Sean Michael Chick

Sean Michael Chick graduated from University of New Orleans with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Communications and from Southeastern Louisiana University with a Master of Arts in History. He currently works in New Orleans, leading historic tours of his hometown. He is also a boardgame designer, concentrating on the period of Western warfare from 1685-1866. His main American Civil War research interests include Shiloh, the Army of Tennessee, New Orleans during the Civil War, P.G.T. Beauregard, the Petersburg Campaign, and Civil War tactics in relation to linear tactics from 1685-1866. In addition, Sean is also a frequent contributor to the YouTube channels, Thersites the Historian, Forgotten Battles, and he edits Dancing Sandwiches: Daniel Chick’s Bad Movie Blog.

A full listing of Sean’s Emerging Civil War articles can be found here.

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Sean is also a member of the Emerging Civil War Speakers Bureau. His available presentations are listed below:

Shiloh: The First Great Battle

The veterans of Fort Donelson said it was nothing compared to Shiloh. The battle surpassed everything before it in scale and slaughter. It also left behind a trail of controversies over the Ulysses S. Grant being surprised, Don Carlos Buell’s role in the battle, Lew Wallace’s march to Shiloh, P.G.T. Beauregard’s battle plan, halt order, and actions on April 7, and so much more. It became the battle by which all the veterans compared all future engagements.

 

Louisiana Regiments at Shiloh

Over 6,000 Louisiana men fought at Shiloh, more than at any other battle of the war. They were the most diverse regiments in the Confederacy. Some took their orders in Creole French, while other units were made up almost entirely of Irish, German, and other nationalities. Cajuns and men from the pinewood region were also common. The regiments included the wealthy elite and dockworkers from the dangerous wharfs of the Mississippi River. They also had diverse experiences at Shiloh, including many friendly fire incidents and hopeless charges. These regiments formed the corps of 2 brigades, which saw service on both sides of the Mississippi.

The Battle of Petersburg, June 15-18, 1864

The final act of Grant’s Overland Campaign was his drive to capture Petersburg. Despite having a numerical superiority that at one point was 5 to 1, Grant and his generals failed to take the city in four days of heavy fighting, resulting in a long siege that put Abraham Lincoln’s reelection in jeopardy. The reasons for the defeat were exhaustion from hard fighting, a decimated officer corps, the extreme heat, and the generalship of P.G.T. Beauregard.

“They Came Only To Die” The Battle of Nashville

On the cold hills south of Nashville, an ad hoc Union army led by George Thomas smashed John Bell Hood’s Army of Tennessee. The battle and subsequent pursuit destroyed the Confederacy’s western field army as a major force. Nashville, combined with Sherman’s March and Appomattox, ensured the Civil War would end before summer 1865. Often forgotten due to Ulysses Grant’s antipathy towards Thomas and the fact that most of the battlefield is under suburban sprawl, Nashville was decisive and marked Thomas as one of the war’s top tacticians.

Ulysses S. Grant as Military Commander

Proclaimed as either a drunk butcher or a military genius, Grant has always attracted praise and condemnation. Lost is the nuance of Grant’s personality and abilities. He combined a good grasp of strategy and operational maneuver with a dogged determination. In terms of logistics and his weakness for alcohol, he improved as the war went on. Yet he was tactically deficient, preferred loyal commanders to capable ones, and lacked battlefield charisma. The portrait emerges of a highly talented but flawed commander, worthy of praise and study but not the current rash of hagiography.

The American Civil War in the Age of Horse & Musket

Often thought of as the first “modern” war, the American Civil War was among the last in which linear tactics were used. Only in 1866 were rapid-fire weapons used in mass in the Austro-Prussian War, which led to a true revolution in tactics. The battles of the Civil War had more in common with Fontenoy than with Verdun, making it less a transition and more the last bow of a mode of fighting that had dominated the western world since roughly 1685.

Creole General: P.G.T. Beauregard

Few Civil War generals attracted as much debate and controversy as Pierre Gustav Toutant Beauregard. He combined brilliance and charisma with arrogance and histrionics. He was a Catholic Creole in a society dominated by white Protestants, which made him appear exotic next to the likes of Albert Sidney Johnston and Robert E. Lee. He was reviled by Jefferson Davis and often mocked by Mary Chesnut in her diary. Yet he was popular with his soldiers and subordinates. Outside of Lee, he was the South’s most consistently successful army commander. Yet he lived his life in the shadow of his one major defeat: Shiloh. After the war, he was a successful railroad executive and took a stand against racism, violence, and corruption during Reconstruction. Yet he was ousted from both railroads he oversaw, and his foray into Reconstruction politics came to naught. His was a life of contradictions and dreams unrealized.

New Orleans During the Civil War (walking tour in New Orleans)

No other Southern city was as large, diverse, and prosperous as New Orleans. As such, the war experience was varied and the population was divided. This tour of the city covers major events from the granulation of sugar cane to secession, capture, and occupation. The city’s varied and complicated wartime experience is covered, as is the fate of its men who wore blue and gray and went off to fight in faraway places.

A Walk Among the Tombs (walking tour in New Orleans)

New Orleans is known for its cemeteries, and those related to the Civil War are no exception. No other city save Richmond has so many Confederate generals and soldiers buried in the city, although several notable Union soldiers are also entombed. This tour is flexible and can cover burials in Metairie, St. Louis No. 3, and Greenwood Cemeteries. Among the burials discussed are P.G.T. Beauregard, John Bell Hood, Richard Taylor, William Mumford, P.B.S. Pinchback, and society tombs for veterans of the Confederate army.

Battle of New Orleans (driving and walking tour in New Orleans)

Andrew Jackson’s victory in New Orleans set him on the path to the presidency and ensured the War of 1812 ended when it did. This driving tour visits the sites of the British landing, the December 23 battle, a walking tour of the battlefield, and ends with the French Quarter sites associated with the battle.

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Publications

Books

• The Battle of Petersburg, June 15-18, 1864 (Potomac Books, 2015)
• Grant’s Left Hook: The Bermuda Hundred Campaign, May 5-June 7, 1864 (Savas Beatie, 2021)
  
• Dreams of Victory: P.G.T. Beauregard in the Civil War (Savas Beatie, 2022)
• They Came Only to Die: The Battle of Nashville, December 15-16, 1864 (Savas Beatie, 2023)
• A Grand Opening Squandered: The Battle for Petersburg: June 15-18, 1864 (Savas Beatie, 2025)
• The Shiloh Campaign, 1862: Battle for the Heartland (Casemate, 2025)

Contributor

• The Mexican-American War Experiences of Twelve Civil War Generals (Louisiana State University Press, 2024)

Magazines

• “Opportunity Knocks” in America’s Civil War (2022)
  
• “Beauregard” in North & South (2024)

Board Games

• Across Four Oceans
• Hold the Line: Frederick’s War
  
• The Beast at the Gates: Drewry’s Bluff 1864
  
• Hell in the Pacific: Plan Orange 1931 and 1935
  
• Nine Years: The War of the Grand Alliance 1688-1697
  
• Horse & Musket (game series)
  
• Cruel Morning: Shiloh 1862
  
• Pemberton & Grant: Vicksburg Campaign of 1863
  
• All for the Regiment
  
• Rally ‘Round the Flag: Battles of Perryville and Stones River
  
• Cradle of Civilization