Blog
Published: 1/12/12
Looking Back…Just Fifty Years
As we enter the second year of the Civil War Sesquicentennial, there is some comparison back fifty years to the centennial—be that just for nostalgia or for analysis. Allow me...
Published: 1/11/12
The Enemy Within (2011)
Corruption in government and business remains a remarkably neglected aspect of the study of war. The unstated assumption behind this relative unconcern regards these impacts as collateral damage unworthy of...
Published: 1/11/12
Confederate Invention (2011)
Students of the American Civil War continue to make something out of very little. Almost all of the records of the Confederate States Patent Office burned with the evacuation of...
Published: 1/11/12
God’s Almost Chosen Peoples (2010)
“I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people,” Lincoln told an audience...
Published: 1/11/12
Michigan and the Civil War (2011)
The North may have won the Civil War, but the South has captured most of its historiography. Since the vast bulk of the fighting took place there, and since slavery—the...
Published: 1/10/12
2011: A Year in Review
Much to the delight of The Civil War Monitor editorial staff, another year and another sesquicentennial celebration have begun. As we look forward to all that 2012 has in store...
Published: 1/6/12
The Skating Season
Good Morning! Our celebration of New Year’s Day 1862 comes to a close with the following image “The Skating Season – 1862.” Source: Harper’s Weekly, January 18, 1862.
Published: 1/5/12
Voice from the Past: “The Cheer of the Glad New Year”
Good Morning! Today’s Voice from the Past comes from George Michael Neese. New Year’s Day, and orders to go to Dam No. 5, with Ashby’s cavalry. This was a bright...
Published: 1/5/12
A Soldier’s Forty Winks
As a chemist by training and profession (for 25-plus years), I consult journals and other literature on almost a daily basis. As a scientist in the pharmaceutical industry, one of...
Published: 1/4/12
The Last Battle of the Civil War (2011)
Americans were recently shocked to learn that an unknown number of servicemen and women were buried in the wrong plots at Arlington National Cemetery. The gross negligence involved stands in...
Published: 1/3/12
Voice from the Past: “A Dull Day”
Good Morning! Today’s Voice from the Past comes from Alexander G. Downing. His 1862 New Years’ celebration was a far cry from the revelry enjoyed by most modern day celebrants....
Published: 1/3/12
The Angry Politics of Confederate Heritage
Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich was recently at a campaign stop in South Carolina, where he fielded questions from the audience. One local resident took the microphone and asked him, “as...
Published: 1/2/12
Voice from the Past: “A Great Day of Sport to Usher in the New Year”
Happy New Year! As we begin a new calendar year and a new year of sesquincentennial celebrations, we thought it fitting to look back upon New Years 1862. All this...
Published: 12/29/11
The Great Fair
Happy Holidays! As we prepare to ring in the new year, it seems fitting to recall a festive occassion from 1861. Source: Winslow Homer, “The Great Fair” in the December...
Published: 12/28/11
A Southern Spy in Northern Virginia (2009)
During the Civil War, Confederate brigadier general J.E.B. Stuart gave a leather album to Laura Ratcliffe, a twenty-five year old resident of Fairfax County, Virginia. “Presented to Miss Laura Ratcliffe,”...
Published: 12/26/11
Voice from the Past: “Not peace, but a sword”
Happy Holidays! Today’s Voice from the Past is Wilder Dwight of the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry. The following passage is an excerpt from a 15 December 1861 letter to his mother:...
Published: 12/22/11
The Funeral of a “Gentleman Cow”
As the war ground on toward its fourth year, shortages became more and more acute, both for Southern citizens and Confederate soldiers. Even in Texas, where Federal armies had yet...
Published: 12/22/11
Voice from the Past: Dressed All the Wards with Festoons and Garlands
Happy Holidays! Today’s Voice from the Past is from the December 1861 diary of Eliza Newton Woolsey Howland. We had taken some goodies and little traps with us for the...