MetaFilter posts tagged with civilwar

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.

Vietnam in Pennsylvania

billysumday — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:42:29 -0800

Civil War reenacting is so 2002. Vietnam reenacting is the new black. But really, if reenacting is your thing, you've got lots of wars to choose from.

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]

How a Civil War Amputation Was Performed

marxchivist — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:52:07 -0800

How a Civil War Amputation Was Performed NSFS [not safe for the squeamish]

"I started the movement with the firm resolve that I will never be caught alive by the enemy. That has spread down the ranks."

shoebox — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:56:16 -0800

Velupillai Prabhakaran, the elusive and ruthless leader (timeline, short bio) of the violent separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been reportedly killed in battle by the Sri Lankan Army (self-loading video) (Previously) So far, most news organizations are reporting this as fact (guardian obituary) and calling a definite end to the war, but the LTTE are denying all claims as to the death of their leader and state that this is simply government propaganda to dissuade their movement. Sri Lanka has been subject to a heavy media blockade since hostilities resumed in December 2005 in the ongoing conflict. Whether or not the claims are true, the army has completely surrounded and routed the Tigers from their strongholds in Northern Sri Lanka and the Prime Minister has declared victory. It is unclear what will happen from now as many in the Tamil minority are wary of the government. However, one thing is clear: This is a definite turning point in the history of this young, post-colonial nation torn apart by civil war and internal strife for decades.

"...who knows what might come out of that"

Avenger — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:05:21 -0800

Mere days after asserting his state's "sovereignty" from an "oppressive" Federal government, Governor Rick Perry stands before an angry crowd at Austin City Hall and announces that Texas may once again secede from the Union. "There's a lot of different scenarios," Perry said. "We've got a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we're a pretty independent lot to boot." The spectre of secession has graced Texas before, of course. Except the last governor to deal with the possibility of secession and civil war was against the whole idea. Could the previously fringe idea of Texas secession once again be gaining momentum?

A Photographic Mystery.

sarabeth — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:26:22 -0800

Whose Father Was He? The soldier’s body was found near the center of Gettysburg with no identification — no regimental numbers on his cap, no corps badge on his jacket, no letters, no diary. Nothing save for an ambrotype (an early type of photograph popular in the late 1850s and 1860s) of three small children clutched in his hand. Errol Morris presents the Civil War-era mystery of a fallen soldier and a found photograph. [via]

Gettysburg in Miniature

marxchivist — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:46:41 -0800

Miniature Gettysburg is "photographed on a 250 square foot diorama accurately representing portions of the terrain of the Gettysburg Battlefield as it appeared on July 2, 1863." The portfolio section has some very intriguing looking photos, unfortunately they cannot be viewed large. Some info on the artist's techniques here. [via] Some only slightly larger pics available in the online store. I'm frustrated by the small size of the pics, but given my hobby of collecting toy soldiers and my fascination with the Civil War, I couldn't not post this. People seem to like to do dioramas of Gettysburg. More here and here. Even more Civil War Toy Soldier fun at Mannie Gentile's blog. [previously]

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.

Civl War Dinosaurs

marxchivist — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:03:53 -0800

"It's 1863 and Union soldiers have discovered a hidden valley filled with dinosaurs. Now the Yankees plan to use the dinosaurs as weapons of mass destruction against the South." Presenting Professor Cline's Dinosaur Kingdom at Natural Bridge VA. Providing fun for the whole family, this is "not your father's dinosaur park." [via] If you can't imagine the ensuing mayhem, there's always a flickr group to document it. Brought to you by the mind of Mark Cline, who is also responsible for Foamhenge.

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.

Skirmish at Greenbrier, Maryland

marxchivist — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:31:17 -0800

A Deadly Skirmish at Greenbrier, Maryland. A little-known engagement of the American Civil War. This bucolic crossroads was visited by the hard hand of war. The Confederate Artillerymen await, then unleash leaden death on the Hoosier troops. Carnage ensues in the gathering gloom. The Butcher's Bill.

