Showing results for "Mexican American War"
BookChat: James Longstreet and the American Civil War by Harold Knudsen
It’s the 159th anniversary of the battle of Chickamauga—a good showing by Jimmy Longstreet, so a good day to talk a little about a new book by Harold M. Knudsen, James Longstreet and the American Civil War: The Confederate General Who Fought the Next War, published by Savas Beatie. (You can find out more about […]
Read more...Hispanic Americans in the Civil War
In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 – October 15), I’d like to provide our ECW readers with an overview of the contribution that Hispanic Americans made to the Civil War. Across the nation, Americans and immigrants that could claim some lineage to Spain, Portugal, Cuba, Mexico, or any other Central and South American […]
Read more...What If…Zachary Taylor Was Alive During the Civil War?
On July 9, 1850, the 12th president of the U.S. died only 16 months into his first term. But what if Zachary Taylor lived to see the Civil War? Suppose that war did not come to the U.S. sooner had he not died in office. It’s interesting to speculate what role the ex-president and general […]
Read more...Civil War Myth-busting: Did General Lee inherit a genetic marker that made him more aggressive on the battlefield?
If Lee wasn’t a warmonger, why was he so aggressive on the battlefield? One historian suggests that this combative behavior was passed down through his father’s bloodline.[1] Aggression, though, isn’t exactly inherited. Today’s geneticists acknowledge that heredity “may predispose” an individual “towards becoming an aggressive person.”[2] That said, scientists also “stress that . . . […]
Read more...Mexican War Hero Alexander W. Doniphan: One of the Civil War’s Great “What Ifs”
Some of the most thought-provoking “what ifs” of the Civil War involve noteworthy individuals that chose not to or could not participate in the war. Instead of taking up arms for one reason or another, they remained on the sidelines during the conflict. Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan is one such individual. During the Mexican War, […]
Read more...Civil War Fallen Leaders: Major General Henry Halleck
Some of you might be bumfuzzled as to why General Halleck is included in this series. After all, he did not die in the war–but his reputation certainly did! I have done the same things many of you have done–seen Halleck as a sort of military joke. Then I read Walter Stahr’s Stanton and soon revised […]
Read more...Commentary from the Bookshelves: Fateful Lightning: A New History of the Civil War & Reconstruction by Allen Guelzo
Emerging Civil War welcomes guest author Mark Harnitchek… Reading the cover of Fateful Lightning, I was struck by author Allen Guelzo’s subtitle which claims his master narrative is a “new” history of the Civil War and Reconstruction. In a well-trodden field of other highly-regarded Civil War narratives, including James McPherson’s Pulitzer Prize winning Battle Cry […]
Read more...Recruiting The Regiment: Politics by other means – the 36th Illinois Infantry Regiment goes to war
The 36th Illinois is really the closest thing I have to a hometown regiment. Company H of the 36th was recruited in Algonquin Township of McHenry County, Illinois, where I now live, and I find the graves of their veterans everywhere. Since I have lived here nearly forty years, I now regard them as my […]
Read more...On The Eve Of War: Los Angeles, California
On April 24, 1861, a Pony Express Rider carried the news into San Francisco, California: Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina had been fired upon. The account was not unexpected and released a flurry of activity along the coast and through the inland communities of the Golden State. Los Angeles, a growing port in […]
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