Showing results for "From the Tombstone"
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...Not Written in Letters of Blood: Tullahoma
On July 7, 1863, William Rosecrans, in reply to a telegram from Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, wrote: “I beg in [sic] behalf of this army that the War Department may not overlook so great an event because it is not written in letters of blood.” Rosecrans was referring to the recent operations of the […]
Read more...Elation and Frustration: Rescuing Mexican War and Civil War Graves
I established Shrouded Veterans in September 2019 to rescue as many neglected graves of Mexican War and Civil War veterans as I possibly could. The idea to start this organization surfaced when I realized how many of these soldiers are buried in unmarked graves or their headstones are indecipherable. It’s quite shocking, actually. Consequently, I […]
Read more...The Civil War and General Jim Mattis: A Closer Look at Call Sign Chaos (Part 1)
The first time I heard Jim Mattis speak was in 2007. As an Education Director for the U.S. Marine Corps, I attended then Lieutenant General Mattis’ seminar on the 1st Marine Division at the First Battle of Fallujah (2003). This was a Marine lecture—interactive, with “oorahs” and “yeah, let us see that video clip again”! […]
Read more...Honoring General Milton S. Littlefield: The Right Thing to Do?
A few months ago, if I already don’t have enough on my plate, I decided to establish Shrouded Veterans with the goal to properly honor Mexican War and American Civil War soldiers buried in unmarked graves. One of these projects has led me to a question that I never thought I would find myself asking: […]
Read more...Saving History Saturday: One Community’s Effort to Honor a USCT Hero
Tucked away in the historic village of Sandwich, Massachusetts, is a worn-down headstone. This is no ordinary gravesite, though. In fact, it is the resting place of a Civil War hero – Sandwich’s only known African American Union soldier. While enslaved in Louisiana, Pvt. Joseph Wilson joined the 1st Louisiana Native Guard (US) in September […]
Read more...A Conversation with CVBT’s New Executive Director (part two)
(part two of four) I’m chatting this week with my good friend, Terry Rensel, who’s been hired as the new executive director of the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust (CVBT). CVBT, one of the country’s premier regional preservation organizations, focuses on battlefields around Fredericksburg, Virginia. Chris Mackowski: Just the other day, I had a conversation with […]
Read more...Fort Monroe: History & Personal Reflections
Emerging Civil War welcomes guest author Michael Nelson. The Fort’s Story I spent nearly two years working at Fort Monroe National Monument as a communications assistant in the Casemate Museum. The museum covers over 400 years of history at Fort Monroe, too much for anyone to know in full. Still, I had to know a […]
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