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Letters Home from the Front, Christmas 1862, Such is the Fate of War

December 24th, 2011 | Add a Comment

Letters Home from the Front, Christmas 1862, Such is the Fate of War

Christmas was often a time of reflection for Civil War soldiers as their hearts and minds fixated on past and more joyous times. In spirit of the Holiday we here at Soldier Studies wanted to share with you some touching letters dealing with Christmas. Samuel J. Bradlee took pen in hand on Christmas Day (1864) and wrote home to his beloved wife, “Just four short years ago tonight you and I solemnly plighted our faith … Read entire article »

Filed under: Civil War Soldiers, Essay, Lincoln's Thinking Bayonets, Uncategorized

…the hopes of liberty which they had kept alive…

November 29th, 2011 | Add a Comment

…the hopes of liberty which they had kept alive…

On July 7, 1862 a fierce but small battle took place near Bayou Cache River in eastern Arkansas. During the fight the Ninth Regiment Illinois Cavalry Volunteers was called into action to help sustain a charge that resulted in the Confederates fleeing from the battlefield. The regiment hisorian noted the arrival after the battle of Contraband, who he described as literally crawling out of the woodwork and flocking to the Union line: On our march the … Read entire article »

Filed under: Civil War Soldiers, Contraband, Lincoln's Thinking Bayonets

Lincoln’s Thinking Bayonets: “They died for love of country, for you and for me…”

June 3rd, 2011 | Add a Comment

Lincoln’s Thinking Bayonets: “They died for love of country, for you and for me…”

With my master’s thesis completed and accepted I have had some time on my hands. So I have surfed the blogsosphere and came across another gem of a post. This time over at Faces of War (an excellent site!). Civil War blogger Ron Coddington posted a memorial given at the dedication of a monument in 1909 to honor James Melvin’s three brothers who perished during the Civil War. The memorial dedication was published under the … Read entire article »

Filed under: Civil War Soldiers, Lincoln's Thinking Bayonets

Lincoln’s Thinking Bayonets: the Myth of Southern Exceptionalism?

May 17th, 2011 | Add a Comment

Lincoln’s Thinking Bayonets: the Myth of Southern Exceptionalism?

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 of the land, yet descend to … Read entire article »

Filed under: Civil War Soldiers, Lincoln's Thinking Bayonets

The Hardening Effect from Combat on Civil War Soldiers

May 2nd, 2011 | Add a Comment

The Hardening Effect from Combat on Civil War Soldiers

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 courage and motivation as major … Read entire article »

Filed under: Civil War Soldiers, Essay, Hardening, Lincoln's Thinking Bayonets

Lincoln and his “thinking bayonets,” Union Soldiers in the Civil War

April 24th, 2011 | Add a Comment

In the Soldier Studies: Civil War Soldier Series, Chandra M. Manning posed the question, “Can Soldiers Tell Us Anything about Lincoln?” Manning does a fine job analyzing Lincoln’s influence on Northern soldiers, whom as she noted, he affectionately called his “thinking bayonets.” What motivated both Confederate and Federal soldiers to fight has been addressed admirably by noted historians (James McPherson, Gerald Linderman, Reid Mitchell, Earl J. Hess, Randall Jimerson, and others). Each side had a knowledge of the cause as they understood it, and were fighting to defend those ideals and convictions. Manning’s book What This Cruel War Was Over (New York: Knopf, 2007) is in my opinion as strong an argument for the importance of slavery as the cause of the war as there is — certainly as … Read entire article »

Filed under: Lincoln's Thinking Bayonets, Soldier Studies