3-second Men

forrest — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:45:56 -0800

2 July 1863, second day of Gettysburg. Sickles has pulled his III Corps -- without orders -- off of Cemetery Ridge and positioned it a half mile in front of the rest of the Union lines. Longstreet smashes the hapless III Corps and its men are in full flight. Hancock rides back and forth inside the gaping hole left by Sickles. Below him, almost 2000 men of Wilcox's brigade are charging up the slope. They will gain a foothold on the ridge and be reinforced by Lee. As Longstreet pins down the Union left, Lee will roll up the center and right of the Northern army and chase them from the field. He will then march on and take Washington before turning north along the eastern seaboard. Lee will capture and burn Philadelphia and Boston in his March Along the Sea, chasing the Northern government from city to city until Lincoln finally sues for peace and the union is no more. Suddenly, a line of blue-coated soldiers comes into Hancock's view. "My God, is this all the men here? Who are you?" "1st Minnesota, sir." "See those colors?", says Hancock, pointing at the flags of the oncoming Confederates, "Take them." The 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry was the first state volunteer regiment to answer President Lincoln's 1861 call for troops. At First Bull Run, they sustained the heaviest casualties of any Union regiment on the field in a portent of things to come. They were in the front lines at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. They are veterans and realize what Hancock asks of them. They quickly dress their lines into a front of less than 100 yards. Led by Colonel William Colvill, who had resumed command earlier that day after being relieved of arrest, they step off down towards Plum Run Valley. At first they stride down the slope with arms at right shoulder. Already the fire from the enemy is taking its toll and double-quick changes into a full speed assault. "...no man wavers, every gap is closed up... bringing down their bayonets, the boys press forward in unbroken line." They smash into the oncoming lines and stop the Southern charge, but their success proves their undoing. As they push the center of the rebel lines back, the wings enfold them and they are soon caught in a sack. For every Minnesotan fighting, there are 6 Alabamans trying to kill him, sometimes from the distance of a handshake. The rebels are so thick around the 1st Minnesota that many Southerners are injured by friendly fire. The Minnesotans take cover behind trees and boulders as their world is reduced to smoke and screams, the ssszzz of bullets passing and the thock of bullets hitting home. Colvill is struck in the shoulder and foot. LTC Adams is hit six times. Maj. Downie is shot through both arms. Cpts. Muller and Periam, along with Lt. Farr, are all killed. Every officer is a casualty. The flag of the 1st Minnesota falls 5 times and is picked up 5 times. They fail to capture the enemy colors. They have stopped the charge, but they cannot retreat because they know that Hancock's implicit orders were to hold the rebels until he can patch the hole in the lines above them. So they stand and die. As the 1st Minnesota melts on the slope below him, Hancock plugs the hole with new units arriving at the front and with men retreating from Sickles' debacle. The next day, during the largest artillery duel ever seen on the North American continent, he rides his horse back and forth on the ridge to encourage his soldiers. When his aides plead with him to get down, he answers, "There are times when a corps commander's life does not count", proving he understands the expendability of any soldier of any rank. As the Pickett-Pettigrew Charge storms against the Union lines, Hancock notices but does not recognize a gray-haired Confederate officer leading a penetration of the northern position, black hat riding on the point of his sword. Hancock orders a counterattack ("You better get over there goddam quick!") that kills his old friend Lo Armistead. A few minutes later, Hancock is badly wounded, but refuses to be removed from the field until the battle is over. Eight companies of the 1st Minnesota -- 262 men -- charged down the hill. 47 men return, among them Cpl Henry O'Brien, carrying a wounded soldier on his back. No man ran away and none were taken prisoner. The 215 men left behind represent the largest percentage (82%) of casualties suffered in a single battle by any surviving unit in the history of the United States armed forces. "There is no other unit in the history of warfare that ever made such a charge and then stood its ground sustaining such losses." -- Lt. Colonel Joseph B. Mitchell, Decisive Battles of the Civil War The next day, the survivors of the 1st Minnesota are reunited with 3 companies of the regiment that had been previously detached and are placed in the center of the Union lines to receive Pickett's Charge. The 28th Virginia pierces the Union lines at The Angle and are thrown back by a charge from the 1st Minnesota. Cpl Henry O'Brien earns a Medal of Honor for taking up the fallen colors and rallying the men around him despite being wounded twice. Another survivor from the previous day in Plum Run Valley -- Pvt Marshall Sherman -- also earns a Medal of Honor for taking the flag of the 28th Virginia. (They still won't give the flag back. When Virginia petitioned for its return in 2001, Governor Ventura said, "Why? We won.") This is a very long post, but I wanted to illustrate something. If you're an average reader, it took you 5 minutes to read this far. Hancock threw that regiment into the jaws of the Confederate charge expecting 5 minutes respite. His intention was to trade their lives for time -- time to save the battlefield, his army, and quite possibly his country. Some histories don't even mention the 1st Minnesota, but they gave Hancock his 5 minutes (and more, so you may want to click on a link or two.)

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.

Massacre at Fort Pillow

Mayor Curley — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:53:54 -0800

"Nothing in the history of the Rebellion has equaled in inhumanity and atrocity the horrid butchery at Fort Pillow, on the 13th of April, 1864. In no other school than slavery could human beings have been trained to such readiness for cruelties like these. Accustomed to brutality and bestiality all their lives, it was easy for them to perpetrate the atrocities which will startle the civilized foreign world, as they have awakened the indignation of our own people."

The Gaza Bombshell

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 11:33:25 -0800

Vanity Fair has obtained confidential documents, since corroborated by sources in the U.S. and Palestine, which lay bare a covert initiative, approved by Bush and implemented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, to provoke a Palestinian civil war.

Gettysburg in Lego

marxchivist — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 06:02:54 -0800

The Battle of Gettysburg in Lego, done by 7th Graders: Day 1; Day 2; Day 3. [youtube links] Lots of blood and flying bodies. Complete with Matrix references. Soundtrack by The Eagles, Queen, and Richard Strauss. [via]

The Yankee King of Spain

Atreides — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:46:56 -0800

Acquitted of the murder of Francis Scott Key's son by the first successful pleading of temporarily insane? Check. Civil War Union general? Check. Medal of Honor winner? Check. Amputated leg on display to the public? Check. Lover to the deposed Queen of Spain? Check. Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce you to Major General, Foreign Minister, and Congressman Daniel Edgar Sickles. Feel free to skip to the beginning of the Time article on Sickles (Spanish Lover link), for a slightly dated (and slightly wrong), but interesting biography of the general before Spain. Also, check out this link with numerous photographs (scroll down) and for articles on the man from multiple sources and years.

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.

Hunting Rebel Gold

stupidsexyFlanders — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 02:35:22 -0800

A man seeking Confederate gold and his own family's hidden history uncovers a cryptic trail that may stretch back to a secret society and Jesse James.

Alice in Civil War Land

marxchivist — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 05:51:25 -0800

John Tenniel and the American Civil War. Best known for his illustrations for Alice in Wonderland, John Tenniel also produced political cartoons for the British magazine Punch. This sites collects 54 of Tenniel's cartoons dealing with the American Civil War. In addition to the cartoons themselves, the site gives an explanation of the symbols and props in each cartoon and places them context with then-current events and issues. I believe the best way to browse the cartoons is through this link.