Showing results for "First Manassas"
History vs. Memory: Statues of Stonewall Offer a Lesson
Do we erase history when we take down a statue? That’s a question at the core of recent debate concerning Confederate monuments. Personally, I’m not convinced we do, but I do know we erase memory. However, the distinction between “memory” and “history” is vital. To illustrate the difference, I want to harken back to a […]
Read more...BookChat with Leon Reed, author of No Greater Calamity for the Country
I was pleased to spend some time recently with No Greater Calamity for the Country: North-South Conflict, Secession, and the Onset of Civil War, a new release by Leon Reed from Little Falls Books. Leon was kind enough to take a few minutes to chat with me about his book. Do you think the onset of […]
Read more...The Civil War and General Jim Mattis: Command relationship “trust up and down the chain” (Part 3)
This series was inspired by Jim Mattis’s Call Sign Chaos. In Part II, we looked at the relationships between Lincoln, Grant and Sherman to see how trust, respect, and communication aided senior Union leadership in their use of a multi-directional command style from 1864–1865. Now, for the final installment in this series, what about the […]
Read more...JoAnna M. McDonald
JoAnna M. McDonald, Ph.D., is a historian, writer, and public speaker. She grew up a stone’s throw from the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and was blessed with two mentors associated with this institution: Dr. Richard Sommers and Dr. Jay Luvaas, author and former Professor of Military History, at the institute. Sommers and […]
Read more...The Ends of the War in Rectortown
I’ve come to Rectortown, Virginia, looking for one end of the war, but I’ve unexpectedly found several. (The anniversary of one of them is today, April 21, as it happened.) Thick puffs of clouds that look like smoky cotton balls hover over rampant hills, but abundant sunshine somehow spills through. The morning had been rainy, […]
Read more...Book Review: “Meade and Lee at Bristoe Station”
Here’s an understatement: there have been a lot of books written about the American Civil War. Hundreds of them about Gettysburg; thousands about Lincoln; biographies, campaign monographs, and studies about the home front. You name it, there’s probably a plethora of books about it. And yet, think, for a moment, about the literature available pertaining […]
Read more...Symposium Spotlight: Books, Books, Books Part 1
This week our Symposium Spotlight will get you excited about a summer reading list. In part one of this series, our presenters have suggested works that will get you prepared for this year’s theme “Fallen Leaders of the Civil War.” Let us know in the comments if you have read any of these, recommend any, […]
Read more...Ending the War: James Tanner and his Cherished Memories of the Awful Night
James Tanner had never seen Tenth Street so full of people. The crowd packed the street in front of his second-floor apartment. Tanner sat on his porch, looking down into the mass of people. Dignitaries and generals came and went, and the crowd size continued to increase. However, they were “very quiet” but “very much […]
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