Diary Disclosures: David Hunter Strother on Civil War Leaders

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Diary Disclosures: David Hunter Strother on Civil War Leaders

Forty-five years old at the start of the Civil War, David Hunter Strother had built his career through pen and pencil. A renowned artist, known via his pen-name "Porte Crayon," Strother traveled throughout the nation in the antebellum years, sharing sketches and stories of his travels via popular magazines of the day. Yet as the nation collapsed in 1861, Strother, who hailed from western Virginia, decided to put his artistic talents to use for the Union army. In the war's early years, Strother served as a topographer for Union forces in the Shenandoah Valley and western Virginia; he eventually earned a commission as a Union officer. Besides Strother's daily work of scouting terrain and sketching maps, the observant Virginian also kept a meticulous, detailed diary which would eventually span dozens of journals. In today's post, I want to share David Hunter Strother's experiences and opinions of various important Civil War figures with you. All of these diary entries date from September, 1861-February, 1862; these diary entries were not published in Cecil Eby's Virginia Yankee. While I have edited lightly for clarity, I have largely left Strother's words and occasional misspellings as they were. After each entry, I have offered a small note with my thoughts and biographical information.

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'A Most Dangerous Precedent:' Charting the Progress of Freedom in the Civil War

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'A Most Dangerous Precedent:' Charting the Progress of Freedom in the Civil War

 Yet here we are, as Maury and her peers were, confronted with a people demanding recognition even without the protection or support of the law.  In this moment, freedom existed alongside slavery, making it all the more difficult to reckon with both for contemporaries and for historians. 

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Roundtable: Our Favorite Civil War Regiments

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Roundtable: Our Favorite Civil War Regiments

All of our bloggers possess extensive experience studying the Civil War and, more specifically, spending time visiting and interpreting both the war's battlefields and its participants. We've all become familiar with countless regiments, but from the many we've encountered, a few have stuck out. Here are some of our authors favorite regiments.

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Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story? David Ireland and the 137th New York

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Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story? David Ireland and the 137th New York

We all know the story of Joshua Chamberlain holding the left of the Union line at Gettysburg. But, did you know that a similar action occurred on the right of the Union line as well? Guest author Justin Voithofer gives us a look at David Ireland's 137th New York Infantry at Culp's Hill.

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The "Derangement" and Death of Private Ludwig Salzwedel: A Suicide and Cover-Up in the Civil War

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The "Derangement" and Death of Private Ludwig Salzwedel: A Suicide and Cover-Up in the Civil War

As the hot Kansas sun rose over the camp of the Ninth Wisconsin Infantry on June 17, 1862, the German immigrants who formed the bulk of the regiment were abuzz with the terrible news of last evening’s events. Rumors ran rife that a soldier in Company F killed himself during the night. And indeed, fifty-one year old Private Ludwig Salzwedel, a German immigrant to La Crosse, Wisconsin and the father of a family of five, had committed suicide that night.

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The Great Locomotive Chase: Part IV, The Medal of Honor

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The Great Locomotive Chase: Part IV, The Medal of Honor

While the Andrews Raid was a failure that resulted in the deaths of many of the participants, the Raiders went down in history in an additional way. Six of the raiders were the first men to ever receive the Medal of Honor.

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The Great Locomotive Chase: Part III, the Raiders’ Fate

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The Great Locomotive Chase: Part III, the Raiders’ Fate

Andrews was tried first on crimes of spying and treason, but the following trials were disrupted by Mitchel who continued to move towards Chattanooga. At the beginning of May, the Raiders were transferred to Madison for a period of time and then returned to Chattanooga. At the end of May, twelve of the Raiders were transported to Knoxville for trial. The same day, Andrews received the result of his trial, a death warrant for his execution on June 7.

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The Great Locomotive Chase: Part II, The Chase

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The Great Locomotive Chase: Part II, The Chase

The crew was sitting down to their breakfast when they heard the sounds of the engine and saw it start to pull away from the station. A local resident rode off toward Marietta, and the nearest telegraph, to alert authorities, but William Fuller knew the train would be long gone before the word went out. Fuller took off after the train on foot, followed by his engineer, Cain, and Anthony Murphy. The “Great Locomotive Chase” had begun.

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The Great Locomotive Chase: Part I, The Plan

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The Great Locomotive Chase: Part I, The Plan

While the story strays far from the original, Keaton and his collaborators based the film The General on a memoir written by William Pittenger entitled The Great Locomotive Chase. At times overshadowed by larger military events, the action Pittenger was involved in was one of the most daring and compelling stories of behind-the-lines action in the war. On April 12, 1862 twenty Union men who had snuck into Confederate territory stole The General and raced for Chattanooga, Tennessee, hoping to destroy railway and communication lines along the way. The end result was both exciting and devastating for those involved.

