Gilbert R. Tredway
Encyclopedia
Gilbert Riley Tredway is a retired historian
from Indiana
and Kentucky
, who has authored two books relating to the American Civil War
.
in southern Indiana to George Riley Tredway (1883–1958) and Pearl C. Tredway (1886–1979) and reared there in Cuzco
. He served in the United States Army
in World War II
, having been stationed first in the Panama Canal Zone
and Ecuador
before he volunteered for action in the Pacific theatre. An aircraft gunner on a B-17, Tredway was wounded while protecting a convoy in New Guinea
and received the Purple Heart
. After the war, he received all three of his degrees from Indiana University
in Bloomington
. Thereafter he taught for a total of eight years at Mitchell High School
in Mitchell
in Lawrence County
, also in southern Indiana, and in Cincinnati
, Ohio
.
at Baptist
-affiliated Campbellsville University
in Campbellsville
, Kentucky, when it was still known as Campbellsville College. His colleagues included Bobby Russell Himes (1931–2008) and William Edward Bennett (1943–2006) in history and political science, respectively. He was on the faculty of Campbellsville College from 1959 to 1963, when he accepted a position at Eastern Kentucky University
in Richmond
. He returned to Campbellsville in 1966, where he remained until his retirement in 1984.
His Democratic Opposition to the Lincoln Administration in Indiana, published in 1973, stems from his Ph.D.
dissertation, which he completed eleven years earlier in 1962 from Indiana University
in Bloomington
. It is a study of the northern Democrats
, some of whom were Copperheads
demanding a negotiated settlement of the war or an immediate ending of hostilities.
Tredway found that the judge advocate general in some of the cases against Democrats accused of undermining the war effort had "protected prosecution witnesses, browbeat defense witnesses, practiced brazen partisanship, and even accepted third-hand testimony." Tredway's research reveals that the large majority of Indiana Democrats were not Copperheads, the best known of which was U.S. Representative Clement Vallandigham
of Ohio, but were loyal to the Union
and desired national restoration. A Princeton University
thesis from 2005 finds that secession had been painful to most people in Indiana, whose agricultural economy depended heavily on southern commerce and on the Mississippi River
, at least before the rise of railroads, as a way to bring commerce to market. "Formation of the Confederacy and the commencement of hostilities thus threatened both the livelihood and the identity of many in Indiana," writes Elisheva R. Coleman in her study entitled Call It Peace or Call It Treason. Tredway reveals too that Democratic congressional districts in Indiana often outperformed Republican
strongholds in recruiting soldiers into the Union Army even though Republicans had claimed that northern Democrats were not pulling their weight in troop commitments for the war.
In 1981, Tredway wrote a book review in the Indiana Magazine of History
of a work similar to his own, Civil War Iowa and the Copperhead Movement by Hubert H. Wubben.
In 1994, Tredway penned an historical novel
, The Way It Was: A Novel of the Civil War, the story of a Union
soldier promoted to officer from Dubois County.
in Hancock County
in northwestern Kentucky. who was previously married to the former Janice Marie Slusser. Tredway had two brothers, W. C. Tredway (1911–1942), and Paul W. Tredway, who died in 1920 at the age of two months.
Tredway resides in Jasper
in Dubois County. He is Baptist. In 1995, Tredway was the subject of an oral interview at the Center for the Study of History and Memory at the Herman B. Wells Library at Indiana University.
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
from Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
and Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, who has authored two books relating to the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
Early years, military, education
Tredway was born in Dubois CountyDubois County, Indiana
Dubois County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. The county seat is Jasper. As of 2010, the population was 41,889.Dubois County is part of the Jasper Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
in southern Indiana to George Riley Tredway (1883–1958) and Pearl C. Tredway (1886–1979) and reared there in Cuzco
Cuzco, Indiana
Cuzco is an unincorporated town in Columbia Township, Dubois County, Indiana.The American Civil War historian Gilbert R. Tredway was reared in Cuzco during the 1920s and 1930s....
. He served in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, having been stationed first in the Panama Canal Zone
Panama Canal Zone
The Panama Canal Zone was a unorganized U.S. territory located within the Republic of Panama, consisting of the Panama Canal and an area generally extending 5 miles on each side of the centerline, but excluding Panama City and Colón, which otherwise would have been partly within the limits of...
and Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
before he volunteered for action in the Pacific theatre. An aircraft gunner on a B-17, Tredway was wounded while protecting a convoy in New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
and received the Purple Heart
Purple Heart
The Purple Heart is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those who have been wounded or killed while serving on or after April 5, 1917 with the U.S. military. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor is located in New Windsor, New York...
. After the war, he received all three of his degrees from Indiana University
Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington is a public research university located in Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States. IU Bloomington is the flagship campus of the Indiana University system. Being the flagship campus, IU Bloomington is often referred to simply as IU or Indiana...
in Bloomington
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the southern region of the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 80,405 at the 2010 census....
. Thereafter he taught for a total of eight years at Mitchell High School
Mitchell High School (Indiana)
Mitchell High School is a small public high school located in Mitchell, Indiana. It serves 563 students in grades nine through twelve.-History:Mitchell High School is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.-Curriculum:...
in Mitchell
Mitchell, Indiana
Mitchell is a city in Lawrence County, Indiana, United States. The population was 4,567 as of the 2000 census.It is the birthplace of astronaut Gus Grissom, who flew on Liberty Bell 7, Gemini 3, and died in a launch pad fire at Kennedy Space Center in 1967....
in Lawrence County
Lawrence County, Indiana
As of the census of 2000, there were 45,922 people, 18,535 households, and 13,141 families residing in the county. The population density was 102 people per square mile . There were 20,560 housing units at an average density of 46 per square mile...
