The road from Appomattox first let me past a small roadside site labeled “Robert E. Lee Wayside.” Here, following his surrender to Ulysses S. Grant and his departure from Appomattox, Lee spent the night on his return to Richmond. It is one of my favorite sites of the campaign because it offers such a complex context for contemplation. What was going through Lee’s mind on that evening? What road lay ahead for him? Where would he go? Where could he go? Oh, what must have tumbled through his mind on that evening. Did he wonder if this was the end of the road? (For more on this spot, see my blog post.)

Earlier in the evening, I had spoken at the American Civil War Museum in Appomattox, sharing the story of Grant’s last battle—not Appomattox at all, as it turned out, but a fight against cancer. Facing financial ruin because he had been swindled by a business partner, Grant raced to complete his memoirs before the cancer finished him.

That talk happened on a Thursday evening. From there, the road from Appomattox took me past Lee’s Wayside, eventually to Grant Cottage atop mount McGregor in upstate New York, the site where Grant did, indeed, finish his memoirs just days before his death. The road had taken me there for the Cottage’s “Remembrance Day” ceremony commemorating the 138th anniversary of Grant’s death on July 23. It is an honor for me any time I get to speak at the Cottage, but to do so on Remembrance Day was especially humbling.

By the last few weeks of Grant’s life, throat cancer had mostly denied him his voice, and so he communicated primarily through pencil on paper. He was surrounded by family, doctors, and well-wishers, so those last weeks were well chronicled in Grant’s own handwriting. But what remained unsaid, or unscribbled on paper, during those weeks? What was going through his mind as he had neared the end of his own road?

Grand and Lee both ultimately remain unknowable in those moments—yet those same moments of personal struggle, where they confronted their own mortality, where they were at their most humans, invite us to try and know them better. 

As students of the Civil War, the road from Appomattox is our road, too, and it is for us to consider where that road might take us.

— Chris Mackowski, Ph.D.

Editor-in-Chief

Paige Gibbons Backus presented “Civil War Medicine and STEAM in the Classroom” at the American Battlefield Trust Virtual Teacher’s Institute on July 24.

Sarah Kay Bierle has been at a lot of different historic sites for work or ECW projects this summer: Arlington National Cemetery, Brandy Station, Gettysburg, Chambersburg, New Market, Baltimore, Harpers Ferry, Stafford Camps, Washington D.C., and Chancellorsville. Then there is Spotsylvania, Reams Station, Fort McHenry, Antietam, Frederick, and Gettysburg (again) still on the schedule before the season is finished. Keeping busy, telling real stories where history happened!

This month, Doug Crenshaw has led private tours of Cold Harbor and the Seven Days Campaign.

Dwight Hughes recorded a two-part podcast for the U.S. Naval Academy History Department "Tell Me Another" series episodes 44/45, now available at their website. "Clash of the Ironclads" tells the story of USS Monitor and the battle of Hampton Roads based on his ECW Series book, Unlike Anything That Ever Floated. On Battle Anniversary Weekend at the Gettysburg Heritage Center, July 1, Dwight signed copies of the new ECW Tenth Anniversary volume, The Civil War on the Water: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War, which he and Chris Mackowski edited.

Chris Kolakowski recently lectured to the Commemorative Air Force about the Berlin Airlift. You can watch the video here. Chris also says, “The state budget for this biennium includes $9m to acquire the current site of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum and start development toward a new facility.” Chris is director of the museum.

Chris Mackowski presented “An Intro to the O.R.s: The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion” at the American Battlefield Trust’s National Teacher Institute in Baltimore, MD, on July 13 and 14. He and Kevin Pawlak also co-led a bus tour of Washington, D.C.’s monuments, Ford Theater, and Arlington National Cemetery. On July 24, he presented “Abraham Lincoln as a Writer” for the Trust’s Virtual Teacher Institute.

ERW historian Mark Maloy was interviewed in the Florida Daily about the Rev War in the southeast, including in the Sunshine State. You can read it here.

Derek Maxfield had a great time with the kind folks at the Charlottesville CWRT July 11. He spent the following morning exploring Belle Isle in Richmond, VA, site of one of the worst of the Confederate POW camps. Upcoming speaking engagements include Albany on July 26 and the Old Baldy CWRT in Cherry Hill, NJ, on August 10.

Terry Rensel spoke to the Fredericksburg Rotary Club on Thursday, July 20 about Central Virginia Battlefield Trust and battlefield preservation. He also recently discovered three ancestors, including a 3x great-grandfather, in the 105th Pennsylvania and another ancestor in the 57th Pennsylvania.

Cecily Nelson Zander starts her new gig as an assistant professor of History at Texas Woman’s University in August, teaching the history survey and a class on Texas history to start. She also had an essay come out in Reviews in American History entitled “Whither The Radicals?” It takes a closer look at the lack of scholarly work on the Radical Republicans in the Civil War era.

Sheritta and Jared Bitikofer welcomed their first child, Annabelle Clara Bitikofer, into the world on July 7th at 9:22pm. Her middle name is directly inspired by Clara Barton, Civil War nurse and founder of the Red Cross. Sheritta and Annabelle are spending their late-night feeding sessions catching up on American Battlefield Trust videos, staying immersed in history.

Neil Chatelain spent a good bit of July exploring Utah, Nevada, California, and Oregon. That makes all 50 states for Neil and his wife, Brittany! Not to worry about Civil War related things, though, as there were some unexpected and often overlooked Civil War sites to see that far west that will soon find their way onto the blog!