The book of essays pulled from the New York Times’s Disunion column has been out for a couple of weeks now. It’s a pretty hefty volume that includes over 100 essays on the period between 1861 and the beginning of 1863. My only complaint is that the table of contents does not list individual essays, [...]
camp servant
Following the surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4, 1863 a New York Times correspondent reported on the confiscation of Confederate camp servants and their enlistment into the Union army in full view of their former masters.
As we all know one of the most misunderstood aspects of the debate surrounding the existence of black Confederate soldiers is the existence of pensions that were given by former Confederate states to qualified black citizens at various points during the postwar period. For the uninformed or those working primarily from a narrow agenda the [...]
Bonus material compliments of The Onion. [H/T to Bjorn Skaptason] A number of my Civil War peeps on Facebook are passing around a Comedy Central skit about the Civil War, which I posted here a few years back. To return the favor I give you another classic from Saturday Night Live. Not surprisingly, I love [...]
Update: Richard Williams has decided to respond to this post on his blog. What I find interesting is that he has nothing to say about the content of the post. Instead he takes issue with one of my comments about my characterization of his understanding of the influence of Nat Turner’s Rebellion on race/slavery and [...]
Looks like students at South Pointe High School are bringing to life the diary of Lt. Samuel “Catawba” Lowry, who served in the 17th South Carolina Infantry. Lowry’s diary is well worth reading. He provides a great deal of detail about camp life, battle, as well as his experiences with his servants. His final diary [...]
Today I am working on the final re-write for an article on Confederate camp servants that will be published in an upcoming issue of The Civil War Monitor. This involves reviewing changes made by the magazine’s editorial staff and responding to questions re: clarity, substance and interpretation. I am having some difficulty with one particular [...]
