Showing results for "tales from the tombstone"

From the Stone Wall to a Shad Bake

This is another post in the series “Tales From the Tombstone.” George Edward Pickett was ecstatic on the morning of July 3, 1863. His division, which had missed the fighting at Chancellorsville in May and had been way in the rear during the first two days at Gettysburg, was about to lead the decisive charge on […]

Read more...

“Either a Traitor or the Most Incompetent Officer in the Confederacy”

This is another installment in the “Tales From the Tombstone” series John Clifford Pemberton, to Civil War enthusiasts, conjures up one word: Vicksburg. On July 4, 1863, the Confederate lieutenant general surrendered the “Gibraltar of the West.” With the loss of Vicksburg, including the approximately 30,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered, the mighty Mississippi River now flowed […]

Read more...

First Cousin, Once Removed: Edwin Gray Lee

This is the third installment of the “Tales from the Tombstone” series  His grandfather  was Edmund Jennings Lee, Sr. a brother of “Light Horse Harry” Lee. Hisfather stayed out of politics altogether. With a last name of Lee and a Confederate general, he would probably be the least known of the “Lee’s” in that regard. […]

Read more...

Westmoreland’s Other Confederate General

Part two in the series “Tales From the Tombstone” In Westmoreland County on the historic Northern Neck of Virginia boasts of being the birthplace of a few famous persons in American history. George Washington, James Monroe, Richard Henry Lee, and the other Lee; Robert E. Lee. Robert E. Lee, however, was not the only Confederate general […]

Read more...

Fighting For Both: Frank Crawford Armstrong

First part of the series “Tales From the Tombstone“ Frank Crawford Armstrong became a brigadier general in Confederate on January 20, 1863 after extensive service in the Trans-Mississippi and Western theaters. After a myriad of assignments, from serving on the staff of Generals James McIntosh and Ben McCulloch until their deaths at the Battle of […]

Read more...

The Sound and the Fury: William Faulkner’s Great-Grandfather

“I want to be a writer like my great granddaddy.” – William Faulkner William Clark Falkner was a lawyer, farmer, businessman, politician, soldier, poet and great-grandfather to one of the greatest writers in American literary history. Born September 25, 1897, in New Albany, Mississippi, the writer William Faulkner never knew his great-grandfather. The young Faulkner […]

Read more...

Space, “Western Theater” not the Final Frontier

(Editor’s Note: The ECW YouTube page will feature videos from Phill’s trip over the next few weeks, kicked off by this discussion, which is also available as an ECW Podcast.) Recently, I had the opportunity to visit a few battlefields that had been on the old bucket list. Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and Vicksburg. Three battlefields, […]

Read more...

The “Mythical” Martin Scott

Emerging Civil War welcomes back Frank Jastrzembski Not many army officers serving in the U.S.-Mexican War had as much respect and experience as Lt. Colonel Martin Scott of Vermont. Scott established a solid reputation over three decades of army service for his valor, grit, and love for his country – not to mention his peculiar and […]

Read more...

A Soldier to the Last: The Exceptionally Sad Story of Private Jesse H. Hutchins

As I was condensing my large photo file of Civil War battlefields, I came across a picture I had taken at Appomattox Court House of the tombstone or Private Jesse H. Hutchins, of Company A, 5th Alabama Battalion. Hutchins joined the Confederate army five days after the bombardment of Fort Sumter and remained in service […]

Read more...