Military History Commons^™

“A Great Weight At My Heart:” A Personal Reaction To Pickett’S Charge, Rebekah N. Oakes

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

“When our great victory was just over the exultation of victory was so great that one didn’t think of our fearful losses, but now I can’t help feeling a great weight at my heart. Poor Henry Ropes was one of the dearest friends I ever had or expect to have. He was one of the purest-minded, noblest, most generous men I ever knew. His loss is terrible. His men actually wept when they showed me his body, even under the tremendous cannonade, a time when most soldiers see their comrades dying around them with indifference.”

When twenty-one year old Henry …

To My Great Great Grand Uncle - On The Occasion Of The 150th Anniversary Of Your Death, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

Dear William Henry,

I'm writing this standing near the spot where you died, exactly 150 years ago nearly to the second. I'm typing on a tiny screen, a technological marvel that lets me share the stories of men like you with the world instantly.

They've put up a monument to you and the 17 other men who died along with you along the banks of Plum Run creek. We call this place "The Valley of Death" now. I think you among all people who have walked this green earth would understand why.... [excerpt]

A New Birth Of Freedom, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

The president of the United States had been more than usually agitated ever since the news of a major collision of the Union and Confederate armies around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, first flew along the telegraph wires to the War Department on July 1, 1863. For days, he was clouded with “sadness and despondency” until the message arrived, announcing a great victory for the Union. That was followed almost at once by news from Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles: another dispatch had come in, “communicating the fall of Vicksburg [Mississippi] on the fourth of July.” At once, Abraham Lincoln’s mood changed, …

Mad Dan, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

Did Daniel Sickles, the Union's most notorious general, save the day for the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg? That's exactly what he wanted you to believe.

Review Of Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War In Vietnam, Gregory A. Daddis

History Faculty Articles and Research

A review of Nick Turse's Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam.

The Octofoil, July/August/September 2013, Ninth Infantry Division Association

The Octofoil

The Octofoil is the offical publication of the Ninth Infantry Division Association, Inc., an organization formed by the officers and men of the 9th Infantry Division in order to perpetuate the memory of fallen comrades, preserve the esprit de corps of the Division, promote peace and serve as an information bureau about the 9th Infantry Division. The Association is made up of 9th Infantry veterans from WWII and Vietnam, spouses, widows and lineal descendants.

Just Fields: 30 June 1863, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

South of Gettysburg as midnight chimed on June 30th and the calendar flipped over to July, a quiet peach orchard sat at the corner of a narrow lane and the road to Emmitsburg. It was just a peach orchard. [excerpt]

There Is Still Time: Contingency And History, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

"...and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead and Wilcox look grave..."

William Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust has that beautifully evocative passage that anyone worth their salt contemplating a Pickett's Charge program has considered including in their ebb and flow. Faulkner was a master of language, and his passage about, "every Southern boy fourteen years old," is a particularly artful. …

Taylor, Zachary, 1784-1850 (Sc 1038), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1038. Document signed by Zachary Taylor acknowledging receipt of clothing, guns and other supplies in accordance with his request as captain of the 7th Regiment of United States Infantry, Louisville, Kentucky.

Persian Gulf War, 1991 (Sc 1037), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1037. Promotional materials sent to James Mauldin, Bowling Green, Kentucky, appealing for assistance with the project G.I. Christmas Gift Pacs. Includes an endorsement of the project by Art Linkletter and a Christmas card that could be mailed to a soldier stationed overseas.

Harris, Downey Lamar, 1875-1956 (Sc 1033), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1033. World War I letters written by Downey L. Harris from Camp Lee, Virginia to his family in Franklin, Kentucky, consoling them over the loss of his brother, George DeWitt Harris in France. The letters also contain information about Downey’s work as a physician at Camp Lee during the war.

Moser, John G. (Sc 2728), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2728. Paper titled “A History of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, 1941-1951” in which John G. Moser examines “events of major importance” that occurred at Fort Campbell during that ten years.

Book Review: The Generals By Thomas E. Ricks, Robert Weaver

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Watkins, James Fredrick, 1895-1982 (Sc 2717), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2717. Letter written by James F. Watkins to his parents while stationed at Camp St. Sulpice in France during World War I. He discusses family matters, the countryside and towns near St. Sulpice, military life and the duties of the military police.

Inside The Resource: Interpreting Is Pointing At Things, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

We preserve the places of the past for a very specific reason: they are places. They are physical manifestations of the past, either landscapes where that past was played out or the remnants of the people who made that past happen.

That was clear to me last week as I watched David Fox, one of Harpers Ferry's premier interpreters, twiddle a shaving mirror in the sunlight and shine a twinkling beam on the gravestone of Rev. Alexander Morrell in the cemetery at the end of Fillmore Street. [excerpt]

Gaman: How Japanese Americans Persevered In The Face Of Racial Injustice 1941-1988, Derek James Koehler

History

A look at the racial injustice of Japanese Americans during WWII including the internment camps and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

Gettysburg College & The Battle Of Gettysburg: A Civil War Walking Tour, John M. Rudy '07

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

Originally compiled by John Rudy as a student project in 2007 at Gettysburg College, this new, revised edition of the Civil War Walking Tour booklet guides a visitor on a truly unique campus tour. Visitors can walk among buildings from the war era and learn how they were pressed into service during and after the Battle of Gettysburg. Likewise, many college figures such as President Henry Baugher, John "Jack" Hopkins (janitor), and many students are part of this complex and heroic story of Pennsylvania College's story in July 1863.

George Meade’S Mixed Legacy, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

George Gordon Meade was 47 years old the morning of June 28, 1863, when command of the Army of the Potomac was unceremoniously dumped into his lap by General in Chief Henry Hallcck, and there is no reason to doubt Meade's protest that the move rendered him the most surprised man in the entire Union Army. Meade had never wanted to be a soldier in the first place, much less take direction of an army that at that moment was facing perhaps its most daunting challenge. But compared to his immediate predecessors, Maj. Gens. Ambrose Burnside and Joseph Hooker, what …

The Iranian Nuclear Crisis: An Assessment, Gawdat Bahgat

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Revolt And Resilience In The Arab Kingdoms, Zoltan Barany

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.