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Category Archives: Weapons
Around We Go: In the Monitor Turret
Lieutenant Samuel D. Greene, USN, had a problem. He was encased within a dim, claustrophobic, metal drum—20 feet in diameter—behind eight layers of bolted and riveted 1-inch-thick iron plates in charge of two immense 11-inch Dahlgren shell guns, each 13 … Continue reading
Unvexed Waters: Mississippi River Squadron, Part 2
Part I of this post introduced the unprecedented U.S. Army Western Gunboat Flotilla—soon to be reorganized as the U.S. Navy Mississippi River Squadron—and carried it through the victorious battles of Forts Henry and Donelson, Tennessee, in February 1862. The next … Continue reading
Posted in Battles, Campaigns, Navies, Weapons, Western Theater
Tagged Andrew H. Foote, Battle of Island Number 10, Battle of Memphis, Charles Davis, Charles Ellet Jr., Confederate River Defense Fleet, David D. Porter, Henry Walke, Mississippi Marine Brigade, Mississippi River Squadron, Plumb Point Bend, Siege of Vicksburg, Ulysses S. Grant, USS Carondelet, USS Cincinnati, USS Mound City, USS Queen of the West, Western Gunboat Flotilla
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Sea Power at Port Royal Sound: A Missed Opportunity?
On November 5, 1861, the Confederate Secretary of War established the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and East Florida as a military department, assigning one of his most senior and experienced officers, General R. E. Lee, to command it. No … Continue reading
Posted in Battles, Emerging Civil War, Leadership--Federal, Navies, Personalities, Weapons
Tagged Battle of Port Royal, blockade, Charleston, Coast Defenses, David Farragut, David Porter, Fort Beauregard, Fort Walker, Joint Army and Navy Operations, Port Royal Sound, Robert E. Lee, Samuel F. DuPont, Savannah, Sea Power, Thomas W. Sherman, Ulysses S. Grant
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Ironclad Superweapons of the Civil War: USS Monitor and CSS Virginia
The clash of the ironclads USS Monitor and CSS Virginia in Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862 is considered a revolutionary event in naval warfare, but neither vessel quite lived up to the ambitious expectations of its sponsors. On a hot … Continue reading
Soldier-Artists and the Battle Experience (Part II)
This is the second of two posts regarding soldier-artists and their depictions of the experience of battle. Part I may be found here. To appreciate the extent that images such as Adolph Metzner’s Cozy corner defied the conventions of mainstream art, it … Continue reading
Posted in Antebellum South, Armies, Arms & Armaments, Battlefields & Historic Places, Battles, Civilian, Common Soldier, Emerging Civil War, Material Culture, Memory, Mexican War, Photography, Primary Sources, Weapons
Tagged Armies, art, battlefields, Battles, Civil War, civilians, common soldiers, Material Culture, Newspapers, Officers, Photography, Primary Sources, Visual Culture, War art, Weapons
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Soldier-Artists and the Battle Experience (Part I)
This is the first of two posts regarding soldier-artists and their depictions of the experience of battle. “Pshaw. It’s no use, they can’t picture a battle,” exclaimed the young son of Reverend A. M. Stewart of the 102nd Pennsylvania Volunteers, a … Continue reading
Posted in Armies, Arms & Armaments, Battlefields & Historic Places, Battles, Civilian, Common Soldier, Emerging Civil War, Material Culture, Memory, Newspapers, Photography, Primary Sources, Weapons
Tagged Armies, art, artists, battlefields, Battles, Civil War, civilians, common soldiers, Material Culture, Newspapers, Officers, Photography, Primary Sources, Visual Culture, War art, Weapons
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Major Tom Taylor at Ezra Church
On July 28, 1864, the Union Army of the Tennessee reached a point west of Atlanta from where they could threaten the Macon Railroad, which entered Atlanta from the southwest. In an effort to thwart that move, Confederate General John … Continue reading
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
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The Saltpetre Poems
Students and devotees of the great Emory Professor Bell I. Wiley are very familiar with The Bell Irvin Wiley Reader, edited by Hill Jordan, James I. Robertson, Jr., and J. H. Segars (LSU Press, 2001). Researching for the book, Mr. … Continue reading
Posted in Books & Authors, Civilian, Common Soldier, Newspapers, Weapons
Tagged Bell Wiley, Bud Robsertson, C.S. Nitre and Mining Bureau, Hill Jordan, J. H. Seagars, James I. Robertson, Jonathan Haralson, Life of Billy Yank, Life of Johnny Reb, poetry, Saltpetre Poems, The Bell Irvin Wiley Reader
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Pontoon Bridges: The Great Crossings
Yesterday Sarah Kay Bierle looked at the ancient uses of pontoon bridges and its perspectives on the 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg. While she addressed the difficulties of bridging rivers, I would like to look at the other side of the coin: … Continue reading
Posted in Armies, Arms & Armaments, Campaigns, Ties to the War, Weapons
Tagged Army of Northern Virginia, Army of the Potomac, Burma, Chindwin River, Churchill, engineers, India, Irrawaddy River, James River, Montgomery, Pontoon Bridges, Rhine River, Robert E. Lee, U.S. Grant, William Slim, World War II
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