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),…

This was an interesting find today during some Google Book browsing. The Romance of the Civil War was published in 1903 and edited by Albert Bushnell Hart and Elizabeth Stevens. However, the title is a bit misleading. When I first found it I expected the “romantic” nature of late 19th century writing to bring forth an expected confined and yet allusive narrative that would live up to the title. Well,…

Bruce Nichols. Guerrilla Warfare in Civil War Missouri, Volume 2, 1863. Jefferson: McFarland, 2007. 389 pp. $25.00, ISBN 978-0-7864-2733-8. Bruce Nichols is a defense analyst and Civil War Missouri historian and this is his second book on “Guerrilla Warfare in Civil War Missouri,” his first was released by McFarland in 2004. Combine the first two volumes (a third is coming) and they thus far offer a thorough study of all…

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…