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Full-Text Articles in History
Heaven Hung In Black: Grant’S Reputation And The Mistakes At Cold Harbor, Samantha J. Kramer
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 …
Pittsburgh's Explosive Mystery: A New Holistic Study Of The Allegheny Arsenal Tragedy, Ethan J. Wagner
Pittsburgh's Explosive Mystery: A New Holistic Study Of The Allegheny Arsenal Tragedy, Ethan J. Wagner
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
This research critically examines the issues surrounding the worst civilian disaster of the American Civil War, occurring on September 17, 1862 in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Here, seventy-eight teenage girls perished as the Allegheny Arsenal munitions laboratory exploded. Investigations in the disaster’s aftermath, and more recent analysis, have remained largely hesitant in placing chief blame as to its cause. Furthermore, for an event that would seem so significant, its story has inadequately been told. Given that the national spotlight was elsewhere at the time, as the Battle of Antietam was fought on the same day, existing literature has …
Analyzing The Interpretation Of The Civil War In Bluegrass Music, Carter W. Claiborne
Analyzing The Interpretation Of The Civil War In Bluegrass Music, Carter W. Claiborne
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
While the Civil War has long fit well thematically within the existing bluegrass idiom, the way that bluegrass has approached the war over time has changed greatly. Despite bluegrass largely originating from areas with little enthusiasm for the Confederacy during the Civil War, and the genre not emphasizing partisan aspects of the war for several decades, several cultural changes culminated in the late 1960s to turn the genre on a heavily pro-Confederate tilt, with numerous songs in the early- to-mid 1970s glorifying the Confederate States of America and its leaders, while also emphasizing Lost Cause arguments. To see how this …
“When This Cruel War Is Over”: The Blurring Of The Confederate Battlefront And Homefront During The Civil War, Sophie Hammond
“When This Cruel War Is Over”: The Blurring Of The Confederate Battlefront And Homefront During The Civil War, Sophie Hammond
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
The line dividing the Confederate battlefront and homefront was always extremely blurred, and this blurring, though initially a source of strength, contributed significantly to the South losing the Civil War. While fighting the war, the Confederacy faced a terrible handicap which the Union did not: the vast majority of the war's battles happened on its own soil. At first, this situation galvanized Southerners. But as the war dragged on, concern for their families as well as the very real costs of war—Confederate soldiers were nearly three times as likely to die as Union soldiers—encouraged a total of around 103,000 Confederates …
A Cause Lost, A Story Being Written: Explaining Black And White Commemorative Difference In The Postbellum South, Bailey M. Covington
A Cause Lost, A Story Being Written: Explaining Black And White Commemorative Difference In The Postbellum South, Bailey M. Covington
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
This paper addresses the disparate commemorative modes and purposes employed by black and white Southerners following the Civil War, in their competing efforts to control the cultural narrative of the war’s legacy. I attempt to explain commemorative difference in the post-war era by evaluating the historical and rhetorical implications of the white Confederate monument, in contrast with the black freedom celebration. The goal of this research is to understand why monuments to the Confederacy proliferate in the South, while similar commemorative markers of the prominent role of slavery in the Civil War are all but nonexistent. I conclude that, while …
A Dagger Through The Heartland: The Louisville & Nashville Railroad In The Civil War, Gared N. Dalton
A Dagger Through The Heartland: The Louisville & Nashville Railroad In The Civil War, Gared N. Dalton
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
The Civil War was a defining moment in American history. What began as a sectional debate over states’ rights transformed itself into a bloody odyssey that would alter the national character itself. Within the wide scope of this conflict, scholars have sought to answer the multifaceted question of how the Union triumphed, often citing the proficient management of the railways as a key contribution to victory. Within this logistical network of rails, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad served as a vital mode of transportation for supplies and troop mobility through the heartland states of Kentucky and Tennessee. The Union exploited …
Rewriting History: A Study Of How The History Of The Civil War Has Changed In Textbooks From 1876 To 2014, Skyler A. Campbell
Rewriting History: A Study Of How The History Of The Civil War Has Changed In Textbooks From 1876 To 2014, Skyler A. Campbell
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
History textbooks provide an interesting perspective into the views and attitudes of their respective time period. The way textbooks portray certain events and groups of people has a profound impact on the way children learn to view those groups and events. That impact then has the potential to trickle down to future generations, fabricating a historical narrative that sometimes avoids telling the whole truth, or uses selective wording to sway opinions on certain topics. This paper analyzes the changes seen in how the Civil War is written about in twelve textbooks dated from 1876 to 2014. Notable topics of discussion …
Condemning Colonization: Abraham Lincoln’S Rejected Proposal For A Central American Colony, Matthew Harris
Condemning Colonization: Abraham Lincoln’S Rejected Proposal For A Central American Colony, Matthew Harris
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
This article focuses on a proposal by Abraham Lincoln to settle freed African Americans in Central American countries. The backlash from several countries reveals that other countries besides the warring United States were also struggling with reconciling racial issues. This also reveals how interwoven racial issues were with political crises during the Civil War because it not only effected domestic policies but also international relations.
