Encyclopedia Virginia: Civil War, American (1861–1865)

Refugees During the Civil War

Wed, 23 May 2012 16:40:44 EST

Virginia possessed the largest number of the estimated 200,000 Southerners who fled their homes during the American Civil War (1861–1865). There were three broad classes of refugees in Virginia during the war—slaves, white Unionists and other dissidents, and Confederates—although historians have tended to focus only on Confederates. These three groups shared some of the same dislocations, but their experiences of the war differed dramatically. White and black Unionists and dissidents who fled to Union lines contributed to the Northern war effort. Confederates, in contrast, bitterly resented the Union invaders, but the hardships of refugee life exacerbated feelings of war weariness. This, combined with social divisions inside Virginia, factored into Confederate defeat.
Wed, 23 May 2012 16:40:44 EST

Dabney, Robert Lewis (1820–1898)

Wed, 23 May 2012 16:26:33 EST

Robert Lewis Dabney was a Presbyterian minister who, during the American Civil War (1861–1865), emerged as one of the most influential leaders of the southern Presbyterian Church. Born in Louisa County, he was educated at the Union Theological Seminary and served on the school's faculty, becoming chair of theology in 1859 and preaching Calvinist orthodoxy. Dabney opposed secession but served as chaplain to the 18th Virginia Infantry Regiment and, for several months in 1862, as adjutant, or chief of staff, to Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. Ill health forced him to return to the seminary, but he later wrote a biography of Jackson. Dabney was an ardent defender of slavery and the Old South, opposed the Progressive Movement, and was skeptical of modern science. As an important Presbyterian leader in the South, he opposed reunifying the southern church with its northern counterpart. In 1883, he left Virginia to teach at the new University of Texas, in Austin, where he helped to found the Austin School of Theology. He died in Victoria, Texas, in 1898.
Wed, 23 May 2012 16:26:33 EST

Brock, Sarah Ann (1831–1911)

Wed, 23 May 2012 16:17:57 EST

Sarah Ann Brock, a writer who often published under the pseudonym Virginia Madison, published numerous editorials, historical articles, reviews, essays, letters, travel sketches, short stories, biographies, and translations in her career. She is best known for her memoir of life in Richmond during the American Civil War (1861–1865), Richmond During the War: Four Years of Personal Observation (1867). Published anonymously, the book, which is still in print, offers intelligent analysis and detailed description of the Confederate capital in wartime. In addition, Brock edited a collection of southern poetry about the war, in which she contributed verse about Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. Brock also published a novel, Kenneth, My King (1873) modeled after Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel Jane Eyre; however, it was poorly reviewed, and after Brock married in 1882, her literary output diminished. She died in 1911.
Wed, 23 May 2012 16:17:57 EST

Confederate Morale during the Civil War

Wed, 23 May 2012 16:03:36 EST

Because the American Civil War (1861–1865) was fought between two popular democracies, the attitudes of the citizens of each country or region toward the war significantly shaped the course of the conflict. When citizens expressed enthusiasm for their cause it boosted the morale of their soldiers and assured the government that the public supported their policies. For a variety of reasons, historians have studied the morale of Southerners more closely than their Northern foes. First, of the South's nine million people, four million were African Americans, who expressed little voluntary support for the Confederacy and instead sided strongly with the Union. Second, the pressures of war created great hardship for Southern civilians and this hardship depressed the morale of many. Even if it did not lead people to support reunion, it embittered them against the Confederate leadership, which they viewed as often incompetent or unsympathetic.
Wed, 23 May 2012 16:03:36 EST

Chamberlaine, William W. (1836–1923)

Thu, 17 May 2012 16:18:54 EST

William W. Chamberlaine was a Confederate army officer during the American Civil War (1861–1865), founder of the Norfolk Electric Light Company, first president of the Savings Bank of Norfolk, and a longtime railroad executive who retired as secretary of the Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad. Born in Norfolk, Chamberlaine was wounded at the Battle of Antietam (1862). After the war he worked at a bank with his father before becoming secretary and treasurer of the Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad in 1877. He stayed with the company through the rest of his career, during which time he also founded the light company (1884) and led the Savings Bank (1886). After retiring in 1904, he moved to Washington, D.C., and published a memoir about his wartime service (1912). He died in Washington in 1923.
Thu, 17 May 2012 16:18:54 EST

Culpeper County During the Civil War

Thu, 17 May 2012 15:15:31 EST

With a population of 12,063, Culpeper was the forty-seventh largest of Virginia's 148 counties in 1860. More than half of that population was African American, including 6,675 slaves. The majority of citizens in this prosperous community—its principal commercial crop being wheat—had wished to avoid war. The county voted by a margin of one vote for John Bell and the Constitutional Union party over John C. Breckinridge and the Southern Democrats in the U.S. presidential election of 1860. Like most of Virginia, however, Culpeper endorsed secession on May 23, 1861, a month after U.S. president Abraham Lincoln called on the state for volunteers to put down the rebellion. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the men of Culpeper served most prominently in five Confederate regiments: the 7th, 11th, and 13th Virginia Infantry, and the 4th and 6th Virginia Cavalry.
Thu, 17 May 2012 15:15:31 EST

