The Civil War Podcast

An interesting piece showing the influence of terrain and quality maps on a battle, using Ball’s Bluff as an example.  Much is made over Stonewall’s foot cavalry, but I wonder if his mapmaker, Jedediah Hotchkiss, is deserving of more credit than he gets.  Stonewall’s famous 10′ map of the valley would’ve allowed him to manoeuver [...]

After 150 years, historians are taking a second look at the estimated death count of the war.  A new thesis, based upon census data, suggests a significant boost in the numbers. The true death toll was probably about 750,000 – 20 percent higher than the traditionally quoted figure of 620,000 – and might have been [...]

NPR puts a name to an unknown soldier. This is a fascinating piece of modern detective work. Now that we had the regiment, the next step was to visit the New York soldiers index, where a search in the National Parks Service Soldier and Sailors Database turned up four possibilities with the right initials: Thomas [...]

I’m so excited to see this Adalbert Volck exhibition, which I mentioned in a previous update.  The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, of all papers, has this excellent biography of the man. (But, surprisingly, none of his cartoons.) Volck lived nearly 50 years after the war’s end, dying in Baltimore in 1912. In a letter to the Library [...]

This one’s rather macabre, so if you have a sensitive constitution, don’t click through to the picture that accompanies the article. Shortly after the battle of Antietam, a farmer plowing his field dug up a dismembered arm.  For some reason, he and the doctor he consulted about it decided to pickle it rather than bury [...]

I’m currently reading a John Brown biography, and am deep in the heart of the Bleeding Kansas chapters.  It’s interesting to note that, for all the violence and emotion of the pro- and anti-slavery factions, there were many moderate Kansas who tried desperately to keep these radicals in check. This story, of an escaped slave [...]

If you’re an American reading this, your income taxes are due today.  Lincoln, of course, famously instituted the income tax into law, but did you know that your two day “tax holiday” this year is due to Abe as well?  Turns out DC shuts down for Emancipation Day, which commemorates an event most of us [...]

The New York Times’ Disunion (which I’ll be referencing a lot less thanks to the stingier paywall limits) examines suicides in the Confederate army, which it seems was more prevalent than in the Union army. Some excellent points are put forth.  (One not suggested was “the cause”; if Emancipation could breathe new life into the Northern [...]

Here’s an anecdote of the battle of Shiloh I’d never heard before, with a really neat modern conclusion. Some of the Shiloh soldiers sat in the mud for two rainy days and nights waiting for the medics to get around to them. As dusk fell the first night, some of them noticed something very strange: [...]

I’d procrastinated on reading this article, mainly due to its length, but it’s a fascinating read and entertainingly written – well worth the investment in time. While it eventually settles down into an examination of the German immigrant population and its effect on the border state, it’s introduced by a look at the city that [...]