Launching today is the Civil War Bluejackets Project which aims to help tell the stories of sailors in the American Civil War in ways never before possible.

Called the “Civil War Bluejackets” Project because of the distinctive uniform worn by U.S. Civil War sailors, the project hopes to reveal details of the thousands of Irish who departed these shores and ended up helping the U.S. battle the Confederacy on water.

It will also examine the large numbers of others – including thousands of recently enslaved African Americans – who donned the U.S. Navy’s famous bluejacket during the conflict. Additionally, the project team seek to reveal answers to questions about where the US Civil War sailors came from, their background and what they did before they enlisted, how they lived and interacted on board, and what became of some of them in the years after the conflict.

The project is a collaboration between Irish historians Professor David Gleeson and Dr Damian Shiels at Northumbria University; information and data scientists at the University
of Sheffield and the University of Koblenz-Landau; and U.S. partners including the United States Naval Academy. It is funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council.

It is calling for citizen volunteers to help transcribe tens of thousands of Civil War Muster Rolls. These were documents carried on board U.S. ships and capture the personal details of the c.118,000 men who fought on water for the Union between 1861 and…