Showing results for "John Bell Hood"

Week In Review: July 6-12, 2020

This week we had to announce the postponement of our 2020 Symposium, but then there has been lots of history to consider and remind us that the work goes on, even if it’s not in person this year. We hope you’ll enjoy this week’s review of the blog content — book reviews, battle perspectives, thoughts […]

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Gettysburg Off the Beaten Path: The Bliss Farm

Part of a series. Just like many farms on the Gettysburg Battlefield, the roughly 60-acre farm of William and Adeline Bliss lay in the no-mans land of the Gettysburg battlefield, and in the midst of the battle, the Bliss barn and home were deliberately set ablaze.* Making the farmstead a battle casualty in its own […]

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The Civil War Versions of “NUTS”!

Welcome back, JoAnna M. McDonald History does not quite repeat itself in the literal sense, but it does rhyme.   For example, cheeky responses to surrender demands are apparently a tradition in American military history (and in military history in general).  The most famous reply to an enemy surrender request occurred during the Battle of the […]

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Forgetting Nashville

Among the twenty-five bloodiest battles of the American Civil War, Nashville—fought December 15-16, 1864—stands as among the most “forgotten.” Only two major works, by Stanley F. Horn and James Lee McDonough, have chronicled the engagement. The reasons for this are multi-faceted, and do much to explain the complications of Civil War memory and historiography. On […]

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Gettysburg Off the Beaten Path: The Rock of the 40th New York

Part of a series. When you first hear the nickname of the 40th New York Infantry, you might think that the regiment was filled with musicians marching off to serve in the Union Army. “The Mozart Regiment” has a nice ring to it, no pun intended. I have heard some buffs and tourists regaling others […]

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Saving History Saturday: The Plank Farm at Gettysburg Has Been Saved

Just this week, the American Battlefield Trust and the Land Conservancy of Adams County announced they have officially saved the 143-acre Plank Farm at Gettysburg. Over the course of the three-day battle in July 1863, troops of both armies moved through the property near Seminary Ridge.

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Yellowhammers and Environmentalism: Following the Path of Law’s Alabama Brigade to Gettysburg (part two)

This post continues my story of following Law’s Brigade and delves into the unit’s background. Joe Loehle and I were at our starting off point, Raccoon Ford, where the area had layers of historical depth. We were where Evander McIver Law’s newly-formed Alabama Brigade was posted in early June 1863. I wanted to explore the […]

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Yellow Fever and Reconciliation

Among the historical memories that still haunt New Orleans are those of the yellow fever outbreaks of the 1800s. As a descendant of Irishmen, who suffered disproportionately from the disease, I heard my grandmother speak of the last few outbreaks of the 1800s. She did not witness them, but her parents and grandparents did. The […]

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Stout Hearts: Attempting to Feed Both Civilians and Soldiers

ECW welcomes Katie Brown to share Part 2 of her research. (Find Part 1 here) “The provision blockade is nothing; we shall have wheat, corn, and beef beyond measure…,” Sergeant S.R. Cockrill of Tennessee assured a friend in June 1861, “Fear nothing, success is certain.” [1] Despite what we know today about hunger’s prevalence in […]

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