Free Blacks During the Civil War

Thu, 17 May 2012 15:04:44 EST

Free blacks in Virginia numbered 58,042 on the eve of the American Civil War (1861–1865), or about 44 percent of the future Confederacy's free black population. Of the slave states, only Maryland had a larger population, with 83,942. Free blacks were concentrated in Virginia's cities. According to the 1860 census, the greatest number, 3,244, resided in Petersburg, followed by Richmond with 2,576, Alexandria with 1,415, and Norfolk with 1,046. Free blacks included men and women of African descent who were born free or who gained their freedom before the war through manumission. Virginia officially required freed slaves to leave the state after 1806, but many remained in violation of the law. Of course, many more African Americans became free during the war, escaping the fighting as refugees or claiming legal freedom through the Emancipation Proclamation (1863). Although Confederate propagandists insisted that free blacks would support the Confederate cause, their service was often rendered only by the threat of violence. In the meantime, concerns about their loyalty combined with their disproportionate wartime suffering contributed to Virginia's internal divisions and exposed the weaknesses of Confederate ideology.
Thu, 17 May 2012 15:04:44 EST

Mine Run Campaign

Thu, 17 May 2012 14:57:29 EST

The Mine Run Campaign, fought between November 7 and December 2, 1863, during the American Civil War (1861–1865), was another unsuccessful attempt by Union general George G. Meade, after the Battle of Bristoe Station, to capitalize on the Union victory at Gettysburg the previous July. United States president Abraham Lincoln and general-in-chief Henry W. Halleck both were concerned that Meade had not been aggressive enough after pushing Confederate general Robert E. Lee out of Pennsylvania, and urged him to confront the Army of Northern Virginia. Bristoe Station, while a nominal victory for the Army of the Potomac, did not result in any real advantage. At the price of even greater casualties for both sides, Mine Run purchased the same result. Meade declined an opportunity for an all-out assault, fearing another Battle of Fredericksburg (1862). Lee, meanwhile, was frustrated to be on the defensive and fretted that his corps commanders Richard S. Ewell, A. P. Hill, and (temporarily) Jubal A. Early were not serving him as well as they might.
Thu, 17 May 2012 14:57:29 EST

Pickett, George E. (1825–1875)

Fri, 11 May 2012 14:03:06 EST

George E. Pickett was a Confederate general during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and one of the most controversial leaders in the Army of Northern Virginia. Described by his admirers as swashbuckling, he was famous for his tailored uniforms, gold spurs, and shoulder-length brown hair. (His contemporary admirers were relatively few in number, however, and this image of Pickett is likely more myth than fact.) Confederate general James Longstreet commented on his friend's "wondrous pulchritude and magnetic presence" and is said to have mentored Pickett, who was last in his class at West Point. At Gettysburg (1863), Pickett's name became permanently linked, in both fact and myth, with Pickett's Charge, the doomed frontal assault on the battle's third day. He had little responsibility for the attack's planning or its failure, and the loss of his division, which he partly blamed on Robert E. Lee, devastated him. Accused of war crimes for executing twenty-two Union prisoners in 1864, Pickett ended the war broken and in bad health. His reputation, however, was thoroughly rehabilitated after his death by his third wife, LaSalle Corbell Pickett, whose writings turned the often incompetent general into an idealized Lost Cause hero.
Fri, 11 May 2012 14:03:06 EST

Archer, Fletcher H. (1817–1902)

Thu, 10 May 2012 14:33:55 EST

Fletcher H. Archer was a Confederate army officer and Petersburg mayor. After earning a law degree from the University of Virginia and practicing law in his native Petersburg, Archer led a company of Virginia volunteers during the Mexican War (1846–1848). During the American Civil War (1861–1865), he served in the infantry and at the Norfolk Naval Hospital before retiring back to his Petersburg law practice. In 1864, however, with Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Potomac moving south, Archer raised a battalion of Virginia Reserves—composed mostly of men either too young or old for regular duty—and, on June 9, helped to successfully defend the city at the Battle of Old Men and Young Boys. After the war, Archer joined the Conservative Party and, as president of the Petersburg City Council, became mayor in 1882 when William E. Cameron, the previous mayor, became governor. Archer served until 1883, and died in Petersburg in 1902.
Thu, 10 May 2012 14:33:55 EST

Fathers, The (1938)

