The Front Line
Our communal blog featuring the latest in Civil War news, research, analysis, and events from a network of historians
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 Massachusettes 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: 11/22/11
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: 11/15/11
“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: 11/8/11
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...
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....
Published: 11/7/11
Voices from the Past: “Sagacious Military Conjecture”
Wilder Dwight was a Lieutenant Colonel inthe 2nd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Prior to dying September 19, 1862 from wounds at the Battle of Antietam, Dwight wrote some conjectures about...
Published: 11/7/11
Voices from the Past: “The Gratifying Duty”
Today marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Port Royal—one of the earliest amphibious operations of the American Civil War. The United States Navy fleet and the United States...