After Andersonville: Survivors, Memory And The Bloody Shirt, Kevin S. Nicholson
After Andersonville: Survivors, Memory And The Bloody Shirt, Kevin S. Nicholson
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
This article details the experiences of survivors of the Andersonville prison camp after the Civil War. Feeling marginalized by the public after returning to the North, prisoners of war worked to demonstrate that their experiences were exceptional enough to merit the same kind of respect and adoration given to other war veterans. In particular survivors utilized the strategy of "waving the bloody shirt," describing purported Confederate atrocities at the camp to a Northern audience looking for figures to blame for the horrors of war. Through prison narratives, veteran organizations, the erection of memorials, and reunions years later, Andersonville survivors worked …
Gettysburg College Journal Of The Civil War Era 2018
Gettysburg College Journal Of The Civil War Era 2018
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
No abstract provided.
Murder In Manassas: Mental Illness And Psychological Trauma After The Civil War, Savannah G. Rose
Murder In Manassas: Mental Illness And Psychological Trauma After The Civil War, Savannah G. Rose
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
Following the American Civil War, the small railroad junction of Manassas, Virginia grew into one of the most prominent towns in the region with the help of town founder William S. Fewell and his family. In 1872, the youngest daughter of the prominent Fewell family was seduced and abducted by Prince Williams County’s Commonwealth Attorney and most prominent orator, James F. Clark without warning. Having just come home from three years of military service in the Civil War, witnessing the death of his twin brother as well as suffering for a year in Elmira Prison as a prisoner of war, …
Gettysburg College Journal Of The Civil War Era 2017
Gettysburg College Journal Of The Civil War Era 2017
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
No abstract provided.
Gettysburg College Journal Of The Civil War Era 2016
Gettysburg College Journal Of The Civil War Era 2016
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
No abstract provided.
"The Honor Of Manhood:" Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain And Notions Of Martial Masculinity, Bryan G. Caswell
"The Honor Of Manhood:" Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain And Notions Of Martial Masculinity, Bryan G. Caswell
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is perhaps best known as the commander of the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry during the Battle of Gettysburg. While depictions of Chamberlain's martial glory abound, little attention has been paid to the complicated motives of the man himself. This paper seeks to examine the unique ways in which Chamberlain interacted with Victorian conceptions of martial masculinity: his understanding and expression of it, his efforts to channel it, and his use of it as a guiding principle throughout the trials of both the American Civil War and his post-war life.
