Colonel Shaw and the 54th at Battery Wagner.
A futile assault that proved invaluable in the war of greater consciousness.
Assateague Island Lighthouse
- Once the Yankees took the lighthouse, the glass on top was a mighty important target.
Civil War fort at Jamestown is dug up to get at 1607 site
(source: Washington Post)
Fort Pocahontas was established in 1861 as Confederate forces prepared to defend Richmond from possible naval assault during the opening months of the war. To reveal James Fort — the first permanent English settlement in the New World — nearly half of Fort Pocahontas has been removed.
How about that? Filed under: Historical Convergence
23rd New York Infantry: Two soldiers, one black and one white smoking a long pipe in front of tent.
Library of Congress.
The battle for New Orleans.
“The city is yours by the power of brutal force and not by any choice or consent of its inhabitants,” wrote New Orleans’ Mayor John Monroe to Union Flag Officer David Farragut, whose eleven war ships lay off the city, and whose public had whipped themselves into an absolute fury.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.
- The Band
Shelby Foote once said that the Civil War defined us as a nation. It was the crossroads of our being, and it was a hell of a crossroads. When the news of Levon Helm’s passing came, I immediately thought of these words. Levon Helm was a man whose influence on our America cannot be measured.
I had the opportunity to step inside Levon’s barn and witness one of his Midnight Rambles. I didn’t just hear music — I saw living history. I heard a Minstrel Show; Big Easy Dixieland; Dust Bowl Country; Kentucky Bluegrass; Delta Blues; Acadian Gypsy Folk; Southern Rock. I felt a connection with something long gone, yet somehow familiar. Different times and places, all conjured up and tied together under North American timber in Woodstock. Levon wasn’t a dirt farmer. Levon farmed history and kept it alive for all of us to hear. He was one hell of a crossroads.
Gen. George B. McClellan, the former commander of the entire Union force, now commander of the Army of the Potomac alone, started the Peninsula campaign on April 4, 1862, the first step toward fulfilling the promise made to him by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton the previous November: “Now we two will save the country.” Having landed tens of thousands of soldiers near the tip of the Virginia Peninsula in the preceding weeks, his plan was to push inexorably northwest toward the Confederate capital at Richmond — and victory in the Civil War.
Major Anderson’s command at Fort Sumter — from a photograph taken in the fort.
Harper’s Weekly; Saturday, March 23, 1861.
The Longstreet Letters: 1861-1867
A fascinating look into the mind of a man who was at times as belligerent, vindictive and boastful as he was humble, loyal and stoic. It may very well be that the conflicts he shared with his superiors were merely outward symptoms of the demons he wrestled within.
As always, a trip isn’t a trip without a little history.
Another image that could have been taken yesterday, courtesy of the incredible collection on display here. Most, if not all, of these images are available via the Library of Congress.
Soldiers bathing in the North Anna River, Virginia, in May of 1864. The ruins of Richmond & Fredericksburg railroad bridge are visible in the distance.
