Showing results for "Dranesville"

Dranesville: A Troubled Town, Part 3

Part three in a series. Part One is here, and Part Two is here.  War had come, and the people of Herkimer County, New York answered. Located towards the center of the state, the New Yorkers soon heard of Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion. “This was stimulated by sermons bristling […]

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Dranesville, a Troubled Town: Part 2

Part One Can Be Found Here. The white men of Virginia went to the polls on a warm May 23, 1861 to vote on the secession referendum passed a month earlier by a delegates’ convention. By the time the ballots were counted, the secessionists outvoted the Unionists by almost 100,000 ballots.[1] In Fairfax County there […]

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Dranesville: A Troubled Town, Part 1

The 1st Pennsylvania Reserve Cavalry rode into Dranesville just past 5 a.m. on November 27, 1861, two hours before sunrise. Having left their camps not far from Langley, Virginia the previous night, the Pennsylvanians split up and swept into the town to carry out their mission. Knocking down doors, the troopers sought out their assignments: […]

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13th Pennsylvania Reserves, “Bucktails”: Forever Proud

Deer season has come and gone in most states, I think. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania. Here, the white tail deer roam through the meadows, forests . . . and backyards. Even though I no longer live in the north, when I see hunters don their gear, I think of the Pennsylvania soldiers who […]

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2024 Year in Review: The Emerging Civil War Podcast

We had a year of sensational growth for the Emerging Civil War Podcast. We started 2024 by dropping an episode every other week or so, but we had so many  projects in the works and so many cool people we wanted to talk to that we soon started popping out episodes more frequently. We made […]

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Our Favorite Books: “Which is your favorite of your books?”

As we’ve been talking about favorite books here at ECW, I’ve admired how readily everyone heaps praise on the work done by other authors even as they keep quiet about their own great work. Being a generally modest bunch, no one’s wanted to cheerlead for themselves. So I told them I’d do it for them. […]

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General R. E. Lee’s Maryland Campaign: Objective #1

After his victory at Second Manassas in late August, 1862, Gen. R. E. Lee determined to take his army north across the Potomac. He had several military objectives for operating in Maryland—and if the “results” justified it, going into Pennsylvania.[1] His primary goal was to seek out and engage the enemy in one last decisive […]

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Symposium Spotlight: A Look Back at “1864: The War in the Balance”

Our Tenth Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge is in the bag, and we’re already looking forward to next year! Our 11th Annual Symposium will be August 1–3, 2025, at Stevenson Ridge in Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia. Our theme will be “The Cities of War,” with keynote speaker Harold Holzer and a Sunday […]

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April 2024 Emerging Civil War Newsletter Now Available

We have a ton of news in the latest issue of the Emerging Civil War newsletter. Did you get your copy? In the April 2024 issue: We announced some important staffing changes, with new responsibilities for Neil Chatelain, Patrick Kelly-Fischer, and Brian Swartz; We introduce our new social media manager, Darren Rawlings; We celebrate exciting […]

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