Petersburg’s Second Presbyterian Church and the Christmas of 1864
Emerging Civil War is pleased to welcome guest author Mike Wright. The Christmas season of 1864 at Petersburg would never be forgotten by the soldiers who manned the trenches or the citizens of the town, including the members at Second Presbyterian Church. If only these walls could talk. Second Presbyterian Church, which was formed in […]
Read more...The Old Stone Fleet: A Failure and Complete
I have a feeling for those ships, Each worn and ancient one, With great bluff bows, and broad in the beam; Ay, it was unkindly done. But so they serve the Obsolete— Even so, Stone Fleet! Herman Melville, “The Stone Fleet” In July 1861, the Blockade Strategy Board suggested to Secretary of the Navy Gideon […]
Read more...Civil War Echoes: Pearl Harbor
Today 75 years ago the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, catapulting the United States into World War II – a conflict that turned out to be the country’s bloodiest save for the Civil War. Many of the U.S. ships in Pearl Harbor that day have names with Civil War ties. On this 75th Anniversary, I note […]
Read more...Writing the Wilderness and Reflecting
It’s 46° in Spotsylvania County, but the morning clouds have marched away and the blue-sky sun makes it feel more like sixty. To the west, another line of gray clouds hangs over the Blue Ridge Mountains like a haze of forest fire smoke. I’m passing through the Wilderness. By habit, I refer to it as […]
Read more...“I Would Rather Be Shot Myself” – Reactions to an Execution, December 1861
Emerging Civil War is pleased to welcome guest author Jake Wynn Assembled in a field near the Fairfax Seminary just beyond Alexandria, Virginia, an entire division of 10,000 soldiers stood in a hollow square with one side missing. At the center stood twelve men, muskets at the ready. Ahead of them sat 23-year-old Private William […]
Read more...Question of the Week: 12/5-12/11/16
Recently, Civil War Trust has been featuring Civil War states – their history, units, and commanders. Do you have a favorite Civil War era state? Why?
Read more...In Memory of Stonewall’s Mother
On this date in 1831, seven-year-old Thomas Jonathan Jackson lost his mother. Julia (Jackson) Woodson was thirty-three years old and had suffered for yours from a pulmonary ailment that turned out to be tuberculosis. Since her husband’s death five years earlier, she and her three children—Warren, Thomas, and Laura—had struggled financially. When she remarried in […]
Read more...The Perfect Christmas Gift
If you are looking for the perfect Christmas gift, look no further. Buy that special someone an admission to the Fourth Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge. The early bird admission rate is only $110.00. For that $110.00 you will see ten lectures, get a tour of the Brandy Station Battlefield, participate in […]
Read more...Sutlers of Note: Ragged Soldier Sutlery
Why this post, and why now? One–it is cold and I want something warm to drink, and Two–I love to shop small, wonderful sources when checking off my holiday list. Huzzah, and read on! There are two types of sutlers: those that have just about everything necessary for a good, basic Civil War impression and those […]
Read more...