Kayaking to “Glory” Island

During a recent visit to the Charleston, South Carolina, area, my father and I kayaked to Morris Island, an uninhabited and completely undeveloped island on the south side of Charleston Harbor.  I thought I would share a few photos (taken with my rather antiquated phone camera) from the excursion.

And for those unfamiliar with Morris Island’s Civil War roots, here’s a brief summary: A triangular–shaped island formed by Vincent’s Creek to the north, Folly Creek to the south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Morris Island was the south entrance to the strategically and symbolically vital Charleston Harbor.  It was the site of some of the first shots of the war in April 1861 and became part of a thorough network of Confederate defenses that ringed Charleston that included Fort Moultrie, Castle Pinckney, Fort Johnson, and, most notably, Fort Sumter.  Fort Wagner was the dominant Confederate defensive feature on Morris Island, and a series of failed Union army attacks against the fort in the summer of 1863 immortalized the 54thMassachusetts Volunteer Infantry, a regiment of all black soldiers, and its commander, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.  Confederate forces abandoned Wagner in September 1863, although Charleston itself did not fall to the Union army until 1865.

Atlantic side of Morris Island, approaching the former site of Fort Wagner.

Continue reading

Posted in Battlefields & Historic Places, Emerging Civil War, Photography | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Eastern Theater versus Western Theater: Where the Civil War Was Won and Lost, In History and Memory…Part 4

Part four in a series.

Abe and Tad Lincoln

Davis’ counterpart—Abraham Lincoln—also at times had a skewed sense of the importance (or lack thereof) of the west. The Northern approach to war was offensive in nature, with the major objective for the north being the Confederate capital of Richmond,Virginia. The city boasted the seat of the Confederate Government and sat just 105 miles south of Washington, D.C. The city was a major rail and industrial center for the south. It made perfect sense at the outset of the war for the North to focus on taking Richmond, but the North then focused on that objective in the early stage of the war to the exclusion of much else. Northern leaders believed if the nearby Confederate capital fell, then the entire Confederacy would soon follow suit. Continue reading

Posted in Campaigns, Leadership--Federal, Memory, Personalities | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

June-July Presentations

June:
9th: Steward Henderson (with the 23rd USCT) at the John J. Wright Museum 23rd USCT Lecture Series Forum: Medicine Then and Now (VA)

13th: Chris Mackowski, “Chancellorsville: Crossroads of Fire,” at the Cuba (NY) Circulating Library

July:
11th:
Chris Mackowski, “The American Civil War: from the origins of the war to the fight for modern civil rights,” U.S. State Department’s Study of the United States Institute for Scholars (SUSI) at St. Bonaventure University

19th: Kristopher White at the Hershey Civil War Roundtable (PA)

Posted in Emerging Civil War, Upcoming Events | Leave a comment

By the Light of a Candle (or Several Thousand of Them)

Photo by Beth Parnicza

This past Saturday I had the honor of participating for a third time in the annual Memorial Luminaria in the National Cemetery at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park.  This event has become not only a highlight of my job as a seasonal historical interpreter at the park, but of my entire year.  For someone who is afraid of the dark, and not so fond of cemeteries, the first year was a bit of a struggle.  But as night fell and the glow of 15,300 candles became prominent, the beauty of the night and the event washed away any fears I had.  Since my first year, I have fallen in love with the Luminaria, the cemetery, and the men who are buried there.  The cemetery has become my favorite spot in the park and I often encourage visitors to check it out during their visit. Continue reading

Posted in Battlefields & Historic Places, Civil War Events, Common Soldier, Emerging Civil War, Holidays, Memory, Monuments, National Park Service | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Eastern Theater versus Western Theater: Where the Civil War Was Won and Lost, In History and Memory…Part 3

William Wing Loring

Part three in a series.

