Published: 1/2/12Voice from the Past: “A Great Day of Sport to Usher in the New Year”By: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line 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: 12/29/11The Great FairBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line 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: 12/26/11Voice from the Past: “Not peace, but a sword”By: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line 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: 12/22/11The Funeral of a “Gentleman Cow”By: Andy HallCategory: The Front Line 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: 12/22/11Voice from the Past: Dressed All the Wards with Festoons and GarlandsBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line 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: 12/20/11Voices from the Past: The Battle of DranesvilleBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line 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: 12/19/11Voice from the Past: A Pleasant ChristmasBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line 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: 12/15/11Voice from the Past: A Loud Rap on the DoorBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line 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: 12/12/11Voice from the Past: A Christmas BundleBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line 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: 12/8/11Voice from the Past: The Hardest Calamities to BearBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line 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....