Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Ms-287: Whitney Family Civil War Letters, Danielle S. Russell

All Finding Aids

The Whitney Family Civil War Letters collection contains 46 letters from the Civil War Era, 2 Freemason dues notices for Mariner T. Whitney, and four empty letter covers. 37 of the letters, written by Hiram R. Whitney, pertain to his military service and daily life with the 132nd New York Infantry Regiment. Two other letters, written by Henry J. Manning and John Marsh Young relate to their military service with the 11th New York Volunteer Cavalry and the 124th New York Infantry, respectively. John Marsh Young was the nephew of Ruhamah Irwin Whitney, the wife of Mariner T. Whitney. The …

Ms-289: John D. Rentz Civil War Diary, Danielle S. Russell

All Finding Aids

John D. Rentz’s Civil War diary chronicles the time he spent with the 96th Pennsylvania Infantry between December 26, 1863, and September 6, 1864. The diary details a wide array of information pertaining to his life with the regiment and the progress of the Civil War.

Rentz’s pension letter is very simple, merely asking for B. Penrose’s assistance with securing a renewal of his pension. The “Rebel letter” written by Margaret Jones to Joseph King is also simple, providing a few details about the rainy weather, the progress of the crops, and expressing Jones’s desire to see her brother.

The …

Heaven Hung In Black: Grant’S Reputation And The Mistakes At Cold Harbor, Samantha J. Kramer

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

This article examines Ulysses S. Grant’s command of the Union army after receiving his commission as Lieutenant-General through analyzing his decisions both before and during the bloody battle of Cold Harbor. By examining the various factors leading to his tactical decisions, including the ever-looming threat of the upcoming presidential election, the article questions whether or not his reputation as a butcher of his own men is truly deserved. That he made mistakes is undeniable, but the mess of Cold Harbor was not solely his fault. Through the use of a variety of biographies and personal journals and memoirs, the article …

The Gettysburg Campaign, Carol Reardon

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

The Battle of Gettysburg has inspired a more voluminous literature than any single event in American military history for at least three major reasons. First, after three days of fighting on July 1–3, 1863, General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and Major General George G. Meade’s Army of the Potomac lost more than 51,000 dead, wounded, captured, and missing, making Gettysburg the costliest military engagement in North American history. Second, President Abraham Lincoln endowed Gettysburg with special distinction when he visited in November 1863 to dedicate the soldiers’ cemetery and delivered his immortal Gettysburg Address. Finally, Gettysburg …

“The Union Forever”: Frederick, Maryland In The Elections Of 1860 And 1864, Megan E. Mcnish

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Frederick, Maryland has been remembered as a bastion of Unionist sentiment during the Civil War. However, in the Election of 1860, on the eve of the nation’s internal conflict, a large portion of the city’s 8,000 residents voted for a secessionist candidate. The Election of 1860 is famous for straying from the typical bi-partisan election; four candidates ran for office and each appealed to different political sentiments. [excerpt]

Ten Miles From Richmond, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

At the tiny crossroads town of Cold Harbor, Ulysses S. Grant hoped to crush Robert E. Lee's army and hasten the war's end. What happened instead would become one of his greatest regrets.

The Political War, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

Pity Abraham Lincoln. Everything that should have gone right for the Union cause in the spring of 1864 had, in just a few weeks, gone defiantly and disastrously wrong.

For two years, the 16th president had toiled uphill against the secession of the Confederate states, against the incompetence of his luckless generals and against his howling critics from both sides of the congressional aisle. Finally, in the summer and fall of 1863, the course of the war had begun to turn his way. Two great victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg staggered the Confederates, and those were followed by a knockdown …

Stuff White People Like #1863, Joseph Stephen Slowinski

SURGE

There I sat: sun burning my neck, sweat pouring down my face, watching grown men play at death. I’d been meaning for years to get to Gettysburg to see the reenactment, and this past July, I was lucky enough to be there for the 150th anniversary of the battle. And so there I was, sitting in a grandstand in the middle of a farm in rural Pennsylvania, surrounded by fellow white people, watching a Confederate soldier get shot in the back for pretending to desert in the face of the Union cavalry. He flopped to the ground in front of …

Fateful Lightning: A New History Of The Civil War And Reconstruction, Allen C. Guelzo

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

The Civil War is the greatest trauma ever experienced by the American nation, a four-year paroxysm of violence that left in its wake more than 600,000 dead, more than 2 million refugees, and the destruction (in modern dollars) of more than $700 billion in property. The war also sparked some of the most heroic moments in American history and enshrined a galaxy of American heroes. Above all, it permanently ended the practice of slavery and proved, in an age of resurgent monarchies, that a liberal democracy could survive the most frightful of challenges.

In Fateful Lightning, two-time Lincoln Prize-winning …

Ms-125: Samuel E. And Clara Turner Papers, 1861-1865, Devin Mckinney

All Finding Aids

This collection consists of 10 dated letters and one undated letter fragment, all written by either Samuel Epes Turner or Clarinda (“Clara”) Turner of Baltimore, Maryland, to their cousins Mary Holyoke (Ward) Nichols and Mehitable Ward of Salem, Massachusetts, between April 29, 1861, and January 13, 1865.

The letters include the Turners’ firsthand impressions of Baltimore’s historic anti-Union riot of April 19, 1861; reflections on other events of the Civil War, local, regional, and national; statements of their own pro-Union and abolitionist views; responses to the secessionist sentiment prevalent within the city; and discussions of family matters, finances, church business, …