, also in southern Indiana, and in Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
.
American Civil War studies
Tredway taught history and geographyGeography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
at Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
-affiliated Campbellsville University
Campbellsville University
Campbellsville University, also known as CU, is a private university in Campbellsville, Kentucky, the seat of Taylor County. Founded as Russell Creek Academy, a Baptist institution, the university currently enrolls more than 3,000 students and is open to students of all denominations...
in Campbellsville
Campbellsville, Kentucky
Campbellsville is a city in Taylor County, Kentucky, United States. The population within city limits was 10,498 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Taylor County, and the home of Campbellsville University...
, Kentucky, when it was still known as Campbellsville College. His colleagues included Bobby Russell Himes (1931–2008) and William Edward Bennett (1943–2006) in history and political science, respectively. He was on the faculty of Campbellsville College from 1959 to 1963, when he accepted a position at Eastern Kentucky University
Eastern Kentucky University
Eastern Kentucky University, commonly referred to as Eastern or by the acronym EKU by local residents, is an undergraduate and graduate teaching and research institution located in Richmond, Kentucky, U.S.A.. EKU is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools...
in Richmond
Richmond, Kentucky
There were 10,795 households out of which 24.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.2% were married couples living together, 12.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 48.6% were non-families. Of all households, 34.7% were made up of individuals and 8.8% had...
. He returned to Campbellsville in 1966, where he remained until his retirement in 1984.
His Democratic Opposition to the Lincoln Administration in Indiana, published in 1973, stems from his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
dissertation, which he completed eleven years earlier in 1962 from Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
in Bloomington
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the southern region of the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 80,405 at the 2010 census....
. It is a study of the northern Democrats
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
, some of whom were Copperheads
Copperheads (politics)
The Copperheads were a vocal group of Democrats in the Northern United States who opposed the American Civil War, wanting an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates. Republicans started calling anti-war Democrats "Copperheads," likening them to the venomous snake...
demanding a negotiated settlement of the war or an immediate ending of hostilities.
Tredway found that the judge advocate general in some of the cases against Democrats accused of undermining the war effort had "protected prosecution witnesses, browbeat defense witnesses, practiced brazen partisanship, and even accepted third-hand testimony." Tredway's research reveals that the large majority of Indiana Democrats were not Copperheads, the best known of which was U.S. Representative Clement Vallandigham
Clement Vallandigham
Clement Laird Vallandigham was an Ohio resident of the Copperhead faction of anti-war Democrats during the American Civil War. He served two terms in the United States House of Representatives.-Biography:...
of Ohio, but were loyal to the Union
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
and desired national restoration. A Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
thesis from 2005 finds that secession had been painful to most people in Indiana, whose agricultural economy depended heavily on southern commerce and on the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
, at least before the rise of railroads, as a way to bring commerce to market. "Formation of the Confederacy and the commencement of hostilities thus threatened both the livelihood and the identity of many in Indiana," writes Elisheva R. Coleman in her study entitled Call It Peace or Call It Treason. Tredway reveals too that Democratic congressional districts in Indiana often outperformed Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
strongholds in recruiting soldiers into the Union Army even though Republicans had claimed that northern Democrats were not pulling their weight in troop commitments for the war.
In 1981, Tredway wrote a book review in the Indiana Magazine of History
Indiana Magazine of History
The Indiana Magazine of History is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on the history and changing culture of Indiana and the Midwest. It has been published for more than a century and is one of the oldest historical journals in the United States...
of a work similar to his own, Civil War Iowa and the Copperhead Movement by Hubert H. Wubben.
In 1994, Tredway penned an historical novel
Historical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
, The Way It Was: A Novel of the Civil War, the story of a Union
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
soldier promoted to officer from Dubois County.
Tredway today
Tredway and his wife, the former Mary Antonnette Canzanari (1919–1978), had a daughter, Patricia Tredway Stomps, who died in the early 1990s as a result of an automobile accident. Their son is George Rodney Tredway (born ca. 1951) of LewisportLewisport, Kentucky
Lewisport is a city in Hancock County, Kentucky, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 1639 at the 2000 census. It is included in the Owensboro, Kentucky Metropolitan Statistical Area.Founded in 1839, Lewisport is named for an early settler....
in Hancock County
Hancock County, Kentucky
Hancock County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was formed in 1829. As of 2000, the population was 8,392. It is included in the Owensboro, Kentucky, Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its county seat is Hawesville. The county is named for John Hancock...
in northwestern Kentucky. who was previously married to the former Janice Marie Slusser. Tredway had two brothers, W. C. Tredway (1911–1942), and Paul W. Tredway, who died in 1920 at the age of two months.
Tredway resides in Jasper
Jasper, Indiana
- Strassenfest :The Jasper Strassenfest is a four-day event held annually during the first weekend in August. The "Fest" is a celebration between Jasper and its German sister-city Pfaffenweiler, a small village in southwest Germany. Many citizens of Pfaffenweiler travel to Jasper around this time...
in Dubois County. He is Baptist. In 1995, Tredway was the subject of an oral interview at the Center for the Study of History and Memory at the Herman B. Wells Library at Indiana University.