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The graves of William T. Sherman and his family stand in a row—tall, flat rectangles at attention, shoulder to shoulder. On a nearby pole, a flag hangs limp in the open sun, but it’s still easy to spot from elsewhere in the cemetery. Four roads converge at the top of a small hill, and there in the curving elbow of the intersection stand the graves. Visitors pass by as if on review.
I’m in St. Louis’s Calvary Cemetery, and I’ve come to pay my respects to Uncle Billy. It’s 85 degrees, but the garden-style cemetery offers plenty of shade. I have my family with me or else I’d spend more time exploring. Dred Scott is buried in this cemetery, as are authors Tennessee Williams and Kate Chopin.
Instead, I use what goodwill I have to go down the adjacent block to another cemetery, Bellefontaine Cemetery, to pay my respects to another Civil War general. A number of them are buried here, including Don Carlos Buell, Francis Blair, and Sterling Price—as well as author William S. Burroughs and brewer Adolphus Busch—but I’m on the lookout for John Pope. I find him behind a bush, obscured by foliage just as he’s been obscured by history. At least he has his wife beside him. (Small irony: the dude named “Pope” isn’t in the Catholic cemetery.)
One of my favorite memories from an Emerging Civil War Symposium comes from 2021, the year we focused on “Fallen Leaders.” Dan Welch spoke about Pope and his fall from grace. Dan had kind of a soft spot for Pope and invited us to reconsider his career as a whole and not just look at Pope’s failure at Second Manassas. Our colleague, Kevin Pawlak, was less sympathetic, and he and Dan began lobbing good-natured zingers at each other about Pope. The hand grenades continued all weekend long, mostly at Dan’s expense. Attendees, in on the joke, had a great time laughing along.
That symposium sponsored an upcoming volume in our Emerging Civil War 10th Anniversary Series, Fallen Leaders. The hardcover is off to the printer even as I write this. Look for it in July (and look for our other great titles in that series, too)!
Sherman did as much as anyone—and more than most—to win the Civil War. Without the fall of Atlanta, would Lincoln have been reelected? I felt compelled to pay my respects.
But while many others buried in the two cemeteries would’ve been cool to visit, in my limited time, out of respect for Dan’s call for us to reconsider the things we think we know about the Civil War, I felt the need to visit John Pope. I don’t know if I think any more kindly about Pope than I used to, but visiting his gravesite reminded me that we’re all human, and we all deserve a little empathy.
— Chris Mackowski, Ph.D.
Editor-in-Chief, Emerging Civil War
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Ninth Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge
Tickets have been sold out since the end of May for our upcoming 9th Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge, which will be held August 4-6 in Spotsylvania, Virginia. We always hold our symposium on the first weekend of August, so if you’re disappointed that you’ll miss out, mark your calendars now for next year: August 2-4, 2024.
We’ll announce our theme at this year’s event, with additional details as the fall rolls along. We hope you’ll join us for an event that’s always a lot of fun and a great way to bond with the larger ECW community, historians and readers alike!
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It has been a June of traveling for Neil Chatelain. He had a blast speaking at the Western North Carolina Civil War Round Table on June 12, attended weddings in both New Orleans and Mexico, and is finishing out the month with a trip to Boston, New Hampshire, and Maine, all while squeezing in moments for reading and writing.
Doug Crenshaw will speak at the Chimborazo Hospital site in Richmond on July 1. Doug’s topic: his newest ECW book, To Hell or Richmond: The 1862 Peninsula Campaign.
Meg Groeling spoke about Col. Ellsworth and her book First Fallen to the L.A. Civil War Round Table via Zoom. “Lots of great questions & very nice folks,” she says.
In mid-June, Dwight Hughes attended the Naval History in the Age of Sail and Steam Symposium at the CSS Neuse Museum in Kingston, NC, to hear some good presentations and (hopefully) sell some books. This is his first opportunity to visit the museum with the only full-size replica of a Confederate ironclad.
From Frank Jastrzembski’s Shrouded Veterans project: “A veteran headstone was placed for Brevet Brigadier General William H. Blair (pictured). In October 1861, Blair was appointed a first lieutenant in the 51st Pennsylvania Infantry and promoted to captain in February 1862. Blair distinguished himself at the battle of Antietam, where the 51st stormed Burnside’s Bridge—an action that later earned him his brevet promotion. In December, Blair was appointed colonel of the 179th Pennsylvania Infantry, which he commanded until ithe regiment was mustered out in July 1863. Blair returned to practicing law after his military service. He died suddenly of heart failure on December 7, 1888, and was buried at Union Cemetery in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.” For more on the project, see Frank’s post at Emerging Civil War.
Brian Matthew Jordan was on the road last week delivering a host of invited lectures. On June 10, he spoke at the James A. Garfield National Historic Site in Mentor, Ohio. The next day, it was off to speak on South Mountain at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont. Brian was a featured speaker at the Lakeside Chautauqua, which appropriately (given its history hosting Civil War veterans' reunions) devoted a week of programs to our nation's deadliest conflict. Brian delivered three lectures to a packed house on the beautiful shores of Lake Erie. Finally, he presented "The Great What Ifs" to the Cedar Valley Civil War Round Table in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Brian has now addressed roundtables in twenty-eight states. He looks forward to a 160th anniversary lecture at the Seminary Ridge Museum in Gettysburg on June 30, and to the publication of Final Resting Places: Reflections on the Meaning of Civil War Graves with UGA Press in September.
