Wilmington: The Last Open Port on the Confederate Coast

“Though the popular clamor centers upon Charleston, I consider Wilmington a more important point,”[i] stated Gustavus V. Fox to Acting Rear Admiral Samuel Phillip Lee in the fall of 1862. Wilmington, N.C. arose along the banks of the Cape Fear River, expanding rapidly during its early colonial years to become a center for trade and […]

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My Life as a Black Civil War Living Historian—part two

Part two in a series As a Park Service historian, I give tours on all four of the Park’s battlefields: Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House. I loved talking about the military history but never said much about the civilians until I started to work with the Chief Historian of the park, John Hennessy. […]

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My Life as a Black Civil War Living Historian—part one

part one in a series As a young boy, I was always been fascinated by military history. I had toy soldiers of all kinds: Civil War, World War II, Revolutionary War, and even the Knights of the Round Table. I used to buy the toy soldiers from the Marvel Comic books that I read as […]

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Prelude to a Star: The Urbanna Raid

part two in a series The Army of the Potomac was in disarray when George Custer returned from Washington on May 5, 1863. Early that morning, the army began their retreat to the north bank of the Rappahannock River. This maneuver effectively brought an end to the Chancellorsville campaign and notched another defeat in the […]

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A Quick Note about “Shaping Chancellorsville”

We’ve had a couple questions about Chris Mackowski’s series about the history of the Chancellorsville battlefield, “Shaping Chancellorsville,” which he started in late April. The series has been examining what has and hasn’t been remembered about Chancellorsville as “public memory” over the past 150 years and, specifically, how those memories have been employed over time […]

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Fredericksburg Luminaria 2013

Thanks to the help of hundreds of volunteers, Fredericksburg National Cemetery once again hosted its annual Memorial Day Luminaria commemoration on Saturday night. More than 15,000 soldiers are buried in the cemetery, although only about twenty percent of them are identified. Confederates are buried in nearby cemeteries in downtown Fredericksburg and just north of the […]

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Prelude to a Star

Part one in a series The young officer walked out of the theatre and onto the bustling Washington street. Fixing his kepi atop his head, he began to make his way back to his boardinghouse. His affinity for plays was growing. The one he had attended on this cool April evening was a comedy. With […]

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The Trenches at North Anna

The North Anna battlefield, so often overlooked, is operated as a county historical park by Hanover County, VA. The park boasts some of the best-preserved earthworks in the Eastern Theater, thanks to the good corporate stewardship of the General Crushed Stone company, which donated part of the land for the park. 149 years ago today, […]

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“Sally had a baby, and the baby had red hair”—part two

Today, we bring you the second part of Lance Herdegen’s two-part piece about the music of the Iron Brigade, which was not only one of the most famous fighting units in the Army of the Potomac but whose members also happened to have a particular ear for music. “Any veteran memory of the long marching […]

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