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Author Archives: Bert Dunkerly
Brown’s Island Victims
The worst war-time disaster to strike the Confederate home front occurred on March 13, 1863. An explosion rocked the Confederate Laboratory on Brown’s Island in the James River, in the heart of Richmond, Virginia. My research indicates that ten were … Continue reading
Primary Sources: Confederate Veteran – A Source With Endless Possibilities
Published between 1893 and 1932, Confederate Veteran magazine is an incredible source that I mine for many different topics. Not only is it a good source for battle or wartime accounts, the magazine documents early preservation efforts, and is a window … Continue reading
Posted in Emerging Civil War
14 Comments
Surprises Don’t Last
December is when my thoughts turn to an fascinating battle I like to study, Stones River. The Confederates were able to mass and overwhelm the Army of the Cumberland on the first day of the battle, December 31, 1862. Yet … Continue reading
Posted in Emerging Civil War
16 Comments
Railroads: Management in the War
As with much in the war, it’s not just advantages of more resources, but how they’re applied, that is important. Better railroad management was a key in Union victory. Important advantages that the Union possessed included more railroad mileage (20,000 … Continue reading
Civil War Railroads: An Overview
As we discuss Civil War railroads this month, let’s start out with some basic concepts. It is important to remember that this was new technology when war broke out. No general, North or South, had ever used railroads in wartime … Continue reading
Posted in Weapons
Tagged Antebellum, civil-war-railroads-18, Logistics, military history, Railroad
4 Comments
Eastern Europe’s Monument Dilemma
Monuments have been in the news a lot lately in our country, and while on a recent trip to Eastern Europe, I thought my thoughts would be far from our Civil War issues. Yet in visiting Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and … Continue reading
Posted in Monuments, Ties to the War
Tagged Eastern Europe, monuments, statue park, war monuments
8 Comments
Notes on Richmond’s Civil War Hospitals
Recently, while doing some research on Richmond’s hospitals, a few interesting trends and stats stood out to me, which I will share here. The city became home to dozens of hospitals over the course of the war. Centrally located and … Continue reading
ECW Weekender: Battles of Mesilla
Sometimes juxtapositions grab our attention and draw us to see connections. On a recent trip to New Mexico to visit family, my thoughts turned to the Confederate invasion of what was then the Arizona Territory. Living close to the Confederate … Continue reading
Posted in Battles, ECW Weekender
Tagged Battles of Mesilla, Confederate Arizona, ECW Weekender, Fort Fillmore, Henry Sibley, Isaac Lynde, John R. Baylor, New Mexico
4 Comments
Battlefield Markers & Monuments: Yorktown Monument – A Victim of Another War
It was early in the war, in the spring of 1862 when the armies converged on Yorktown, Virginia. The fact that many had not yet seen combat and been hardened to the realities of war, combined with the surge of … Continue reading
Posted in Battlefields & Historic Places, Common Soldier, Monuments, Primary Sources
Tagged 13th alabama, 2nd Florida, 40th New York, 4th North Carolina, American Revolutionary War, civil war vs. revolutionary war, markers-and-monuments-17, relic hunters, Yorktown, yorktown history, yorktown surrender monument
7 Comments
Lost Opportunities in the Army of the Potomac—A Pair of Examples
Army management is a complicated skill in which the personality and temperament of commanders influence the inner workings and culture of the organization. The Union had no army which was as political, and influenced by outside politics, as its primary … Continue reading
