Late Spring 1864: Grant wanted to take the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. He had been trying to slip around the Rebels, but the wily Lee kept blocking him. Now Grant made a wide swing to flank the Rebels and seize Cold Harbor. Not a real town, Cold Harbor was just an intersection of […]
Lieutenant Alexander Douglas could it no longer. The cries stirred him to action. Douglas had been born on Christmas Day of 1833 in South Carolina, a land that was first settled by the English in 1670. Early Americans battled Redcoats there in the Revolutionary War, and later, in 1865, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman burned […]
Union General McClellan had just come into some key intelligence. Now he thought he had Robert E. Lee right where he wanted him, in enemy territory with his forces divided: “Here is a piece of paper with which if I cannot whip Bobbie Lee, I will be willing to go home.” What was that piece […]
A lot of folks tell us what the Civil War was all about. Professors and reporters and “very important” people tell us. And with what conviction they tell us! But I rarely hear from the scholars about why the man in uniform was fighting. Seems the soldier is simply forgotten. Sure, we hear “what the […]
The 1st Kentucky Brigade is also known as the Orphan Brigade. Six different Kentucky Regiments were in this brigade. (Confederate Brigades were composed of two to six regiments.) Some Kentucky regiments used flags with a upright Latin/Christian cross on them. The most prominent are the blue flags with large red Latin crosses adorned by 13 […]
The Civil War produced many fine shooters, and some made their way into sharpshooter units. Champion marksman Hiram Berdan of New York raised a Union sharpshooter unit. To qualify, volunteers had to put ten shots in a circle of 10 inches from 200 yards. Berdan’s Sharpshooters wore green uniforms, like the reenactor above. Sharp’s rifles, […]
When the battle wasn’t raging, Yankee and Rebel soldiers were known to get along with each other. Confederate Private Sam Watkins tells a story about a Sunday after the Battle of Chickamauga. He came and his buddies came to relieve some sentries on the Tennessee River. There was a Union outpost on the opposite riverbank. […]
If you have spent much time reading here, you probably know Private Sam Watkins of Company H, First Tennessee Infantry. Sam had a keen eye for nonsense, and his tales were often told with humor. He saw things as the man on the firing line, from the bottom of the totem pole. In his […]
It was July 31st, 1861. Federal troops were just north of Manassas, Virginia. There were many who thought they would send the Rebels reeling, putting an end to the rebellion. The day was Sunday, and a throng of civilian sightseers had come down from the U.S. capitol, just 25 miles away. Lieutenant Tibdall commanded a […]
It was July 31st, 1861. Federal troops were just north of Manassas, Virginia. There were many who thought they would send the Rebels reeling, putting an end to the rebellion. The day was Sunday, and a throng of civilian sightseers had come down from the U.S. capitol, just 25 miles away. Lieutenant Tibdall commanded a […]
The destruction of Confederate Monuments, while believed to be justified (cultural cleansing), is both ignorant and insensitive. Those who destroy the monuments think that removing such monuments will remove the reminder of racism from society. However, the removal of such monuments provokes anger and injustice by saying the events of racism never occurred, and also […]
We live in an age where people becoming offended is taking away our freedom of speech. Instead of just ignoring opinions that they don’t believe in, people instead seek to silence voices they don’t want to hear. America was founded on the idea that anyone can believe what they want and that freedom is in […]
