Wisconsin in the Civil War
The Wisconsin Historical society has one of the best online digital archives available: Wisconsin in the Civil War. I am always impressed whenever I need to look something up on a Wisconsin regiment. Via their website (and a new version coming soon) anyone can look up not just demographic info, but also search through letters, diaries, newspaper clippings and memoirs. I know I have written about their excellent collections before,…
Read more...The United States Army and Urban Combat in the Nineteenth Century
ARTICLE REVIEW: “The United States Army and Urban Combat in the Nineteenth Century” War in History April 2009 16: 157-188 Jonathan A. Beall Irregular warfare during the Civil War was problematic for most military leaders as well as the common foot soldier. According to Jonathan A. Beall, Nineteenth Century military tactical and strategic planning failed to consider how to train soldiers to deal with urban combat, which is somewhat surprising…
Read more...Unpublished 66th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regimental History
Civil War historian Eric Wittenberg over at his Rantings of a Civil War Historian blog described a treasure trove of documents he gathered up at the Ohio Historical Society back on the 23rd while doing research on another book. His find sounds amazing and I am very jealous, but pleased that yet more Civil War primary documents are coming to light. Among the items Wittenberg unearthed was a previously unknown…
Read more...Book Review: Yankee Correspondence: Civil War Letters Between New England Soldiers and the Home Front
Yankee Correspondence: Civil War Letters Between New England Soldiers and the Home Front. University of Virginia Press, 1996. 169 pages. Nina Silber, Mary Beth Sievens These letters by New England soldiers and their families, many published for the first time, speak of the hardships of the war, especially frustrations with the army, homefront suffering, and government policies. They are grouped by six major themes: the military experience, the meaning of…
Read more...Movie Review: Lincoln
Steven Spielberg’s $50 million dollar production, LINCOLN, tackles an epic and historical figure by keenly focusing the entire production on probably the most important political achievement of Lincoln’s presidency: the 13th Amendment. By focusing on those final four months or so of the life of the 16th President of the United States, Spielberg presents a narrative that should be wonderfully intriguing to the modern viewer so long as that person…
Read more...Urban Combat in the Civil War, Part II
A recent archeological find concerning the Battle of Fredericksburg in what is described as a “near-perfect preservation” of the basement of a home where Union soldiers had most likely holed up for the night. So preserved is the site that John Hennessy, a National Park Service historian, noted “[it] a pleasant happenstance that most of us in our lifetimes won’t ever see again.” Sounds like a wonderful find and will…
Read more...Book Review: To Petersburg with the Army of the Potomac: The Civil War Letters of Levi Bird Duff, 105th Pennsylvania Volunteers
Levi Bird Duff, To Petersburg with the Army of the Potomac: The Civil War Letters of Levi Bird Duff, 105th Pennsylvania Volunteers, McFarland; 240 pages; paperback; ISBN-13: 9780786444304. From the Publisher: The letters of Levi Bird Duff present a perceptive picture of life in the Army of the Potomac from 1861 to 1864. They are unusual for their literacy, descriptions and continuity, the strength of opinions expressed, and their source:…
Read more...Book Review: Ending the Civil War
Benton Rain Patterson, Ending the Civil War: The Bloody Year from Grant’s Promotion to Lincoln’s Assassination, Jefferson McFarland & Co., 2012. 332 pp. $38.00 (paper), ISBN 978-0-7864-6964-2. Mr. Patterson, emeritus associate professor of journalism at the University of Florida, via McFarland has written an uninspiring take on the final 13 months of the Civil War titled: Ending the Civil War: The Bloody Year from Grant’s Promotion to Lincoln’s Assassination. Awkward…
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