Showing results for "George B. McClellan"
Lieutenant James W. Dixon: The Baby Before the Breakthrough
I recently found some unique biographical information on a Sixth Corps staff officer in the form of his mother’s journal from the first year of his life. With a twenty-month-old of my own at home right now, the entries certainly resonated more than they would have before… even if this was not quite what I […]
Read more...Charles Sumner and “the oblivion of past differences,” Part 1
Charles Sumner, the antislavery Republican Senator from Massachusetts, supported a strong Northern war effort, espoused radical ideas about Reconstruction, and promoted his equal-rights racial views in the face of great hostility. It sounds implausible that Sumner would want to coddle unreconstructed Confederates or insult Union soldiers. Let us look at a key sectional-reconciliation idea of […]
Read more...“You Might Not Like the Guy”: An English Professor Reads the Journals of Charles Wainwright
ECW welcomes guest author R. Michael Gosselin If you’ve watched many of the videos from the American Battlefield Trust, you know that Chief Historian Garry Adelman rarely has an unenthusiastic word to say about anything or anybody not named “Dan Sickles.” He’s like Shakespeare’s Henry V: “A largess universal like the sun / His liberal […]
Read more...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...An Update and Correction on Edmund Clarence Stedman
ECW welcomes back guest author Max Longley Here is a brief update to my recent George Gordon post – the abolitionist imprisoned for attacks on U. S. marshals who was released from prison based on a Presidential pardon in 1862. In that post, I erred by misreading a signature – an error which Professor Jonathan […]
Read more...Loyalty & The Battle of Kernstown
Loyal – unswerving in allegiance[i] The battle of Kernstown, fought on March 23, 1862, resulted in a Confederate retreat under the cover of darkness and a scored victory for the Union in the Shenandoah Valley. “Stonewall” Jackson’s gamble to regain Winchester had faltered, and he suffered a battlefield defeat. Though the Federals telegraphed proud reports […]
Read more...Week In Review: January 10-16, 2022
Treason? Blockade Runners? Interviews? Fallen leaders? Check all the boxes! We’ve had some unique topics featured on the blog in the last week and here’s the complete list:
Read more...“We Made A Charge”: The 17th Mississippi Infantry at Ball’s Bluff
It was a battle that wasn’t really supposed to happen, and one combat that is often overlooked, though it had notable effects in 1861. A Union reconnaissance mission gone wrong launched the Battle of Ball’s Bluff on October 21, 1861, and throughout the day, the Confederates hurried more regiments to scene of action, determined to […]
Read more...Fallen Leaders: General Max Weber at Antietam
One late spring day in 2013 a farmer plowing his field in Martin County, Minnesota noticed a small white porcelain object poking out of a furrow. He stopped the tractor, climbed down, and retrieved the curious artifact, which was slightly larger than his thumb. It was in remarkably good condition with a full color image […]
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