I watched a flock of birds fly overheard this evening, the crescent moon setting behind them, chasing the sun toward the horizon. A jet, somewhere high above, left a small white slash against the darkening blue sky.
I don’t know what kind of birds they were, but the flock has swarmed around the area for months and months. Their high-pitched calls sound like the chatter of monkeys filling the bare-branched oaks and maples of the neighborhood. The flock is so big that it took more than three minutes to pass overhead—a river of birds flowing onward and on.
It was during their passage that I noticed the jet, and I thought of the crazy juxtaposition between the flapping of tiny wings and the powerful roar of an airliner. I thought not only of the differences in size and scale but of old and new, and of primitive and modern. It reminded me that there were many Civil War veterans who lived to see the advent of flight. There were even a tiny handful who saw the advent of the atomic bomb. Imagine how dramatically technology changed in the course of their lifetimes. Imagine how dramatically the world changed.
By the time you read this, another Thanksgiving will be behind us and another Christmas nearly upon us. We’re discovering that the holidays in this age of COVID look a little different than normal. It has kept families apart and undoubtedly disrupted many beloved holiday traditions. It has challenged us to adapt and evolve and change.
I hope you and your loved ones have been successful in finding new ways to fly. Happy holidays!
Chris Mackowski, Ph.D.
Editor-in-Chief
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Every year in commemoration of Thanksgiving, Sarah Kay Bierle celebrates the week with a series on the blog called “Civil War Cookin’.” In preparation this year, she has been changing up her boring pandemic menus and recreating foods mentioned in Civil War primary sources.
Meg Groeling got a new kitten. She assures us she is not turning into a crazy cat lady—just “helping out an otherwise homeless little creature.” She is plugging away at First Fallen and writing up goodies for her Weekly Walt Whitman feature. She is wondering if some research on how the government finally got Mary Lincoln out of the White House would be helpful in the near future, and she is baking gingerbread. “So much for the Left Coast,” she says (writing from California).
Dwight Hughes gave a virtual presentation to the Civil War Round Table of Central New Jersey on November 2, "Unlike Anything That Ever Floated: The USS Monitor," based on his new Emerging Civil War Series volume scheduled to be released next spring.
Chris Kolakowski will be appearing on the American Battlefield Trust’s “Zoom Goes the History” on December 1 and 3 to talk about the War of Independence's southern campaigns.
Chris Mackowski has been hitting the Zoom circuit lately. Last month, he did a program on Upton’s May 10, 1864, attack at Spotsylvania for the Chambersburg Civil War Seminar. He also did a program about the battle of North Anna for the American Battlefield Trust’s donor event (along with a virtual video tour of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania battlefields with Dan Davis for the Trust’s donor event). He Zoomed with the Brunswick (SC) Civil War Roundtable about Richard Ewell on the first day at Gettysburg; he Zoomed with St. Bonaventure University’s Jandoli Institute to talk about Civil War songs, statues, and memory; and he joined the Trust’s “Zoom Goes the History” on November 20 with panelists Kris White, Carol Reardon, Bryan Cheesboro, and Garry Adelman to talk about “When War Returns.” On November 14, he joined Bert Dunkerly for a Facebook Live event at Jericho Mills on the North Anna battlefield, sponsored by Richmond National Battlefield and co-sponsored by ECW. And, back on November 5, he had the chance to hang out with Tim Talbot at Pamplin Park before giving a North Anna talk to the Petersburg Civil War Roundtable. Whew! (And has North Anna ever gotten so much love in a month?)
Kevin Pawlak and Jon-Erik Gilot each contributed articles to the December issue of Civil War Times. Kevin’s article, “Calico and Cake,” focuses on Mosby’s Second Calico Raid at Point of Rocks, Maryland on July 4, 1864. Jon-Erik’s article, “They Have Our Range,” profiles Treasury Department employee Elijah Hobart, whose pleasure cruise on the C&O canal was interrupted by Mosby’s Raid, ultimately costing Hobart his life.
