Category Archives: Common Soldier

ECW Podcast “Levi Bowen & The 7th Pennsylvania Reserves” Is Now Available

Posted on December 4, 2018 by Emerging Civil War

Do you have ancestors who fought in the Civil War? The Civil War gets personal for ECW’s Dan Davis in this week’s podcast as he joins Chris Mackowski to talk about a family ancestor, Levi Bowen of the 7th PA … Continue reading →

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Thanksgiving 1863: A “vivid contrast” between home and the front

Posted on November 22, 2018 by Chris Mackowski

In 1863, Thanksgiving fell on November 26. That morning, as the rest of the country was preparing for roast turkey and fat puddings and homemade pies, the Army of the Potomac, encamped around Brandy Station, Virginia, rumbled to life for … Continue reading →

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A Conversation with Brian Steel Wills about Inglorious Passages (part two)

Posted on November 16, 2018 by Chris Mackowski

(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 →

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A Conversation with Brian Steel Wills about Inglorious Passages (part one)

Posted on November 15, 2018 by Chris Mackowski

(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 →

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A Yankee Officer’s Words: A Reflection For Veterans Day

Posted on November 11, 2018 by ECW Guest Post

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 →

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Railroads: Crossing An Ankle-Deep Obstacle

Posted on November 9, 2018 by ECW Guest Post

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 →

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Railroads – “The Seventh Have Come!”: The 7th New York, 8th Massachusetts, and the Rescue of Washington

Posted on November 5, 2018 by ECW Guest Post

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 →

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Railroads – Riding the Rails: Union Soldiers Experience Train Transport in the Civil War

Posted on November 1, 2018 by James Brookes

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 →

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Disaster in the Defenses of Washington: The June 9, 1863 Explosion at Fort Lyon

Posted on October 11, 2018 by ECW Guest Post

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 →

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Question of the Week: 10/8-10/14/18

Posted on October 8, 2018 by Emerging Civil War

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.  

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