Showing results for "First Manassas"
The “Emerging Civil War Series” Series: A Want of Vigilance
Researching and writing a book about a “lost battle” is always a challenge. As you start to find a wealth of research and information, you wonder, “Why is it lost?” In the case of Bristoe Station, the “loss” comes because in the public narrative of the Civil War. It is skipped over between Lee’s loss […]
Read more...Fallen Leaders: Ulric Dahlgren
ECW welcomes guest author Brian D. Kowell The young amputee was still unaccustomed to his new wooden leg on February 18, 1864, as the train pulled into Brandy Station, a stop on the Orange & Alexandria railroad in Virginia just west of the Rappahannock River. Twenty-year old Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, one of the youngest to attain […]
Read more...ECW BookChat: A Fine Introduction to Battle by Joe Owen
I was pleased to spend some time recently with a new book by Joseph Owen, A Fine Introduction to Battle: Hood’s Texas Brigade at the Battle of Eltham’s Landing, May 7, 1862, published by Fox Run Publishing (find out more about it here). CM: The book is called “A Fine Introduction to Battle,” but readers […]
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...Under Fire: “You Did Not Wear The Marks Of The Muddy Trenches”
In May 1901, veterans of the 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery journeyed to Central Virginia, returning to the battleground at Harris Farm, north of Spotsylvania Court House. Thirty-seven years early these men had come under battle fire for the first time, despite the majority of them enlisting in 1861 and 1862. Called from the Defenses of […]
Read more...Under Fire: “A Scene of Consternation and Confusion” according to Sam Watkins
On July 21, 1861, Sam Watkins of “Co. Aytch” in the 1st Tennessee Infantry Regiment sat on a train “a hundred miles” from the fight along Bull Run Creek near Manassas. In fact, the locomotive pulled his regiment into Manassas Junction at night after the Confederates had won their first major victory and sent the […]
Read more...Antietam: A Tactical Union Victory
The Battle of Antietam was a key turning point in the American Civil War and American history. In short, it turned back Robert E. Lee’s first campaign north of the Potomac River and led to the issuance of the Preliminary—and then, final—Emancipation Proclamation. However, many historians and students of the war refer to the battle […]
Read more...Week In Review: August 29-September 5, 2021
Sunday, August 29: In the evening, guest author Doug Ullman, Jr. shared about three accounts of the Battle of Second Bull Run. Monday, August 30: Question of the Week asked which Bull Run/Manassas fight you prefer to study. Kevin Pawlak posted a chronology of the Confederacy’s 1862 counterstrokes.
Read more...The Most Devastating Confederate Attack?
Chancellorsville is often seen as one of the Army of Northern Virginia’s greatest attacks, achieving a victory against overwhelming odds, yet I would argue that rivaling that is the one launched on the third day of fighting at Second Manassas. Although not involving as many troops, the magnitude of the attack violently and abruptly altered […]
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