Thu, 10 May 2012 14:21:19 EST

The Fathers (1938) is the only novel by Allen Tate, a Kentucky-born poet most famous for his "Ode to the Confederate Dead" (1928). Set just before and during the American Civil War (1861–1865), the book details the tragic fall of two families joined by marriage—the Buchans, of Fairfax County and the Poseys, of Georgetown in the Distict of Columbia. Their violent and psychologically complex story, narrated by the elderly doctor Lacy Buchan, is intended to mirror the decline of "Old Virginia" and the rise of a new society unbound to traditional, agrarian codes. The Fathers was initially well received by critics, with the Washington Post calling it "a sensitive and successful re-creation of the divided moods of Virginia at the outbreak of the Civil War," and the New York Times labeling it "a quiet yet relentless exploration of the darker places of human character." The novel soon fell out of favor, however, with critics arguing that it was lifeless and overly symbolic and abstract. The novel's current critical neglect may reflect the social and political eclipse of Tate's Southern Agrarian ideology, which extolled the moral virtues of the antebellum South against encroaching modernity. Far from being a mere Lost Cause tract, however, The Fathers is widely considered to be an enduring, if flawed, piece of art.
Thu, 10 May 2012 14:21:19 EST

Colored Shiloh Baptist Association

Thu, 10 May 2012 14:15:37 EST

The Colored Shiloh Baptist Association was a union of individual black congregations in central Virginia formed on August 11, 1865, just after the end of the American Civil War (1861–1865). A similar association had been formed in Norfolk the year before, but the Richmond-based Colored Shiloh Baptist Association was soon larger and more influential, with both groups helping to provide blacks the opportunity to worship on their own terms.
Thu, 10 May 2012 14:15:37 EST

Religion During the Civil War

Thu, 10 May 2012 13:57:10 EST

As many as two-thirds of all Virginians attended a Protestant church before the American Civil War (1861–1865). These men and women witnessed intense conflict within their congregations and denominational councils before, during, and after the war. All Virginia churchgoers saw their congregations torn asunder at least once during the sectional conflict, whether in the process of dividing from Northern churches before the war, when they sent their sons to fight, or upon the secession of black members from biracial communities. On a more ideological level, even many Virginians who were not connected with a particular church interpreted the Civil War in religious terms. All Virginians who faced death in the field or on forced labor projects—or who experienced the deaths of loved ones—wondered why God permitted such extraordinary suffering. In addition, white Virginians found Union victory a disturbing challenge to their belief that God had favored both slavery and the Confederacy. Black Virginians, on the other hand, found Union victory a resounding affirmation that God had heard their prayers.
Thu, 10 May 2012 13:57:10 EST

Religious Revivals During the Civil War

Thu, 10 May 2012 13:33:13 EST

Religious revivals during the American Civil War (1861–1865) were characterized by surges in religious interest and observance among large numbers of soldiers in both the Union and Confederate armies. Although they came not long after the Second Great Awakening, which was primarily a Baptist and Methodist phenomenon, the soldier revivals tended to be ecumenical and to cross class boundaries. They were often marked by frequent, fervent, and heavily attended religious ceremonies, including preaching services, organized prayer meetings, and "experience meetings," or gatherings in which individual soldiers took turns sharing with the group how God had brought them to faith in Christ. They were also evidenced by much private Bible reading and small informal prayer meetings among the troops.
Thu, 10 May 2012 13:33:13 EST

Terrill, James B. (1838–1864)

Fri, 04 May 2012 16:13:52 EST

James B. Terrill was a Confederate general during the American Civil War (1861–1865). As the longtime colonel of the 13th Virginia Infantry Regiment, Terrill fought in nearly every major battle of the Eastern Theater. Confederate general Robert E. Lee called the 13th Virginia "a splendid body of men," while Confederate general Richard S. Ewell noted that it was "the only regiment in my command that never fails." Jubal A. Early declared that the unit "was never required to take a position that they did not take it, nor to hold one that they did not hold it." Noted for his bravery and respected by superiors, Terrill was killed at the Battle of Bethesda Church the day before his appointment to brigadier general was confirmed by the Confederate Senate. Two of Terrill's brothers also died in the war, one fighting for the Confederacy, the other for the Union.
Fri, 04 May 2012 16:13:52 EST

Shepherdstown, Battle of

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:33:51 EST

The Battle of Shepherdstown, fought on September 19 and 20, 1862, during the American Civil War (1861–1865), was the bloodiest battle in what would become West Virginia. Although often overlooked by historians because, as one Union soldier termed it, Shepherdstown "was not much of a battle as modern battles go," it had important consequences. First, it marked the end of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the North, which had been effectively repulsed at the Battle of Antietam, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17. In addition, the Battle of Shepherdstown, where Lee's army retreated back into Virginia, convinced Union general George B. McClellan that a second invasion was possible, paralyzing the Army of the Potomac in Maryland for the next month and allowing Lee's army time to regroup. Furthermore, it contributed to U.S. president Abraham Lincoln's decision to remove McClellan from command of the Army of the Potomac.
Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:33:51 EST

