Design: This study presents a historical analysis of the student activism that led to the Dixon case, the case itself, and its interplay with future civil rights activism. Conclusions: Despite the divergence of interests between the student activists and the lawyers, both the sit-in and the litigation empowered students all over the country to engage in the civil rights struggle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented concerning the dilemmas facing students and administrators of Birmingham-Southern College (BSC) in Birmingham, Alabama, between 1957 and 1965. It discusses the concept of the genteel tradition of higher education in an atmosphere of social change, the history of BSC, and a 1959 article in the periodical "Harpers Magazine" by journalist David Boroff on student life at BSC. It discusses then-BSC president Henry King Stanford, African American minister Fred Shuttlesworth, and BSC student involvement in civil rights demonstrations.

The article discusses the role that prisoners of the Alabama State Penitentiary in Wetumpka, Alabama played in the manufacturing of military supplies for the Confederate States of America's armed forces during the U.S. Civil War. An overview of the prison labor in the state penitentiary, including in regard to the inmate John Wilson's attack on the prison's Sergeant of the Guard using a piece of iron from the prison's blacksmith workshop, is provided.

The article offers a tribute to American author and historian J. Mills Thornton III. Particular focus is given to Thornton's works on Alabama's history and politics, including his books "Politics and Power in a Slave Society" and "Dividing Lines." Thornton's scholarship on the 20th century civil rights movement in Alabama, including in regard the African American civil rights activist Rosa Parks, is discussed.

An essay is presented on the life and career of lawyer Elisha Wolsey Peck, a native of Blenheim, New York, who relocated to Alabama during the 1820s and later served as president of the state's 1867 constitutional convention and chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. The texts of two political speeches by Peck are also presented. Topics discussed include suffrage for African-American men, the Republican Party, and the state's judicial system.

The article discusses the history of the military department of the University of Alabama. Particular focus is given to the role of student violence in University president Landon Cabell Garland's decision to form the department. It is suggested that Garland designed the mandatory program as a means of transforming the University's educational, moral, and disciplinary system as a whole. Details on student participation in the U.S. Civil War are presented. Other topics include slavery, the financing of the department, and military conscription.

The article discusses the history of the U.S. Farm Security Administration's (FSA's) subsistence homesteads resettlement program during the New Deal of the 1930s, with a particular focus on homesteads near Birmingham, Alabama. It is suggested that although the program was widely considered to be a failure, the homesteaders themselves enjoyed improvements in their housing, diets, and financial conditions and believed that the program offered a model for use throughout the country. According to the author, the program offered residents an opportunity to revitalize their communities. Details on the creation and operation of the Federal Subsistence Homesteads Corporation (FSHC) are presented. Other topics include the inclusion of white-collar and industrial workers in the program and the construction of the program's homes.

The article discusses commemorations of the centennial of the U.S. Civil War in Alabama. Particular focus is given to themes of romance, nostalgia, and reunion in the celebrations and their relationship to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. According to the author, the celebrations idealized the Confederate States of America and omitted discussion of slavery and the roles of black men and women in the war. It is suggested that black Alabamians highlighted racial issues related to the war, emphasizing the Emancipation Proclamation. Details on Albert Burton Moore, executive director of the Alabama Civil War Centennial Commission, are presented. Other topics include an 1861 pageant in Montgomery, Alabama, anti-communism, and reenactments of historical events.

