Blog
Published: 11/25/11
Voice from the Past – Thanksgiving is Over
Happy Black Friday! We hope you all had a wonderful (and delectable) Thanksgiving. Our final “Voice from the Past” comes from the November 1861 diary of Lucy Larcom of Nordom,...
Published: 11/24/11
Voice from the Past – Thankfully Keeping Thanksgiving Day
Our Thanksgiving tribute continues. Today’s “Voice from the Past” is Wilder Dwight of the Second Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers. “Camp near Seneca, November 16, 1861. …The virtue of this military life...
Published: 11/23/11
Border War (2010)
In this well-researched and convincing work, distinguished historian Stanley Harrold departs from a traditional North-versus-South tale of sectional breakdown in the decades leading to the Civil War. Instead, he presents...
Published: 11/23/11
Voice from the Past – “Fleshing our teeth in a secesh gobbler…”
Good Morning! We continue our week long Civil War Thanksgiving celebration with an excerpt from William Wheeler’s November 11, 1861 letter to his mother: Camp Observation, Md., November 11, 1861....
Published: 11/22/11
Voice from the Past – Thanksgiving Sensations
Happy Thanksgiving! The following account of an 1861 Thanksgiving dinner amongst the Union army comes from a letter written by Wilder Dwight of the 2nd Massachusettes Infantry: Camp near Seneca,...
Published: 11/22/11
Voice from the Past – A Thanksgiving Day Proclamation
While Americans had celebrated Thanksgiving since 1621, it was not until 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln issued the following Thanksgiving Day Proclamation. Only then, did the holiday became a national...
Published: 11/21/11
Voice from the Past – The Customs of Our Puritan Fathers
Good morning! To celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, The Front Line will be posting different “Voices from the Past” about Civil War soldiers’ Thanksgiving experiences. Our first quote comes from the...
Published: 11/17/11
Voice from the Past – “Am afloat, adrift”
“Am afloat, adrift, abroad, motion uneasy, “Inner man” “stomach” becoming so. I think I’ll try full-length. A cotton-bale & the open air on the for’ard deck. “Very grand.” The sea—if...
Published: 11/16/11
The Big House After Slavery (2010)
Amy Feely Morsman’s The Big House After Slavery examines changing gender relations among married elites in post-emancipation Virginia. Drawing from family papers, diaries, newspapers, and periodicals, Morsman argues that the...
Published: 11/15/11
“Soldiers of Fortune, Make Us Your Game!”
William Howard Russell was a “special correspondent” for the London Times, who travelled the North and South during the early years of the war. The excerpted quote describes a luncheon...
Published: 11/15/11
A Civil War Cattle Drive
Beef for the Union Army Cross the Long Bridge at Washington. Image Credit: Harper’s Weekly, 16 November 1861.
Published: 11/14/11
Voices from the Past – The Integrity of the Union
“You will please constantly to bear in mind the precise issue for which we are fighting; that issue is the preservation of the Union and the restoration of the full...
Published: 11/11/11
Honoring our Veterans…Then & Now
The Civil War Monitor editors would like to extend a big THANK YOU to all of the veterans and active duty personnel of our armed services. We salute you! To...
Published: 11/10/11
Who Will Be Worthy of Memorialization?
The following cartoon is from the 9 November 1861 issue of Harper’s Weekly. The caption reads: “BROTHER JONATHAN, who has been getting up a Military Statue, succeeds very well in...
Published: 11/10/11
Happy Birthday Marines!
To celebrate the 236th Birthday of the United States Marine Corps, we found this image of Civil War marines. The caption reads, “The United States Marines and Marine Barracks at...
Published: 11/9/11
Going Back the Way They Came (2011) & I Will Give Them One More Shot (2011)
It was in the 1950s when historian Bruce Catton first called attention to the value of Civil War regimental studies. These personal collections of experiences and quotations by the men...
Published: 11/8/11
A Regiment of Inventors
“In the arts of life man invents nothing; but in the arts of death he outdoes Nature herself, and produces by chemistry and machinery all the slaughter of plague, pestilence,...
Published: 11/7/11
Voices from the Past: “A Slow Affair”
William Thompson Lusk (May 23, 1838 – June 12, 1897) was an American obstetrician, who left medical school to join the Union Army. Lusk participated in the Battle of Port...