Published: 10/1/12The Consequences of Damning the TorpedoesBy: John GradyCategory: The Front Line Rear Adm. David Farragut famously “damned the torpedoes” when he closed off the port of Mobile as a haven for blockade runners. But the Union navy’s and army’s final push...
Published: 9/28/12An Interview with Glenn BrasherBy: David K. ThomsonCategory: Behind The Lines Our interview with Glenn Brasher, Instructor of History at the University of Alabama and author of The Peninsula Campaign & the Necessity of Emancipation: African Americans & the Fight...
Published: 9/26/12BENDER (ed.): Worthy of the Cause for Which They Fight (2011)By: Colin WoodwardCategory: Book Reviews Worthy of the Cause for Which They Fight: The Civil War Diary of Brigadier General Harris Reynolds, 1861-1865 edited by Robert Patrick Bender. University of Arkansas Press, 2011. Paper, ISBN: 1557289711....
Published: 9/19/12MEIER: Suite Harmonic (2011)By: Carolyn ChesarinoCategory: Book Reviews Suite Harmonic: A Civil War Novel of Rediscovery by Emily Meier. Sky Spinner Press, 2011. Paper, ISBN: 0983669201. $24.95. Emily Meier’s heavily researched Suite Harmonic: A Civil War Novel of Rediscovery imaginatively recounts...
Published: 9/19/12An Interview with Aaron AstorBy: David K. ThomsonCategory: Behind The Lines Our interview with Aaron Astor, associate professor of history at Maryville College and author of Rebels on the Border published by Louisiana State University Press. Dr. Astor’s work examines...
Published: 9/17/12The Battle For Freedom: Antietam and the Emancipation ProclamationBy: Louis P. MasurCategory: The Front Line Abraham Lincoln spent the late summer of 1862 waiting. Worrying and waiting. He was worrying about the war, which was not going well. And he was waiting for a victory...
Published: 9/16/12BURNS (director): Death and the Civil WarBy: Megan Kate NelsonCategory: Book Reviews American Experience: Death and the Civil War written and directed by Ric Burns. Arlington, VA. Length: 120 Minutes. Premiere: September 18, 2012, on PBS. The camera pans across a photograph as...
Published: 9/14/12An Interview with Ric BurnsBy: David K. ThomsonCategory: Behind The Lines Our interview with Ric Burns, director of the new PBS documentary “Death and the Civil War.” Based on Drew Gilpin Faust’s “This Republic of Suffering,” Burns details the documentary, his...
Published: 9/12/12MCPHERSON: War on the Waters (2012)By: Barbara Brooks TomblinCategory: Book Reviews War on the Waters: The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861-1865 by James M. McPherson. University of North Carolina Press, 2012. Cloth, ISBN: 0807835889. $35.00. War on the Waters: The Union &...
Published: 9/7/12An Interview with Jim DownsBy: David K. ThomsonCategory: Behind The Lines Our interview with Jim Downs, Assistant Professor of History and American Studies at Connecticut College and author of Sick From Freedom: African-American Illness and Suffering during the Civil War...
Published: 9/5/12LEVIN: Remembering the Battle of the Crater (2012)By: Caroline E. JanneyCategory: Book Reviews Remembering the Battle of the Crater: War as Murder by Kevin M. Levin. University of Kentucky Press, 2012. Cloth, ISBN: 0813136105. $35.00. In early November 1903, nearly 20,000 people gathered in...
Published: 8/31/12An Interview with Keith HarrisBy: David K. ThomsonCategory: Behind The Lines The Civil War Monitor‘s interview with Keith Harris, host of “Cosmic America,” a Civil War multi-media platform. In the interview we discuss Keith’s goals with Cosmic America, other Civil...
Published: 8/29/12WILLIAMS & BURKHIMER (eds.): The Mary Lincoln Enigma (2012)By: Louis P. MasurCategory: Book Reviews The Mary Lincoln Enigma: Historians on America’s Most Controversial First Lady edited by Frank J. Williams and Michael Burkhimer. Southern Illinois University Press, 2012. Cloth, ISBN: 0809331241. $32.95. On September 24,...
Published: 8/27/12Bowdoin’s Other Civil War SonsBy: David ThomsonCategory: The Front Line Discussions surrounding Bowdoin College and the Civil War invariably return to the famous Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of the 20th Maine and the acts of his regiment at Gettysburg on July...
Published: 8/24/12An Interview with Elizabeth LeonardBy: David K. ThomsonCategory: Behind The Lines Our interview with Elizabeth Leonard, the John J. and Cornelia V. Gibson Professor of History at Colby College and author of Lincoln’s Forgotten Ally: Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt...
Published: 8/24/12Fathering RecruitmentBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line Titled, “A Good Way for Fathers of Families to Aid Recruiting,” this July 1862 Harper’s Weekly cartoon is a playful take on Union recruitment efforts. (Yet, it is much more...
Published: 8/22/12NELSON: Ruin Nation (2012)By: Edward L. AyersCategory: Book Reviews Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War by Megan Kate Nelson. University of Georgia Press, 2012. Cloth, ISBN: 0820342513. $69.95. For the last quarter century scholars have worked to recover an...
Published: 8/17/12An Interview with Megan Kate NelsonBy: David K. ThomsonCategory: Behind The Lines Our interview with Megan Kate Nelson, Lecturer of History and Literature at Harvard University and author of Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War now out with University...
Published: 8/17/12Hercules of the UnionBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line Happy Friday! Today’s Friday Funny is a celebration of Union General Winfield Scott—cast here as the mythical Hercules slaying a secessionist hydra. Aiding Scott in his epic battle is the...
Published: 8/15/12DIRCK: Lincoln and the Constitution (2012)By: Elizabeth D. LeonardCategory: Book Reviews Lincoln and the Constitution by Brian R. Dirck. Southern Illinois University Press, 2012. Cloth, ISBN: 0809331179. $19.95. In his contribution to Southern Illinois University Press’s “Concise Lincoln Library” series, historian Brian...