- About me
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May 1, 2013… so begins the Sesqui of the Battle of Chancellorsville. As such, I’ve been thinking… What if Stonewall Jackson lived to command beyond Chancellorsville? Frankly, any forward speculation of his possible performances in battles after Chancellorsville is subject to so many factors that it’s not even funny. As such, forward speculation is a […]
April 20, 2013 by Robert Moore
Pardon my absence, folks, but in the wake of neck surgery, on Monday, I’ve been recuperating… trying to feel well enough to “get back in the game” in the blog. Despite the time spent recovering, I did take a few ventures (between naps) into online Southern Unionist claims. As such, I’ve discovered… “missing” Southern Unionists. […]
April 11, 2013 by Robert Moore
While the recent Brad Paisley/L.L. Cool J song raises a fuss in several corridors, I feel it’s being blown out of proportion. I’ve already commented in posts by Kevin Levin and Richard Williams, regarding some of my thoughts. For some reason (probably because of Richard’s remark regarding Nashville), it also made me reflect on a song with which […]
April 2, 2013 by Robert Moore
Picking-up from where I left off, a few days back… I figured since someone took the time to compile a list of men of the 34th Mississippi Infantry who became Galvanized Yankees, I’d see if there might be something more to be said about these fifteen men. For starters, based on what I’ve seen in a few […]
March 27, 2013 by Robert Moore
I sincerely hope that nobody reads the title of this post and comes to it thinking they’re going to find a full-blown discussion on the wide range of difficult decisions faced by Southerners in the Civil War era. Since I’ve been talking a little about Galvanized Yankees, I figured I’d offer something regarding “decisions” in […]
March 23, 2013 by Robert Moore
This past week, WHILBR (Western Maryland’s Historical Library) posted a link on Facebook that caught my eye. It also reminds me… it’s been a while since I’ve written about my people up that way. Anyway, what strikes me is that the article (below) pinpoints such loyalty to the ladies of Clear Spring, Maryland. Indeed, both Four […]
March 17, 2013 by Robert Moore
Yesterday, I was very pleased to receive two copies of Richard Williams’ book, Lexington, Virginia and the Civil War, along with an additional item… Richard was very kind in adding the gift of a very special pen, made partly from the wood of the Stonewall Jackson Prayer Tree, which once stood near Grottoes, but was fallen […]
March 10, 2013 by Robert Moore
Recently, there’s been a flurry of posts about USCTs (see Craig Swain’s, here; Emmanuel Dabney’s, here; Kevin Levin’s, here; and Jimmy Price’s, here), and, as I’m in the process of compiling a list of USCTs born in Shenandoah Valley counties, I find it timely. Should the interpretation of USCTs be incorporated into places in which they were not… […]
March 6, 2013 by Robert Moore
On the 177th anniversary of the fall of the Alamo, I was wondering how long it took for word to reach the papers here in the Shenandoah Valley, and, in general, how the event was viewed from this area. On the day after the fall, the following appeared in the Virginia Free Press… In this, of […]
March 4, 2013 by Robert Moore
The following is the result of tallying raw figures (for the entire Commonwealth of Virginia) from Fold3. I simply added the total number of claims that appear in their approved & barred/disallowed categories for Virginia and West Virginia. Sixty-three Virginia counties and nine West Virginia counties are represented in the approved claims. Meanwhile, all ninety-five […]
March 2, 2013 by Robert Moore
Yes, you read that right. I happened upon this when I “strayed” beyond my normal boundaries, and took a look at claims submitted by those “deep” in Northern Virginia. Letitia Follin Strother (of Vienna, Fairfax County) submitted the claim to which I refer, and was approved. I’ll add to that… we not only know that […]
March 1, 2013 by Robert Moore
The measure of conditional Unionism varied from person to person. Jefferson County’s Logan Osburn provides an excellent example of that, and I’ll show how in just a minute. Ultimately, in measuring Unionists… and yes, even some “eventual Confederates”… Unionism is the common thread from which “conditionals” broke. Going back even further, there is a valid […]
February 28, 2013 by Robert Moore
Some folks obsess on numbers; some way too much. Some even write to score numbers. That’s fine. To each his/her own. Don’t get me wrong, I like to see that folks are visiting the blog, but I’ve moved on from the ”obsessed by numbers phase”. In my first year or two of writing the blog… oh, yes; […]
February 27, 2013 by Robert Moore
I abstracted the following from the May 9, 1861 edition of the Virginia Free Press (Charles Town, Virginia). The same letter had actually preceded the Free Press printing by almost a week, in the New York Times. Along with various remarks throughout, I find his five year prediction most interesting. For those who may be […]
February 20, 2013 by Robert Moore
With an interest in seeing Southern Unionism from a different perspective, I’ve been tinkering with data a bit. The following pie charts are just some examples of the ways in which I’m reviewing some of the data I’ve compiled. Each illustrates the different levels of completeness for the various counties of the Shenandoah Valley. Comparing […]
February 17, 2013 by Robert Moore
A couple of years ago there was a good article in The Journal (Martinsburg, W.V.), in which postwar (1880s, actually) efforts by Christian Frederick Laise were part of the focus. Berkeley County has an African-American area listed in the National Register. After their freedom at the end of the Civil War, many former slaves had […]
February 9, 2013 by Robert Moore
Though I often focus on the stories tucked-away in Southern Claims Commission applications, there were more Southern Unionists than those identified in the claims, or even in those who wore Union blue. There are also those Unionists who appear merely as a name in passing, in between the pages of a couple of books that […]
February 6, 2013 by Robert Moore
From time to time, we see this sort on the big screen… a reb when the Confederate soldiers are present, and a yank when the Union soldiers are present. Take for example, the ferry boat man (“Sim Carstairs”), in the movie The Outlaw Josey Wales… So, encountering (by happenstance) what may be the “real deal” […]
February 2, 2013 by Robert Moore
It’s been quite sometime since I’ve mentioned anything about the United States Volunteers. You know… the Confederate POWs who were offered a chance to get out of POW camp and serve in the U.S. Army. Anyway, recently, I was perusing the records of the USV* and noticed that, in their records of enlistment, the fellows […]
January 28, 2013 by Robert Moore
It’s rare that this sort of thing pops-up, but when it does, I like to be quick to point it out… enter a new blog with Southern Unionism at the core… John Rogers’ “To Preserve Family and Farm”. The objective of John’s blog is as follows: To Preserve Family and Farm is the historical account of […]
January 24, 2013 by Robert Moore
Re-reading a book or re-watching a movie often make us realize things we didn’t earlier realize/see. So it goes with recent revisit of David Hunter Strother’s diaries in A Virginia Yankee in the Civil War. I never grow tired of reading his accounts, and with each reading I realize his Southern Unionism is more complex […]
May 1, 2013 by Robert Moore
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