Grant, the Wilderness, and the Loneliness of Command
On the evening of May 6, 1864, Lieutenant General U.S. Grant considered the day’s events. The Battle of the Wilderness had just ended its second day, and Grant’s forces had been beaten and battered in a way he’d never seen. Both his flanks had been driven in, and panic had set in among some of […]
Read more...1860’s Politics: A Conclusion
It’s been a history-making month in modern America with the 2016 Presidential Election, and I think we managed to have some educational fun here on Emerging Civil War with our examination of 1860’s Politics. It’s time to close this political blog series for now. There might be a few “postscripts” or just interesting Civil War […]
Read more...Happy 100th Birthday, Shelby Foote
Shelby Foote would have been 100 years old today. Born in Greenville, Mississippi, on November 17, 1916, he died on June 28, 2005 at the age of 88 from a heart attack following a pulmonary embolism. Foote was best known for his three-volume tome The Civil War: A Narrative, which took him twenty years to […]
Read more...1860’s Politics: Confederate Political Songs?
The North had many political songs for candidate praise and candidate bashing. What about the South? Did the Confederacy write music about their political leaders? The short answer: yes and no. Here’s the longer answer:
Read more...Swelling the Ranks for Review
In mid-November 16, 1863, with Army of the Potomac commander George Meade in Washington to consultation with the president and War Department, it fell to VI Corps commander Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick to serve as the army’s temporary commander as it sat huddled around Culpeper, Virginia. As it happened, four observers from the British army were […]
Read more...Site Upgrade
As a heads up, Emerging Civil War is in the middle of a site upgrade. That’s why things seem so relatively quiet at the moment. Please bear with us. We’ll be up and rolling with new content soon. In the meantime, please feel free to page through our extensive archives!
Read more...Shenandoah Valley Campaigns and The Importance of Luck
Part One With the month of October behind us, I think back on the topic of my first co-publication, Bloody Autumn, the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864. To add impetus to the recollections this year, I am currently fine-tuning a presentation that I will be giving to a round table next spring. When reading through my research notes and […]
Read more...Question of the Week: 11/14-11/20/16
Was the Union blockage of the South legal? Was it effective in the tactical objective of stopping commerce? Did it achieve the strategic goal of significantly reducing Confederate resources, morale, and military capability, and thereby facilitating victory?
Read more...1860’s Politics: Songs For The Campaign Trail
During the past few weeks, we’ve noted some similarities between political campaigns in the 1860’s and the modern era. We’ve learned that mudslinging and “creative insults” aren’t new. We’ve reminded ourselves that Americans are opinionated. There’s one aspect of 1860’s politics that we don’t see much anymore: political theme songs and music. Given the entertainment factors […]
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