A new series of letters is being patiently added to the archive. Today the first in what will be many additions from William H. Clark, who was a Captain in the Twenty-First Massachusetts Infantry. Here’s part of the letter: Dear Father, I have received three letters from home since I have been here though two of them were quite old (having made a voyage to Newburn in quest of me),…

The following was presented during the 1906 (16th annual) reunion for the 3rd Wisconsin Infantry. I found it interesting in several ways: the mention of “old glory” and not the confederate flag; North and South finally “are getting together” (its 1906); mention of the “lost cause” myth; the Daughters of the Confederacy apparently has never changed (the soldiers who encountered Southern women during the war called them “she-Devils”); carpetbaggers were…

The debate over how we can apply (or combine) qualitative and quantitative research to Civil War soldiers has led some to proclaim that soldier studies has run into a “scholarly logjam.” The overwhelming amount of soldier letters alone produces a problematic situation. Historians can cherry pick from a plethora of primary sources that, indeed, allows us (if we wish) to make a claim on just about any ideological basis. So…

Gettysburg: The Last Invasion by Allen C. Guelzo. Alfred A. Knopf, 2013. Cloth, ISBN: 0307594084. $35.00. I am not a big “battle study” book guy; I have maybe a shelf and a half dedicated to this genre of historiography. It’s not because it is beneath me, but because they are above me. I am not a military historian on that level. I know the general movements of important divisions and…

Spent much of today working/research for yet another book on Civil War Memory (I am a good year away from a compete manuscript!) that focuses on the soldiers and how they remembered such issues as patriotism, Union, slavery, ect., as expressed in their reunion association publications. Though historians emphasize that Civil War veterans were citizen first and not professional soldiers, these men hardly talked nor acted like it as they…

I’ve read it countless times in soldier’s letters, “I saw the glistening bayonets of heavy masses of infantry…” or something to that effect. The impact of seeing a brigade (or larger) of the enemy in their front with bayonets fixed cannot be overstated. However, there is some debate as to the use and effectiveness bayonets had on combat during the American Civil War. For example, The 1870 Surgeon General’s Medical…

Colonel William H. Kinsman of the 23rd Iowa Infantry was a hero on May 17, 1863. After his smashing defeat at Champion’s Hill, Confederate Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton decided one last time to stop or at least slow Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s advance on Vicksburg at Big Black River and an important bridge that resided there. Brigadier General Michael K. Lawler’s Second Brigade (21, 22, 23 Iowa, 11…

Charles L. Harris, born August 24th, 1834 in Bridgeton, New Jersey, was a prominent Madison resident when the war broke out. He immediately enlisted and became a Lieutenant in the First Wisconsin regiment. Three months later he welcomed the rank of Colonel in the Eleventh Wisconsin, at the age of 27. A confident man of medium height (he stood 5’8”), Harris was well educated, having graduated from West Point, and…

Major General Joseph Hooker actually had a pretty good strategic plan in place before the Battle of Chancellorsville. He intended to secretly march part of his army northwest, cross the Rappahannock and attack Lee’s rear. Meanwhile, with Major General John Sedgwick and his 30,000 men at Fredericksburg, Hooker intended to hit the Rebels with a large double envelopment. He also initiated a cavalry raid (Major General George Stoneman) to Lee’s…