Showing results for "First Manassas"
Returning Yell for Yell: The Rebel Yell’s Antebellum Origins
Today, we are pleased to welcome guest author Matthew Guillen. The Rebel Yell was much romanticized during and after the war. Despite the popular belief in the Yell’s death with the death of the Confederacy, it also enjoyed wide currency after the war, as discussed in Craig A. Warren’s 2014, The Rebel Yell: A Cultural […]
Read more...Sergeant Kirkland: Warrior Angel at Marye’s Heights
On the night of December 13, 1862, the Battle of Fredericksburg was over, but the soldiers didn’t know it yet. All they knew was the bone-chilling cold, the shrieks and moans of the wounded, the sweeping wind, and the Northern lights dancing in the sky above them. While the battle had unfolded with Union attacks along […]
Read more...The Winchester Photograph: Portrait of A General’s Character
Today, we are pleased to welcome back guest author Sarah Kay Bierle There were only two photos of General “Stonewall” Jackson taken during the war. One photograph was made during April 1863, shortly before his final battle at Chancellorsville and shows the general in profile, looking quiet and stern. The first wartime photograph was taken […]
Read more...Mediocre to Average? William T. Sherman as a Battlefield Commander
The subject of the post is a question that has been puzzling me for quite awhile. Indeed, one could consider this a Question of the Week, but on steroids. Was William T. Sherman, a man who remains in the pantheon of the great Union commanders, just an average combat officer? For certain, Sherman never really […]
Read more...The Ken Burns Effect
Lest anyone underestimate the importance of Ken Burns’ The Civil War, take a second to study this graph:
Read more...The Man Behind the Last Confederate Flag – Captain Arthur L. Rogers
With all the focus lately on the flags of the Confederacy, I thought I would share the story of the man who designed the last Confederate flag. I first came across Captain Arthur Rogers on one of my walks around the Middleburg Cemetery. Most local history minded people knew of Rogers’ involvement in the locally […]
Read more...Some Reflections on William Tecumseh Sherman
I must admit, it is exceptionally difficult to reflect on William Tecumseh Sherman. No question, he was one of the most enigmatic individuals of the American Civil War. The mere mention of his name in general company today, 150 years after the end of the conflict, still sparks an intense discussion. More often than not […]
Read more...From the ECW Archives—A Grand Charge: Emory Upton’s Assault on the Mule Shoe Salient, Part 1
A small group of officers stood at the tree line. To their immediate front, resting across an open field lay fresh mounds of earth—earthworks constructed by the Confederate infantry. Each man studied the ground intently, some conversing in hushed tones. Others stood silently, chewing on cigars, taking in the scene before them. Cautiously, as the conversations dissipated […]
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