Kevin and Jon-Erik also worked together on a forthcoming title for the Emerging Civil War Series focusing on John Brown’s Raid at Harpers Ferry.
The December 2020 issue of Civil War Times also included a nice review of David Dixon’s Radical Warrior: August Willich’s Journey from German Revolutionary to Union General. Reviewer Colin Woodward called it “a rich, compelling, and insightful look at a most extraordinary figure.” (see photo, above)
The issue also features a review by Ethan Rafuse of The War Went On, an essay collection edited by Brian Matthew Jordan and Ethan Rafuse. “Anyone looking to gain a sense of just how rich the state of scholarship on Civil War veterans has become, or how exciting future scholarship on the subject will be, are well served by The War Went On,” Rafuse wrote.
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10 Questions . . . with Dwight Hughes |
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We’ve been putting the finishing touches on our next book. Can you give us a little preview?
Unlike Anything That Ever Floated: The Monitor and Virginia and the Battle of Hampton Roads, March 8-9, 1862 will be the first dedicated naval volume in the Emerging Civil War Series. It tells the story of the revolutionary ironclads USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (ex USS Merrimack) from conception, through development, to Virginia’s destruction of two major Union warships, and finally their climatic engagement. Both sides claimed victory. The narrative blends strategy, tactics, technology, personalities, and naval combat primarily through the voices of men who lived it.
The story of that naval battle is so iconic. Why do you think it captures people’s imaginations like it does?
Monitor became an icon of American industrial ingenuity and strength through the post-war boom and since. She redefined the relationship between men and machines in war, challenging ancient concepts of honor and valor. “There isn’t danger enough to give us any glory,” wrote one officer. But beforehand, people had never seen anything like Monitor. Many feared she would not float. Captain John L. Worden: “Here was an unknown, untried vessel…an iron coffin-like ship of which the gloomiest predictions were made.”
Virginia was a paradigm of Confederate strategy and execution—the brainchild of innovative, dedicated, and courageous men, but the victim of hurried design, untested technology, poor planning, and a dearth of critical resources. Nevertheless, she challenged the entire U.S Navy, threatened the strategically vital blockade, and disrupted General McClellan’s plans to take Richmond.
What’s a common misperception people have about the battle?
That in one day all the world’s navies became obsolete to the amazement of all concerned. The technological trend was not new to professionals. Steam propulsion, iron armor, and advanced naval armaments had been developing for half a century. Great Britain and France had deployed powerful sea-going, steam-driven ironclads. Turret models were being tested. The genius of Monitor’s inventor, John Ericsson, was to merge various elements in a unique arrangement to meet a particular need at a specific time. The battle popularized what was already happening. But the Monitor design was not seaworthy and did not long survive this conflict.
You’ve also been doing a fair number of talks lately thanks to technology. What are some of the topics you’ve been speaking on?
Presentations from my first book (A Confederate Biography: The Cruise of the CSS Shenandoah), are still popular. I’ve given several on the new book, Unlike Anything That Ever Floated, and on my next project, Unvexed Waters: The Civil War on Heartland Rivers. Other presentations are available as noted on my website, https://civilwarnavyhistory.com/.
What’s next for you on the writing front?
I’m writing a new ECW Series volume on the western river campaigns. Strategically the war on the Mississippi and its tributaries extended the coastal blockade and reflected Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan. In tactics and technology, however, joint army-navy riverine warfare was an entirely new concept. Both navies, Union and Confederate, began with no experience, no shallow-water warships, no joint command structure, no infrastructure.
Nevertheless, a few outstanding teams emerged, notably General Grant and Admiral David D. Porter. This was an unprecedented army-navy partnership that proceeded through many trials—Belmont, Forts Henry and Donelson, Shiloh, Island No. 10, Memphis, Vicksburg, Port Hudson, Red River—until Abraham Lincoln could declare: “The father of waters again goes unvexed to the sea.” The book will provide a new perspective on these engagements from the water.
Lightning Round (short answers with a one-sentence explanation)
Favorite primary source?
