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Category Archives: Economics
BookChat with Brian Luskey, Author of Men is Cheap
I was pleased to spend some time recently with a new book by historian Brian Luskey, associate professor of history at West Virginia University. Luskey is the author of Men Is Cheap: Exposing the Frauds of Free Labor in Civil War … Continue reading
Posted in Books & Authors, Common Soldier, Economics, Slavery
Tagged Abolition, bounty jumpers, Brian Luskey, free labor, Men Is Cheap, slavery, UNC Press, William Still
1 Comment
Book Review: “The Limits of Loyalty: Ordinary People in Civil War Mississippi”
Easy as it is to imagine the Confederacy made up of a solid group of Union-hating slave owners and their friends, the reality of the situation is much more complex. Jarrett Ruminski, a freelance writer, researcher, and consultant, investigates this … Continue reading
The Homestead Act, Early Republicans, and the Coming of the Civil War
Nearly everyone knows that the Emancipation Proclamation became effective on January 1, 1863. This document formally established abolition of slavery as one of the Union’s goals in fighting and winning the Civil War and enabled the North to recruit African … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Emerging Civil War, Lincoln, Reconstruction, Slavery
Tagged History, homestead act, presidents, Republican Party
18 Comments
The Historic Harbors
A couple of weeks ago I attended a leadership retreat where a speaker touted the longtime importance of Hampton Roads as a harbor and host to very important events in American history. This got me thinking: what are the most … Continue reading
Posted in Antebellum South, Battlefields & Historic Places, Economics, Navies, Ties to the War
Tagged Bataan, Charleston Harbor, Corregidor, CSS Shenandoah, CSS Virginia, Ellis Island, Fort Moultrie, Fort Sumter, George Dewey, Hampton Roads, Hawaii, Japan, Liverpool, Manila, New York City, New York Harbor, Normandy, Operation Torch, Pearl Harbor, Philippines, Portsmouth, Statue of Liberty, Tokyo, Tokyo Bay, U.S. Navy, USS Monitor, World War I, World War II
20 Comments
East Tennessee and Confederate Copper
On November 25, 1863, Colonel Eli Long rode into Cleveland, Tennessee, at the head of 1,500 Union cavalrymen. They were there to wreak general havoc. When it comes to Civil War cavalry raids, Long’s Cleveland incursion does not garner much … Continue reading
Posted in Cavalry, Economics, Material Culture, Weapons, Western Theater
Tagged Chattanooga Campaign, Cleveland Tennessee, Raids, railroads, War Material
7 Comments
Women in History–EEEK!
What’s a girl/woman to do?? In honor of Women’s History Month, I thought I would editorialize for a few minutes here at ECW, the blog that gave me my break. Military History is not always a comfortable place for a … Continue reading
The Second City
The Civil War defined America – that statement is heard often in many quarters. We use that phrase in ECW’s tagline. Many effects from that conflict are quite visible in today’s America, while others are not as apparent at first … Continue reading
Posted in Civilian, Economics, Ties to the War, Trans-Mississippi, Western Theater
Tagged Chicago, Erie Canal, Fall of New Orleans, Great Lakes, Interstate Highway Act, Interstate highways, Island No. 10, louisville, Mississippi River, New Orleans, New York, New York Central, New York City, railroads, St. Lawrence River, St. Louis, trucking in the US, Vicksburg Campaign, westward expansion
4 Comments
“Little Photography in Jeffdom:” The Decline of Photography in the Civil War South
In 1862 Humphrey’s Journal of the Daguerreotype and Photographic Arts boasted that “The Photographic Art down South has completely died out in consequence of the war.”[i] Though an obvious overstatement, considering that southern photographers operated throughout the war, the journal … Continue reading
Posted in Antebellum South, Civil War Events, Civilian, Common Soldier, Economics, Leadership--Confederate, Lincoln, Material Culture, Memory, Newspapers, Personalities, Photography, Politics
Tagged Abraham Lincoln, Antebellum, art, Charleston, Civil War, common soldiers, George S. Cook, Illustrated News, North, Photography, presidential election, Richmond, South
5 Comments
“Guilty Party:” Bessie Sulers and Schuylkill Arsenal Outwork
In John Billings’ famous Hardtack and Coffee, he references the ritual that nearly every man in the various Federal armies participated in with the opening of the spring campaign: “At the first start from camp, many men would burden themselves … Continue reading
Posted in Civilian, Economics, Material Culture
1 Comment
The First Peacetime Christmas–December 25, 1865
The war was over, and peace had come at last. But Christmas that year was marred by a tremendous gale which swept along the Atlantic coast on December 20, wrecking many ships and drowning some of the people who had … Continue reading
Posted in Civilian, Economics, Holidays, Lincoln, Memory, Personalities, Politics, Reconstruction, Slavery
Tagged 13th Amendment, Abe Lincoln, Christmas in 1865, peacetime Christmas, William Seward
1 Comment
