Prelude to A Star: Promotion in Frederick City

Conclusion of a series. The city of Frederick, Maryland  greeted George Custer for the second time in less than a year. Custer had passed through the previous September during the Antietam Campaign while serving as an aide-de-camp to the commander of the Army of the Potomac, George McClellan. Now, on June 27, 1863 he had […]

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Dealing with Death—Women Nurses in the Civil War, part three

part three in a series Handbook of Death and Dying, Volume 1 as well as in both of Drew Gilpin Faust’s works regarding death during the Civil War explains that antebellum American culture was preoccupied with death – both in their own as well as with their family members. For Christian America, death was viewed […]

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Invading Home

When Robert E. Lee made the decision to invade the north in June 1863 he aimed to take the war into enemy territory north of the Potomac River. For a portion of his army, the invasion route would take them back to their native state. Maryland, southern in one view, northern in another, had contributed its […]

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Helpful Gettysburg Links

For those of you traveling to south-central Pennsylvania for the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, we thought we would help you out with a few links to all the action taking place over the next few weeks. GETT-150-Commemorative Guide NPS-Gettysburg Foundation Gettysburg Battlefield Visitor Center Lectures and Book Signings Gettysburg (National Park Service […]

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The Year of Grant

In my last post on ECW, I noted some generals who rose to prominence and took senior roles in 1863. At the top of the list was Major General Ulysses S. Grant, which may have seemed a surprising choice. Yet upon further examination, the year 1863 emerges as the most important in Grant’s military career. […]

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Influence of Religion: Women Nurses in the Civil War—part two

Part two of a series In the book, Religion and the American Civil War, the authors discuss how religion became important in America during the early republic and into the early 1800s.  This became particularly true as the United States evolved from an agrarian society into an industrialized society.  Both North and South were extremely […]

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Updated Speakers Bureau

If you are looking for speakers for your roundtable, museum, historic site, etc… Check out our updated speakers brochure! ECW Speakers Bureau 2013-2014

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My Life as a Black Civil War Living Historian—conclusion

final part in a series Going forward, I know that I have two more years of many events to go before the end of the Sesquicentennial. I have two main objectives that I want to accomplish:

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Prelude to a Star: The Battle of Aldie

Part four in a series. The dilapidated buildings greeted the young officer. George Custer was quite familiar with the area around Catlett’s Station, a rail stop on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Here, the previous March, Custer had led his first cavalry charge against an enemy rearguard that was covering the Confederate retreat from Manassas. […]

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