Civil War History – Page 2 – Old Magazine Articles

The Lincoln Assassination Conspiracy
(The Southern Rebellion, 1867)

These words concerning the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln were penned a couple of years after the event took place, for an 1867 history on the American Civil War. The author referred to a popular allegation that was a common among Northerners at the time:

It was alleged, and with some reason, that the plot was known to, and approved by, the Rebel government in Richmond, and that [Jefferson] Davis and some of his cabinet, and their agents in Canada, were accomplices in the crime. Whether this be so or not, certain it is that propositions to assassinate President Lincoln and other prominent members of the government were received and entertained by Davis and his associates, and were not rejected at once, and with the scorn which became civilized and Christian men.

– from Amazon: Day of the Assassins: A History of Political Murder

More on the assassination can be read here…

Why The Rebels Fought
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1918)

Fed-up with decades of articles and editorials declaring that he and his Confederate comrades fought tirelessly for four years in order to preserve and advance the cause of slavery, elderly Southern veteran, James Callaway, put pen to paper in order explain that this was not the case. Equipped with numerous passages from A Soldier’s Recollections and an artificial Lincoln quote, Calloway argued that it was Northern aggression that swelled the Confederate ranks.

General Grant Recalled Meeting Lincoln
(National Park Service, 1956)

A short paragraph from General Grant’s memoir recalling the the first private interview with President Lincoln, on the occasion in the early spring of 1864 when he was given command of all the Federal armies.

In my first interview with Mr. Lincoln alone he stated to me that he had never professed to be a military man or to know how campaigns should be conducted…

Click here to read about a dream that President Lincoln had, a dream that anticipated his violent death.

When Grant was a Colonel
(Literary Digest, 1908)

This Civil War reminiscence was originally printed in a Missouri newspaper and concerned the Union General U.S. Grant (1822 – 1885) when he was a lowly colonel assigned to guard the railroads along the Salt River in Northeast Missouri and how he got along with the local population:

He talked politely in a calm, dispassionate way, and never with heat or anger. Some of those who visited his camp in those days quote him as saying that if he had considered the war merely to free slaves he would have taken his command and joined the South…

Click here to read about
General Grant’s march on Richmond.

Click here to read about the son of General Grant and his memories of his father at Vicksburg.

The Confederate Chaplains
(Confederate Veteran Magazine

A chaplain’s proper place in the Confederate Army was well defined in theory at least, but in fact each of us was a law unto himself and stayed wherever he liked. He belonged to the medical staff. But the medical staff in a campaign is divided… The regulation spot was with the surgeons.

Click here to read about the chaplaincy within the American military during World War II.

Confederate Doctors and their Many Problems
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1922)

A few paragraphs on the difficulties faced by the medical establishment of the Confederacy as a result of the Union naval blockade of Southern ports. We were surprised to learn that the scarcity of quinine and other medicinal aids forced the doctors of the South to embrace herbalism.

Click here to read about the heavy influence religion had in the Rebel states during the American Civil War.

Where was General Lee Headed?
(W.C. Storrick, 1951)

A brief explanation as to what General Lee had in mind when he invaded the North in the Summer of 1863, why he chose a route through the Shenandoah and Cumberland valleys, where his army was actually headed and what the South had intended to gain if the campaign had been successful.

From Amazon:

Lee’s Real Plan at Gettysburg

The Battle of Gettysburg: Day Two
(National Park Service, 1954)

By the afternoon of July 2, the powerful forces of Meade and Lee were at hand, and battle on a tremendous scale was imminent. That part of the Union line extending diagonally across the valley between Seminary and Cemetery Ridges held. Late in the forenoon, General Dan Sickles, commanding the Third Corps which lay north of Little Round Top, sent Berdan’s sharpshooters and some of the men of the 3rd Maine Regiment forward from Emmitsburg Road to Pitzer’s Woods… as they reached the woods, a strong Confederate force fired upon them…

End of Invasion: July 4, 1863
(National Park Service, 1954)

In just two paragraphs this author beautifully summed up the immediate aftermath of that remarkable battle:

Late on the afternoon of July 4, Lee began an orderly retreat. The wagon train of wounded, 17 miles in length, guarded by Imboden’s cavalry, started homeward through Greenwood and Greencastle. At night, the able-bodied men marched over the Hagerstown Road by way of Monterey Pass to the Potomac…

From Amazon: Retreat from Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics, and the Pennsylvania Campaign

Click here to read about the 1913 Gettysburg Reunion.

