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World War II Amphibious Training on the Hatcher’s Run Battlefields
Lake Jordan Obstacle Course in the 1940s (Fort Lee Traveller) The Petersburg area Civil War battlefields are famously known as a training ground for the United States Army during World War I. Due to...
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The Bizarre Life of States Barton Flandreau
Few Civil War soldiers have a story quite like States B. Flandreau. The New York native first fought in a Confederate regiment, switched teams across the Rappahannock, and was separately wounded and...
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Return to Burgess Mill
John Davis Billings “I am now outside the main rebel line, moving southwesterly over the old Boydton Plank Road, which has ceased to have any vestige of a plank crossing it as long ago when the war was...
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Saving History Saturday: 110 Acres at Three Battlefields
There’s hallowed ground to save at the battlefields of Mill Springs, Petersburg, and Bentonville, and American Battlefield Trust is working to preserve the total 110 acres at the three sites. According...
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Petersburg Day One: Wednesday, June 15, 1864
On June 15 the Army of the Potomac began to cross the James River. It was an emotional moment. A. M. Judson of the 83rd Pennsylvania likened the army’s arrival at the James to Xenophon and his 10,000...
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Recruiting The Regiment: The Petersburg Regiment, 12th Virginia Infantry
ECW welcomes John Horn The regiment’s core, known as the Petersburg Battalion, included five infantry companies: the Petersburg City Guard; the Petersburg Old or ‘A’ Grays; the Petersburg New or ‘B’...
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Far Beyond the Sounds of Battle – Seattle, 1864
Emerging Civil War welcomes guest author Richard Heisler… “Detail of First Hill from Commercial Street (1st Avenue S) and Main Street, Seattle, 1869” Courtesy Washington State Historical Society...
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ECW is pleased to welcome back Tim Talbott African Americans in mid-nineteenth century America experienced the road to freedom differently. Some found the course short and straight. They claimed...
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The Crater Sent a Monster Home to Maine
ECW is pleased to welcome back Brian Swartz, author of the new Emerging Civil War Series book Passing Through the Fire: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain in the Civil War. Brian adapted this post for us from...
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The Effects of the Wilson-Kautz Raid through Newspaper Advertisements (part...
ECW is pleased to welcome back Tim Talbott, director of education and interpretation at Pamplin Historical Park (part one of two) Slave trader E. H. Stokes placed an advertisement in the August 6,...
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The Effects of the Wilson-Kautz Raid through Newspaper Advertisements (part...
ECW is pleased to welcome back Tim Talbott (part two of two) Evidence of the amount of disorder the Union horsemen wreaked on the region’s citizens during the Wilson-Kautz Raid appears in numerous...
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The Key to Richmond
A New York private and two of his comrades carefully crept their way into Petersburg, Virginia on the morning of April 3, 1865. Separated from their regiment after the chaotic previous day, the trio...
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Under Fire: Battlefield Guide Map for the Charge of the First Maine Heavy...
The First Maine Heavy Artillery famously participated in the last desperate attempt in June 1864 to simply seize Petersburg by direct assault. Many incorrectly assume the battle was the first for these...
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Dying Far From Home: Pvt. Edward Williams, Co. C, 6th USCI
6th USCT Flag ECW is pleased to welcome back Tim Talbott, director of education and interpretation at Pamplin Historical Park During the Civil War, soldiers sometimes attempted to describe the nature...
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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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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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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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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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“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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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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