Dr. Jane Johansson is a professor of history at Rogers State University and operates The Trans-Mississippian Blog. She was kind enough to read my The 11th Wisconsin in the Civil War book and afterwards asked if I’d do an interview about the book and my experiences. It was honor to be asked and I was happy to do so. Here’s a sample: Several months ago, Chris Wehner contacted me and…

Our understanding and interpretation of the American Civil War relies partially on the death toll. Indeed, with regard to most conflicts the death toll is usually one of the first facts (data) that is discussed. The true death toll of the Civil War has been the subject of debate throughout the years; as well as on numerous blogs and websites including on here. Recent studies have determined that we probably have…

According to news reports: “A newly deciphered 1,800-year-old letter from an Egyptian solider serving in a Roman legion in Europe to his family back home shows striking similarities to what some soldiers may be feeling here and now. Grant Adamson, a student at Rice University took up the task in 2011 when he was assigned the papyrus to work on during a summer institute hosted at Brigham Young University (BYU)….

‘The Gettysburg Story’ film dramatically tells the history of the greatest battle fought in the Western Hemisphere. Narrated by Stephen Lang (Avatar, Gettysburg) and directed by Jake Boritt, the stories of characters who experience the battle come alive through dynamic, innovative imagery that captures the historic battleground as you have never seen it before. Indeed, had a chance over the weekend to watch Jake Boritt’s stunning portrayal of that pivotal…

This isn’t a full blown review of Dr. Frank P. Varney’s book, General Grant and the Rewriting of History, as I just started reading some of it yesterday. I’m jumping the gun here abit as after reading the Preface I could not put the book down. I believe it was Machiavelli who declared that you should judge a leader by those he keeps around him; his lieutenants, ect., the quote…

During some research today came across this nugget of a quote from Nathan Bedford Forrest who clearly had “no moral scruples against slavery,” when he apparently stated during the war “If we aint fightin’ fer slavery then I’d like to know what we are fightin’ fer.” Turns out not to be an unknown quote, but where I found it was in the book Veteran Comes Back, by Willard Wallard published…

In his 1998 review of Shook Over Hell: Post-Traumatic Stress, Vietnam, and the Civil War (by Eric T. Dean, Jr.), James M. McPherson declared that the work “breaks new ground in its analysis of the psychiatric casualties of battle.” Yet since the book’s publishing it has been vastly overlooked by social historians. When researching Civil War historiography one rarely finds Shook Over Hell mentioned when assessing the soldier. Though McPherson…

As noted in Part I, during the Civil War conditions such as “melancholy” and “nostalgia” first appeared as a medical condition in the military surgeon’s reports. According to at least one study, “three cases of nostalgia per 1,000 troops per year were reported among Union soldiers” and most of the soldiers were less than 20 years of age. This led to Surgeon General William A. Hammond in 1862 recommending that…

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”…