As the armies melted away from Gettysburg the horror was just beginning for the town and surrounding community. Nurses and volunteers flowed in from as far as New Jersey even before the fighting had ended. One such volunteer was Cornelia Hancock. Hancock was born on February 8, 1840 in southern New Jersey and was one of five children of a Quaker family. By 1863 her brother and “every male relative”…

This final post in the short series of Nathanial Rollins who served in the Iron Brigade (2nd Wisconsin) Chronicles the days after the battle concluded and during which he started his time as a Confederate prisoner. Rollins would refuse to be paroled and spent the rest of the war in various prisoner of war camps. For more on this series see: 1, 2, 3. July 3d: This morning at about…

[This is a continuation of Nathaniel Rollins’ diary entries for Gettysburg, here and here] As the sun crept over the fields and mounds outside of Gettysburg it became apparent to the Confederates that the Union army was dug in on the high ground. The Union army had established strong positions in a giant U-shaped defensive line stretching from Culp’s Hill to Cemetery Ridge. After some initial probing it became apparent…

They woke early and made breakfast before heading out towards Gettysburg. The 2nd Wisconsin lead the way as they left Marsh Creek Camp. The oldest and most famous of the five Iron Brigade regiments, the 2nd Wisconsin was one of the first 3-year enlistment regiments to arrive in Washington in 1861. They marched for some time until the outskirts of Gettysburg was reached where they began to hear the cannon…

Captain Nathaniel Rollins of the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry kept a daily diary throughout the Civil War. Parts of the diary are available here at SoldierStudies.org. Rollins diary is informative, at times passionate, and also revealing of the typical Civil War soldier. During his correspondences he provides a comprehensive portrait of the daily life of a soldier in the Iron Brigade. During the battle of Gettysburg Rollins was taken prisoner and…

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…