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Category Archives: Battles
Ending The War: A Union Prisoner on Lee’s Retreat
First Lieutenant Elias Brookings, Jr., 31st Maine Infantry, found himself in an unusual situation at the end of the war. His unit had been overrun during the frantic fighting around Fort Mahone on April 2, 1865. The Federals ultimately won … Continue reading
Posted in Battles, Common Soldier
Tagged 31st Maine Infantry, Appomattox Campaign, Elias Brookings, Fort Mahone, Petersburg
2 Comments
Surprise at Shiloh
The western battles of 1862 included three surprise attacks, although only one was planned as such. The opening Confederate attacks at Fort Donelson and Stones River caught the Union forces unprepared. Yet, neither caused a scandal, likely because both battles … Continue reading
Posted in Battles, Emerging Civil War
9 Comments
John S. Bowen’s Brigade and the First Day at Shiloh
In the early afternoon of April 6, 1862, General Albert Sidney Johnston raised the tin cup he had grabbed from a Union camp earlier that day and tapped the line of bayonets of his Rebel troops to rally them forward. … Continue reading
Question of the Week: 4/6-4/12/20
It’s the anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh. In your opinion, who was the best commander at that battle? Why?
Ending The War: Fallen Cities
On April 3, 1865, Union troops entered Richmond, Virginia. The moment that so many soldiers had been fighting and waiting for during the four years of war. Other significant Southern cities had or would be occupied by Union troops in … Continue reading
Ending The War: Soldiers of the Breakthrough
ECW author Edward Alexander has written many posts over the years about the Breakthrough at Petersburg and accounts about individual soldiers’ experiences in that historic moment. We’ve combed through the archives and invite you to “meet” and study the breakthrough … Continue reading
Battle of Bristoe Station: A New Era in the Army of the Potomac
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Shaara wrote in Killer Angels of the Army of the Potomac on the eve of the Battle of Gettysburg: it was the “last of the great volunteer armies, for the draft is beginning that summer in … Continue reading
Posted in Armies, Battles
Tagged Alexander Webb, Army of the Potomac, Battle of Bristoe Station, Bristoe Station, conscription, James Mallon
3 Comments
Traveling to Gettysburg: Pt. 1
In a time when it seems that the whole world is quarantined, everyone is stuck at home, and traveling is almost certainly out of the current realm of possibilities, cases of cabin fever are bound to increase. Here in Youngstown, … Continue reading
Drewry’s Bluff: Victory Without Satisfaction
Few campaigns in the American Civil War seemed to hold as much potential as Benjamin Butler’s Bermuda Hundred landings. Butler was expected to threaten and if possible capture Richmond, the long sought brass ring in the Eastern Theater. He could … Continue reading
Fact vs Interpretation at the Bloody Lane
There is a movement afoot to reinterpret key parts of the Maryland Campaign. In some cases, battlefield interpretation is being changed or removed based on new sources and/or new perspectives. I am all for reexamining history based on new or … Continue reading
