Showing results for "First Manassas"
American Battlefield Trust Preserves the Heart of Williamsburg’s Civil War Battlefield
The American Battlefield Trust has had quite a December so far! First they announced a campaign to preserve an incredibly important tract at the heart of the Gaines’s Mill and Cold Harbor battlefields. Then they declared victory on a piece of ground at Stones River that connects the two main areas of the battlefield park. […]
Read more...Heroic Burnside
By this point in 1862, Ambrose Burnside’s excellent plan for a late-year campaign had already begun to unravel. His Right Grand Division under Maj. Gen. Edwin V. Sumner stole a march on Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and, on November 17, arrived on the banks of the Rappahannock River in Falmouth, opposite Fredericksburg, […]
Read more...Cut These Guys Some Slack
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about combat leadership in the Civil War and elsewhere – specifically senior leadership. Sometimes I wonder if we judge commanders, especially early-war and mid-war commanders, too harshly. Looking back through the lens of conflict after 1861, we sometimes miss factors that commanders had to deal with between 1861 and […]
Read more...Virtual Symposium 2020: The Fight for Life or Death
Today, we’re pleased to share Paige Gibbon Backus’s talk from the 2020 ECW Virtual Symposium. Paige, who once managed Ben Lomond Historical Site—a Civil War hospital following First Manassas—spoke on “A Fight for Life or Death: The Carnage Found in the Medical Field During the Civil War.” “It’s always interesting to study medicine because we […]
Read more...Public and Private Recollections of Confederate General Edward Porter Alexander
ECW welcomes back guest author Abbi Smithmyer Nearly fifty years after the conclusion of the American Civil War, Edward Porter Alexander’s book Military Memoirs of a Confederate became available to the public. Alexander’s opening remarks begin with the following passage: The following pages is not at all to set forth the valor of Confederate arms […]
Read more...Book Review: A Fool’s Errand. By One of the Fools: A Novel of the South During Reconstruction
For historians, reading is a full-time job. Nothing is too insignificant not to read, from cereal boxes to torn bits of paper with evidence of pencil scratches. Reading books popular during a specific period of the past is an excellent way to gain insight into the minds of the folks who read them first. Old […]
Read more...Face of Battle: Responding to Fear
Michael Flynn (Lt. Gen. USA. Ret.) recently published a message meant to encourage American citizens as we go through these traumatic times. One thing he said reminded me of conversations I have had with my combat veteran friends. “Let us not fear the uncertainty that comes with the unknown, instead accept it and fight through […]
Read more...19th Century Asymmetrical Warfare: Privateering, the Savannah, and the Enchantress Affair
ECW welcomes back guest author Leon Reed. As early as his inaugural address, Confederate President Jefferson Davis warned the United States, and other shippers of the world, that he intended to authorize privateers, the traditional means of naval warfare engaged in by countries who lacked a strong navy. “In the meantime there will remain to […]
Read more...Week In Review: April 26-May 3, 2020
Extra, extra this week! We had several days with four blog posts, thanks for some great series and battle anniversaries. We hope you enjoy the spontaneous additions and a little more history in your inbox or newsfeed. Sunday, April 26: In the evening, Sarah Kay Bierle posted Part 6 of the read-along of Nurse Bucklin’s […]
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