MetaFilter posts tagged with civilwar and history

Drawings of the American Civil War Era

peacay — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:36:39 -0800

The Becker Collection: Drawings of the American Civil War Era "..contains the hitherto unexhibited and undocumented drawings by Joseph Becker and his colleagues, nineteenth-century artists who worked as artist-reporters for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly Newspaper observing, drawing, and sending back for publication images of the Civil War, the construction of the railroads, the laying of the trans-atlantic cable in Ireland, the Chinese in the West, the Indian wars, the Chicago fire, and numerous other aspects of nineteenth-century American culture." {artist biographies / subject browse} [via]

A collection of personal letters

Kattullus — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:29:44 -0800

The Letter Repository contains hundreds of personal letters from the early 18th Century through the Second World War. A large portion of the letters are from periods of conflict, the largest chunk being from World War Two, though there are also sizable numbers from the First World War and the American Civil War. There are also quite a few love letters. You can both see scans of the letters (and photographs or other materials) as well as transcriptions, which you can edit should you spot errors. One of my favorite collection of correspondance is the one between a Herbert Beyer, who served in the Air Force in World War Two, his darling Cleo and his parents.

Civil War Maps

marxchivist — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:34:07 -0800

The Civil War Preservation Trust has a wonderful page of assorted American Civil War maps. Includes the excellent CWPT topographical maps [viewable online, download .pdf requires free registration], and historical maps. My favorites are the animated maps, on the map of the First Day of Chancellorsville you can toggle between the topo map and a present-day satellite view so you can see the effects of modern development on the battlefield. [via]

Gettysburg Daily

marxchivist — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:39:32 -0800

Gettysburg Daily features every day (and I mean every day) large photos and discussion of some minutiae of the Gettysburg battlefield. Topics covered include: Dinosaur footprints on the battlefield, artillery shells lodged in local buildings, battlefield panoramas, witness trees, and rampant development. Whoever does the site recently started an award program: "The Sickles," awarded for the dumbest thing done on the battlefield in the past year. The award is named after General Daniel Sickles. Previous Metafilter discussion of Sickles and his day at Gettysburg.

One Hardscrabble Sumbitch

Devils Rancher — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:47:58 -0800

The John Mobberly Story (parts one through four) about a Confederate Guerilla who terrorized Loudoun county Virginia and the Harpers Ferry area, as written by blogger Neddie Jingo. Parts five through fifteen can be followed at the bottom of each post.

Reenacting Slavery

marxchivist — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:10:03 -0800

Reenacting slavery at Chickamauga National Military Park. When a reenactor put his knapsack on the ground, the person portraying his slave picked up his knapsack and "moved it before I could say a word. I instantly knew that I had an opportunity to demonstrate the institution's cruelty here, and so I did not acknowledge his act, did not thank him for it, did not make eye contact, did not stop my talk. My own cruelty -- even to make a teaching point to the audience -- made me shudder inside." I read this blog post this morning and have been thinking about it on and off all day. They've been doing slavery interpretation at Colonial Williamsburg and Carter's Grove for awhile, but this isn't something you see on Civil War battlefields very often, if ever. Another thing that struck me about this was the portrayal of the day-to-day degradation of slavery and not even being acknowledged as person; rather than the more dramatic beatings, runaways, and slave auctions. And I'd love to read this from the point of view from the guy who portrayed the slave.

Today in History: The Battle of Gettysburg

RussHy — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:46:18 -0800

The Battle of Gettysburg started on this day in 1863. Here are some essays on Gettysburg from MilitaryHistoryOnline. Here is a virtual tour with photos and maps.

Civil War and/or Aerial Reconnaissance Nerds Only

marxchivist — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 09:43:34 -0800

The of Battlefields and Bibliophiles blog has a fun quiz. Check your knowledge of American Civil War battlefields by guessing which battleground is featured in the Google Earth images. Answers here. I think I know more than the average doofus about this sort of thing, but the only ones I got right were #1, 3 and 4. I got close on number 6. The same blog featured a Hilarious! post on Black Confederates last month. Also, I recently ran across this thoughtful Civil War blog, done by a sixteen year-old girl.

History Archives: Online.

flibbertigibbet — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:34:59 -0800

Want to study some history and have hundreds of hours on your hands? Don't worry now. We already exhaustive know about the Valley of the Shadow project. But what about Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History, a bilingual English-French archive? If neither of these (vast) subjects tickle your pickle, don't worry... Would a Raid on Deerfield capture your fancy? Stories of midwifery? Matthew Brady's Civil War Photographs? General American (and Missourian?) history? The papers of the Adams family? Exploration of the North American continent? The Quakers? California in the latter half of the 1800s? I really suggest starting with Valley of the Shadow and Canadian Mysteries (also available in French!)--specifically, Klatsassin or William Robinson. Both have been designed to guide people into the beginnings of exploration (notably, look at the Valley's suggested lesson plans. They will also steal your soul if you are not careful.

What Happened to My Forty Acres and a Mule, Fool?

jonp72 — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 10:26:25 -0800

40 acres and a mule has been a slogan of African-American economic aspirations ever since the legislation creating the Freedman's Bureau promised ex-slaves parcels not exceeding forty acres each, to the loyal refugees and freedmen. General William Tecumseh Sherman's Special Field Order No. 15 decreed that the land on slave plantations be seized and distributed to freed slaves, but Andrew Johnson rescinded the order and vetoed expansion of the Freedman's Bureau. Both Henry Louis Gates and Dalton Conley have associated the failure to grant freed slaves their "40 acres and a mule" with the wealth gap between black and white Americans, but now an economics grad student, Melinda Miller, has brought important quantitative data to the debate in a new research paper. Using census data from the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, which was forced to distribute land to freed slaves of the Cherokee tribe shortly after the Civil War, Miller has found a natural experiment that makes it possible to quantify how much the failed dreams of "40 acres of a mule" are at the root of interracial disparities of wealth. According to a fine summary by econo-blogger Tyler Cowen, Miller argues that the failure to distribute land to slaves may account for as little as 20% or as much as 75% of the black/white wealth gap.