I always begin with the Navy Official Records and verify other sources by them.
Favorite Civil War-related monument?
The Ulysses S. Grant memorial on the mall in D.C. because of the subject and the magnificent, dynamic composition. I used to work near there and walked by it on lunch breaks.
Favorite unsung hero of the Civil War era?
For a naval historian, Commander James D. Bulloch, CSN, is an unknown but most interesting character for effectively running the Confederate navy and finances in Europe from Liverpool, deploying blockade runners, ironclads, and commerce raiders, and causing the Union a great deal of grief.
What’s a bucket-list Civil War site you’ve not yet visited?
Vicksburg battlefields and USS Cairo museum.
Favorite ECWS book that’s not one of your own?
All good, but I like A Want of Vigilance: The Bristow Station Campaign by Bill Backus and Robert Orrison since I live just down the road and drive by it frequently.
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Have you been following the ECW YouTube page? You can check it out here. Or, go to YouTube and search “Emerging Civil War.”
In November, we’ve given special focus to exploring the battlefield in Franklin, Tennessee, courtesy of our friend Greg Wade, founder of the Franklin Civil War Roundtable. More than a dozen videos show off key spots, including Carnton Plantation, Fort Granger, Winstead Hill, the Carter House, and more—plus the lead-up to the battle at Spring Hill.
Paul Ashdown and Ed Caudill did a pair of interviews on their new “Engaging the Civil War” Series book, Imagining Wild Bill: James Butler Hickok in War, Media, and Memory.
Plus, we have all sorts of other cool stuff going on there. Be sure to subscribe to the Emerging Civil War YouTube channel to get all the latest.
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ECW Bookshelf
Congratulations to Dave Powell on the publication of his latest book, Impulse of Victory: Ulysses S. Grant at Chattanooga. From the book jacket:
Union soldiers in the Army of the Cumberland, who were trapped and facing starvation or surrender in the fall of 1863, saw the arrival of Major General Ulysses S. Grant in Tennessee as an impetus to reverse the tides of war. David A. Powell’s sophisticated strategic and operational analysis of Grant’s command decisions and actions shows how his determined leadership relieved the siege and shattered the enemy, resulting in the creation of a new strategic base of Union operations and Grant’s elevation to commander of all the Federal armies the following year.
Powell’s detailed exploration of the Union Army of the Cumberland’s six-week-long campaign for Chattanooga is complemented by his careful attention to the personal issues Grant faced at the time and his relationships with his superiors and subordinates. Though unfamiliar with the tactical situation, the army, and its officers, Grant delivered another resounding victory. His success, explains Powell, was due to his tactical flexibility, communication with his superiors, perseverance despite setbacks, and dogged determination to win the campaign. Through attention to postwar accounts, Powell reconciles the differences between what happened and the participants’ memories of the events. He focuses throughout on Grant’s controversial decisions, revealing how they were made and their impact on the campaign. As Powell shows, Grant’s choices demonstrate how he managed to be a thoughtful, deliberate commander despite the fog of war.
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Emerging Revolutionary War News |
by Phill Greenwalt
This November, Emerging Revolutionary War historians took their annual Rev War Weekend trip—this year to visit sites related to the Yorktown Campaign. Stops included the Battle of the Hook, Spencer's Ordinary, Green Spring, Yorktown, and the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown. Live videos talking about these places are on our Facebook site. Even George Washington became a fan of ERW on this trip!
ERW also launched our own YouTube page, where all the "Rev War Revelry" videos, which are our Sunday night historian happy hour talks, are located.
Our symposium is still on schedule for May of 2021. Also, stay tuned to the blog as a follow-up on our big announcement of the first annual ERW tour of the Ten Crucial Days coming November 2021. Continue to check www.emergingrevolutionarywar.org for updates on these events and to get your American Revolutionary War era history fix.
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You Can Help Emerging Civil War |
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Emerging Civil War is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. If you’re interested in supporting
"emerging voices" by making a tax-deductible donation, you can do so through PayPal by clicking this link.
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