Showing results for "North Anna"
The Last Road North
The Last Road North was a long one. The latest book in the Emerging Civil War Series appeared on my porch this week: The Last Road North: A Guide to the Gettysburg Campaign, 1863 by Rob Orrison and Dan Welch. Nearly two years in the making—which is long by ECWS standards—the book traveled a long […]
Read more...Grant: “I should change Spotts if I was able, and could improve N. Anna and Cold Harbor.”
Cold Harbor remains a central lynchpin in anti-Grant mythology and a fascinating story in its own right. On June 3, 1864, alone, Grant lost nearly 4,000 men in a half an hour as the result of a single fruitless charge. Altogether, he’d lose nearly 13,000 men in those days around Richmond; the Confederates some 4,500. […]
Read more...Old and Timeworn: Sherman’s Armies Reach Fayetteville, North Carolina
On March 11, 1865 Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s army group entered Fayetteville, North Carolina. The evening before, Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee’s Corps had abandoned the city. Hardee left Lt. Gen. Wade Hampton’s cavalry behind as a rear guard. Lightly skirmishing with the lead elements of the Union column, Hampton’s troopers set fire to […]
Read more...Preview of Trouble to Come: Secretary of War Edwin Stanton Visits Sherman in Savannah
Despite his Brother Sen. John Sherman’s assurance that Sec. of War Edwin Stanton was “your fast friend, and was when you had fewer,” Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman was unsettled by Stanton’s unannounced visit to Savannah in January, 1865. With his army recuperating from its three-hundred mile adventure marching to the sea, Sherman was busy resupplying […]
Read more...Prelude to a Star: The Urbanna Raid
part two in a series The Army of the Potomac was in disarray when George Custer returned from Washington on May 5, 1863. Early that morning, the army began their retreat to the north bank of the Rappahannock River. This maneuver effectively brought an end to the Chancellorsville campaign and notched another defeat in the […]
Read more...John Brown Gordon and the Self-Immolation of Lee’s Shattered Corps
Doing some work on an Overland Campaign project this past weekend, I was once again reminded why I find John Brown Gordon’s memoirs so entertaining. His writing style is so over the top, nearly breathless in its sweeping delivery, that I can’t help but chuckle. “Hyperbole” doesn’t seem big enough to do it justice. Kris […]
Read more...Book Review: From the Wilderness to Appomattox: The Fifteenth New York Heavy Artillery in the Civil War
From the Wilderness to Appomattox: The Fifteenth New York Heavy Artillery in the Civil War. By Edward A. Altemos. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2023. Softcover, 424 pp. $39.95. Reviewed by Tim Talbott Capt. Alfred Lee of the 82nd Ohio Infantry wrote to the Delaware, Ohio Gazette soon after the battle of Chancellorsville, blaming […]
Read more...Sealing the Cork: The Forgotten Battles of Foster’s Place and Ware Bottom Church
ECW welcomes guest author Aaron Stoyack Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant initiated a multi-pronged campaign in the spring of 1864 to destroy the Confederacy. The Army of the Potomac commanded by Major General George Gordon Meade undertook one of the two main thrusts, marching toward Richmond against General Robert E. Lee and the Army of […]
Read more...BookChat: From the Wilderness to Appomattox by Edward Altemos
The 15th New York Heavy Artillery regiment saw its initial service in the Wilderness as part of Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign. Author Edward “Andy” Altemos has written a new history of the regiment, From the Wilderness to Appomattox: The Fifteenth New Your Heavy Artillery in the Civil War (Kent State, 2023). I recently had […]
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