With the end of the war came demobilization and reconstruction of the country socially and politically. In victory, the western armies had put together a stellar fighting record, and they were the backbone of the overall Union war effort. From 1861-1865 the Unionwar effort in the west captured more major Confederate cities, rail centers, and ports than did the eastern armies. The western armies also took tens of thousands of acres of land away from the Confederate bread basket and helped break the will of the south as Sherman ravaged parts of Georgia. The west also witnessed the rise of Ulysses S. Grant, the most successful commander of the Civil War, and while in the west Grant captured two Confederate armies and helped secure the Mississippi River, Tennessee River, and Cumberland Rivers. Sherman and Grant together also formed the forerunners of our modern army group.

Continue reading

Posted in Leadership--Confederate, Leadership--Federal, Western Theater | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

America’s Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union. A Review

Fergus M. Bordewich. America’s Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012. Pp. x, 480.

It all started with slavery and a war. Before 1848, most white Americans had rested their hopes for national unity on the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which settled the question of slavery’s westward expansion by creating a dividing line between future free and slave states, barring Missouri, along the line of 36° 30′ latitude. National disaster, it seemed, had passed. And indeed, the country had little cause for concern. The process by which a territory became a state moved glacially. Congress had the responsibility for establishing temporary governments in new lands, fixing borders, appointing officials, supervising the writing of constitutions, and guiding territories into states—a lengthy, arduous procedure (p.28). After 1848, however, everything changed. Continue reading

Posted in Books & Authors, Slavery | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Drawing the War, Part 4: Winslow Homer

Part four in a series.

Winslow Homer

Perhaps the Civil War “Special Artist” who is best known to the general public is Winslow Homer. He is famous for the work he did after the war, not for the sketches he did during it, but his later work was always touched by his war experience in some poignant way.

Homer was born in Boston, on February 24, 1836. He was initially self-taught, and by the time he was nineteen, he apprenticed with a lithographer, J. H. Bufford, a commercial artist. Winslow Homer cut lithography stones for such repetitive products as sheet music covers and ads for the newspapers. About his experience he said, “From the time I took my nose off that lithographic stone, I have had no master, and shall never have any.”

Continue reading

Posted in Newspapers, Personalities | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A Thank You to Our Veterans and Active Duty Soldiers

All of us at Emerging Civil War would like to thank our veterans and active duty troops. Memorial Day to many has turned into early vacations, barbeques, and baseball games. None of these activities would be possible without the sacrifices made by the men and women of our armed forces. Be they in an active war zone, in a peaceful duty station abroad, or serving on base in the United States; they are making sacrifices ranging from time away from loved ones to risking their lives to defend American freedom’s and values.

In our humble way I have placed together a short collection of photographs ranging from the founding of our nation to the liberation of Europe.

Again thank you and have a safe and happy holiday.

Memorial Day Ceremony in Fredericksburg National Cemetery, 1893.

Continue reading

Posted in Emerging Civil War, Holidays, Memory | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Secrets of a Cemetery: Final Reflections

Fredericksburg National Cemetery

With all the research that has been done on the Civil War, at times it seems as if the individual is lost in the seas of voices, stories, and statistics.  Armies are huge entities, regiments move like blocks on a map, and the individual experience is lost. I found that when looking at a cemetery or even during Memorial Day events, the whole scope of death and devastation was apparent as one took in the rows of uniform graves, but there was no deeper connection to the lives and deaths of the men sleeping below our feet. And why not? These men are the very reason we study this war, it is their actions, feelings, and thoughts that we see as a historian. They are the reason hundreds of books exist on the topic, they are the reason that a large National Park occupies the area of Fredericksburg, VA. So why not get acquainted with them? I will gladly admit that my view of that cemetery has changed over the past few months as I have come to know some of its inhabitants. It is not uncommon for me to pass a grave now and speak a soft greeting to James Clark or Edith Tench as I walk by. Because I know them, I am now invested in their stories and retelling them to others.

Continue reading

Posted in Battlefields & Historic Places, Common Soldier, Memory, Monuments, National Park Service | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The Lights Atop the Hill

Continue reading

Posted in Battlefields & Historic Places, Civil War Events, Common Soldier, Photography | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments