Showing results for "Chancellorsville"
Book Review: The Howling Storm
The Howling Storm: Weather, Climate, and the American Civil War By Kenneth W. Noe Louisiana State University Press, 2020, $59.95 hardcover Reviewed by Meg Groeling I rarely make statements like this, but Kenneth W. Noe’s book The Howling Storm is an exception: If you write about the military side of the American Civil War, you must own […]
Read more...The Myth of Mrs. Bixby’s Letter
One of my favorite movie scenes of all time comes from Saving Private Ryan when Gen. George Marshall, informed about the deaths of three brothers, tells his staff that they’re going to send a special mission to retrieve a fourth, surviving brother. The staff protests, but Marshall will have none of it. Director Steven Spielberg […]
Read more...Book Review: Voices of the Army of the Potomac
Voices of the Army of the Potomac: Personal Reminiscences of Union Veterans By Vincent L. Burns Casemate Publishers, 2021 $37.95 hardcover Reviewed by Doug Crenshaw “Here is recorded the small talk of camp, and many incidents that are too trivial for big histories… And one can get a very fair idea of the manner of […]
Read more...ECW Weekender: Vicksburg National Military Park
An ECW colleague emailed me a note the other day: “I’m reading the Vicksburg/Tullahoma book, and really enjoyed your article about visiting Vicksburg. I’ve never been and I’m more motivated now than ever.” The article he mentioned was based on this blog series, which I wrote in 2018 while on a video tour of the […]
Read more...Fallen Leaders: Maine’s Hiram Berry
Haunted by a premonition, Maj. Gen. Hiram Berry recklessly exposed himself to Confederate snipers at Chancellorsville and paid the price for his carelessness. A 36-year-old Rockland (Maine) merchant in spring 1861, the physically robust Berry led the 4th Maine Infantry Regiment at First Manassas. Promoted to brigadier the following spring, he commanded the 3rd Brigade […]
Read more...ECW Weekender: Snow at Spotsylvania
The Virginia snow storm this week made national news as once again weather conditions prevented anyone from advancing on Richmond. Though the restoration of the power grid and the arrival of plows and salt seemed to take as long as waiting for pontoon bridges in 1862, the snow did create a scene of beauty on […]
Read more...December 2021 Maine at War blog posts
In December, my Maine at War blog examined topics ranging from a little-known Mainer with a famous name to women overlooked by history’s focus on soldiers and their battles. December 1, 2021: Scarborough’s Hiram Berry fought in Louisiana and Virginia The highest-ranking Mainer to die during the Civil War was Rockland’s Hiram Berry, a major […]
Read more...Favorite Soldier Memoirs
In his self-published book An Epic on “Old Abe,” The War Eagle (The War Eagle Book Association, 1894), S. C. Miles, a veteran of the 8th Wisconsin, extolled the virtue of first-person accounts of the war. Such accounts required “no coloring of imagination or romance to satisfy the taste of the reader for the romantic […]
Read more...The “Emerging Civil War Series” Series: Afterword
On November 1, we kicked off our “Engaging Civil War Series” Series. It’s been like the 12 Days of Christmas that won’t die: a gift that has kept giving and giving and giving! Well, now it’s time to wrap things up. For your handy reference, here’s a list of the blog posts in the order […]
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