ECW 5: Chris Kolakowski
This is my favorite post of those I’ve written: “The Measure of Leaders,” first published on May 25, 2015. It’s combines two of the greater examples of leadership making the difference I’ve ever come across.
Read more...Charge On: Re-examining Civil War Cavalry Tactics
Emerging Civil War is pleased to welcome guest author Bill Backus A popular misconception of the American Civil War is the view that mounted charges against infantry were an outdated tactic. The image of charges being ordered by out-of-touch generals that did not comprehend that rifled muskets had changed combat is a common one. While […]
Read more...Question of the Week: 9/12-9/18/16
Who is the least-known general officer in the Civil War who had the biggest impact on a victory or loss?
Read more...“Never Forget”—Remembering 9/11 and the Lesson of Antietam
It has become my custom on 9/11 to think back to a different day during a different September when America suffered an even more catastrophic loss of life. As I first explained in 2012, the events of Sept. 11, 2001 and Sept. 17, 1862, have become inextricably linked in my mind. In recognition of both events—and as a […]
Read more...Longstreet Goes West, part four: Discord
Part Four in a Series In the immediate aftermath of Chickamauga, Bragg and his generals were all gripped by a measure of collective uncertainty. Early on, it seemed as if Rosecrans might just abandon Chattanooga, falling back to his railhead at Stevenson, Alabama, on the north bank of the Tennessee River. As the days passed […]
Read more...ECW Weekender: Beverly, WV–“a quiet,old fashioned town”
Today, Beverly, West Virginia hardly seems as if it’s a blip on a map. But I can assure you, it is well worth the history buff’s time to visit. Beverly has been around since the late 1700’s, though it began to flourish with the completion of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike in 1847, a route that connected the […]
Read more...The 47th Tennessee Infantry at Shiloh
Today we are pleased to welcome back guest author Sean Michael Chick In the American Civil War, Don Carlos Buell’s arrival at Shiloh with over 15,000 men, stands as the most famous reinforcement of the war. Its importance to the battle’s outcome has been long debated, with Ulysses Grant’s partisans sometimes downplaying its importance. Regardless, […]
Read more...ECW 5: Meg Groeling
Writers and Historians, lend me your ears—and maybe your fingers. There are times when you will have a harebrained idea that just begs to be researched and written up. You know it is silly. You know it isn’t even provable considering the sources you’ve found. Here is my advice: just write it.
Read more...“An Especial Prize to the Boys:” Union Soldiers and the Illustrated News (Part 1)
This is the first of two posts regarding the relationship between Union soldiers and the emerging illustrated press during the Civil War. The Union soldier of the Civil War had an insatiable hunger for newspapers. Joseph C. G. Kennedy, head of the Census Bureau, concluded in 1860 that “the people of the United States are peculiarly […]
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