After finishing Gary W. Gallagher’s The Union War and reviewing it last week I took some time and studied 100 Civil War era letter envelopes. As you know, Gallagher used Civil War era letter envelopes (along with other supporting material) to argue that Northern soldiers primarily fought the war to defend the “Union.” This goes against recent scholarship (such as Chandra Manning’s excellent work/book) that has identified slavery as a…

I’ve been corresponding with a prominent American Civil War historian as I finished my master’s Thesis (which I just submitted) about the future of “soldier studies.” The discussion centered on the “military” historian and that perhaps we were witnessing an “eclipse” in the field; there does not seem to be that excitement for Civil War military history that there once was. With regard to social historical aspects and in particular…

The Dogs of War: 1861 (New York: Oxford, May 2011) BY Emory M. Thomas There was essentially a failure or breakdown of the political machine that caused one part of the United States to start to break away from the rest after the legal and undisputed election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. The failure of the ability to compromise (as had been accomplished in 1820, 1850) existed within a “martial…

Thomas McCormick Walker, 111th Regiment Pennsylvania Vet. Volunteers, noted what he found in the way of Southern culture and society in 1865 after his several years of fighting in the South: After my journey is over I sum up my Southern Experiences in no very flattering terms to the Country or its people. I cannot but despise a people who have the effrontery to claim that they are the Chivalry…

A month or so ago I joined The Society of Civil War Historians and recently received my issue of The Journal of the Civil War Era, which all members receive. From the Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press and the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center at the Pennsylvania State University are pleased to announce the 2011 launch of a new publication, The Journal of the Civil…

He came home so changed that his best friends did not know him, but is well & all right now. — Henrietta Maria Benson, describing her son, Winslow Homer, when he returned from the Civil War. The painting is “The Veteran in a New Field” (1865) by Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910). Painted through summer and fall 1865, not long after the nation came to grips with Robert E. Lee’s surrender…

I have read, looked over, examined, at least several hundred “original” regimental histories and this is possibly the best “Preface” to a regimental history I have yet to encounter. Those original “autobiographical” regimental histories are so important and can help us understand “memory” and the Civil War, especially with regard to the soldier. Lucien Wulsin, The story of the Fourth Regiment Ohio Veteran Volunteer Cavalry (1912): THE typical soldiers of…

BY Tom Rowland Within days of President Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers, Governor Alexander Randall enjoined Wisconsin citizens to make “ common cause against a common enemy,” and announced that opportunities for enlistment would be “immediately offered to all existing military companies.”[1] In towns and cities all across the state patriotic throngs jammed meeting halls to listen to stirring speeches and urgent appeals to join the cause of squashing rebellion…

The process of “hardening” (via the experience of battle over a period of time) has been analyzed by historians and interpreted in several different ways. James M. McPherson saw the stress (combat fatigue) of combat as a breaking down of the soldier’s senses (“the nerve to endure”) thus subduing the awareness to suffering. That though they saw horrible things, they could rise above it and McPherson stressed the importance of…