Published: 5/14/12Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One NightBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line The following Walt Whitman poem—“Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night”—reminds us of the tangible, human costs of war. Whitman often found the indiscriminate carnage and wholesale anonymity...
Published: 5/11/12The “Light Guard”By: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line Good Morning! Today’s Friday Funny is an 1861 Harper’s Weekly cartoon. Entitled “Costume Suggested for the Brave Stay-at-Home Light Guard,” this sketch mockingly questions the masculinity of Union men who...
Published: 5/9/12LAUSE: A Secret Society History of the Civil War (2011)By: Matt GallmanCategory: Book Reviews A Secret Society History of the Civil War by Mark A. Lause. University of Illinois Press, 2011. Cloth, ISBN: 0252036557. $35.00. When historians of the Civil War think about wartime “secret...
Published: 5/5/12…And They’re Off..By: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line In honor of the Kentucky Derby, we bring you this image of Civil War era horse racing (courtesy of Frank Leslie). While not a Stakes Race, this image is from...
Published: 5/4/12The Blockade on the “Connecticut Plan”By: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line Good Morning! To celebrate the end of another long work week, we bring you a “Friday Funny.” Today’s Civil War era cartoon is an 1862 Currier & Ives sketch entitled,...
Published: 5/2/12McKnight: CONFEDERATE OUTLAW (2011)By: William FeisCategory: Book Reviews Confederate Outlaw: Champ Ferguson and the Civil War in Appalachia by Brian D. McKnight. Louisiana State University Press, 2011. Cloth, ISBN: 0807137693. $34.95. Scholarly interest in Civil War guerrillas has burgeoned...
Published: 5/2/12MILLER: John Bell Hood (2010)By: James MartenCategory: Book Reviews John Bell Hood and the Fight for Civil War Memory by Brian C. Miller. University of Tennessee Press, 2010. Cloth, ISBN: 1572337028. $37.95. The Civil War destroyed John Bell Hood’s life....
Published: 5/1/12Revising, Refreshing, Evolving Battlefield InterpretationBy: Craig SwainCategory: The Front Line As a youngster, I visited Shiloh National Military Park on a number of occasions. Given my fondness for artillery, it should be no surprise that the “Ruggles Battery” tour stop...
Published: 4/30/12The Dying Confederate’s Last WordsBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line The following poem from the Civil War Song Sheets collection highlights the sacrifice made by individual Civil War soldiers. It’s entitled, “The Dying Confederate’s Last Words.” Dear comrades on my...
Published: 4/27/12Bowling with BeauregardBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line Good afternoon! Here’s a little Friday Funny to celebrate the end of the work week. Published in the April 26, 1862 edition of Harper’s Weekly, this Justin Howard cartoon celebrates...
Published: 4/26/12Was Confederate Conscription an Instrument of Social Justice?By: Andy HallCategory: The Front Line Last week brought the sesquicentennial of the first Confederate Conscription Act. The draft would later become a particularly divisive element in the Confederacy (as it also became in the North),...
Published: 4/26/12Introducing “Iron Men Afloat” – A New Series on the Civil War NavyBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line Good morning! I am sure many of you noticed that yesterday we posted a two-part series on the fall of New Orleans (April 25th, 1862). Part 1: “The Men and...
Published: 4/25/12LOEWEN & SEBESTA (eds.): The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader (2010)By: Jon D. BohlandCategory: Book Reviews The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader: The Great Truth about the Lost Cause edited by James Loewen and Edward Sebesta. The University Press of Mississippi, 2010. Paper, ISBN: 1604732199. $25.00. The great...
Published: 4/25/12FOLLETT, FONER, JOHNSON (eds.): Slavery’s Ghost (2011)By: Joshua D. RothmanCategory: Book Reviews Slavery’s Ghost: The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation edited by Richard Follett, Eric Foner, and Walter Johnson. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011. Cloth, ISBN: 1421402351. $45.00. A...
Published: 4/25/12The Surrender of New Orleans Part 1: The Men and The SkirmishBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line Today marks the sesquicentennial of the fall of New Orleans (April 25, 1862). As such, The Civil War Monitor is commemorating this event with a two-part series on the surrender....
Published: 4/25/12The Surrender of New Orleans Part 2: The Machines and TechnologyBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line As you know, today—April 25th—marks the 150th anniversary of the fall of New Orleans. Part 2 of our tribute to the surrender of the Crescent City is located on the...
Published: 4/18/12DELBLANCO: The Abolitionist Imagination (2012)By: Michael FellmanCategory: Book Reviews The Abolitionist Imagination (The Alexis De Tocqueville Lectures on American Politics) by Andrew Delblanco. Harvard University Press, 2012. Cloth, ISBN: 0674064445. $24.95. This call and response volume grew from the Alexis...
Published: 4/18/12BARNHART: Albert Taylor Bledsoe (2011)By: Benjamin CloydCategory: Book Reviews Albert Taylor Bledsoe: Defender of the Old South and Architect of the Lost Cause by Terry A. Barnhart. Louisiana State University Press, 2011. Cloth, ISBN: 0807137243. $42.50. Terry Barnhart’s intriguing biography...
Published: 4/15/12Did a C.S.S. Alabama Veteran Die in the Titanic Disaster?By: Andy HallCategory: The Front Line The December 1912 issue of The Confederate Veteran carries a list of eleven members of the Joe Johnston UCV Camp No. 94 of Mexia, Texas, who died between July 1911...
Published: 4/12/12Voice from the Past: “Another Bloodless Victory”By: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line In belated honor of the fall of Fort Pulaski (April 11, 1862), we bring you Miss Susan Walker’s account of the battle: Friday 11th April Heavy firing all morning yesterday...