Lee, Robert E. in Memory

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:49:32 EST

Robert E. Lee, a Confederate general during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and president of Washington College in Lexington until his death in 1870, is one of the most revered figures in American history. Lee's place in history is complicated, however, and the way that he has been remembered has changed over time. During his own life, Lee modeled himself after the courtly and self-controlled George Washington and cultivated a sense of himself as a character in a drama and a prisoner of fate. After his death, Lee was less likely to be branded a traitor; instead, he became a symbol of the Lost Cause interpretation of the war, transformed into a crucial agent of sectional reconciliation. The Civil War, according to the Lost Cause, was not about slavery but about states' rights and, ultimately, the honor and bravery of white soldiers on both sides. In this regard, Lee served the needs of not just the Confederacy or of the South, but of all America. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s encouraged historians to engage a broader social and political canvas when writing about Lee, and this has led some scholars to challenge traditional conclusions about Lee's significance and meaning. Like Washington, Lee is the seminal figure in a transformational moment, but of a different sort. He is the symbol of a vision that failed, and yet also the redeemer of a cause that has lived a long and often tragic afterlife.
Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:49:32 EST

Garnett, Robert S. (1819–1861)

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:49:03 EST

Robert S. Garnett was a brigadier general in the Confederate army during the American Civil War (1861–1865). An 1841 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, he had a distinguished career in the United States Army, including service in the Mexican War (1846–1848), when he was an advisor to the Virginia-born general and later U.S. president Zachary Taylor. Garnett also designed the Great Seal of the State of California. After resigning from the Army to join the Confederacy, Garnett led Confederate troops on July 13, 1861, at the Battle of Corrick's Ford in what is now West Virginia. During the closing phases of that engagement, Garnett was shot and killed, becoming the first Confederate general killed during the Civil War.
Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:49:03 EST

Conrad, Thomas Nelson (1837–1905)

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:46:39 EST

Thomas Nelson Conrad was a Confederate spy during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and president of Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College (later Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University). Conrad was the head of the Georgetown Institute, a boys' school in the District of Columbia at the start of the Civil War. An open Confederate sympathizer, he worked as a spy throughout the war, even while serving as chaplain of the 3rd Virginia Cavalry. After the war, Conrad became principal of a boys' school in Blacksburg, and when it was absorbed into the new agricultural college, attempted to become president. He finally succeeded when the Readjusters took power in 1882, and under his leadership, the school introduced literary and scientific studies, increased spending on the library, and reorganized its military program to resemble the curriculum of the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. After the Readjusters lost power, Conrad was dismissed as president in 1886. He taught in Maryland, worked for the U.S. Census Bureau in Washington, D.C., and published two memoirs of his war experiences before retiring to a farm in Prince William County. He died in 1905 in Washington.
Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:46:39 EST

Civil War Pensions

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:41:42 EST

In the immediate postwar years, Virginia tried to provide aid to its soldiers who had suffered significant disabilities during the American Civil War (1861–1865), especially those who had lost limbs. Over time the state shifted its artificial-limbs program to a commutation payment. By 1888 the state had begun to create a pension system that would allot annual payments not only to severely disabled veterans, but also to widows—women whose husbands had died during the conflict. Over the next three decades the state legislature liberalized the requirement for this program to the point that it became an old age pension system for Confederate veterans. Relative to the federal pension program and the other former Confederate states that gave pensions, the amount of Virginia's pensions was much smaller.
Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:41:42 EST

Browne, William Washington (1849–1897)

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:29:29 EST

William Washington Browne was a slave, a Union solder during the American Civil War (1861–1865), a teacher, a Methodist minister, and the founder of Richmond's Grand Fountain of the United Order of True Reformers, an African American fraternal organization. As leader of the True Reformers, Browne strived to help members live productive lives without depending upon the white community. By establishing insurance that provided members with sick and death benefits and by encouraging members to purchase land and engage in practices of temperance and thrift, Browne believed that blacks in the post–Civil War South could thrive. Browne's enterprising mind helped lead the True Reformers in creating and organizing a bank which became the nation's first chartered black financial institution and a model that others, such as Maggie Lena Walker, would follow. Browne died in 1897 and the True Reformers initially continued to prosper, but the order collapsed in the wake of the scandalous failure of its bank in 1910.
Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:29:29 EST

Members of the Confederate Congress from Virginia

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:37:07 EST

The Confederate States of America was established as a government separate from the United States of America on February 4, 1861, and lasted until the end of the American Civil War in 1865. The unicameral Provisional Confederate Congress that met from February 1861 until February 1862 consisted of representatives chosen by each participating state's legislatures or conventions. The First and Second Confederate Congresses, which met from February 1862 until March 1865, were bicameral with both senators and representatives elected from each Confederate state. The following are Virginians who served in the Confederate Congress.
Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:37:07 EST

