Showing results for "Battlefield Markers and Monuments"

Battlefield Markers and Monuments: The Custer Maple

One aspect of battlefield tramping that continues to fascinate historians and visitors alike are witness trees. These unique specimens provide a tangible link to the events of the past. Although it no longer stands, one is commemorated in the town square of Hanover, Pennsylvania.

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Battlefield Markers and Monuments: “To the Workingmen of Manchester”

There was a moment when America’s Civil War resonated across the Atlantic, creating a significant, but momentary impact on the British working class…and creating a monument. “I know and deeply deplore the sufferings which the working-men of Manchester, and in all Europe, are called to endure in this crisis,” penned President Abraham Lincoln on January […]

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Battlefield Markers & Monuments: Johnson Island & McPherson’s Grave

Emerging Civil War welcomes back Frank Jastrzembski to share about a recent trip and his musings on historical graveyard markers. My wife reluctantly agreed to go on another of my weekend cemetery hunts. Only a few weeks before, we had taken another couple to visit Brevet Brigadier-General Orland Smith’s grave in Green Lawn Cemetery after […]

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Battlefield Markers & Monuments: Colonel Elmer Ellsworth and the Marshall House Hotel Plaque

This relatively small, gold & brown marker is attached to the side of the newly purchased Hotel Monaco*, the latest incarnation of the Marshall House, in Old Town Alexandria, VA. It commemorates the death of James W. Jackson, reading: The Marshall House stood upon this site, and within the building on the early morning of […]

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Civil War Monuments and Memory: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War

About the Book

In the century and a half since the war, Americans have remembered the war in different ways. Veterans placed monuments to commemorate their deeds on the battlefield. In doing so, they often set in stone and bronze specific images in specific places that may have conflicted with the factual historical record.

Erecting monuments and memorials became a way to commemorate the past, but they also became important tools for remembering that past in particular ways. Monuments honor, but they also embody the very real tension between history and the way we remember that history—what we now today call “memory.”

Civil War Monuments and Memory: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War explores some of the ways people monumented and memorialized the war—and how those markers have impacted our understanding of it. This collection of essays brings together the best scholarship from Emerging Civil War’s blog, symposia, and podcast—all of it revised and updated—coupled with original pieces, designed to shed new light and insight on the monuments and memorials that give us some of our most iconic and powerful connections to the battlefields and the men who fought there.

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About the Editors

Jon Tracey is a public historian focused on soldier experience, memory, and veteran life in the Civil War era. He holds a BA in History from Gettysburg College and an MA from West Virginia University in Public History with a Certificate in Cultural Resource Management. He currently serves as the chair of Emerging Civil War’s Editorial Board.

Chris Mackowski, Ph.D., is the editor in chief and a co-founder of Emerging Civil War, and he’s the managing editor of the Emerging Civil War Series published by Savas Beatie. Chris is a writing professor in the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University, where he also serves as the associate dean for undergraduate programs, and is the historian-in-residence at Stevenson Ridge, a historic property on the Spotsylvania Court House battlefield.

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Gettysburg Off the Beaten Path: Ohio Flank Markers

Part of a series. Gettysburg aficionados often debate the key terrain of the battlefield. Is it Little Round Top, Culp’s Hill, Cemetery Ridge? Cemetery Hill receives less attention from battlefield visitors and “Gettys-buffs”, but it was more important than any hillock or ridge during the battle. Known as Raffensberger’s Hill by locals, it served as […]

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Civil War Monuments and Memory

The Emerging Civil War 10th Anniversary Series: Civil War Monuments and Memory: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War Savas Beatie, 2022 ISBN: 978-1-61121-633-2 Specs: 6 maps, 94 images, 336 pp. Click here to order *** About the Book In the century and a half since the war, Americans have […]

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Thinking about Drama, Battle, and Memory at New Market

One of my favorite pieces of classic literature is Shakespeare’s Henry V. Not necessarily for its historical accuracy, but for the drama of leadership and the perspective on battle. I read parts of the play while I wrote Call Out The Cadets: The Battle of New Market and used a line from it on the […]

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Henry Boynton, Battlefield Preservation, and Civil War Memory

Emerging Civil War welcome back guest author Colonel (ret) Ed Lowe… Civil War battlefields evoke a range of emotions in visitors. One may imagine the Confederate attacks against Major General George Meade’s lines at Gettysburg or the Union gunboats battling their way through Vicksburg’s defenses.  As I look up at Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga, I […]

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