Searching for my Great Great Grandfather.. Frank Granger Chapman

[wxbug1]

I grew up with the small legend of my great great grandfather.. Frank Granger Chapman. He was a member of the famous "Bohemian Brigade", I believe, if my searching and efforts are correct. A reporter for the New York Herald during the Civil War. I have an authentic Matthew Brady photograph of him that has been passed down thru the family. He is mentioned in J Cutler Andrews's book, "The North Reports The Civil War". I am trying to learn more about him.. to authenticate his work during that time.. his membership in The Bohemian Brigade, etc. Can anyone assist me in this endeavor or guide to persons or sites that might be able to help me in this regard. Thanks most kindly.

Sean Chapman

[Silas]

Re: Searching for my Great Great Grandfather.. Frank Granger Chapman

Start here with his name : http://www.nps.gov/civilwar/soldiers...s-database.htm

[Hank Trent]

Re: Searching for my Great Great Grandfather.. Frank Granger Chapman

Though the NPS database is thorough, I don't think that even they have the enlistment records of the Bohemian Brigade. :) We're all clear on the fact that it was just slang for reporters during the war, and not an actual brigade, right?

He sounds like a real character:

http://books.google.com/books?id=qOrtan6iO9wC&pg=PA128

On another occasion, Chapman stole some sheets of copy from the pocket of New York Tribune correspondent Francis C. Long while the two men were seated together on a train headed toward Washington--and then reported Long to the train guards as a suspicious person. Long was taken off the train at an intermediate stop, and by the time he had established his identity, the train had left. The perloined dispatch, in part verbatim, appeared in the next day's Herald. Long had a chance to get back at Chapman a few weeks later, again meeting him on a train. Chapman, who had nothing useful to send to his paper that day, offered Long $250 just to let him read a dispatch Long was carrying. Long refused, but then pretended to be polishing his copy--knowing that Chapman was looking over his shoulder. Long wrote a completely spurious account, including a list of fictional general officer casualties. The story was published in the Herald on December 4, 1863.

What I'd probably do is search for things like that here:

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=%22Frank+Chapman%22+%22new+york+herald%22

Then look up the footnotes, such as for the anecdote above, and see where the authors are getting their sources. The footnotes will probably lead you to collections of papers or published memoirs of other correspondents or maybe a letter or two from Chapman himself. Then by going to those sources you can focus on what else they say about Chapman specifically.

It looks like the New York Herald is online at the infamous Fulton History site: http://fultonhistory.com/my%20photo%...ald/index.html
The issues are available by date or there's a quirky search engine at http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html which I've never figured out how to get the most of. I can't figure out how to limit it by date or newspaper or city, so if anyone knows how, please let me know! But at least if you know when one of his articles was published from another source, you should be able to read it there by clicking on the Herald from that date.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[Silas]

Re: Searching for my Great Great Grandfather.. Frank Granger Chapman

D'oh! I know what it is, but was thinking Orphan Brigade when I wrote that. Make that a big, "never mind."

[Eric Tipton]

Re: Searching for my Great Great Grandfather.. Frank Granger Chapman

Figured Torin Finney would have stuck his head in here by now. ;)