Showing results for "Chancellorsville"
Yellowhammers and Environmentalism: Following the Path of Law’s Alabama Brigade to Gettysburg (part three)
Ten Days in Culpeper From Raccoon Ford, Joe and I drove into nearby Culpeper, A.P. Hill’s hometown. Law’s Brigade camped with Hood’s Division south-east of Culpeper, near Pony Mountain, and paralleling the Fredericksburg Pike (modern-day Virginia Route 3) from Friday, June 5th to Monday, June 15th.
Read more...He Wrote What? Health and Weight in Civil War Letters
“You stated that you had been weighed, what is your weight?”[i] asked Private Walter Dunn in a letter to his fiancée. It’s a little shocking to modern readers! There are a few questions that are usually considered taboo to ask a woman: her age and her weight. However, Walter Dunn is not the only mid-19th […]
Read more...Yellowhammers and Environmentalism: Following the Path of Law’s Alabama Brigade to Gettysburg (part two)
This post continues my story of following Law’s Brigade and delves into the unit’s background. Joe Loehle and I were at our starting off point, Raccoon Ford, where the area had layers of historical depth. We were where Evander McIver Law’s newly-formed Alabama Brigade was posted in early June 1863. I wanted to explore the […]
Read more...A Conversation with CVBT’s New Executive Director (conclusion)
(part four of four) Terry Rensel is not only the new executive director of the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust (CVBT), he’s also one of my closest friends. I’ve been talking with him about his recent move to Virginia and his career change from broadcaster to preservationist. Chris Mackowski: What do you see coming into your […]
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...A Conversation with CVBT’s New Executive Director (part one)
(part one of four) In early July, the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust (CVBT) hired a new executive director, Terry Rensel. Terry is not only an ECWer—he serves on the blog’s editorial board—he’s been one of my best friends for thirty years. “We were in the same freshmen orientation group, so we’ve known each other since […]
Read more...“Down Fame’s Ladder”: Brigadier General Thomas W. Egan’s Unending War
Major General Winfield Scott Hancock gave glowing praise of the Third Division’s 1st Brigade and its commander, 29-year-old Colonel Thomas W. Egan, in his report following the Battle of North Anna on May 23, 1864. “Egan’s brigade, led gallantly by its commander, charged over an open field, several hundred yards in breadth, which ascended sharply […]
Read more...The Trust’s 2019 Teacher Institute: Where was the Civil War Won?
Once upon a time, in a decade not our own, a young “emerging” historian wrote a thesis paper for his master’s degree at Norwich University. The paper examined the eastern theater and the western theatre and asked, “Where was the Civil War won?” In 2013, that thesis served as the basis for an extended blog […]
Read more...Yellowhammers and Environmentalism: The Drive To Raccoon Ford & Getting Ready For Gettysburg (part one)
In 2002 the historical interpretation unit I belonged to, The Southern Guard, was volunteering for a “living-history” program at Gettysburg National Military Park, portraying the 4th Alabama Infantry of Evander McIver Law’s famed brigade that was in John Bell Hood’s Division, of James Longstreet’s Corps, that would assault Little Round Top on July 2nd, 1863. […]
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