People
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: 12/20/11
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: 12/12/11
Voice from the Past: A Christmas Bundle
Good Morning! Today’s Voice from the Past is Julia Ellen LeGrand Waitz of New Orleans, Louisiana. The following excerpt is from a December 1861 diary entry. Just completed another bundle...
Published: 12/8/11
Voice from the Past: The Hardest Calamities to Bear
Among the calamities of war, the hardest to bear, perhaps, is the separation of families and friends. Yet all must be endured to accomplish our independence and maintain our self-government....
Published: 12/5/11
Voice from the Past – Christmasday!
Good morning! To celebrate the holidays, all of the quotables this month will reference Christmas 1861. Our first voice from the past is Raphael Semmes, who wrote the following statement...
Published: 12/1/11
Voice from the Past: 1861
ARM’D year! year of the struggle! No dainty rhymes or sentimental love verses for you, terrible year! Not you as some pale poetling, seated at a desk, lisp- ing cadenzas...
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
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: 11/21/11
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: 11/15/11
“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: 11/14/11
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: 11/7/11
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...
Published: 11/7/11
Voices from the Past: “The Glorious News from Port Royal”
After the Union victory at Port Royal, Major General George Brinton McClellan wrote the following letter to his wife, Mary Ellen Marcy McClellan. “Nov. 1861. — You will have heard...
Published: 11/7/11
The Confederate Perspective: “Port Royal…has been taken by the enemy’s fleet”
“Port Royal, on the coast of South Carolina, has been taken by the enemy’s fleet. We had no casemated batteries. Here the Yankees will intrench themselves, and cannot be dislodged....