Showing results for "Revolutionary War"
Teddy Roosevelt vs. Jeff Davis
One can easily imagine the outcome of an interaction between the ever-brittle Jefferson Davis and the bull-in-a-china-shop robustness of Theodore Roosevelt. While not contemporaries, Roosevelt did have occasion early in his literary career to cross pens with the elder-statesman Davis. The occasion was an article editors had invited Roosevelt to write for the October 1885 […]
Read more...Franklin Martindale, the Burning of Bedford, and the Lee Family, pt. 2
This post is part of a three-part series. See part one here. The day after the sickly, 54-year-old Henrietta Bedinger Lee watched her home be consumed by flames, there was still an angry fire burning in her. While she lashed out at Captain Franklin Martindale, the commanding officer tasked with burning Lee’s home, Bedford, and […]
Read more...Franklin Martindale, the Burning of Bedford, and the Lee Family, pt. 1
By the summer of 1864, war was not new to Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Situated along the Potomac River, it had played host countless times to Union and Confederate troops. The entire town served as a hospital for the Confederate army following the nearby battles of South Mountain and Antietam. But the town’s residents were about […]
Read more...USS Monitor: The Not-So-Super Weapon at Drewry’s Bluff
The revolutionary ironclad USS Monitor became an icon of American ingenuity, industrial strength, and naval prowess following her famous clash with the Rebel ironclad Virginia/Merrimack on March 9, 1862. As with all emergent technologies, however, she had her problems. On the following May 15, 161 years ago today, Monitor joined the ironclad frigate USS Galena […]
Read more...The White Belgian Astronomer Who Became a Black American Civil Rights Leader
Historians of the American Civil War and Reconstruction enjoy a seemingly limitless reservoir of colorful characters and their compelling stories. Biographies of senior military leaders, government officials, and notable activists abound, alongside hundreds of B-List personalities, whose connection to key people and events thrust them into the spotlight momentarily. But brief accounts of many thousands […]
Read more...Blood and Buttons: Charles Anderson at Stones River (Part Two of Two)
Anderson’s letter continues with his report of action during the initial Confederate assault of December 31, 1862: The battle began slightly on Tuesday afternoon. The Armies slept under arms face to face –in 200 yds- Wednesday morning they surprised us – drove in the other two Brig almost without a contest- captured 2 batteries without […]
Read more...Blood and Buttons: Charles Anderson at Stones River (Part One of Two)
Historians are like wildcatters. They usually drill hundreds of dry holes before they hit black gold. Only rarely does Lady Luck deal us a handful of aces. Such was the case when Rob Tolley, an anthropologist from Indiana University, stumbled upon a huge trove of letters, photographs, diaries, and other memorabilia at a remote ranch […]
Read more...Mourning the Dead Union: William R. Smith and the Alabama Secession Convention
William R. Smith wrote his wife on January 12, 1861, the day after Alabama’s state convention passed an ordinance of secession. “The sternest men have been weeping like little children,” he moaned. “I have seen Mr. Jemison crying!” [i] Smith and Robert Jemison, Jr. were the most outspoken Unionist delegates at the Montgomery conclave. In […]
Read more...Julius Peter Garesché’s Anonymous, And Anomalous, Fame As An Author
Julius Peter Garesché was a Civil War officer who literally lost his head in the Battle of Stones River, fulfilling a prophecy that he would die in his first battle. A friend of General William Rosecrans since West Point days, Garesché had helped persuade Rosecrans to join the Catholic Church. As commander of the Army […]
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