Showing results for "Chancellorsville"
Joseph Hooker: The Administrator
Over the weekend, the 150th anniversary of Joseph Hooker’s appointment of command of the Army of the Potomac passed. The mere mention of Joseph Hooker in relation to the American Civil War quickly conjures up the Battle of Chancellorsville and failure. This is true. Chancellorsville is considered Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s greatest victory. One […]
Read more...Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge
We are happy to announce that three of our authors will be speaking at the Second Annual Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge. Daniel Davis, Chris Mackowski, and Kristopher White will participate in this symposium marking the 150th Anniversary of Chancellorsville. Join them May 2nd, 2013 at Stevenson Ridge Bed and Breakfast, just 9 miles […]
Read more...“Oh It Was a Terrible Day”: The Irish Brigade at Fredericksburg
The popular focus on the Battle of Fredericksburg is that of the Union Soldiers, time after time, engaging in failed assaults on the Confederate lines on the stonewall at the base of Marye’s Heights. Possibly the worst executed engagement of the war by the Federals, many have forgotten that the battle was nearly won south […]
Read more...More property along Jackson’s Flank Attack gets preserved
More of the land west of Chancellorsville—scene of Stonewall Jackson’s flank attack—is now being preserved thanks to the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust (CVBT). The Trust has just signed a contract to purchase 9.2 acres on the southern shoulder of the Orange Turnpike (modern Route 3), with more than 350 feet of frontage on that crucial […]
Read more...Pick #3 in my Top 10 List: A set of maps
Part of a Series: Books Every Civil War Buff Ought to Own The third book, or books, every Civil War buff needs on the bookshelf is a good set of maps. These are invaluable–nothing less. They give form to the function of a campaign or battle and, depending on your choices, can put you virtually […]
Read more...Telling History vs. Making Art: Fictions and Histories
Final part of a series “[H]istory and historical fiction,” says historian Paul Ashdown, “are alternate ways of telling stories about the past.”[1] In that context, Ulysses S. Grant spoke more truth than he realized when he said “Wars produce many stories of fiction.” Aside from yarn-spun anecdotes about apple-tree surrenders and lemon-sucking generals, war also […]
Read more...Telling History vs. Making Art: The ways we remember the war
Part two in a series “We may say that only at the moment when Lee handed Grant his sword was the Confederacy born,” wrote Robert Penn Warren during the Civil War’s centennial; “or to state matters another way, in the moment of death the Confederacy entered upon its immortality.”[1] Writer/activist Albion W. Tourgee, however, considered […]
Read more...“Confederates in Vermont!”
When Confederate raiders materialized in St. Albans, Vermont, Principal Dorsey Taylor watched in dismay from a high-windowed perch in the brick schoolhouse. Taylor did his best to keep his students safely in their classrooms, but dozens of them congregated in the stairwells to look out the windows, noses pressed against the glass, to watch the […]
Read more...Telling History vs. Making Art: “a tension between Art and Science”
Part one in a series As a battlefield guide at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park (FSNMP), I frequently speak with folks who’ve come to the battlefields because they’ve read The Killer Angels, which in turn inspired them to come see a Civil War battlefield. Michael Shaara’s novel is about the battle of Gettysburg and […]
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