From Chris Kolakowski, who serves as the executive director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum: The Museum recently marked its 30th anniversary in its current location and took a giant step toward an exciting future. According to Madison.com, “Gov. Tony Evers, Wisconsin lawmakers pledge financial support for new history, veterans museums,” including a $9 million-renovation for the veterans museum. Read the full story here.
Grant at 200, the essay collection co-edited by Chris Mackowski and Frank Scaturro, received a positive review from Richard G. Manion in LSU’s Spring 2023 Civil War Book Review. Manion called it “a compelling collection of essays designed to effect and promote the efficacy of Grant’s ‘reputational reclamation,’ as well as to examine some lesser known aspects of Grant’s life. Written at times with great enthusiasm, the work is informative, on occasion quite quirky and will appeal to both serious students of Grant as well as the most casual of Grant enthusiasts.” You can read the full review here.
Jill Newmark, author of the Engaging the Civil War Series book Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons, gave an enthusiastic talk at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston. The program is available to watch on the MHS’s website here: https://youtu.be/Dt5-EIgILZ4. For more info on additional talks Jill has scheduled, visit her website: https://www.blackcivilwarsurgeons.com/.
Brian Swartz spoke to the Dan Sickles Civil War Round Top Table in White Plains, NY, on June 25 about his book, Passing Through the Fire: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain in the Civil War. The online program was well attended. Brian, who writes the weekly Maine at War blog, has launched a new YouTube channel, Maine at War: Battlefields, Monuments & More. The channel features short videos of battlefields where Mainers fought; the Maine Civil War monuments located here, there, and everywhere; and war-related sites in Maine, New England, and elsewhere. Brian narrates each video. Two particular videos—4th Maine Infantry attacks to save a New York battery and Civil War monument in Lubec, Maine—quickly garnered around a hundred viewings each.
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Phill Greenwalt recently hit his 15-year mark of Federal service. Most of that time has been with the National Park Service, beginning with his first uniformed position at George Washington Birthplace National Monument. Since then he has donned the green and gray of the NPS at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, Thomas Stone National Historic Site, Everglades National Park, Morristown National Historical Park, De Soto National Memorial, and at his current posting, Catoctin Mountain Park.
Congrats, Phill!
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Derek Maxfield is continuing his Man of Fire: William T. Sherman in the Civil War book tour. On June 8, he had a great time speaking for the American Civil War Museum (virtually), and he visited the Waterloo (NY) Public Library and Historical Society June 15. Derek also spoke this spring to the Buffalo (NY) Civil War Roundtable (above).
In the meantime, work has begun on a new volume for the ECW Series on the Andersonville POW camp.
Derek had events June 23 & 24 at the PCWA 160th Gettysburg Re-enactment, and will have talks July 11 at the Charlottesville (VA) CWRT, and July 26th at the Albany (NY) Civil War Buffs group.
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ECW Bookshelf
Kevin Pawlak brings us the latest publication from an ECW author. Such a Clash of Arms: The Maryland Campaign, September 1862 is the first Civil War volume in Casemate's Illustrated Campaigns Series. It is a higher-level view of the Maryland Campaign and the battle of Antietam, although Kevin says, “I tried to squeeze almost everything about the military side of the campaign into this slim volume. Additionally, I wanted to make sure the campaign was viewed within its proper context in the summer of 1862.”
Kevin goes on to add: “I hope the book can serve as a useful introduction to readers new to the Maryland Campaign, but also provide something new for seasoned Civil War readers, too. I framed the book and some chapters differently than previous Maryland Campaign books, reflecting some of my personal preferences for telling the story and how many different pieces of the campaign were in motion all at once. The battle of Antietam is split into two chapters: ‘The Northern Front’ and ‘The Southern Front,’ which is how I view the battlefield. Again, there was some crossover in time between both ‘fronts,’ better demonstrating that the battle of Antietam was not fought in phases.”
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You Can Help Support Emerging Civil War
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 by you can do so by visiting our website: www.emergingcivilwar.com; you can mail us a check at the address below (make checks payable to "Emerging Civil War"); or you can make a gift through PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=2L46N85FH8VWE
Thank you!
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July
20: Chris Mackowski, “Grant’s Last Battle,” American Civil War Museum at Appomattox, Appomattox Court House, VA
23: Chris Mackowski, Grant Cottage Remembrance Day Commemoration, Wilton, NY
27: Chris Mackowski, “The Battle of Jackson, Mississippi,” Chambersburg Civil War Seminars (via Zoom)
August
02: Jon-Erik Gilot & Kevin Pawlak, Stories of John Brown’s Raid, Jacob Rohrbach Inn Summer Lecture Series, Sharpsburg, MD
12: Jon-Erik Gilot, “Dangerfield Newby’s Fight for Freedom,” Civil War Roundtable of Central Louisiana (Virtual)
15: Jon-Erik Gilot, “Dangerfield Newby’s Fight for Freedom,” Mason Dixon CWRT, Morgantown, WV
25: Chris Mackowski, Civil War Roundtable Congress, Gettysburg, PA
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