Poverty and Poor Relief During the Civil War

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:21:58 EST

Poverty and poor relief, especially in times of acute food shortages, were major challenges facing Virginia and Confederate authorities during the American Civil War (1861–1865). At first, most Confederates were confident that hunger would not be a problem for their nation. Southern farms and black slaves were expected to produce ample quantities of food while white men fought to secure independence. The reality, however, was quite different. The suffering of soldiers' families and the lower classes in cities resulted in a bread riot in the Confederate capital at Richmond, stimulated desertion from the army, and threatened the entire war effort. Governments at the local, state, and federal level responded with unprecedented efforts to control prices, supply provisions, and ease suffering, and yet neither the Confederate government nor the Virginia state government found a way to take effective action against inflation, speculation, or extortion. Direct relief, free markets, city-sponsored stores, and other innovative measures came into being. Nevertheless, these efforts proved inadequate, and the very idea of being dependent on charity was unsatisfactory to the yeoman class. Consequently, the problems of poverty seriously undermined the war effort in Virginia and throughout the Confederacy.
Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:21:58 EST

Gorgas, Josiah (1818-1883)

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:57:44 EST

Josiah Gorgas was a Confederate general and chief of the Ordnance Bureau during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Born in Pennsylvania, Gorgas was a veteran of the Mexican War (1846–1848) who married into a prominent political family in Alabama. His new Southern connections, along with dissatisfactions with his army career, helped fuel his decision to join the Confederacy. In 1861, he was the only experienced ordnance officer available to Confederate president Jefferson Davis's new government, and he almost single-handedly created a department charged with supplying Confederate armies with weapons and ammunition. He bought all the arms and supplies available in Europe and created a fleet of blockade-runners to transport them to Southern ports. At the same time, he worked to build Confederate industry and reinforce its railroads so that by 1863 the Confederacy was self-sufficient in military hardware. Following the war, Gorgas suffered financial difficulties and served briefly as president of the University of Alabama. He died in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 1883.
Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:57:44 EST

Braxton, Carter Moore (1836–1898)

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:45:28 EST

Carter Moore Braxton was a civil engineer, businessman, and a Confederate artillery officer during the American Civil War (1861–1865). A Norfolk native, he fought in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia's major campaigns, from the Seven Days' Battles outside Richmond in 1862 to the Gettysburg Campaign in 1863 and the Overland Campaign in 1864. One account claimed that he had seven horses shot from under him, but he was never wounded in the fighting. Following the war, he published a map of the battlefield at Fredericksburg. In June 1866 Braxton became president of the Fredericksburg and Gordonsville Railroad, and later formed his own engineering construction firm, Braxton, Chandler, and Marye, in Newport News. Braxton also founded a railway company and was vice president of both a bank and a gas company. He died of Bright's disease in Newport News in 1898.
Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:45:28 EST

Army of the Potomac

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:43:16 EST

The Army of the Potomac was the primary Union fighting force in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War (1861–1865). Known as "Mr. Lincoln's Army" for its close association with the sitting United States president, its dual mission was to defeat the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and to safeguard Washington, D.C. Formed in the aftermath of the debacle at First Manassas (1861), the army survived a succession of flawed commanders and battlefield reverses to attain final victory. In the spring of 1862, during the mismanaged Peninsula Campaign, the Army of the Potomac failed to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond. That summer some of its components met defeat in the Second Manassas Campaign. Although it blunted Robert E. Lee's September 1862 invasion of Maryland, it gained only a tactical draw against the smaller but superbly led Confederate army. Three months later the army suffered horrific losses at Fredericksburg, and the following May it was routed by Lee at Chancellorsville. In July 1863, however, it gained a critical victory at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, ending Lee's second invasion of the North. Beginning early in May 1864, the army methodically advanced against Richmond and equally strategic Petersburg, suffering heavy losses at every turn. Compelled to besiege both cities, the Army of the Potomac eventually forced their evacuation and Lee's retreat. As a result, on April 9, 1865, realizing that he had been overtaken, Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, effectively ending the war.
Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:43:16 EST

Confederate Cabinet Officers from Virginia

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:41:04 EST

The Confederate States of America was established as a government separate from the United States of America on February 4, 1861. Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the Confederacy's provisional president on February 18, 1861, and then, on February 22, 1862, as its first elected president. The government endured the length of the American Civil War (1861–1865), with the following Virginians serving in Davis's cabinet.
Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:41:04 EST

