ECW Archives
-
Recent Posts
Search by Post Categories
Subscribe BY RSS
Email Subscription
Category Archives: Civilian
Untangling the Marmillions, Part 1
On January 30, 1864, Harper’s Weekly published a set of accounts from formerly enslaved blacks from New Orleans. Emancipated by Benjamin Butler during the Federal occupation of the town, these individuals came forward to give their testimonies to the atrocities … Continue reading
Far Beyond the Sounds of Battle – Seattle, 1864
Emerging Civil War welcomes guest author Richard Heisler… In 1863, a person living in the fledgling northwest village of Seattle, Washington Territory, was about as removed from the ongoing Civil War as one could be as an American. Just 12 … Continue reading
“Dear Papa…I wonder how you still can be so good to me”
Josiah Gardner Abbott (b. 1814) had a busy professional life as one of Massachusetts most successful attorneys and a regular civil servant in the offices of county judge, state representative, and state senator, but he made time to influence the … Continue reading
“On the Heights”: The Field Hospital at Brompton in May 1864
The wagons rolling into Fredericksburg never seemed to stop. Mary Caldwell, an inhabitant of the town, wrote in her diary, “The road near the fair grounds seems to be literally covered.”[1] They were filled with broken and bloodied bodies, the … Continue reading
Posted in Armies, Battlefields & Historic Places, Civilian, Common Soldier, Medical
Tagged 31st Maine, Brompton, Edward B. Dalton, Fredericksburg National Cemetery, Henry Lancaster, James Gardner, James Noyes, Mary G. Caldwell, Marye's Heights, Mathew Brady, medical care, Spotsylvania Court House, wilderness, William Howell Reed
2 Comments
“By His Aid was that Flag Preserved”: The Shenandoah Valley’s African Americans’ Support for the Union War Effort
ECW is pleased to welcome back our friend Jonathan A. Noyalas, director of the McCormick Civil War Institute at Shenandoah University. This article is adapted from portions of Noyalas’ recently released Slavery and Freedom in the Shenandoah Valley during the … Continue reading
Posted in Civilian, Slavery, USCT
Tagged 11th Pennsylvania Infantry, 13th Pennsylvania Infantry, 2nd Massachusetts Infantry, African Americans, Darkesville, emancipation, George Crook, Henry K. Young, Henry Pancake, John Mosby, Jonathan Noyalas, Joseph Kershaw, Jubal Early, Kabletown, McCormick Civil War Institute, Mosby's Guerills, Nathaniel P. Banks, Phill Sheridan, Rebecca Wright, Richard Blazer, Robert Gould Shaw, Shenandoah University, Shenandoah Valley, Slavery and Freedom in the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War Era, Thomas Coles, Thomas Laws, United States Colored Troops, W.U. Saunders, Wilfred Cutshaw
3 Comments
On The Eve Of War: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Before it was the Steel City, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was known as the Gateway to the West. The hilly city perched above three swift rivers had a population of 50,000, making it then as now the second largest city in the … Continue reading
Posted in 160th Anniversary, Civilian, Economics
Tagged 160th Anniversary, on-the-eve-of-war, Pittsburgh PA
2 Comments
The Fall of Richmond, April 3, 1865
On April 3, 1865 occurred one of the most famous and momentous events of Richmond’s history. It was also one of the most shrouded in myth and misconception. On April 2, 1865, the Confederate government and military began to evacuate … Continue reading
Posted in Battlefields & Historic Places, Battles, Civilian, Emerging Civil War
Tagged Fall of Richmond
3 Comments
On The Eve of War: Williamsburg, Virginia
In 1860 the former capital of Virginia still had many tangible remnants of its colonial past, and would become quickly swept up in the coming war. Williamsburg had 1,895 residents in 1860, with 864 black and 1,031 white. Of the … Continue reading
Elizabeth Vincent After Gettysburg
On July 3, 1863, as he lay dying from his wounds inflicted upon Little Round Top, Col. Strong Vincent asked for his wife. Elizabeth Vincent was home in Erie, Pennsylvania, seven months pregnant and in no condition to travel, thus … Continue reading