Presented here is an overview of fossil vertebrate specimens collected from Upper Cretaceous strata (Early Santonian-Upper Maastrichtian) in Alabama. In total, 8,275 vertebrate specimens housed in 12 institutions are summarized here by geologic age, locality, year collected, institution, and taxon, using numbers of identified specimens (NISP). A total of 76 genera and 92 species of vertebrates are identified in this study. Taxa identified include Chondrichthyes (21 gen. and 30 spp.; NISP = 2,150), Actinopterygii (23 gen. and 25 spp.; NISP = 2,607), and Reptilia (32 gen. and 37 spp.; NISP = 3,174), and 344 specimens not identifiable to a higher taxonomic level. All Cretaceous vertebrate specimens have been collected from the following five stratigraphic units in Alabama: Unit 1, the Eutaw Formation; Unit 2, the Mooreville Chalk and Blufftown Formations; Unit 3, the Demopolis Chalk and Cusseta Sand Member of the Ripley Formation; Unit 4, the Ripley Formation (excluding the Cusseta Sand Member); and Unit 5, the Prairie Bluff Chalk and Providence Sand. Of these stratigraphic units, Unit 2 has the largest NISP (6,363), and Unit 4 has the smallest NISP (139). Of the 20 counties that have produced Cretaceous specimens, nearly 70% of the vertebrate fossils are from Dallas and Greene counties. Although preservation and collecting biases have a strong influence on the data presented herein, this study does provide a new perspective of the Cretaceous vertebrate diversity as well as the geographic and stratigraphic distributions of these taxa in Alabama. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crushing teeth of the extinct shark genus Ptychodus were initially called "palate bones of fish" or "dentes tritores" when encountered in the Late Cretaceous rocks of England. Recognized as teeth organized into opposing jaw plates by Gideon Mantell (1822) and others, the generic name was first coined by Louis Agassiz (1835) in the early portion of his Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles. Agassiz subsequently named five species of Ptychodus that had been previously discovered in England. Examples of a unique North American species of Ptychodus were also collected in Alabama and Mississippi as early as the 1820s, although they were not recognized at first as being shark teeth. Samuel Morton (1834) figured a specimen from Alabama, having regarded it initially as part of the dermal armor of a dinosaur (e.g. Hylaeosaurus Mantell, 1833), and then as "The palate bones of a fish?" Morton had been corresponding with both Mantell and Agassiz for some time on the identification of other species of fossil shark teeth, and may have changed his mind in response to Mantell's 1833 dinosaur publication. Morton sent the specimen to Mantell who first named it Ptychodus Mortoni in 1836. The tooth was eventually transferred to the British Museum of Natural History where it is currently curated as the type specimen of P. mortoni (NHMUK PV OR 28394). The naming of Ptychodus mortoni provides an interesting window into the pace of scientific discovery during the early part of the 19th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AGr-43 is a fossil site located within a stream in central Greene County, Alabama that is bounded by the Black Warrior River to the east and the Tombigbee River to the west. The stream bed consists of fossil-rich gravel that contains large quantities of Cretaceous elasmobranch and bony fish remains, reptile and invertebrate remains, as well as carbonate and siliciclastic lithic fragments. Much of this material likely originates from the Tombigbee Sand Member of the Eutaw Formation (late Santonian to early Campanian), but some could be derived from the overlying Mooreville Chalk (late Santonian to early Campanian). Stream gravels were collected in bulk and later screened, picked, and sorted in the lab. Thus far, 28 Cretaceous fish taxa have been identified from these gravels, 22 of which are elasmobranchs and the remaining six are osteichthyans. Eleven of the specimens we discuss represent new published records for Alabama. These taxa include: Archaeolamna kopingensis, Anomoeodus barberi, Borodinopristis cf ackermani., Carcharias sp., Ischyrhiza aff. avonicola, Lonchidion sp., Meristodonoides sp., Micropycnodon sp.?, "Pseudohypolophus" ellipsis, Squalicorax aff. yangaensis, and Texatrygon sp. Furthermore, the identification of Chiloscyllium sp. and Ischyrhiza aff. mira represent the first of these taxa reported from the Tombigbee Sand of Alabama. The identification of these 28 taxa from site AGr-43 aids in our understanding of Late Cretaceous paleobiodiversity, biostratigraphy, and paleobiogeography within the Mississippi Embayment and Western Interior Seaway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ptychodus polygyrus (Ptychodontidae) is a Late Cretaceous shark that occurs in Santonian and lower Campanian strata within the English Chalk. Herein we describe nine isolated teeth of P. polygyrus from the Tombigbee Sand Member (late Santonian-early Campanian) of the Eutaw Formation in Alabama that compare favorably with the type specimen (more than one jaw placement is represented within the dentition). Taxonomically, P. polygyrus has erroneously been referred to other low crowned and stratigraphically younger species of Ptychodus, but it can be distinguished by a set of distinct characteristics. Ptychodus polygyrus is stratigraphically one of the last species of Ptychodus in the fossil record and is often found in association with a diverse selachian fauna that includes other high crowned ptychodontids P. mortoni and P. rugosus, which may be indicative of niche separation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remains of the aulopiform bony fish Enchodus are very often the most common vertebrate fossils recovered from Late Cretaceous marine deposits around the world, especially in North America. Yet, those remains rarely consist of anything other than isolated dermopalatine bones and teeth. Here we report the discovery of an exceptionally well-preserved Enchodus ferox skull in a phosphatic concretion from the lower Ripley Formation (lower Maastrichtian) of Alabama. The specimen is significant because it preserves most of the cranial elements in their original, articulated positions. The specimen reveals characteristics that appear to be common to the genus including a robust skull with massive preoperculars and maxillae, large metapterygoids, fusion of the dentaries to the articulars, and paired sclerotic rings. The enlarged dermopalatine bones and "fangs" are not visible, but are likely preserved within the concretion, suggesting that they may be positioned more medially and posteriorly in the oral cavity than is sometimes depicted. The morphology suggests a specialized feeding behavior and prey, with the enlarged dermopalatine and mandible teeth being well adapted for piercing, holding, and aligning straight cephalopods for most efficient ingestion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Late Cretaceous vertebrate research in Alabama has a long and storied history which is intimately intertwined with the rise of geological and paleontological research in America. This history can be divided into six chronological periods: the Early Exploration Period (1540 to 1814), the Early Settler Period (1814 to 1842), the Pioneer Scientific Period (1830 to 1846), the Tuomey Period (1847 to 1865), the Smith Period (1865 to 1927), and the Modern Period (1927 to present). The history of vertebrate paleontology in Alabama began with geological observations made by early explorers, fur traders, and settlers, which led to visits to the state by many of America's early scientific elite including Thomas Nuttall, Timothy A. Conrad, Charles Lyell, and Robert W. Gibbes. Many of Alabama's early vertebrate discoveries were shipped to the likes of Samuel Morton, Richard Harland, Joseph Leidy, and Edward Drinker Cope. Michael Tuomey and Eugene Allen Smith made their own significant contributions to Cretaceous research while employed at the State Geological Survey. Significant events which shaped this history included the burning of the University of Alabama campus near the end of the Civil War and the establishment of the state's largest Cretaceous vertebrate collections at the Alabama Museum of Natural History, Auburn University Museum of Paleontology, and Red Mountain Museum (now McWane Science Center). This history of research has played a significant role in advancing our understanding of the Late Cretaceous systems in the United States and around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]