Gilder Lehrman Videos on the Civil War Era

Check out these short videos at Gilder Lehrman’s YouTube site, which include interviews with Gary Gallagher, Ed Ayers, Allen Guelzo, Thomas Bender, and Ira Berlin.  Search the full list of videos and you can view interviews with James and Louis Horton and David Blight.  They can be used in the classroom, though they range in [...]

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Well Done, John Schmutz

I am putting the finishing touches on my review of John Schmutz’s new book on the Crater for H-Net. Given my recent post on understanding the Crater as a slave rebellion you can imagine my surprise when I came across the following passage: Weisiger’s Virginians were even more sensitive on this issue of confronting black [...]

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Women as Objects in Civil War Art

It’s difficult to deny that the image of women in the work of contemporary Civil War artists tells us much more about the individual artist than the reality of women’s lives or the way those lives were transformed during the Civil War.  I pick on Mort Kunstler quite a bit, but his characters beg for [...]

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Lieutenant Freeman S. Bowley’s Crater

One of the most interesting Union accounts of the Crater is Lieutenant Freeman Bowley’s memoir, which was published in the National Tribune between April 1899 and September 1899.  [In 2006 Keith Wilson published these articles as Honor in Command.]  Bowley served in the 30th USCT from May 1864 till his capture at the Crater on [...]

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Was the Battle of the Crater the Last Slave Insurrection in the Western Hemisphere?

I‘ve decided to begin my Crater manuscript with the forced post-battle march of roughly 1,500 black and white Union soldiers through the streets of Petersburg before being sent to prisons further south or, in the case of many USCTs, back into bondage.  The scene perfectly captures the central theme of my study, which is the [...]

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Ron Maxwell’s Arlington Speech

The History News Network has posted Ron Maxwell’s recent address at the Confederate cemetery at Arlington.  He starts off with the right tone, but unfortunately, toward the end he was much too distracted by the Sebesta-Loewen petition.  If you are going to honor soldiers than honor soldiers.  That’s the purpose of Memorial Day.  It just [...]

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John Brown’s Pikes

For some reason John Brown is back in the news of late with a specific focus on his continuing legacy as well as the pikes or spears that were to be used during the raid.  For an excellent discussion of Brown’s life as well as the significance of the Harpers Ferry Raid I highly recommend [...]

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Rare Appomattox-Surrender Document to be Displayed in Ken Noe’s Office

Just kidding Ken, but congratulations nonetheless on securing a priceless Civil War document. See the story here.

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