The Civil War in 1864
(The Southern Rebellion, 1867)
Here is a printable chronology of the important events that occurred during 1864, the most decisive year of the American Civil War.
Recent Articles
Home Front Doctor
Endorsed Smoking
Dr. Louis Edward Bisch (1885 – 1963) was an odd duck, well known in his day for making numerous indefensible
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
Recalls Little Round Top
On the fiftieth anniversary of the War Between the States, retired U.S Army General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1828 – 1914) wrote about his experiences at the Battle of Little Round Top for the editors at Hearst’s Magazine.
The ”Missing in Action” Telegrams
Few Americans realize the deep concern which the Army exercises to determine the exact status of a man reported missing in action, and even fewer are aware of the many complexities that beset the endeavor to track down missing [personnel]… It may be observed, incidentally, that the men reported as ‘missing in action’ has a two-out-of-three chance of being alive, and of turning up eventually. He may be a prisoner of war, and his capture may be subsequently reported. When that happens, of course, his name will be remove from the ‘missing list’. Or, he might be alive and uncaptured… As a matter of fact, if he is a flier, he has a fifty percent chance of being alive for it has been statistically established that approximately half the crew of a Flying Fortress that crash-lands or is shot down behind enemy lines survive.”
The 50th Anniversary
The red scribe who penned this article had no idea that the clock was ticking when it came to the USSR (it collapsed some twenty-three years later) and that the name Soviet Union would soon serve as the answer for assorted parlor games such as Trivial Pursuit. Nonetheless, the writer’s misplaced pride came bubbling forth in this column that celebrated their 50th year in existence.
Corsets
Although this journalist couldn’t know it, she was writing one of the last corset reviews in fashion history. No doubt,
Review of Kaiser Wilhelm’s Memoir
Not surprisingly, the British magazine Spectator printed a terribly dry and unsympathetic review of My Memoirs by Kaiser Willhelm II
“We Gave the Red Army Its Speed”
Leo Thomas Crowley (1889 – 1972) was a senior administrator for FDR as the head of the Foreign Economic Administration, and in this Newsweek editorial it recalls a time late in the war when he let-loose some steam having felt that the British and Americans were not getting enough credit for building up the strength of Stalin’s military.
American Ski Troops
There were many different new types of personnel the U.S. military had to train and deploy if they were to
Ike’s Boys
When this article appeared in print the war in Europe had been over for three and a half months. Nonetheless,
War Criminals
(Collier’s Year Book, 1946)
“The main Japanese war trials started with the indictment on April 29 of twenty-eight political and military leaders on fifty-five counts charging crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and ‘conventional’ war crimes… The twenty-eight accused war criminals were formally arraigned before an eleven-nation tribunal presided over by Chief Justice Sir William Webb of Great Britain on May 3 and 4.
Rapid Progress Made
(Collier’s Year Book, 1946)
“Under the supervision of Allied occupation authorities, Japan made more substantial recovery during 1946 than any of the other defeated Axis powers.”
Land Reform in Occupied Japan
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1945)
“In December 1945, SCAP (Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers) issued a sweeping directive demanding that Japanese peasants be freed from the burden of absentee landlordism, oppressive debt, discriminatory taxation, usury and other evils that had plagued the Japanese peasants for centuries.”
1946: The Camps Close
(Collier’s Year Book, 1947)
“On June 30, 1946 the central office of the War Relocation Authority [an arm of the Department of the Interior] closed on schedule with substantial completion of its war-time task of providing ‘relocation, maintenance, and supervision’ of the 120,313 persons of Japanese ancestry who were in its custody as a result of the War Department’s evacuation in 1942 of the West Coast. Of this number, 5,981 were born in the ten relocation centers maintained by the Authority.”
Anti-Nisei Bigotry in Two States Compared
(PM Tabloid, 1945)
In the wake of the SCOTUS opinion, Korematsu v. U.S., some talk could be heard about the return of the Japanese Americans to the previous homes. This article examines the anti-Nisei attitudes in two Western states, California and Oregon. It was the conclusion that the former had become a bit more tolerant and the later a bit worse (sadly the last paragraphs, printed on brittle brown paper, withered away in our hand.)
Winston Churchill Recalled the U-Boat Problem
(Liberty Magazine, 1941)
Former Lord of the Admiralty (1911 – 1915), Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965) wrote the attached article sometime after the First World war and recalled the tremendous difficulties faced by the Royal Navy when this new form of warfare came to the fore:
“There followed the fourth prime feature of the war — the grand U-boat attack on the Allied shipping and the food ships and store ships which kept Great Britain alive. Here again we were exposed to a mortal risk. Not merely defeat but subjugation and final ruin confronted by our country.”