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Author Archives: Chris Mackowski
Let Us Die Like Men Now Available
In the fall of 2013, after finishing up Bushwhacking on a Grand Scale: The Battle of Chickamauga, Lee White asked about working on a second book. He had a lifelong fascination with the battle of Franklin, he told me. While … Continue reading
The ORs and the Growth of Bureaucracy
Dan Welch’s post yesterday about the history of the Official Records reminded me of an observation I made a few weeks ago while reshuffling my books. The ORs embody the evolution of record-keeping over the course of the war (or, … Continue reading
Primary Sources: Slavery as the Cause of the Civil War
Last week, I had someone challenge me on Facebook about the cause of the Civil War. Because slavery wasn’t a cause of the war, he said, the point I was trying to make was moot. “It wasn’t *a* cause of … Continue reading
A Visit with Stonewall Jackson on his Birthday
It’s 21 degrees in Lexington, Virginia—a cold morning for a cemetery visit. It’s Stonewall Jackson‘s birthday, though, and I’m passing through town on my way to St. Louis, Missouri, for a talk later this week. (I’ll pass through Lexington, KY, … Continue reading
ECW Hats: The Perfect Stocking Stuffer
It’s common at this time of year to say “Such-and-Such makes the perfect stocking stuffer!” For instance, “A ticket to the Sixth Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge makes the perfect stocking stuffer!” You see the phrase everywhere. … Continue reading
A New View of the Battle of Fredericksburg
While most visitors to the Fredericksburg battlefield think of the Stone Wall and Sunken Road, or perhaps more recently of the Slaughter Pen Farm saved by the American Battlefields Trust, there’s another feature on the battlefield that’s nearly as familiar … Continue reading
The Evening Smoke and Armchair Generalling After Mine Run
On the evening of December 2, the Army of the Potomac settled back into its camps around Brandy Station and Culpeper, exactly where they’d departed from just a week earlier. The baffling—and frigid—events of the campaign weighed fresh on their … Continue reading
From Lee’s Side of Mine Run
The story of Mine Run is generally remembered thus: The Army of the Potomac found themselves facing a strongly fortified Confederate position that was so formidable, George Gordon Meade declined to attack and, instead, retreated back to the far side … Continue reading
Robinson’s Tavern Today
In 2017, I wrote a post, “The Mine Run Campaign Comes to Locust Grove,” that offered historical and modern views of the former Robinson’s Tavern intersection along modern Route 20. Today, a reader responding to that post expressed disappointment that … Continue reading
Deconstructing Meade’s Decision at Mine Run
On the morning of November 30, 1863, Gouverneur K. Warren awoke to a surprise. The evening before, he had positioned nearly half of the Army of the Potomac on the far Confederate right, poised for an attack at 8:00 the … Continue reading
Posted in Battles, Leadership--Federal
Tagged George Gordon Meade, Gouverneur K. Warren, Mine Run
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