2017 ECW Symposium Admission
Subscribe BY RSS
Author Archives: dwightshughes
My Favorite Historical Person: Eugene Matthew O’Brien
Eugene Matthew O’Brien is among those obscure Civil War multitudes whose collective stories inspire for their courage, dedication, and sacrifice even if we know little about them individually—although his story is a bit unusual. O’Brien was a steam engineer who … Continue reading
Failed Ironclads: CSS Mississippi and CSS Louisiana at New Orleans
In October 1861, the skeletons of two strange iron monsters began to emerge from the Mississippi bank at Jefferson City, just north of New Orleans. They would become the CSS Mississippi and CSS Louisiana. Confederate Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory had … Continue reading
ECW Weekender: The Farthest Battlefield—CSS Shenandoah at Pohnpei
This Civil War site is a paradisiacal place to pass a weekend—if you can get there. April fool’s day, 1865: In the misty glow of dawn, soaring emerald peaks sprouted from azure seas as the CSS Shenandoah, last of the … Continue reading
ECW Weekender: The USS Monitor Center
Have you ever been aboard a Civil War ironclad, or two? You can come close in The USS Monitor Center nestled in a beautiful setting at The Mariners’ Museum & Park, Newport News, Virginia. The Monitor Center is the official … Continue reading
Modern Photography: No Monuments on the Ocean
There are no monuments on the ocean, no crossroads in the great waters, no places echoing in heart and mind—Gettysburg, Shiloh, Chickamauga. But our Civil War ancestors were out there too and some of them still are. Names that resonate … Continue reading
The Nashville Dash
“Great excitement has been created here by the arrival in our waters this morning of a steamer of war bearing the flag of the Confederate States of America,” reported the London Times on November 22, 1861.[1] This first such visitor … Continue reading
Posted in Emerging Civil War
4 Comments
Christmas at the Confederate White House
The following excerpt from Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour by William C. Davis: “Christmas 1864 came clear and pleasant, with a beautiful white frost over the sidewalks and shrubbery of Richmond. Boys stole their fathers’ rifles and shotguns … Continue reading
Posted in Emerging Civil War
2 Comments
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 … Continue reading
Posted in Emerging Civil War
Leave a comment
1860’s Politics: Lincoln-Douglas Debates Continue, Part III: Self-Government and Political Correctness
If we define political correctness as demanding conformance with favored positions, not tolerating contrary opinions, and branding opponents or perceived opponents as radicals (“they are just evil/crazy/stupid”), all without offering rational counter arguments, then these are not new phenomena. Abraham … Continue reading
1860’s Politics: Lincoln-Douglas Debates Continue, Part II: Supreme Court and Choice
Politics and the Supreme Court are much in the news today, as they were in 1858 when Abraham Lincoln debated Stephen Douglas for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois. Issues have changed but more recent court decisions demonstrate that underlying … Continue reading
