iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

- Montrose Independent Republican correspondent on being present at the passage of the 13th amendment, abolishing slavery in the United States, which took place #OTD in 1865. Printed in the Republican on 2/14/1865.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

“If the fossils who believe the world does not move…had been with me in the Hall of the House of Representatives on the 31st…they would have been astonished…For I believe I was…a witness to one of those memorable scenes…which showed…that human progress cannot be checked…”

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

Pumped to get my copy of They Are Dead and Yet They Live: Civil War Memories in a Polarized America. Edited by Jenn Murray & John Kinder, this collection features many talented historians & covers important topics that connect our past to the present. Can’t wait to dive in!

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Remembering when we got dressed up for our 100th birthday a few years ago.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

Every Packer fan right now.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

As printed in Douglass’ Monthly, 3/1/1859

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

Absolute garbage game from the Packers offense.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

I have never understood why Penn State neglects/can’t figure out basketball. Philly/Pitt, NJ, and NYC are all right there yet they can’t seem to recruit or find a high profile coach who can help. In HS we went to team camp there. Facilities are amazing. Fan base would eat it up. I don’t get it.

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Reposted by EJ Murphy

Dave Taylor @linconspirators.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Edwin Booth’s saving of Robert Todd Lincoln at a train depot in 1864 is an interesting story, and I’m all for telling people about it, but don’t use generative AI for your illustrations. Otherwise you get images like this where Robert Lincoln has an extra arm coming out of his ass. #NoAI

A Bluesky post about Edwin Booth saving the life of Robert Lincoln illustrated with terrible AI art. AI art is theft and completely soulless and I judge you for using it.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

The recruiting office for Black soldiers during the Civil War, Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Just sitting here thinking about what a Benjamin Butler presidency would look like.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Oh my god. My anticipation for the full thing…

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

- Newspaper clippings from the Sunbury Gazette, 4/30/1864 - Monument photos courtesy of Jake Wynn and the Wynning History blog (PS CAN YOU IMAGINE A BENJAMIN BUTLER PRESIDENCY??!?!!?) 8/8

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Another simply reads, “EMANCIPATION” 7/8

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

In 1951 the residents of Pottsville added a marker to the town Civil War Monument “IN MEMORY OF THE FIRST DEFENDERS AND NICHOLAS BIDDLE.” An inscription reads “Love, honor, renown, and lasting remembrance for those who fought for freedom and an imperiled country.” 6/8

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Biddle lived in Pottsville until his death in 1876. He is buried in Pottsville’s Bethel AME Church Cemetery. His headstone reads “FIRST TO SHED BLOOD IN CIVIL WAR” 5/8

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Biddle returned to Pottsville after the incident, and his story became very well known. So much so that he helped raise money for wounded soldiers at the 1864 Great Central Fair by selling photographs of himself in his militia uniform. 4/8

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

The Washington Artillerists eventually made it to the Capitol where, at least as lore has it, Abraham Lincoln came across Biddle and asked him to get medical attention. Biddle refused, as he did not want to leave his men. 3/8

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Biddle was hit in the head with a flying brick, wounding him badly. “This man was the first wounded in the rebellion, by Rebel assault. A remarkable fact this — Slavery was the direct cause of the war, and the first man wounded in the rebellion, by the Rebels, was a negro.” 2/8

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

🧵1/8 On April 18, 1861 Nicholas Biddle, an escaped enslaved resident of Pottsville, PA, marched through Baltimore with the Washington Artillerists on their way to defend the capital from a rumored rebel attack. While marching, they were attacked by rebel sympathizers.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Interesting. Different because we don’t *depend* on hunting but the main reason my dad wanted to buy our cabin was because most of the land he grew up hunting on was either being conserved or privatized in some way. We had the means to purchase our own land but for many folks that’s not an option.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

“…the free living black man, whom Lee would enslave, and the bodies of the dead soldiers whom Lee has killed in a wicked cause.”

