ECW Archives
-
Recent Posts
Search by Post Categories
Subscribe BY RSS
Email Subscription
Tag Archives: historiography
Gaines Foster and David Blight: Two Views on the Lost Cause
In 1961 the nation celebrated the centennial of the American Civil War with a glorification of battlefield heroics entwined within a narrative of a nation reforged in the fires of war. However, Robert Penn Warren critiqued this vision with The … Continue reading
Posted in Memory
Tagged civil war memory, Confederate memory, David W. Blight, Gaines M. Foster, historiography, Lost Cause
12 Comments
Do We Still Care About the Civil War: Dwight Hughes
The cover story of the newest issue of Civil War Times asks, “Do we still care about the Civil War?” ECW is pleased to partner with Civil War Times to extend the conversation here on the blog. The Civil War … Continue reading
Longstreet Goes West: Conclusions
James Longstreet’s time in the Western Theater has by and large, not garnered accolades. The prevailing western-centric view casts him as a haughty eastern interloper, come to further his own ambitions at Bragg’s expense. Historians of a more eastern bent … Continue reading
Posted in Emerging Civil War
Tagged Bragg, Chickamauga, civil war memory, historiography, Leadership, Longstreet, Longstreet-Goes-West, monuments
4 Comments
Longstreet Goes West, part nine: The November of our discontent
Part Nine in a Series Both Bragg and Longstreet – indeed every Confederate from Richmond on down – understood that to be successful, any movement into East Tennessee must be conducted quickly, and in sufficient strength. The idea was to … Continue reading
Posted in Emerging Civil War
Tagged Bragg, Chickamauga, civil war memory, historiography, Leadership, Longstreet, Longstreet-Goes-West, monuments
3 Comments
1860’s Politics: After All These Years, Why Do We Think President McClellan Would Have Given the Rebels an Armistice?
Approaching the 1864 Northern presidential election, students of the Atlanta Campaign tend to focus on how Sherman’s capture of the city on Sept. 2, 1864 helped President Lincoln win re-election. Conversely, we ponder Southerners’ hopes that the Democratic candidate, Maj. … Continue reading
Longstreet Goes West, part six: Midnight Madness
Part Six in a Series October of 1863 was a lean month for the Union Army of the Cumberland, trapped in Chattanooga. Joe Wheeler’s Rebel cavalry kicked off the month by destroying a Union supply train of nearly 800 wagons … Continue reading
Longstreet Goes West, part four: Discord
Part Four in a Series In the immediate aftermath of Chickamauga, Bragg and his generals were all gripped by a measure of collective uncertainty. Early on, it seemed as if Rosecrans might just abandon Chattanooga, falling back to his railhead … Continue reading
Longstreet Goes West, part three: On to Nashville?
Part Three in a Series Longstreet’s move to Georgia took 9 days, though some of the trailing elements in his corps – Anderson’s Brigade, which was diverted to Savannah for a week or so, and any number of individual Georgians … Continue reading
Longstreet Goes West, part two: Westward Ho!
Part Two in a Series The decision to reinforce Bragg came only after much debate, and only after every other expedient had been exhausted. While President Davis believed that the Confederacy needed to use interior lines to achieved localized concentrations … Continue reading
Longstreet goes West, part one: Machiavellian or Misunderstood?
Part One in a Series Confederate General James Longstreet remains one of the war’s most controversial figures. Detractors see him as a scheming subordinate whose ambition overreached his talents; supporters hail him as a clear-sighted realist who understood the changes … Continue reading