Desertion (Confederate) During the Civil War

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:37:58 EST

Desertion occurs when soldiers deliberately and permanently leave military service before their term of service has expired. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), both the Union and Confederate armies were plagued by deserters, whose absence depleted the strength of their respective forces. Historians traditionally have distinguished between "stragglers"—those soldiers who leave with the intention of returning—and deserters, who are absent without leave, or AWOL, for thirty days or more. The reasons soldiers left, meanwhile, included poor equipment, food, and leadership. Some acts of desertion have also been described as a form of political protest. Confederate Virginians fled military service at a rate of between 10 and 15 percent, more or less comparable to the desertion rate among Union troops, which stood between 9 and 12 percent. Prior to mid-1862, desertion was lightly punished if at all, but following the Confederate Conscription Act of April 1862, enforcement was often harsh and included execution.
Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:37:58 EST

Cooke, Giles Buckner (1838–1937)

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:33:05 EST

Giles Buckner Cooke was a Confederate army officer, educator, and Episcopal minister. Born in Portsmouth, he attended the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, where he was court-martialed, acquitted, dismissed, reinstated, and disciplined again before finally graduating near the bottom of his class. He supported secession and, at the start of the American Civil War (1861–1865), joined the staff of Confederate general Philip St. George Cocke. For the rest of the war, he served as a staff officer, including for generals Braxton Bragg, G. T. Beauregard, and, beginning in October 1864, Robert E. Lee. After the war, Cooke studied for the Episcopal ministry and became head of a Sunday school for blacks in Petersburg. In 1868, he became principal of Elementary School Number 1 in Petersburg, reportedly the first public school for black children in Virginia, and later organized another school for blacks, Big Oak Private School, which merged with Saint Stephen's Church school. A divinity school was added in 1878 and became the Bishop Payne Divinity and Industrial School. Cooke, who later taught in Kentucky and Maryland, was known for being exacting and upright, although he privately described blacks as "ignorant" and "deceitful." By 1920 he was the last living officer to serve on General Lee's staff, and his wartime diaries became a source of interest to scholars, including Douglas Southall Freeman. Cooke died in 1937 at the age of ninety-nine.
Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:33:05 EST

Women During the Civil War

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:03:08 EST

Although women were not permitted to bear arms on the battlefront, they made invaluable contributions to and were deeply affected by the American Civil War (1861–1865). This was particularly true of women living in Virginia, since they witnessed more battles than did the women of any other state engaged in the conflict. The removal of hundreds of thousands of men from their homes, farms, and businesses necessitated the vastly increased participation of women, both black and white, in areas that they had been previously discouraged, if not forbidden, from pursuing. Differences of race and class, however, sometimes sharply divided their views and experiences. Some devoted everything they had to the service of the Confederacy, while others openly rebelled against it. The end of the war brought the collapse of both the Confederate government and slave society, and while freedom created a new commonality between the races and between women and men, it challenged them to redefine themselves and their society. In the words of diarist Lucy Buck from Front Royal, "We shall never any of us be the same as we have been."
Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:03:08 EST

Speculation During the Civil War

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:50:17 EST

Speculation, which involved driving up prices on desperately needed consumer goods, was both rampant and roundly condemned in the Confederacy during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Along with conscription, the so-called Twenty Slave Law, and impressment, speculation helped to undermine support for the war among the less wealthy, in particular. Appalled at soaring prices, Virginians looked for explanations. The Union blockade of the Atlantic coast was partly to blame, and so was the Confederate Congress. Beholden to a states' rights philosophy and suspicious of a strong federal government, lawmakers refused to levy the taxes necessary to finance the war, thus guaranteeing high inflation. The victims of that inflation, however, preferred to point fingers at greedy speculators, or "extortioners." Such individuals certainly existed, but government attempts to regulate or punish them were either not forthcoming or proved to be ineffective. Accusations of speculation, meanwhile, were sometimes accompanied by anti-Semitism, challenges of patriotism, and, in one instance, arson.
Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:50:17 EST

Blackford, W. W. (1831–1905)

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:36:47 EST

W. W. Blackford was a Confederate army officer and civil engineer. A native of Fredericksburg who studied engineering at the University of Virginia, Blackford worked as acting chief engineer for the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad. At the start of the American Civil War (1861–1865), he joined the 1st Virginia Cavalry and became an aide-de-camp for its commander, J. E. B. Stuart. He fought with the Confederate cavalry from the Seven Days' Battles in June 1862 until the end of the war, suffering two wounds and being promoted to lieutenant colonel. After the war, Blackford worked for a railroad in Lynchburg, owned and operated a sugar plantation in Louisiana, and was a college professor in Blacksburg. He worked for the railroads again before retiring in 1890. His Civil War letters have been used by historians, and his memoir of the war was published in 1946 with an introduction by Douglas Southall Freeman. Blackford died in Princess Anne County in 1905.
Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:36:47 EST

Pierpont, Francis H. (1814–1899)