Men And Machines: The Psychological Impact Of Gunboats On The Fort Henry And Donelson Campaign, S. Marianne Johnson
Men And Machines: The Psychological Impact Of Gunboats On The Fort Henry And Donelson Campaign, S. Marianne Johnson
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
During the course of the American Civil War, 1861-1865, ironclad warships developed a fearful reputation as powerful commanders of the Mississippi River. With the ability to pierce deep into the heart of the South, destroy Confederate property, and pull out with amazing speed compared to land assaults, the early Western Flotilla became the symbol of Northern industrial invincibility, boosting Northern morale and seriously damaging Southern psyches. However, an analysis of the Fort Henry/Fort Donelson Campaign of 1862 reveals a different story than the one that went into legend. Using the official records of the Union and Confederate armies and navies, …
The Memory Of Battle Surrounds You Once Again: Iowa Grand Army Of The Republic Reunions And The Formation Of A Pro-Union Nationalism, 1886-1949, Peter Bautz
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
Following the bloody years of the Civil War, veteran organizations became a breeding ground for nationalism making and memory shaping. Historians, like Caroline Janney and David Blight, have debated what these memories meant for northern veterans. Did members of the Grand Army of the Republic [G.A.R.], the Union veterans association, reconcile with the South over a shared whiteness, as Blight suggests? Or were the memories of Northerners less reconciliatory, as Janney argues? Using Iowa G.A.R. reunions as a case study, this article demonstrates that Union veterans were shaping a pro-Union nationalism distinct from the Lost Cause. From songs praising the …
Book Review: With Malice Towards Some: Treason And Loyalty In The Civil War Era, Brianna Kirk
Book Review: With Malice Towards Some: Treason And Loyalty In The Civil War Era, Brianna Kirk
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
“Popular understanding of treason, not legal definitions in civil courts, guided actions by Union functionaries, both high and low, throughout the Union and Confederacy,” argues William A. Blair. Popular conceptions of treason – widely shared definitions of loyalty and disloyalty – merged with governmental policy and the military to determine the punishment of traitors both during and after the Civil War. Blair adds a flavor of localism to the traditional narrative of treason in the mid-nineteenth century in his newest book With Malice Toward Some, demonstrating that treason did in fact pervade public discourse during the American Civil War. [ …
Gettysburg College Journal Of The Civil War Era 2015
Gettysburg College Journal Of The Civil War Era 2015
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
No abstract provided.
The Fall Of The House Of Dixie: The Civil War And The Social Revolution That Transformed The South, Brexton L. O'Donnell
The Fall Of The House Of Dixie: The Civil War And The Social Revolution That Transformed The South, Brexton L. O'Donnell
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
This article reviews The Fall of the House of Dixie: The Civil War and the Social Revolution that Transformed the South (2013) by Bruce Levine.
Île À Vache And Colonization: The Tragic End Of Lincoln's “Suicidal Folly”, Graham D. Welch
Île À Vache And Colonization: The Tragic End Of Lincoln's “Suicidal Folly”, Graham D. Welch
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
Colonization, the state-sponsored emigration and resettlement of freed slaves outside the United States, was a prevalent narrative in the antebellum United States, and had a vocal adherent in Abraham Lincoln. Despite its ideological support, American colonization had few examples of emigration in action, leading to the attempted settlement on the Haitian island of Île à Vache. Led by speculators and Wall Street financiers under the aegis of the Lincoln administration, 453 black settlers departed Virginia in April 1863 for the hopes of a new, prosperous life in Haiti. The venture proved disastrous, however, as the colony was marred by disease, …
Freedmen With Firearms: White Terrorism And Black Disarmament During Reconstruction, David H. Schenk
Freedmen With Firearms: White Terrorism And Black Disarmament During Reconstruction, David H. Schenk
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
The outcome of the Civil War brought freedom to over six million slaves of African descent. These Freedmen communities remained a critical source of labor for the agrarian based economy of the southern U.S. Conflicts erupted because former slaves sought to exercise their new freedoms against the restrictions placed on them by local authorities. New laws, mob actions and acts of organized white terrorism were used to subjugate free citizens and return them to their former stations of labor. Political activities and participation in the electoral process were violently discouraged. Vocal opponents of the new system were often targeted for …
Gettysburg College Journal Of The Civil War Era 2014
Gettysburg College Journal Of The Civil War Era 2014
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
No abstract provided.
An Interview With D. Scott Hartwig, Thomas E. Nank '16
An Interview With D. Scott Hartwig, Thomas E. Nank '16
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
D. Scott Hartwig, Supervisory Historian for Gettysburg National Military Park, retired in the fall of 2013. In recognition of his long service to the park and community of Gettysburg, Associate Editor Thomas Nank interviewed Mr. Hartwig concerning his personal experiences gained over three decades working at Gettysburg as well as the future of the National Park Service and the field of public history in general.