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

“Gen. Robert E. Lee…is fighting to enslave the black man. To accomplish this hellish purpose, he kills the loyal soldiers of the nation and attempts the destruction of the nation’s life… How appropriate that Lee’s lands should be dedicated to two such noble purposes…”

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Batchelor also helped establish Waverly’s Presbyterian Church which first congregated in the house on the left, located right next to Batchelor’s home (right) which is where our walking tour begins.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Happy to see that the Hickory Grove Cemetery Association fixed up Rev. Leonard Batchelor’s headstone, which had fallen off the base and luckily stayed intact. Batchelor was a radical abolitionist, Underground Railroad participant, and member of the Liberty Party here in Waverly.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

From Hope & Glory: Essays on the Legacy of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment:

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Samuel Thomas, a formerly enslaved resident of Waverly and member of the 54th is buried here and was a member of Waverly’s integrated GAR post. Nearby Underground Railroad town Montrose had 14 men enlist in the 54th. A lot of folks don’t know this, but PA is the state most represented in the 54th.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Since there are six guys from Waverly who fought in the 22nd at Petersburg I end up talking about that regiment/the battle a lot. I’m always ashamed when people ask me if I’ve been there and I have to say no.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Need to get to Petersburg. The 22nd USCT demands it.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

As I try to bring the edited collection back to life, another project begins (just a working title)…

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

At first I didn’t see the linked article and was like, “oh, Reconstruction stuff!” Alas.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Giving me Michael Scott vibes.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Think I have enough material to put together a whole presentation on the phrase “Sic Semper Tyrannis.” From a speech by Rev. A.L. Post of Montrose in response to John Brown’s hanging: “The ghost of Virginia’s State Seal…exclaiming ‘Sic Semper Tyrannis’…has sent terror throughout all Slaverydom.”

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

I’d like to think our NPS affiliation through the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program would be a nice connection to make with the National Heritage Area campaign. I guess we’ll find out.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

The official EMHR organization is currently campaigning to make the Endless Mountains region a National Heritage Area. If we expand into Montrose & Towanda our program might be able to help add to the campaign since we’d officially be operating in the EM: emheritage.org/national-her...

emheritage.org

National Heritage Area Campaign | Endless Mountains Heritage Region

Please support the EMHR and our pursuit of a National Heritage Area designation. Have a look at our draft feasibility study outlining our region’s national ...

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

We’re currently looking into expanding our program to officially include the towns of Wilkes Barre, Montrose, and Towanda. The Endless Mountains Heritage Region covers Bradford, Sullivan, Susquehanna, and Wyoming Counties so Waverly is just outside of that…

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

“We must rightly comprehend the unparalleled wickedness of slavery, and the desperate determination with which it makes war on the Government, or we shall fail to deal with it as our security and peace demand…a more imperious oligarchy never ruled a government.”

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

It’s seen better days. The metal frame that held the map to the base is pretty much all gone. The map itself being plastic is what is making it tough to decide how to fix it.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Any good ideas for saving my map? Made it through 12 years of teaching but couldn’t survive the one year I had to share my classroom with another teacher. Brought it with me to the new job because I thought it’d be useful for when we host school groups.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry began #OTD in 1859. Brown’s plan to arm and liberate the enslaved failed and he was convicted of treason and hung. A little over 5 years later the 55th Massachusetts marched through the streets of Charleston to the tune of “John Brown’s Body.”

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

“Robert E. Lee was a traitor to his country and the military leader of an armed rebellion against the government of the United States…if Robert E. Lee had received his just dues he would have been hanged and the scaffold preserved as a monument to his infamy.”

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

There was pushback and it became a major talking point until the passage of the 15th amendment. The 1838 PA convention got brought up quite a bit including at the 1865 State Equal Rights Convention and the USCT reception in Harrisburg the same year.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Great thread. I get into this a little at work too when I discuss Black disenfranchisement in PA in the late 1830s. A state Supreme Court decision & members of a constitutional convention argued that Black men didn’t have voting rights bc they were “a caste.” They got ahistorical and extra-legal…

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Love that this was written by a teacher and a former Park Ranger. Kudos, @oupress.bsky.social.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

New book alert. This should be interesting.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

With my luck it’s gonna come back and just say “this cemetery is super old.”

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