Blog
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...
Published: 12/21/11
Quantrill at Lawrence (2011)
Quantrill at Lawrence: The Untold Story is a well-written and provocative book that ultimately falls short of its goal. William Clarke Quantrill’s infamous raid on Lawrence, Kansas, in August 1863,...
Published: 12/21/11
Financial Fraud and Guerrilla Violence in Missouri’s Civil War (2010)
Those who pay attention to the world of Civil War history are well aware that Mark W. Geiger’s recent work, Financial Fraud and Guerrilla Violence in Missouri’s Civil War, 1861-1865,...
Published: 12/20/11
Voices from the Past: The Battle of Dranesville
Today marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Dranesville, Virginia. While a small encounter by modern standards, at the time—December 1861—the battle made headlines and captured civilian attention. The...
Published: 12/19/11
Voice from the Past: A Pleasant Christmas
Happy Holidays! Today’s Voice from the Past is David Day who wrote the following on December 26, 1861: Christmas went off very pleasantly and apparently to the satisfaction of all....
Published: 12/15/11
Voice from the Past: A Loud Rap on the Door
Good morning! Today’s Voice from the Past comes from a December 22, 1861 letter from Elisha Franklin Paxton to his wife. And if you hear a loud rap at the...
Published: 12/14/11
War No More (2010)
Even the most casual student of the Civil War frequently encounters Walt Whitman’s canonical statement from Specimen Days that “the real war will never get in the books.” While historians of the...