Ulysses S. Grant (April 27, 1822-July 23, 1885) was born Hiram Ulysses Grant at Point Pleasant, Ohio to Jesse Root Grant and Hannah Simpson. Hundreds if not thousands of books and stories have been written about Grant the general and the president. Every detail of his actions during the war has been examined. I’m sure…
Anyone who is familiar with basic American history has probably heard of Fort McHenry. But, before we get to the reason why most Americans know Fort McHenry, we need to know its early beginnings. It started out as a small earthen star fort called Fort Whetstone during the American Revolution. The fortress was situated at…
Nathan G. “Shanks” Evans was born in Marion, South Carolina to Thomas and Jane Beverly Evans on February 3, 1824. He attended Randolph-Macon College before receiving an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1848. There, his classmates nicknamed him “Shanks” because of his spindly legs and knocked knees. He graduated…
Belle Boyd isn’t one of my favorite spies of the Civil War, but she’s given lots of attention and was dubbed the Cleopatra of the South. Long-limbed and of exceptionally fine form, it may be understandable that she gained many male admirers, but she was not a classical beauty. Belle Boyd was born Maria Isabella…
I have in my desk drawer a set of dog tags Will gave me when he deployed. I wore them all the time he was gone. He had his own set he wore. During the Civil War, there was no standard identification system and many soldiers worried they would not be identified or their families…
This image from the Library of Congress titled, “War views. No. 1501, Camp life, Army of the Potomac – writing to friends at home” shows a soldier in the foreground doing some mending. This is a patriotic Confederate housewife with three different Confederate flags. Someone certainly put a lot of love into this one. The…
Well, real life and a book nearing completion got in the way, but I’m going to try to get back on track if I can. I’m not sure I can finish as the book beckons and it’s taking priority. At the beginning of the Civil War, the south was woefully unprepared. The governor of Louisiana…
Military mascots are nothing new and the Civil war certainly had its share of them. Dick the sheep was adopted by the 2nd Rhode Island. The men were quite fond of Dick and taught him all manner of tricks, but upon reaching Washington they had to make a painful decision. “We took our pet sheep…
You thought I forgot, didn’t you? Oh, no, mon ami. Surprisingly enough, the English had been keeping a close eye on American shipbuilders for a while. In the mid-1850’s they were particularly scouting out two designers named James and George Steers of the George Steers and Co. There was a traditional design to yachts called…
Gen. Johnston Gen. Wallace It was a year into the Civil War. Sumter had been fired on April 12, 1861, and the first major battle at Manassas had culminated in an astonishing and undignified rout of Union forces. If anyone was still under the assumption it was going to be a ninety-day unpleasantness, those notions…