Showing results for "Wilderness"
Book Review: A Fire in the Wilderness
A Fire in the Wilderness: The First Battle Between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee By John Reeves Pegasus Books, 2021, $28.95 hardcover Reviewed by Kevin Pawlak Of all the awful places created by the American Civil War, the horrors of the Wilderness rank high. The intense fighting between the war’s two best remembered […]
Read more...Gordon’s Flank Attack Trail (Wilderness Battlefield)
Inspired by Chris Mackowski’s “virtual tour” of the Chancellorsville History Trail on the blog in 2020, I’m inviting you to “take a hike” on the Gordon Flank Attack Trail on The Wilderness Battlefield on this battle anniversary day. The trail begins at the NPS Contact Station/Shelter for the Wilderness Battlefield just off Route 20 which […]
Read more...“Flat” Wilderness?
I’m always grateful for an opportunity to see a battlefield I know well with new eyes. Adam H. Petty’s book The Battle of the Wilderness in Myth and Memory: Reconsidering Virginia’s Most Notorious Civil War Battlefield (LSU Press, 2019), which offered a ton of cool stuff to think about. I reviewed the book for LSU’s […]
Read more...Preserving a Key Turning Point at the Wilderness
I’m pleased to be helping the American Battlefield Trust (ABT) and the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust (CVBT) raise money to preserve a piece of the Wilderness battlefield. ABT asked me to do a little battlefielding on behalf of the project last week, which centers on ground first occupied by Confederate Brig. Gen. Cullen Battle’s Alabama […]
Read more...Saving History Saturday: 36 Acres of The Wilderness Battlefield Ready For Preservation
Central Virginia Battlefields Trust is continuing a long-time partnership with American Battlefield Trust to assist with the final fundraising to save 36 acres of The Wilderness Battlefield! In 2019, the American Battlefield Trust began preservation work on an important 36-acre tract on the Wilderness Battlefield. With the closing deadline looming on April 2, 2021, there’s […]
Read more...BookChat with Adam Petty, Author of The Battle of the Wilderness in Myth and Memory
I was pleased to spend some time recently with a new book by historian Adam Petty, The Battle of the Wilderness in Myth and Memory (LSU Press, 2019). I reviewed the booked for the spring 2020 edition of Louisiana State University Press’s Civil War Book Review (read the review here). Chris Mackowski: What drew you […]
Read more...Getting Un-lost in the Wilderness
As I have gotten older, I have become a much more tactile person when it comes to understanding history. I still greatly enjoy a good book, and sometimes that’s the only way that you can experience it, but it has become more important to me to walk a piece of ground, be able to read […]
Read more...“Boys like me should have been at home with their mothers”: Private William Perry at the Wilderness
William Wallace Perry did not stand an imposing figure on a battlefield like his namesake. The fourteen year old barely fit into the uniform he was assigned. It is unclear how the youngster managed to escape detection when he joined the army. As a historian I’m grateful he did, as William kept a fantastically detailed […]
Read more...Through An Artist’s Eyes: Battle of the Wilderness
May 5, 2019 marks the 155th Anniversary since the beginning of the Battle of the Wilderness. The first fierce battle of the Overland Campaign, and a conflict that turned into a blazing inferno as undergrowth and trees caught fire. Photographs from the war period show the war’s casualties and destruction, but due to slow photographic […]
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