Showing results for "Appomattox"
Stones River and Civil War Memory
Near the end of the war, during Ulysses S. Grant’s last meeting with Abraham Lincoln, the two had a particularly interesting conversation. Lincoln described to Grant and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles his dream of an indestructible ship, which had preceded many great victories. He included among these William S. Rosecrans’ victory at Stones […]
Read more...Loyal Union Citizens and the Summer of 1864
ECW welcomes guest author M. Keith Harris The funny thing about turning points in the popular memory of the Civil War is that folks tend to think of them in relation to certain Union victory. I suppose that makes some sense on the surface. We all know how things turned out, and so we look […]
Read more...The Nashville Petition of 1865 and the Promise of Reconstruction: Part I
ECW welcomes guest author Heath Anderson “Whether freeman or slaves the colored race in this country have always looked upon the United States as the Promised Land of Universal freedom, and no earthly temptation has been strong enough to induce us to rebel against it.” These words were written to a convention of white Unionists […]
Read more...A Tale of Two Tombstones
ECW welcomes guest author Kevin C. Donovan During a recent first-time visit to Chattanooga’s Confederate Cemetery, I found a solitary grave situated in a far corner of the cemetery. The curious grave has two tombstones. One lies flat on the ground; the second stands upright. The flat stone, weather-beaten and clearly older of the two, […]
Read more...Unhappy Catastrophes: The American Revolution in Central New Jersey
Unhappy Catastrophes:The American Revolution in CentralNew Jersey, 1776-1782 by Robert M. DunkerlySavas Beatie, 2022192 pp.; 150 images, 10 mapsISBN: 978-1-61121-527-4(click here to order) About the Book “The Importance of the North River (the Hudson), and the sanguine wishes of all to prevent the enemy from possessing it, have been the causes of this unhappy catastrophe.” […]
Read more...Ironclads vs. Fort: Drewry’s Bluff and Fort Darling
On a steamy Virginia day this summer, I visited the site along the west bank of the James River where a small-scale but significant engagement took place on May 15, 1862, during the Virginia Peninsula campaign. Fort Darling on Drewry’s Bluff is a lovely, isolated spot any time of year encompassing 42 wooded acres of […]
Read more...“Here I am . . . a Prisoner:” The Capture of Walt Whitman’s Brother
Siblings sometimes produce interesting relationships. In many cases, the younger moves through childhood and into the teen years aspiring to be like the elder. I know that, personally, although my older brother and I fought like cats and dogs growing up, a large part of the conflict was due to my petty jealousy of his […]
Read more...Fighting in Slippers: Longstreet at Antietam
In September 1862, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River and into Maryland for the first time. It was an effort to capitalize on a summer of stunning Confederate successes in the Eastern Theater, spanning from the Shenandoah Valley to the James River Peninsula to northern Virginia. […]
Read more...Home Libraries (Revisited): Building a Library From Scratch
During the height of the Covid pandemic when historians were sequestered indoors, a series hit the blog that shared the Home Libraries of the ECW team, full of pictures and stories of massive or humble book collections. For a recap of that series, visit HERE. Well, I wasn’t part of the team at the time, […]
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