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:17:20 EST

Francis H. Pierpont was a lawyer, early coal industrialist, governor of the Restored government of Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865), governor of Virginia (1865–1868) during the first years of Reconstruction (1865–1877), and a state senator representing Marion County in West Virginia (1869–1870). Pierpont was an antislavery member of the Whig Party and delegate to the First and Second Wheeling Conventions in 1861, during which Unionist politicians in western Virginia resisted the state's vote to secede by establishing the Restored government of Virginia. The second convention unanimously elected him governor. Although never actually governor of West Virginia, he is still remembered as one of the state's founding fathers.
Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:17:20 EST

Cox, Lucy Ann White (d. 1891)

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:08:33 EST

Lucy Ann White Cox was a vivandière, or daughter of the regiment, during the American Civil War (1861–1865). In 1862 Cox married James A. Cox, a member of Company A of the 30th Virginia Infantry Regiment. She joined his unit in an unofficial capacity, and acted as a cook, laundress, nurse, and general helpmate for the men in Company A for nearly the duration of the war. The 30th Virginia fought most notably in the 1862 Maryland Campaign and at the Battle of Fredericksburg (1862) and during the Petersburg Campaign in 1864. Although few specific details are known about Cox's life, the celebration of her wartime service after her death earned her recognition from many Confederate memorialists. Confederate Veterans and Sons of Confederate Veterans participated in her funeral in 1891. Later, Cox was specifically cited in an 1894 speech calling for the erection of a monument in Richmond to the women of the Confederacy, and the Fredericksburg chapter of the Order of Southern Gray, a Virginia women's Civil War preservation organization, bears her name.
Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:08:33 EST

Cocke, Edmund R. (1841–1922)

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:26:37 EST

Edmund R. Cocke was a veteran of the American Civil War (1861–1865) who, after the war, became a Populist Party leader, running unsuccessful campaigns for Virginia governor (1893) and lieutenant governor (1897). After being wounded at Gettysburg (1863) and captured at Sailor's Creek (1865), Cocke, a staunch Democrat and white-supremacist, chaired Cumberland County's electoral board beginning in 1884. He told a friend that Republicans "putrefy every thing they touch," but he never was accused of being unfairly partisan in his position. Around the same time, Captain Cocke, as he was known, became involved in populist politics through the Farmers' Assembly of the State of Virginia, which he cofounded, and his disagreement with Democrats over the gold standard led to his defection to the People's Party in 1892. Although intellectually gifted, he was considered by his peers to be an uninspiring speaker, and he was soundly defeated in his run for governor in 1893 and, four years later, for lieutenant governor. This latter defeat effectively ended Populism in Virginia. In 1898, Cocke's wife died, in 1900 his plantation burned, and in his last few years he experimented with making gold through alchemy and lashed out at Prohibition Democrats. He died of kidney failure in 1922.
Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:26:37 EST

Ladies' Memorial Associations

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:56:38 EST

Ladies' Memorial Associations were locally organized groups of southern white women who, following the American Civil War (1861–1865), tracked down the scattered remains of Confederate soldiers and reinterred them in Confederate cemeteries. Following Robert E. Lee's surrender in April 1865, more than 260,000 Confederate war dead were buried throughout the South, a majority of them in Virginia. Most of these soldiers would not be returned home; instead, they eventually would be placed in Confederate cemeteries. But these cities of the dead were not to be furnished by the federal or state governments; neither were they to be organized by Confederate veterans. Instead, the associations created Confederate cemeteries, which served as final resting places for approximately 80 percent of the fallen soldiers.
Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:56:38 EST

Allan, William (1837–1889)

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:45:01 EST

William Allan was an educator, writer, and Confederate army officer during the American Civil War (1861–1865). A University of Virginia graduate, Allan served on the staff of Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and later with Jubal A. Early's Army of the Valley. After the war, at the invitation of Robert E. Lee, Allan taught mathematics at Washington College in Lexington. There he began to write about the Civil War, collaborating on a book with the mapmaker Jedediah Hotchkiss, contributing to the debates about the Battle of Gettysburg, and publishing a memoir. Allan became popular on the Lost Cause lecture circuit, and authored a history of the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862 and the first volume of a history of the Army of Northern Virginia. In 1873, Allan became the first principal of McDonogh Institute, a private school for poor boys near Baltimore, Maryland. He died there in 1889.
Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:45:01 EST

Washington College During the Civil War

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:30:16 EST

Washington College in Lexington, Rockbridge County, Virginia, was a small but lively liberal arts college in the Shenandoah Valley. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), its students largely supported Virginia's secession from the Union while its older faculty members, including the Presbyterian clergyman Dr. George Junkin, the father-in-law of future Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, were staunch Unionists. A company of infantry formed at the school became part of the Stonewall Brigade. In June 1864, during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864, Union general David Hunter entered Lexington and ransacked the college. In an effort to rejuvenate the college following the war, the Board of Trustees hired former Confederate general Robert E. Lee to serve as college president, which he did until his death in 1870.
Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:30:16 EST

Barron, Samuel (1809–1888)

