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Maine at War blog posts for March 2026
During March, Maine at War readers met the nurse whom 3rd Maine Infantry soldiers considered “an angel to all of us,” learned about the actual northernmost land action during the Civil War, looked on...
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Remember Fort Pillow!: A Precedent and Retaliations – Part I
The “Remember!” battle cry has echoed across generations of American history. The Revolutionary War had its “Remember Fort Griswold!” In the Texas Revolution and Mexican-American War it was “Remember...
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Grant Tells the War, Part 07: City Point to Appomattox
part of a series As part of their preparation to co-author their book Unconditional Surrender: Ulysses S. Grant in the Civil War, Chris Mackowski and Curt Fields (as U.S. Grant) sat down to talk about...
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One Final Newspaper Roll Call
Casualties during the Civil War were extreme. In some battles one-third or more of participating combatants became casualties. Hearing anecdotes about units suffering fifty percent casualties is not...
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ECW Podcast: A Grand Opening Squandered (with Sean Michael Chick)
Sean Michael Chick Sean Michael Chick, author of “A Grand Opening Squandered,” talks about the battle of Petersburg. The battle, one of the bloodiest of the war, often gets lumped in with the...
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May 2025 Maine at War blog posts
In May 2025, Maine at War explained why a hero’s father calls 9-1-1 in 1864, introduces a ship’s captain who “meets” Raphael Semmes, and sorts out which McGlauflin gets shot during the Chancellorsville...
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Stacking Arms: The Cockade City Unravels
In the spring of 1865, U.S. Grant literally stretched the Army of Northern Virginia to its breaking point. His offensive movements in late March forced Robert E. Lee, entrenched around the city of...
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Now Available from the Emerging Civil War Series: A Grand Opening Squandered:...
We’re kicking this year off with a bang! This time, we are digging into the trenches of Petersburg with Sean Michael Chick as he explores the intense four-day clash that marked a missed Union...
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Tales from a Monk in the Union Army: A Solitary Monk
Part of a series. By November 1864, the St. Vincent monks—once united under the banner of the 61st Pennsylvania—now found themselves separated. Brother Bonaventure Gaul was the only one that remained...
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Book Review: The Autobiography of Joshua Chamberlain: The Major Writings
The Autobiography of Joshua Chamberlain: The Major Writings, Edited by Thomas A. Desjardins. Essex, CT: Down East Books, 2024. Hardcover, 155 pp, $28.95. Reviewed by Brian Swartz Rather than hear his...
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“We Helped Them Escape Whenever We Could”: Southern Claims Commission Records...
You may read Part I here. It was not uncommon for the Confederate military to impress free men of color to serve as laborers on fortifications, in their hospitals as stewards and nurses, in their camps...
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“We Helped Them Escape Whenever We Could”: Southern Claims Commission Records...
On July 11, 1866, Petersburg, Virginia’s Philip Sewell Sr. and his son, Philip Sewell Jr., filed a request with the Freedmen’s Bureau for the reimbursement of property taken from them by Pennsylvania...
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Book Review: Wars Civil and Great: The American Experience in the Civil War...
Wars Civil and Great: The American Experience in the Civil War and World War I. Edited by David J. Silbey and Kanisorn Wongrichanalai. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas 2023. Softcover. 304pp....
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Book Review: On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua...
On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. By Ronald C. White. New York: Random House, 2023. 445 pp. Hardcover, $35.00. Reviewed by Brian Swartz Resurrected from...
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Shrouded Veterans: Bvt. Brig. Gen. George W. Gowen
Bvt. Brig. Gen. George W. Gowen A veteran headstone was placed at Brevet Brigadier General George W. Gowen’s grave. On August 20, 1861, Gowen, a mining engineer before the Civil War, was appointed a...
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“I’ll Take That Chance and Live, Too”: Pvt. Judson Spofford, 10th Vermont...
During the summer of 1862, President Abraham Lincoln pleaded for 300,000 more volunteers to help put down the rebellion. Hundreds of thousands of men answered the call. Thousands of boys joined, too....
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Petersburg Latrine Management
Soldier Latrine among the Petersburg entrenchments (Library of Congress) While expanding my search for more source material on the VI Corps at Petersburg, I found an old auction listing for detailed...
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A Pennsylvania Family on Petersburg’s Front Line
A Pennsylvania family found themselves at the epicenter of the final six months of the Civil War. No primary evidence is available yet to date to share that plight in their own words, but in the time...
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Fallen Leaders: Did Daniel Chaplin commit death-by-sniper?
After seeing his 1st Maine Heavy Artillery destroyed at Petersburg, Col. Daniel Chaplin “seemed not to care to live after his regiment was gone,” thought Pvt. Joel Brown, Co. I. Two months later the...
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Fallen Leaders: The Grizzly sensed death
Hiram Burnham sensed he would not return home alive as he rejoined his command in late September 1864. He was correct — by six days. His neighbors in Cherryfield, Maine, nicknamed Hiram...
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