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Tag Archives: Robert E. Lee
Echoes of Reconstruction: Challenges for Frederick Douglass Post-War: Black Equality & the Memory of Lee
ECW welcomes back Patrick Young, author of The Reconstruction Era blog I sometimes hear comedians joke that Black History Month, celebrated annually in February, is during the shortest month of the year. Rather than being emblematic of a slight, February was chosen … Continue reading
When a Monument Cherrypicks Its History
When people have the chance to learn about history, don’t we want that history to be factually correct? That’s the question I asked last week when writing about the Robert E. Lee statue at Antietam. Placed at a spot on … Continue reading
When a Monument Gets Its History Wrong
The U.S. House of Representatives voted yesterday to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee from Antietam National Battlefield (see here for details). The statue, erected in 2003 on private property along Route 34 heading into Sharpsburg, was later acquired … Continue reading
Posted in Battlefields & Historic Places, Memory, Monuments, National Park Service
Tagged 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry, Antietam National Battlefield, Battle of Fredericksburg, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, Gettysburg, high water mark, Lee statue at Antietam, Middle Pontoon Crossing, Monuments, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, upper pontoon crossing
62 Comments
Civil War Cooking: Miss Caskie’s Cake at General Lee’s Headquarters
“You must thank Miss Norvell for her nice cake. I . . . assembled all the young gentlemen around it & though I told them it was a present from a beautiful young lady, they did not leave a crumb.” … Continue reading
George C. Scott on Robert E. Lee
October 12, 2020, is the 150th commemorative date of the death of Robert Edward Lee in Lexington, Virginia. “This is Election-Year America,” pronounced George C. Scott on the Today show in the spring of 1976, from a script he had … Continue reading
Public and Private Recollections of Confederate General Edward Porter Alexander
ECW welcomes back guest author Abbi Smithmyer Nearly fifty years after the conclusion of the American Civil War, Edward Porter Alexander’s book Military Memoirs of a Confederate became available to the public. Alexander’s opening remarks begin with the following passage: … Continue reading
Picturing Union Victory – Early Images of the Surrender at Appomattox
Here’s a familiar story: On April 9, 1865, generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee met in Wilmer McLean’s parlor at Appomattox Courthouse to sign the documents that would dictate the surrender of the most important national institution in … Continue reading
Posted in Battlefields & Historic Places, Memory
Tagged Appomattox, art, Philip H. Sheridan, Reconciliation, Robert E. Lee, Surrender, Ulysse S. Grant, Union
4 Comments
Invading the North and Protecting the Capital
On June 5, 1862, as he settled into his new command of the Confederate army outside Richmond, Robert E. Lee contemplated his next moves. For starters, he put his men to the shovel building defensive fortifications—a course of action that … Continue reading
Lee’s Last Great Field Victory: A Reassessment of Cold Harbor
ECW welcomes guest author Nathan Provost. On June 3, 1864, Federal soldiers waited anxiously to assault the seven-mile-long Confederate line near Mechanicsville, Virginia. The largest engagement of the battle of Cold Harbor was about to take place. Unbeknownst to them, … Continue reading
Posted in Battles, Campaigns
Tagged Adam Badeau, Alfred Young III, Ambrose Burnside, Battle of Cold Harbor, David Hunter, E. Porter Alexander, George G. Meade, Gordon Rhea, Henry Halleck, J.F.C. Fuller, Jubal Early, Petersburg, Philip H. Sheridan, Richard Anderson, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant
8 Comments
Missed Opportunities in the Race to the North Anna
On the evening of May 20, 1864, Ulysses S. Grant sent Winfield Scott Hancock’s II Corps south from Spotsylvania Court House to Massaponnax Church, with orders to march onward toward Bowling Green, Milford Station, and—if Hancock thought he could make … Continue reading
