The William Beynon Phillips Collection is one of the better ones in the Soldier Studies database for its historical value. Phillips joined the Union cause in August, 1862, near Scranton, Pennsylvania to fill the ranks of Schooley’s Battery; which shortly later became attached to the 2nd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery as Company M. [to the right is a drawing by Phillips found in the collection of writings.] Phillips was an educated…

Sam Davis was captured by Federal cavalry 15 miles outside Pulaski, Tennessee. He was captured wearing a “Federal soldier’s coat” and was a suspected spy and would therefore, per military law, be hanged. Brig. Gen. Grenville M. Dodge was in charge and when Davis was brought to him, he reportedly implored the young man to tell him who he was a spy for (Confederate outlaw “Coleman” led the network of…

A question posed in 1999 asked, “I’ve often read that there were 500,000 morphine addicts running around after the Civil War. Is this true? If so, did narcotics have a deleterious effect on the Old West? How many cowboys were wacko on these then-legal drugs?” According to one interesting source, the answer was… maybe: Still, even allowing for exaggeration by drug alarmists, you have to think the Civil War had…

The Valiant Soldier: The Civil War & Frontier Diary of W. Henry Oettiker Soldier Studies Voices, Vol. 1 Paperback includes photos, maps, illustrations 6×9, 132 pages ed. Christopher C. Wehner Soldier Studies is pleased to announce what will hopefully be the first in a series of books dealing with unique Civil War soldier diaries and letters. SoldierStudies.org founder, curator, and historian Chris Wehner edited the Civil War and frontier diary…

The Iron Brigade in Civil War and Memory The Black Hats from Bull Run to Appomattox and Thereafter Lance J. Herdegen Format: Hardcover, 696 pages Price: $39.95 ISBN: 978-1-61121-106-1 eBook: 978-1-61121-107-8 On Sale: September 2012 6×9, 124 b/w photos, 15 maps Lance J. Herdegen is the Award-winning author of Those Damned Black Hats!: The Iron Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign and is the former director of the Institute of Civil…

From the Browse Letters option at SoldierStudies.org: Several observations on the data, Union correspondences in the database far exceed Confederate; which is not unusual, but we hope to get more. New York leads all states whether Union or Confederate with 167. The top three are all Union: New York: 167 Pennsylvania: 145 Massachusetts: 136 The data represents the declared state (including: Territory, Regular Army, US Colored ,ect.), unit, and allegiance…

On April 1, 1993 William B. Holberton, a veteran of World War 2, submitted his Master’s Thesis (Read it here) at Lehigh University. A thesis that would ultimately become a book published in 2001 by Stackpole Books. Hoblerton passed away in March, 2000, and the final editing was completed by several historians he worked with. Homeward Bound: The Demobilization of the Union and Confederate Armies, 1865-66 by William B. Holberton….

Ulysses S. Grant, of course, was a leader of soldiers. He was in many respects a simple soldier himself. I won’t say he would have been happy to have been a simple soldier in the Civil War; he was a driven man out to prove himself in 1861-62. Though I wonder if there were times in 1864 he wouldn’t have minded trading places with some anonymous soldier somewhere other than…

[First Posted at my blog4history website] The Eighth Regiment was organized at Camp Randall, Madison, and its muster into the United States service completed on the 13th of September, 1861, and on the 12th of October, it left the State for St. Louis. Arriving at St. Louis on the 14th of October, the regiment was soon after sent to Pilot Knob, on the Iron Mountain Railroad. On the 20th, the…