Browsing All Posts filed under »American Civil War«

“You must choose & choose at once.”

August 15, 2012 by

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Back, just an hour or so ago, from a pleasant evening drive… prompted by the writing of this post. I realized that the Southern Unionist at the center of this post rests in a cemetery not terribly far from my home. So, I ventured out… and visited Daniel and Mary Brindle. Daniel was Pennsylvania-born, but […]

Did Pope’s orders go too far… even further than he imagined?

August 14, 2012 by

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GENERAL ORDERS, No. 19. HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF VIRGINIA, Near Cedar Mountain, Va., August 14, 1862. The major-general commanding discovers with great dissatisfaction that General Orders, No. 5, requiring that the troops of this command be subsisted on the country in which their operations are conducted, has either been entirely misinterpreted or grossly abused by many […]

On the trail of Stonewall’s Winchester photographer

August 12, 2012 by

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Having spent the day out and about yesterday, on Rt. 11, in what is known as the famous (and growing) “Rt. 11 Yard Crawl”, I lucked into landing several Carte de Visite (CDVs) and cabinet cards from a number of photographers from the mid-19th century. There were several from New York, one from Philadelphia, and […]

Telling the story of the Civil War: The Joseph’s Coat* approach

August 10, 2012 by

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Over at Emerging Civil War, Kathleen Logothetis posted something today (Let’s Talk Openly About Slavery: Interpretation at Monticello) that caught my attention and made me think a little more about what might be considered a challenge in telling the story of the Civil War. Not that it’s difficult to weave together the topic of slavery with the Civil War… that’s […]

Prewar Harpers Ferry in art… and some thoughts

August 7, 2012 by

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A little something different this evening… While I have my fair share of Troiani battle scenes on my walls, I’m finding myself more drawn to pre-Civil War art these days. It might be that the bigger draw is the humanity… that calm in years before the storm. Sure, they had their own problems, even in […]

Rhetorical approaches to Civil War blogging?

July 31, 2012 by

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Are they obvious… or subtle? I don’t think everyone has a point to make… unless, of course, you also want to consider straight-out information distribution as a way to convince others that the Civil War and/or particular aspects of it ARE important. In that case, yes… there is rhetoric involved, to some degree. But, how much […]

I am a beneficiary of hard war

July 30, 2012 by

1

I don’t know, but it seems to sound about as silly as saying “I’m a victim of Sherman… or Sheridan… or fill-in name here. So let me try the “victim” angle again. Instead of “victim”, how about refering to oneself as… “One who suffers the long-term ill-effects that the war laid upon my poor departed kin-folk, so […]

Von Steinwehr comes to Luray

July 26, 2012 by

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Still present in the Shenandoah Valley, Union forces (I can’t help but keep bringing up that Jackson had not cleared the Valley with the battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic) made their presence all-the-more known 150 years ago, over the next few weeks. On July 21, a force (brigade strength) probed toward Luray, and, by […]

… and a little more with Gen. Order No. 11

July 23, 2012 by

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John Pope wasn’t quite done yet… and on this day, 150 years ago, he released another general order of interest… GENERAL ORDERS No. 11. HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF VIRGINIA, Washington, July 23, 1862. Commanders of army corps, divisions, brigades, and detached commands will proceed immediately to arrest all disloyal male citizens within their lines or within their […]

Sesqui moment of the day: The war gets harder in Va…. with a parallel in Mississippi

July 20, 2012 by

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I feel a need to bring up my blog post from July 4. Remember what John Mead Gould was thinking? He also resented the treatment of the Southern people he had encountered, despite what he considered, “kindness” of Union soldiers toward those same people. With all of this in mind, he began to reconsider the approach… […]

No hard feelings among old enemies? – Former Confederates & Southern Unionists

July 19, 2012 by

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I don’t think that such a claim can be made across the board, though I’ve seen evidence to support the thought that some continued to hold bitterness toward those who had proven themselves as Southern Unionists. Even so, for the most part, in my neck o’ the woods of Virginia, I think the evidence (even […]

Who are Civil War bloggers?

