Category Archives: Campaigns

Lee’s Last Great Field Victory: A Reassessment of Cold Harbor

Posted on June 3, 2020 by ECW Guest Post

ECW welcomes guest author Nathan Provost. On June 3, 1864, Federal soldiers waited anxiously to assault the seven-mile-long Confederate line near Mechanicsville, Virginia. The largest engagement of the battle of Cold Harbor was about to take place. Unbeknownst to them, … Continue reading →

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A Walk Around North Anna Battlefield Park

Posted on May 24, 2020 by Chris Mackowski

On this date, May 24, 1864, a drunken Brig. Gen. James Ledlie led his brigade against heavily fortified Confederate works at Ox Ford on the North Anna River. Today, much of that area is preserved and maintained by Hanover County. … Continue reading →

Posted in Battlefields & Historic Places, Battles, Campaigns | 4 Comments

A Walk Around the Fox House at North Anna

Posted on May 23, 2020 by Chris Mackowski

On this date, May 23, in 1864, Ulysses S. Grant rudely interrupted an afternoon glass of buttermilk Robert E. Lee was enjoying on the porch of the Fox house, just south of the North Anna River. By the end of … Continue reading →

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Looking for the Battle of Front Royal

Posted on May 23, 2020 by Chris Mackowski

On May 23, 1862, Stonewall Jackson swept down from the Shenandoah Valley’s Massanutten Mountain into the shocked Federal garrison in Front Royal commanded by Col. John Reese Kenly. Jackson, with more than 3,000 men, overwhelmed Kenly, with about 1,000 men, … Continue reading →

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Missed Opportunities in the Race to the North Anna

Posted on May 20, 2020 by Chris Mackowski

On the evening of May 20, 1864, Ulysses S. Grant sent Winfield Scott Hancock’s II Corps south from Spotsylvania Court House to Massaponnax Church, with orders to march onward toward Bowling Green, Milford Station, and—if Hancock thought he could make … Continue reading →

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FREE ECW Podcast: Ending The War

Posted on May 15, 2020 by Emerging Civil War

We’re excited to share another ECW Podcast recording for free, and this one includes visual resources attached to the post on Patreon! And guess what? We figured out how to link directly to the new post on Patreon for you. … Continue reading →

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Logan’s Attack at Resaca

Posted on May 14, 2020 by Lee White

The battle of Resaca was, numbers wise, the largest battle fought in the state of Georgia, with 158,787 men engaged on both sides. Fought on this date in 1864, Resaca was also the first major battle of the Atlanta Campaign. … Continue reading →

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Captured Telegrams: Sigel’s Last Chance?

Posted on May 13, 2020 by Sarah Kay Bierle

On May 13, 1864, Union General Franz Sigel and his army reach Woodstock, Virginia, during the New Market Campaign. Their march up the Shenandoah Valley had been going slower than his superiors had anticipated. From war games to extra days … Continue reading →

Posted in Campaigns, Leadership--Federal | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The Civil War and General Jim Mattis: Command relationship “trust up and down the chain” (Part 3)

Posted on May 13, 2020 by JoAnna McDonald

This series was inspired by Jim Mattis’s Call Sign Chaos.  In Part II, we looked at the relationships between Lincoln, Grant and Sherman to see how trust, respect, and communication aided senior Union leadership in their use of a multi-directional … Continue reading →

Posted in Battles, Campaigns, Leadership--Confederate | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Confederate “Slave Hunt” and the Gettysburg Campaign

Posted on May 6, 2020 by ECW Guest Post

ECW welcomes guest author Cooper Wingert Civil War historians are apt to recite one well-known fact about the battle of Gettysburg—that despite the immense carnage which blanketed the fields outside of the small Pennsylvania borough, the Civil War’s bloodiest battle … Continue reading →

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