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Good Morning! Today's Voice from the Past comes from George Michael Neese.   

Visitors who travel to pay their respects to the fallen and experience the beautiful monuments and closely manicured grounds of Arlington may be surprised to learn that the site itself was at the center of one of the most divisive political and legal battles of the post-Civil War period. The legal battle, which culminated in the Supreme Court case of U.S. v. Lee (1882) and the question of who...

In demanding political candidates' fealty to Confederate symbols, heritage advocates do themselves-and their candidates-no great favors among the general electorate.

Today's Voice from the Past comes from Alexander G. Downing. His 1862 New Years' celebration was a far cry from the revelry enjoyed by most modern day celebrants.

Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays! As we prepare to ring in the new year, it seems fitting to recall a festive occassion from 1861.

During the Civil War, Confederate brigadier general J.E.B. Stuart gave a leather album to Laura Ratcliffe, a twenty-five year old resident of Fairfax County, Virginia. This deceptively simple album is the topic of Charles V. Mauro's most recent book, A Southern Spy in Northern Virginia: The Civil War Album of Laura Ratcliffe...

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:

Confederate garrison troops in Texas demonstrate against the issue of inedible rations in a distinctive way.

Happy Holidays! Today's Voice from the Past is from the December 1861 diary of Eliza Newton Woolsey Howland.  

Built on an impressive foundation of quantitative research, Financial Fraud makes major contributions to the fields of memory and guerrilla warfare in the Civil War. Though Geiger's documentation of the fraudulent lending used to arm Confederate forces is quite the accomplishment, his work is truly dynamic, powerful, and contentious in his analysis of the unintended consequences and fallout from...

Quantrill at Lawrence: The Untold Story is a well-written and provocative book... many will disagree with his conclusion that the Lawrence attack should be seen as a legitimate and successful cavalry raid...but readers will appreciate his storytelling and historians should give the contentions he makes in telling his untold story further consideration...

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 two-hour encounter, which consisted of clumsy infantry attacks and haphazard artillery fire, pitted a few thousand Pennsylvania soldiers against a smaller contingent of Confederate...

Happy Holidays! Today's Voice from the Past is David Day who wrote the following on December 26, 1861:  

Good morning! Today's Voice from the Past comes from a December 22, 1861 letter from Elisha Franklin Paxton to his wife.  

Whitman's reluctance to reveal to his readers the totality of the "seething hell" of "the real war" he saw in the hospitals is at the heart of Cynthia Wachtell's War No More. Challenging modern authors such as Paul Fussell who view World War I as the watershed moment in the emergence of an antiwar tradition in American letters, Wachtell goes back to Whitman's "Secession war" to find its uncertain...

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.  

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. In my absence from you I have thought of you very often, and regretted I could do nothing for your comfort.  

Historians consistently underestimate the ethnic diversity of the Confederacy. Regimental muster rolls from Texas, Louisiana, and other western states abound in German, Irish, French, and Spanish surnames. Until recently, these individuals and the groups they represent have remained largely under the radar...

A Union volunteer strikes a (potentially tragic?) pose with a group of comrades. We hope those guys were friends!