"The Southern Heart Still Throbs": Caroline E. Janney And Partisan Memory‘S Grip On The Post-Civil War Nation, Heather L. Clancy '15
"The Southern Heart Still Throbs": Caroline E. Janney And Partisan Memory‘S Grip On The Post-Civil War Nation, Heather L. Clancy '15
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
"Memory is not a passive act," writes Caroline E. Janney in the prologue of her 2013 book Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation. Rather, it is a deliberate process. Our nation‘s history has been shaped by countless hands in innumerable ways, and the story of our civil war is no exception. In Remembering the Civil War, Janney seeks to turn our eyes once again onto the players, large and small, who shaped what came to be the accepted narrative of the conflict, from its inception through the 1930s and even bleeding through the Civil …
An Unsettling Civil War: A Review Of Ruin Nation, Lincoln M. Fitch '14
An Unsettling Civil War: A Review Of Ruin Nation, Lincoln M. Fitch '14
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
This review of Meghan Kate Nelson's Ruin Nation examines the immense environmental destruction and social impact of the Civil War. This brief review analyzes Nelson's work and it's implications for Civil War history.
Cultural Distortion: The Dedication Of The Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson Monument At Manassas National Battlefield Park, Shae Adams
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
The Stonewall Jackson monument on Henry Hill at the Manassas National Battlefield Park stands as a testament to the propensity of Americans to manipulate history in order to fit current circumstances. The monument reflects not the views and ideologies of the veterans of the Civil War, but rather the hopes and fears of those who spent the prime years of their lives immersed in the Great Depression. Those of the latter generation searched in vain for heroes among the corrupted businessmen on Wall Street who ran the economic affairs of the country, and who, in the eyes of the public, …
The Richmond Bread Riot Of 1863: Class, Race, And Gender In The Urban Confederacy, Katherine R. Titus
The Richmond Bread Riot Of 1863: Class, Race, And Gender In The Urban Confederacy, Katherine R. Titus
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
Confederate war clerk, J.B. Jones's description of the Richmond Bread Riot of 1863, clearly highlights the suffering which permeated the urban centers of the Confederacy by the midpoint of the Civil War. The production and transportation of goods became increasingly difficult in the war torn nation. Inflation undermined the value of Confederate currency and made it difficult for those on fixed wages to provide for themselves and their families. The influx of thousands of refugees into Richmond created a deficit of housing in the city and raised the already inflated prices of goods. By 1863, most citizens remarked that they …
Loose Party Times: The Political Crisis Of The 1850s In Westchester County, New York, Zachary Baum
Loose Party Times: The Political Crisis Of The 1850s In Westchester County, New York, Zachary Baum
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
On November 7, 1848 William H. Robertson rose early and rushed to the post office in Bedford, a town in Westchester County, New York. The young lawyer was brimming with excitement because two weeks earlier, the Whigs in the county?s northern section had nominated him as their candidate for the New York State Assembly. Only twenty-four years old and a rising legal star, Robertson hoped that holding political office would launch his nascent career. After casting his ballot at the Bedford Post Office, Robertson paid a visit to Sheriff James M. Bates, his political manager, to await the election results. …
“All May Visit The Big Camp”: Race And The Lessons Of The Civil War At The 1913 Gettysburg Reunion, Evan Preston
“All May Visit The Big Camp”: Race And The Lessons Of The Civil War At The 1913 Gettysburg Reunion, Evan Preston
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
Shaping historical memory means extracting lessons from the past. Those lessons frame the debate about the nature of the present. Just months after the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson, the attention of most of the nation focused on the events scheduled to commemorate the semi-centennial of what was by then increasingly viewed as “the turning point” of the Civil War. The reunion at Gettysburg in 1913 constituted the contemporary public exegesis of the status of American memory of the Civil War. In this respect, the reunion in Gettysburg reflected the erasure of the legacy of emancipation and the unfulfilled promise of …
The Visual Documentation Of Antietam: Peaceful Settings, Morbid Curiosity, And A Profitable Business, Kristilyn Baldwin
The Visual Documentation Of Antietam: Peaceful Settings, Morbid Curiosity, And A Profitable Business, Kristilyn Baldwin
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
On September 17, 1862, Confederate General Robert E. Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia into Sharpsburg, Maryland to confront Federal General George McClellan and the Army of the Potomac. The battle that followed became the single bloodiest day in American history. There were approximately 25,000 American casualties and battlefields were left in desolation, strewn with corpses needing burial. The Battle of Antietam, or Sharpsburg, is a well-documented and important battle of the Civil War. Endless research has been done regarding its impact on the war, military strategies, and politics. However, there is a unique aspect of Antietam which merits …