U.S. Civil war simplified

zardoz — Mon, 21 May 2007 02:39:07 -0800

The U.S. Civil War in four minutes. Simple yet enlightening animation showing the shifting battle lines of the war. (This is a one-link YouTube post. Thank you.)

The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves

Miko — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 09:48:29 -0800

Lost Cause [WaPo, bugmenot] History museums are a repository for public memory, but also a nation's mirrors, reflecting self-image. When our views of history shift, museums that fail to change are likely to fail in general. Today's Washington Post reports on the struggle and decline of the Museum of the Confederacy, contrasting it with the American Civil War Center, nearby geographically, worlds away in philosophy.

A different 13th Amendment?

JoshTeeters — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 15:41:55 -0800

Most people know that Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860. However, not many people know that a man named John J. Crittenden made a last-ditch effort to amend the Constitution, as a compromise between the north and south. How would have American history have progressed if this was the 13th Amendment as opposed to this?

Gettysburg of the West

rollbiz — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 20:17:43 -0800

The Battle of Glorieta Pass is considered the turning point of the Civil War, in terms of the New Mexico Territory. It happened March 26-28th, 1862. Initially Charles L. Pyron and William Reed Scurry's Confederate force, based at Johnson's Ranch, thought that they had won the battle. They would soon learn that the Union troops, lead by John P. Slough, had circled and destroyed their supplies, leading to Scurry's retreat towards San Antonio. More detailed battle info: [1] [2]-Some site photos.

CivilWar@Smithsonian

OmieWise — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 07:29:26 -0800

"CivilWar@Smithsonian is produced by the National Portrait Gallery and is dedicated to examining the Civil War through the Smithsonian Institution's extensive and manifold collections." Winslow Homer's Civil War drawings, portraits of leaders, artifacts of soldiering, and, of course, Mathew Brady's portraits. Much more besides. Previous Winslow Homer thread.

Images of the American Civil War

matteo — Fri, 20 May 2005 07:23:54 -0800

Images of the American Civil War

Yanks behaving like human beings with a few exceptions.

marxchivist — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 20:52:25 -0800

Alice Williamson is bitterly resentful of the Union occupation. The diary of a 16 year old girl in Yankee-occupied Gallatin, Tennessee. Images of the actual diary and a text version with annotations.

Civil War Maps

kirkaracha — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 12:00:24 -0800

Civil War Maps The Library of Congress just published an online collection of approximately 2,240 Civil War maps, with information about the collection and a History of Mapping the Civil War.

The Battle of Antietam

pedantic — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 12:26:06 -0800

The Battle of Antietam is the single bloodiest single day battle American history. Historically told in words, the battle illustrated in pictures [SVG required] shows jostling strategies that resulted in a loss of over 20,000 troops in 13 hours.

Yes... or no?

ewagoner — Tue, 12 Aug 2003 07:48:23 -0800

Giuseppe Garibaldi, who united Italy in the 1860s, was asked by Lincoln to lead the army during the US Civil War. Garibaldi said he would if Lincoln officially declared that the aim of the war was to end slavery. Lincoln replied that he couldn't at that time, and so Garibaldi moved on to other things. But what if Giuseppe had gotten involved? The Papacy would clearly have denounced the North (indeed, the pope was the only world leader to recognize the Confederacy). The French hated him; the English loved him. Had he led the Federal troops, would France have jumped in on the side of the South? Would England have then jumped in on the Union side to counter? A whole different world history, perhaps, hanging on a yes/no question.

FBI Discovers Bill of Rights

flagrante_delicto — Wed, 19 Mar 2003 16:39:28 -0800

FBI Discovers Bill of Rights after 138 years. No word on whether they will sell it or use it.

insomnyuk — Mon, 19 Aug 2002 09:25:07 -0800

The other reparations movement. According to this article, Jack Kershaw, of Memphis, Tennessee wants to file a lawsuit which seeks redress for grievances with the federal government for gross violation of international law during the War Between the States, especially during Sherman's March to the Sea (some call it a myth). Kershaw is a board member of the League of the South, a non-racial Southern secessionist movement located in Alabama). Can a small secession movement which publishes a magazine called the Southern Patriot and sports a Confederate flag everywhere be taken seriously by mainstream America? I personally don't think Kershaw has a snowball's chance in hell of winning such a suit, but the idea is interesting, especially if one is trying to trace the origins of America's practice of ignoring international law and just conduct in war, which seemed to start with the un-Civil War. What do you think?

sahrens428 — Tue, 06 Aug 2002 13:41:59 -0800

Silt-Filled Turret of USS Monitor Raised From Atlantic
The silt-packed gun turret of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor was raised Monday from the Atlantic floor, nearly 140 years after the historic warship sank during a New Year's storm.
I hope this is not a repost. For any history lovers, this is fascinating.

Mocata — Tue, 27 Mar 2001 01:41:22 -0800

Compulsory reading for the 'American Civil War was fought over states' rights' crowd.