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This article from 1897 is a digest of Cheerful Yesterdays, a longer piece by Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823 – 1911) originally appeared in The Atlantic Monthly. Having served actively in the anti-slavery movement during the days leading up to the Civil War, Higginson put to paper his memories of famed abolitionist John Brown, wishing to banish all thoughts that the man was mad.
An anonymous reviewer tells his readers about the mournful spirit that dominated each room at the Matthew Brady Gallery where he attended a unique exhibit of the photographer’s Civil War pictures:
At the door of his gallery hangs a little placard ‘The Dead of Antietam’. Crowds of people are constantly going up the stairs; follow them…there is a terrible fascination about it that draws one near these pictures, and makes you loath to leave them. You will see hushed, reverend groups standing around these weird copies of carnage, bending down to look in the pale faces of the dead, chained by the strange spell that dwells in dead men’s eyes.
It was on the first day at Gettysburg that the Confederates made a terrible mistake. Read about it here.
The two page article attached herein served to alert the 1922 subscriber-base of Confederate Veteran Magazine that Boy Soldiers of the Confederacy (1905) – was no longer in print and isn’t that too bad and just in case no one shared the reviewers feelings on this matter, she recalled some of the Civil War experiences of the boys who fought throughout that war.
Attached herein is a list the five lamest Generals of the American Civil War.
This two page compilation is made up of thumbnail descriptions outlining just how far from awesome these men were, and why, one hundred years later, they continue to be recognized as failures to the succeeding generations of Civil War historians.
It has been said that the Confederate States passed the most drastic conscript law on record, which may be true; but it is a mistake to suppose that this law was successfully executed.
The [Conscription] act, April 16, 1862, embraced men between eighteen and thirty-five years; the second, of September 27 1862, men between eighteen and forty-five; the third and last, of February 17, 1864, men between seventeen and fifty.
Click here to read about the American South during the Great Depression.
Responding to the old tale that General Lee offered his sword in surrender at Appomattox, and that the magnanimous General Grant, flush with victory, kindly refused this gesture of humiliation – this anonymous contributor to Confederate Veteran Magazine penned an article that exposes the old saw to be incorrect:
And General Grant says specifically in his memoir (Volume II, Chapter 25, pages 344-346): ‘No conversation, not one word, passed between General Lee and myself either about private property, side arms, or kindred subjects. The much talked of surrendering of General Lee’s sword and my handing it back, this and much more that has been said about it, is pure romance.’
Both Northern and Southern armies were composed predominantly of very young men. Almost all the generals were highly bewhiskered, but the enlisted men were almost all too young to shave.
Both sides carried a muzzle-loading rifle, cumbersome by modern standards, but nevertheless a highly effective weapon. It would kill at more than half a mile, and was deadly when used by veterans…
This collection of Civil War letters, written by one of the younger members of an Illinois regiment, was printed in a men’s magazine at a time when the U.S. was gearing-up for it’s first military adventure in Europe. The editors wished only to impart to their younger readers what a soldier’s life is like:
I will try to give you some of the particulars of soldier life so far as I have tried it…We don’t have more than half enough to eat…Health is good, with the exception of dysentery.
Appearing in the pages of Confederate Veteran Magazine some forty-three years after the bloody end of the American Civil War was this reminiscence by a Confederate veteran recalling the important roll that corn played during the war and throughout American history:
I am an old Southern planter, past eighty-five years of age, in perfect condition as to mind and health, have lived on cornbread all my life, and feel that I can speak intelligently on the much-mooted cornbread question.
During the war I commanded the 1st Arkansas Regiment, consisting of twelve hundred men, and during the four years we never saw a piece of bread that contained a grain of wheat flower. We lived entirely on plain corn bread, and my men were strong and kept the best of health…
A thumbnail description of Lee’s gamble in the North: the Battle of Antietam:
Lee repeatedly broke and drove back the advancing Union armies. Then in the summer of 1862, he took the aggressive and invaded the North. His eager and victorious soldiers hoped to sweep successfully over the entire country. But they were met in Maryland at Antietam Creek by the Union army commanded by General George McClellan. The battle that ensued was the bloodiest and the most costly single day of strife in all this awful war.
Written at the time when the United States was marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, Dudley Miles, a Professor of History at Columbia University, wrote this appreciation concerning one of the lasting virtues of the American Civil War:
The torrent of natural life has swept away the bitter memories of brother struggling with brother. In both North and South faces are turned from the past, and hearts are filled with pride and hope and aspiration for the future of the republic….The magnanimity which Grant displayed at Appomattox, the restraint which even political temper displayed during Reconstruction, stopping short of confiscation of property and the execution of prominent leaders…these things furnish a new chapter in the history of victor and vanquished.
Looking back on the American Civil War from a vantage point of fifty-seven years, these two versifiers, both highly schooled in Southern lore, penned these Dixie ditties for their South-land readers of Confederate Veteran Magazine.
Read an article about how Victorian fashion saved a life during the Civil War.
Nathan George Shanks Evans (1824 – 1868) was the Confederate general in charge of the rebel forces at the Battle of Secessionville, South Carolina. Attached you will find his two page report written upon the conclusion of that battle on June 19, 1862.
This battle marked the first major attempt by the Union Army to take the Rebel city Charleston, South Carolina.
Click here to read about the heavy influence religion had in the Rebel states during the American Civil War.
This two page article will answer some of your questions as to how the South was able to procure the necessary weapons needed to sustain their army as long as they did:
The Southerners were a ‘gun-totting race, so that there were enough firearms for the first round of the struggle at Bull Run.
Click here to read a similar article on this subject.
In response to the article posted above, one of the readers of Confederate Veteran Magazine…
wrote to the editors to point out an over site that was made concerning an important center of military production for the Confederacy. The reader wished to remind all concerned that Columbus, Georgia was home to numerous manufactories that served the rebels well in so far as the production of swords, brass cannons, harnesses, revolvers and rifles as well as wool and leather goods for the infantry.
Attached is an excerpt from Confederate Veteran Magazine in which one of the readers recalled the time when a touring English officer paid a visit to General Robert E. Lee (1807 – 1870) during the post-war period and asked him who was the greatest military genius of either side during the War between the states? Lee gave his answer without hesitation – some may be surprised to know his answer while others among you might not.
Click here to read about the Confederate conscription laws.
From Amazon: Confederate Veteran Magazine…
Despite the stories by politicians of how we suffered the pangs of hunger, etc., etc., every veteran who actually soldiered can recall many blue spots on the sky of his memory; many days and nights when pleasure led the march and love burnished life with gold…One fortunate thing for us was that we had our games. Marbles, played with all the zest and and avidity of school boy days; cards, running the gamut through smut, loo, euchre, three-card monte, poker, cribbage and whist; checks, and the royal game of chess.
The author of this short reminiscence also remarked upon the importance that music played in camp.
Click here to read about the heavy influence religion had in the Rebel states during the American Civil War.
This small notice from The Nation marked the death of General John McCausland (1836 – 1927), C.S.A.. Much to the disappointment of the town elders residing in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, McCausland (pardoned by President U.S. Grant) escaped the hangman and outlived every last Confederate general ever put in the field.