July 18, 2012 by

17

I know, I know… three blog posts in one day!? Are you nuts, Robert? Especially considering my trend over the last three months, of maybe blogging once a week, or every other week. Still, Harry just posted something interesting, and I figured that I’d pose another question… Who are Civil War bloggers? I left the following […]

To prove loyalty – the Claims Commission questions

July 18, 2012 by

2

I thought this might be a good addition to today’s earlier post. The following is a list of questions that Southern Claims applicants faced, to help to prove their loyalty to the Union:

A Sesqui moment: some key ingredients of the Southern Claims process

July 18, 2012 by

2

Enter Gen. John Pope’s General Order No. 5, which was issued 150 years ago today. Alas… key elements in the Southern Claims application process… 1) “In an area where the Union army was to subsist upon the country…” 2) “Vouchers will be given to the owners… payable at the conclusion of the war, upon…” 3) […]

Southern Unionist? Liar, liar, pants on fire!

July 17, 2012 by

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In my exchanges, over the years, some folks have indicated that they thought some Southern Claims applicants were lying. Well, yes some were, but I have to ask… “How have you identified those who you think were lying?” It’s not always so easy. Sometimes, however, it’s painfully obvious… and one doesn’t have to read between […]

How do you assess the Southern Confederate soldier & Southern Unionist?

July 15, 2012 by

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It might be a good time to pause, just a bit… I’m in the midst of drafting another blog post about another Southern Unionist claim, and am realizing just how varied the picture is becoming. Granted, I had already been noting how varied the story is. In fact, I had subcategories of subcategories, breaking down […]

A virtual stroll through some newspapers from well before the “storm”

July 14, 2012 by

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I was gearing-up for writing another post about another Southern Unionist… ummm, or so he said he was… this morning, but became distracted by something about which I became aware, a few days ago. Thanks to a grant from The Harpers Ferry Historical Association, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park has digitized several early 19th century […]

“I don’t think there were really that many”

July 13, 2012 by

4

Not so much a matter of content delivery this morning, and more about a thought that’s been lingering with me for a bit… About a month ago, a friend of mine attended a reenactment, here in the Valley (the Cross Keys/Port Republic event held on… the Cedar Creek battlefield). When he had an opportunity to talk […]

A Shenandoah Valley man for Lincoln

July 12, 2012 by

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The phrase “Lincoln’s Loyalists” always bothers me. Theoretically, yes, Southern Unionists were Lincoln’s loyalists, but that’s not to say they were all necessarily dedicated to Lincoln. I can imagine, for example, that the slave-holding Unionists remained worried over which way the institution might go under his administration. Still, yes… some really were supporters of Lincoln. […]

“… he… was not going to vote for a slave government.”

July 11, 2012 by

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The argument can be common. The war was about slavery vs. the war was not about slavery. Usually, when those two points of view collide, the result is a string of reasons why… coming from both sides. More significant to me are the accounts of people who lived in that time… and even better if […]

What manner of tolerance? – Southern citizens vs. soldiers… blue AND gray

July 10, 2012 by

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There’s something that really strikes me when looking at Southern Claims Commission applications, and that is… how much one can take, and still adhere to the sentiments held prior to situations that can try one’s level of tolerance. Just as an example, among Southern Unionists… they are loyal (or profess to be so, after the fact, when applying for […]

A former slave vouches for the Unionism of his former owner

July 9, 2012 by

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Seeing what I do in discussions among folks regarding Civil War era studies, there can be extreme views regarding slavery. Some lean hard in one direction, talking about how the cruelties of slavery were all fabrications, or very rare. Some lean hard in another direction and talk about the cruelties of slavery, and that, no matter the case, […]

More unraveling of complexities in a family’s story

July 8, 2012 by

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Since the “wires” seem to be hot with stories of Southern Unionism (Craig offered-up yet another story of Southern Unionism just today!)… here comes another meaty morsel which I ran across recently. I don’t recall, exactly, how it came to my attention, but recently, while perusing the Web, I ran into a biographical sketch of […]

“Did people call him a Union man?” “Yes, sir, and a great many called him a damn Yankee all the time.”

July 7, 2012 by

4

My attention to the details of his life just weren’t there… it seemed they didn’t need to be… as a father-in-law to one of my distant uncles, John William Neer was an indirect link in the family tree… and, at one time, I knew nothing of his life, other than that indirect connection. Over time, […]

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