The Career of General George Gordon Meade
(Literary Digest, 1912)

A brief article on the military career of Civil War General George Gordon Meade (1815 – 1872) with particular attention paid to his leadership during the Battle of Gettysburg.

Meade will not be ranked by the historians with the great commanders, but his career is that of a well-trained, capable, and patriotic soldier, and he must always be remembered in the history of the war and of the country as the General who, for the longest period in its history, held the command of the Army of the Potomac, and to whom came the well-deserved good fortune of winning with this army the decisive battle of the war.

Reunion at Gettysburg’s Bloody Angle
(Literary Digest, 1913)

During the Battle of Gettysburg’s fiftieth anniversary celebration that took place during the summer 1913, a surviving member of Virginia’s Fifty-Sixth Regiment of Infantry encountered the Federal soldier who had saved his life at the Bloody Angle; this is the moving story of their encounter.

Reunion at Gettysburg
(The Outlook, 1913)

Johnny Reb and Billy Yank encountered each other once again – fifty years after the Union victory at Gettysburg:

The conductor raised his baton and the strains of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ floated out upon the air. All of those gathered upon the dusky lawn – the Picketts, the Longstreets, the daughter of General A.P. Hill, the Meades, the long row of men in gray and gold – became silent, rose to their feet, and uncovered. That was Gettysburg fifty years afterward.

Click here to see the Confederate Uniform worn at the Reunions.

General E.M. Law at Gettysburg
(Confederate Veteran, 1922)

Aside from baring an uncanny resemblance to an actor who wouldn’t be born until 1958 (Kevin Bacon), Confederate General E.M. Law (1836 – 1920) would be remembered for taking charge of Hood’s division after that commander was wounded at Gettysburg.

General Meade’s Report on the Battle of Gettysburg
(The Southern Rebellion , 1867)

Our own losses were very severe, two thousand eight hundred and thirty-four killed, thirteen thousand seven hundred and nine wounded, and six thousand six hundred and forty-three missing – in all twenty-three thousand, one hundred and eighty-six.

It is impossible, in a report of this nature, to enumerate all the the instances of gallantry and good conduct which distinguished our success on the hard-fought field of Gettysburg. The reports of corps commanders and their subordinates, herewith submitted, will furnish all information upon this subject.

Click here to read about the military record of U.S. General George Gordon Meade.

Click here to read about the finest generals of the American Civil War.

The North Carolina Presence at Gettysburg
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1930)

This article, from Confederate Veteran Magazine, presented the drama of events as they unfolded on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg with an eye to specifically telling the tale of the North Carolina regiments and the part they played as the battle was taking shape. The author, Captain S.A. Ashe (author of the 1902 book, The charge at Gettysburg) explained thoroughly which Confederate and Federal units arrived first at Gettysburg and at what hour, while indulging in just a little Monday morning quarterbacking:

If General Longstreet, with his very fine corps, had struck the Federals early the next morning, there probably never would have been a third day at Gettysburg.

With the First Texas Regiment at Gettysburg
(Confederate Veteran, 1922)

Attached is a Gettysburg reminiscence by one W.T. White, veteran of the First Texas Regiment who had documented his experience on Little Round Top in his earlier writings, but preferred to dwell on some other glorious moments on this page.

As a result of their charge up Little Round Top, the boys of the Twentieth Maine sent the First Texas Infantry to the bottom of the hill leaving 25 dead, 20 missing and 48 wounded.

Picket’s Charge
(W.C. Storick, 1951)

[General] Picket’s column of assault consisted of 42 regiments: 19 Virginia, 15 North Carolina, 2 Alabama, 3 Tennessee and 3 Mississippi – a total of 15,000 men

Gettysburg: an Epilogue
(Coronet Magazine, 1949)

An article that looks back at some of the lost opportunities squandered by both armies, wondering if the outcome might have been different had their importance been recognized and properly exploited.

At Gettysburg, the heat broke at last, and rain fell on July 4. As doctors and ambulances moved onto the scene, neither retreating Confederates nor jubilant Northerners recognized the great issue that had been decided on that field. Only a few sensed that the twilight of the Confederacy had come.

Read an article about how Victorian fashion saved a life during the Civil War.