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Why Some Southern College Campuses Cannot Escape their Confederate Past: The University of Mississippi

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Why Some Southern College Campuses Cannot Escape their Confederate Past: The University of Mississippi

Ole Miss has been in the news several times in the last couple of years, dealing with its Civil War and Civil Rights legacy. In 2010, the university made headlines when they changed their school mascot away from one that highlighted its Confederate heritage. In 2014, an Ole Miss fraternity was shut down after students placed a noose on the statue of James Meredith, the first black student to enroll in the all-white school. Most recently, the university joined the Confederate flag debate when the students and faculty chose to remove the state flag, which includes Confederate symbols, from the campus.

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"Find Your Park:" The Centennial at Richmond National Battlefield Park

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"Find Your Park:" The Centennial at Richmond National Battlefield Park

The National Park Service is turning 100! All year long the NPS has promoted the "Find Your Park" movement to encourage people to visit and connect with the wide variety of parks under the NPS. We are encouraging our readers to find their favorite parks by promoting the centennial events of some of the Civil War parks. Be sure to visit and check out some of these events and celebrate the NPS Centennial!

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An Anecdote of Suicide (?)

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An Anecdote of Suicide (?)

Recently at the Society of Civil War Historians conference I was asked if any Civil War soldiers committed “suicide” by purposely placing themselves in harm’s way. Besides the question of whether the deaths of Confederate generals Hill and Garnett were such suicides, I recently found this interesting anecdote in Gregory A. Coco’s The Civil War Infantryman.

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Should Indian Territory Be Considered a Border State?

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Should Indian Territory Be Considered a Border State?

Should we consider Indian Territory a border state?

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"In behalf of humanity:" Richard Etheridge, the U.S. Lifesaving Service, and Reconstruction

/ Rodanthe, NC/
"In behalf of humanity:" Richard Etheridge, the U.S. Lifesaving Service, and Reconstruction

Within one hundred miles of Ft. Monroe, the catalyst for military emancipation under the command of Benjamin Butler, military operations along the coast of Virginia bled into North Carolina’s Outer Banks and had lasting implications for its seemingly small population.  Within this militarily and geographically dynamic area, Richard Etheridge would make a name for himself both as an advocate for Civil Rights and leader of the freedman’s population along the coast.

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"Still on Parade:" Civil War Veterans and Civic Expression in Memorial Day Parades

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"Still on Parade:" Civil War Veterans and Civic Expression in Memorial Day Parades

In terms of civic expressions of patriotism, few ceremonies are more quintessential than the Memorial Day Parade. Although the holiday honors those who fell in the service of the nation, veterans have always had a pivotal role in public expressions and observances. Veterans of the Civil War continued to participate in Memorial Day Parades well into the twentieth century, but as the years waned on, their role in these exercises began to change. By the 1930s, Civil War veterans were largely viewed by the public as curiosities or living memorials, their experience a lesson that Americans could draw upon for modern issues. 

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"Find Your Park": The Centennial at Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park

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"Find Your Park": The Centennial at Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park

The National Park Service is turning 100! All year long the NPS has promoted the "Find Your Park" movement to encourage people to visit and connect with the wide variety of parks under the NPS. We are encouraging our readers to find their favorite parks by promoting the centennial events of some of the Civil War parks. Be sure to visit and check out some of these events and celebrate the NPS Centennial! For more on the Centennial and "Find Your Park" program visit findyourpark.com. Click here to see the Centennial events at Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park!

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Heading to Chattanooga! The 2016 Society of Civil War Historians Conference

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Heading to Chattanooga! The 2016 Society of Civil War Historians Conference

The Society of Civil War Historians hosts their biennial conference in historic Chattanooga, Tennessee this week, and starting Thursday (June 2), Civil War historians from around the country will converge on Chattanooga to "talk shop," if you will. This includes Civil Discourse's Katie Thompson, Zac Cowsert, and Chuck Welsko, and we hope to bring you all with us as we poke around Chickamauga, take ourselves to the cutting edge of scholarship, present our own research, and generally have a damn good time in Tennessee.

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Secrets of a Cemetery, Part VIII: Final Reflections

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Secrets of a Cemetery, Part VIII: Final Reflections

With all the research that has been done on the Civil War, at times it seems as if the individual is lost in the seas of voices, stories, and statistics.  Armies are huge entities, regiments move like blocks on a map, and the individual experience is lost.  I found that when looking at a cemetery or even during Memorial Day events, the whole scope of death and devastation was apparent as one took in the rows of uniform graves, but there was no deeper connection to the lives and deaths of the men sleeping below our feet.

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Secrets of a Cemetery, Part VII: Beyond the Civil War

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Secrets of a Cemetery, Part VII: Beyond the Civil War

The National Cemetery at Fredericksburg contains more than just Civil War burials.  Yes, the vast majority of soldiers buried there fought between 1861 and 1865, but veterans of the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II are also buried within the cemetery.

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Secrets of a Cemetery, Part VI: Nobody was Untouched by the Civil War

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Secrets of a Cemetery, Part VI: Nobody was Untouched by the Civil War

Every grave in the national cemetery represents a story of service and struggle, but they also represent the impact of loss on a wide scale.  A soldier is one person, but think of the web of connections each had in their lives.  Every grave also represents loss for a mother, a father, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters, wives, extended family, and friends. 

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