Published: 2/6/12Aboard a Gun Deck During the Battle of Fort HenryBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line Gun-Deck of one of the Mississippi Gun-Boats Engaged in the Attack on Fort Henry – sketched by Alexander Simplot – Image Credit: Harper’s Weekly, February 22, 1862
Published: 2/6/12Voice from the Past: “We Had Held Out for Over Two”By: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line The following is Captain Jesse Taylor’s recollection of the Confederate defense of Fort Henry on February 6, 1862. …Arriving at the fort, I was convinced by a glance at its...
Published: 2/2/12Voice from the Past: Rallying with the Hearts of LionsBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line The following letter is from Samuel Cabble, a private in the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Infantry, to his wife. Cabble was a slave before he joined the army at twenty-one years of...
Published: 2/2/12Preparing to See the ElephantBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line Preparing the Negro Soldiers to Use the Minie Rifle Image Credit: Harper’s Weekly, March 14, 1863.
Published: 2/1/12WILSON: The Business of Civil War (2010)By: Brooks D. SimpsonCategory: Book Reviews The Business of Civil War: Military Mobilization and the State, 1861-1865 by Mark R. Wilson. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010. Paper, ISBN: 080189820X. $25.00. At its core, Mark R. Wilson’s volume...
Published: 2/1/12Honoring African American Veterans for Black History MonthBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line Happy Black History Month! Today—and throughout the month of February, we honor those African Americans who fought in the Civil War. Image Credit: “A Negro Regiment in Action,” Harper’s Weekly,...
Published: 1/30/12The Launching of a Legend…the USS MonitorBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line Naval Historical Center’s Online Library of Selected Images 150 years ago today, the Union Navy launched the USS Monitor—its first ironclad—from the Continental Iron Works, at Greenpoint in Long Island,...
Published: 1/30/12Inboard the USS MonitorBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line Naval Historical Center’s Online Library of Selected Images The above image is the USS Monitor‘s general plan featuring an inboard profile of the ironclad. First published in in 1862, the...
Published: 1/26/12The Mighty MississippiBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line General View of the Mississipii River from Cairo, Illinois to the mouth of the river. Image Credit: Harper’s Weekly, January 11, 1862.
Published: 1/25/12GINGRICH (et al): The Battle of the Crater: A NovelBy: Craig A. WarrenCategory: Book Reviews The Battle of the Crater: A Novel by Newt Gingrich, Williiam R. Forstchen, and Albert S. Hanser. Thomas Dunne Books, 2011. Cloth, ISBN: 0312607105. $27.99. In recent months, Republican presidential candidate...
Published: 1/24/12What Robert E. Lee Didn’t Do After AppomattoxBy: M. Keith HarrisCategory: The Front Line Actually, he didn’t do a lot of things. For starters, he didn’t lead a guerilla army against Federal invaders/occupiers—even though more than a few people suggested that he take that...
Published: 1/23/12Prisoners from the FrontBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line Before Winslow Homer became a famed sea-scape painter, he was a Civil War correspondent and illustrator for Harpers Weekly. The above paiting, entitled “Prisoners from the Front,” (1866) was featured...
Published: 1/19/12Voice from the Past: “A Terrible Struggle if it Comes to War.”By: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line “They do not know what they say. If it comes to a conflict of arms, the war will last at least four years. Northern politicians will not appreciate the determination...
Published: 1/18/12BROWN (ed.): Remixing the Civil WarBy: Nina SilberCategory: Book Reviews Remixing the Civil War: Meditations on the Sesquicentennial edited by Thomas J. Brown. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011. Cloth, ISBN: 1421402505. $50.00. Who could have anticipated that, by the early...
Published: 1/17/12The Feminine Art of Inspiring Male CourageBy: Laura June DavisCategory: The Front Line Civil War illustrator Frank Leslie often parodied the evasion of the Enrollment Act of 1863. The image above encouraged women to make men feel obligated to go and fight via...
Published: 1/16/12Remembering Race and Reunion: Ten Years LaterBy: Brian Matthew JordanCategory: Book Reviews Remembering Race and Reunion: Ten Years Later There are four copies of David W. Blight’s magisterial Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory on the bookshelves lining my study, each...
Published: 1/12/12Looking Back…Just Fifty YearsBy: Craig SwainCategory: The Front Line As we enter the second year of the Civil War Sesquicentennial, there is some comparison back fifty years to the centennial—be that just for nostalgia or for analysis. Allow me...
Published: 1/11/12SMITH: The Enemy Within (2011)By: Mark A. LauseCategory: Book Reviews The Enemy Within: Fears of Corruption in the Civil War North by Michael Thomas Smith. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2011. Cloth, ISBN: 0813931274. $35.00. Corruption in government and business remains...
Published: 1/11/12KNIGHT: Confederate Invention (2011)By: KNIGHT: Confederate Invention (2011)Category: Book Reviews Confederate Invention: The Story of the Confederate States Patent Office and Its Inventors by H. Jackson Knight. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2011. Cloth, ISBN: 0807137626. $55.00. Students of the...
Published: 1/11/12RABLE: God’s Almost Chosen Peoples (2010)By: Abigail CooperCategory: Book Reviews God’s Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War by George C. Rable. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010. Cloth, ISBN: 0807834262. $35.00. “I shall be...