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Author Archives: Chris Mackowski
On the Battlefield, Among the Dead and Dying, We Get to Know Each Other Better
Following the May 14, 1863, battle of Jackson, Mississippi, Private Osborn H. Oldroyd of the 20th Ohio had the chance to walk across the battlefield. His unit, part of Maj. Gen. John Logan’s division, did not get into the day’s … Continue reading
The Secession of Mississippi
January 9, 2020, is the 160th anniversary of the secession of Mississippi Named for war hero Andrew Jackson, Jackson, Mississippi, was founded in 1821 at the intersection of the Natchez Trace and the Pearl River. Jackson himself had come through … Continue reading
Posted in 160th Anniversary, Antebellum South, Economics, Politics, Primary Sources, Slavery
Tagged 160th Anniversary, Andrew Jackson, cotton, Declaration of Immediate Causes, Jackson Mississippi, John C. Calhoun, Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, Mississippi secession, Nullification, Ordinance of Secession, secession, Slavery, Thomas Jefferson
9 Comments
The Confederate Flag and the Assault on the Capitol
How does one process the image of a Confederate battle flag in the United States Capitol? “Trump did what Lee, Jackson, and Davis couldn’t in four years,” a colleague texted me as the first images of insurrectionists started appearing on … Continue reading
BookChat with Timothy B. Smith, author of The Union Assaults on Vicksburg
I was pleased to spend some time recently with the most recent book by historian Timothy B. Smith, The Union Assaults on Vicksburg: Grant Attacks Pemberton, May 17-22, 1863, published by the University Press of Kansas (find out more about … Continue reading
Posted in Books & Authors
Tagged 26th Louisiana, 36th Mississippi, Battle of Vicksburg, BookChat, Francis Shoup, John McClernand, Joseph E. Johnston, Stockade Redan, Timothy B. Smith, Ulysses S. Grant, Union Assaults on Vicksburg, Vicksburg, Vicksburg National Military Park, Winchester Hall
12 Comments
What We’ve Learned: Pondering Usable History
If but for a missing license plate, state police might not have caught Timothy McVeigh, or at least not soon after the crime. At 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, McVeigh blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in … Continue reading
Posted in 160th Anniversary, Lincoln, Memory, Sesquicentennial
Tagged Abraham Lincoln, Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, American Terrorist, French Revolution, John Adams, John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln Assassination, Oklahoma City Bombing, Oklahoma City National Memorial, sic semper tyrannis, Thomas Jefferson, Timothy McVeigh, usable history, what-we've-learned-since-the-sesquiscentennial
13 Comments
Loss of the USS Monitor
It was on this date, December 31, 1862, at 1:30 a.m.—in the earliest hours of New Year’s Eve—that the USS Monitor went down in rough seas off Cape Hatteras. Sixteen men aboard lost their lives. Forty-seven men, including Captain John … Continue reading
“You can do a great deal in eight days”: Ulysses S. Grant’s Forgotten Turning Point (part two)
Part two of two With an escort of twenty cavalrymen, Ulysses S. Grant rode on the evening of May 3, 1863, into the newly captured town Grand Gulf, Mississippi. He passed the now-abandoned Confederate forts, Cobun and Wade, and made … Continue reading
Posted in Campaigns, Leadership--Federal, Navies, Western Theater
Tagged a-great-deal-in-eight-days, Baton Rouge, Brad Gottfried, Civil War turning points, David Porter, Grand Gulf, Hankerson's Ferry, Henry Halleck, Milliken's Bend, Nathaniel Banks, Parker Hills, Port Gibson, Port Hudson, Turning Points of the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant, Vicksburg, Vicksburg Campaign
8 Comments
“You can do a great deal in eight days”: Ulysses S. Grant’s Forgotten Turning Point (part one)
Part one of two Ulysses S. Grant had envisioned his arrival in Grand Gulf, Mississippi, under other circumstances. A week earlier, he had targeted the landing as the ideal spot to cross his army from the west bank of the … Continue reading
Posted in Campaigns, Navies, Western Theater
Tagged a-great-deal-in-eight-days, Bruinsburg, Civil War turning points, Commissary Banks, Grand Gulf, Hankerson's Ferry, Henry Halleck, John McClernand, Milliken's Bend, Nathaniel Banks, Port Gibson, Port Hudson, Turning Point of the War, Ulysses S. Grant, Vicksburg Campaign
3 Comments
Deer Discovery Atop Marye’s Heights
Every so often, I am reminded in the most delightful of ways that the battlefields we love are not just historic sites but habitats. The other day, my 3.5-year-old son Maxwell and I were walking along the top of Marye’s … Continue reading
The Preservation “Miracle” at Stones River
It’s been a big week for the American Battlefield Trust. A few days ago, we told you about a major initiative they’re launching to preserve the core of the Gaines’s Mill and Cold Harbor battlefields. They also announced this week … Continue reading
