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Category Archives: Common Soldier
A Conversation with Brian Steel Wills about Inglorious Passages (part two)
(part two of two) I’m talking with historian Brian Steel Wills, author of one of my favorite Civil War books from last year, Inglorious Passages: Noncombat Deaths in the American Civil War. Inglorious Passages received the Harwell Award at the … Continue reading
A Conversation with Brian Steel Wills about Inglorious Passages (part one)
(part one of two) When I first read Brian Steel Wills’ book Inglorious Passages: Noncombat Deaths in the American Civil War, I had to let it sit with me for a bit. By that, I mean that I’d had such … Continue reading
A Yankee Officer’s Words: A Reflection For Veterans Day
ECW welcomes back guest author Rob Wilson A recent New Yorker story I read about the hundredth anniversary of Armistice Day – November 11 – reminded me of the human cost of World War I: the lost lives of 9.7 … Continue reading
Posted in Common Soldier, Ties to the War
Tagged civil war veterans, John Meade Gould, Regimental History, Rob Wilson, Union veterans, war is hell, World War I, WWI
1 Comment
Railroads: Crossing An Ankle-Deep Obstacle
ECW welcomes back guest author Jon-Erik M. Gilot The Civil War has no shortage of exciting and heartrending stories involving railroads. Stonewall Jackson’s masterful overland transfer of looted B&O locomotive and rail cars from Martinsburg to Strasburg in the early … 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 – Riding the Rails: Union Soldiers Experience Train Transport in the Civil War
As Leander Stillwell was penning his Civil War reminiscences in the nineteen-tens, the Mexican Revolution was raging across the border. It was a time of heightened tension in the American Southwest, and a recent stir regarding the shuttling of American … Continue reading
Disaster in the Defenses of Washington: The June 9, 1863 Explosion at Fort Lyon
Emerging Civil War welcomes back guest author Nathan Marzoli Lewis Bissell, a soldier in the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery, had spent the better part of a year stationed in the numerous forts and batteries that ringed the nation’s capital. He had grown … Continue reading
Question of the Week: 10/8-10/14/18
Many young men and boys under the technical enlistment age got into the Union and Confederate armies. Do you have a favorite “boy-soldier” who enlisted/served while under eighteen? Share his name and a little about his service record.
Posted in Common Soldier, Question of the Week
Tagged common soldier, Question of the Week
14 Comments
ECW Weekender: A Day in the Life of a Soldier
Here’s a phenomenal ECW Weekender opportunity from the Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield. Hear first-person portrayals of the lives of Union and Confederate soldiers and surgeons. Take a walking tour of the Wilderness Tavern and the grounds of Ellwood. Also, … Continue reading
Posted in Battlefields & Historic Places, Books & Authors, Civil War Events, Civil War Trails, Common Soldier, ECW Weekender, Engaging the Civil War Series, Material Culture, Medical, Memory, Monuments, National Park Service, Upcoming Events
Tagged ECW Weekender, Ellwood Manor, Engaging the Civil War Series, Friends of Wilderness Battlefield, Southern Illinois University Press
2 Comments
Prisoner of War or Constructive Deserter?
It pays to read the (often lengthy) footnotes when researching first-person accounts in the venerable Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. Seemingly minor vignettes can speak to big issues. An article by Colonel Rush C. Hawkins describing his service … Continue reading
Posted in Common Soldier, Emerging Civil War, Politics
Tagged Charles W. Flusser, Desertion, George Pickett, pardon, Rush C. Hawkins, Ulysses S. Grant
3 Comments
