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Category Archives: Battles
Railroads: The B&O and the Battle of Monocacy
Eric Wittenberg has written an overview of the B&O here. The following blog post examines the B&O’s role more in depth as it pertains to the events leading up to the Battle of Monocacy. Messages kept coming across the desk … Continue reading
Railroads – “The Seventh Have Come!”: The 7th New York, 8th Massachusetts, and the Rescue of Washington
Emerging Civil War welcomes back guest author Nathan Marzoli Washington was in trouble in the spring of 1861. Secessionist fever had broken into conflict with the attack on Fort Sumter, prompting President Lincoln to issue a call three days later for 75,000 … Continue reading
Railroads: A Little Music, A Little History About A Great Locomotive Chase
You’ve probably heard of Andrews’ Raid…but have you heard the musical piece by Robert W. Smith memorializing this ill-fated Civil War adventure on the tracks?
Railroads – Tracks to the Antietam: The Railroad Supplies the Army of the Potomac, September 18, 1862
“We can distinctly hear firing again this afternoon in the direction of Harpers Ferry,” wrote a Union soldier in the Washington defenses on September 17, 1862.[1] Closer to the Antietam battlefield, one onlooker attempted to count the number of Federal … Continue reading
Railroads – The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad: Confederate Target, Crucial Union Lifeline
The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (“B&O”) was chartered in 1828 as one of the first commercial railroads in the world. Construction began that year, connecting Annapolis, Maryland to Wheeling in the far northwestern corner of antebellum Virginia. The B&O eventually … Continue reading
Did Alexander Gardner photograph Charles Tew’s corpse in the Sunken Road?
Charles Tew’s story is compelling. Daniel Harvey Hill called him “one of the most finished scholars on the continent, and had no superior as a soldier in the field.”(1) Indeed he was. Tew graduated first in his class from the … Continue reading
Posted in Battlefields & Historic Places, Battles, Photography
Tagged Alexander Gardner, Battle of Antietam, Charles Tew, D.H. Hill, Sunken Road
7 Comments
Mistake or Cover Up? Seven Pines, May 31, 1862
In late May 1862 George McClellan’s massive army was at the outskirts of Richmond, trying to move a few miles closer to the city so it could employ its massive siege guns. Confederate commander Joseph E. Johnston was desperately searching … Continue reading
Posted in Battles, Memory
Tagged D.H. Hill, James Longstreet, Joseph E. Johnston, Memory, Peninsula Campaign, Seven Pines
8 Comments
Order of Battle – Why Those Lists Matter
Late last evening I was working on a project involving the First Battle of Fredericksburg. Jotting notes about the Army of the Potomac’s Grand Divisions, I could not find the right Mr. Sumner. My searches turned up “Charles Sumner” and … Continue reading
The Battle of Aiken: “Why spend the effort to write a book on a battle that didn’t last very long or have many casualties?”
“Why would you spend the time and effort to write a book on a battle that only lasted a few minutes and which had minimal casualties?” I wish I had a dollar for every time that I’ve been asked that … Continue reading
From The ECW Archives: Longstreet Goes West
Let’s take another look at western theater Civil War history – especially since we’re now in the 155th Anniversary of the Battle of Chickamauga. In 2016, Dave Powell wrote a fantastic nine-part blog post series, evaluating Confederate General James Longstreet’s … Continue reading