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:12:57 EST

Samuel Barron was a United States and Confederate States naval officer. The son and nephew of United States Navy captains, he was appointed a midshipman at two years old, reported for active duty at six, and sailed aboard the flagship of the Mediterranean fleet before he was eleven. During the Mexican War (1846–1848), Barron commanded the USS Perry on the Pacific coast, and during the 1850s, he served in Washington, D.C., where his courtly manners earned him the nickname, "the Navy diplomat." Like Robert E. Lee, he opposed secession but joined the Confederacy anyway, and during the American Civil War (1861–1865), he served first on the North Carolina coast and was captured there in 1861 and exchanged in July 1862. In March 1863, he assumed command of the James River Squadron, but spent most of his time in Richmond. At the end of the year, he transferred to Europe, but by this time Britain and France had settled on neutrality and his efforts to build a Confederate fleet there were stymied. Barron did not return to Virginia in time to play much role in the end of the war and eventually retired to a farm in Essex County, where he died in 1888.
Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:12:57 EST

Beall, John Y. (1835–1865)

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:07:19 EST

John Y. Beall was a Confederate navy officer hanged as a spy by Union authorities at the end of the American Civil War (1861–1865). A militiaman who witnessed the execution of John Brown in 1859, Beall joined the Stonewall Brigade, fought with Turner Ashby, and participated in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign (1862), during which he became separated from his unit. He moved to Iowa and then to Canada, where he eventually joined the Confederate navy and planned and sometimes executed various clandestine missions. After capturing a Union merchant ship, Beall himself was captured and imprisoned briefly before being exchanged. He refused a commission in the Confederate secret service, but returned to Canada where he continued his clandestine work. After being captured again at Niagara Falls, this time when he attempted to derail trains carrying Confederate prisoners, Beall was tried for spying. The charges cited a failed attempt to seize a civilian passenger boat and use it to capture a Union gunboat, an aborted mission in which Beall disguised himself as a passenger. Beall was defended by a prominent New York City attorney and ninety-two members of the U.S. Congress signed a petition for his pardon, but he was hanged on February 24, 1865.
Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:07:19 EST

Alfriend, Edward M. (1837–1901)

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:03:17 EST

Edward M. Alfriend was a Richmond playwright and businessman. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), he served in the 44th Virginia Infantry Regiment, fought in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864, but was court-martialed and cashiered from the Confederate army in 1865 for being absent without leave and disobeying orders. Following the war, he earned some distinction in his father's insurance company and in 1871 was a delegate to the National Insurance Convention. Alfriend is best known as the author of at least fourteen plays. His work, some of which was produced in New York, was dismissed by reviewers but popular with the public. He died unexpectedly of kidney failure in 1901.
Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:03:17 EST

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad During the Civil War

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:28:47 EST

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, an early leader in the transportation revolution, provided the country with a more efficient means of travel. The rail line's construction began on July 4, 1828, and eventually expanded into thirteen states. In 1861 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad maintained 188 miles in Virginia and independently offered a direct connection to both eastern and western Virginia. The railroad was primarily northern with only a portion of its line in northern Virginia. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the once-vast and continuous line was broken into sections and was subject to a number of raids by both Union and Confederate forces.
Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:28:47 EST

Colston, Raleigh Edward(1825–1896)

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:02:33 EST

Raleigh Edward Colston was a Confederate officer during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Born in Paris, France, Colston attended the Virginia Military Institute (1843–1846) and after graduation taught at his alma mater. In December 1859 Colston served as adjutant of the VMI detachment sent to Charles Town to supervise the hanging of John Brown. Throughout the war Colston commanded several different regiments, brigades, and districts, and rose in the Confederate army from colonel to brigadier general. In June 1862, after fighting in battles at Williamsburg and Seven Pines, he contracted "Peninsular" fever, jaundice, and malaria, and was placed on leave. He recovered to fight at the battles of Chancellorsville (1863) and Petersburg (1864). Following the war, Colston lectured about his friend and former VMI colleague Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, and served as principal at two North Carolina military schools. Colston moved to Egypt in 1873 to teach at a military college and lead expeditions for the Egyptian army. His poor health, however, caused him to return to the United States, where he worked as a teacher and writer at various schools until he was too ill to do so. Colston died on July 29, 1896.
Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:02:33 EST

Second Manassas Campaign

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:52:15 EST

The Second Manassas Campaign, fought August 13–September 3, 1862, during the American Civil War (1861–1865), was one in a long line of Confederate victories that year. Following George B. McClellan's attack on the Confederate capital at Richmond during the Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days' Battles, Confederate general Robert E. Lee regained the strategic initiative through a bold campaign of maneuver. He split his Army of Northern Virginia into two—one half led by Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, the other by James Longstreet. In a risky move, Lee sent Jackson around Union general John Pope's flank and cut his supply lines with Washington, D.C. Longstreet's wing of the army later followed. Jackson succeeded splendidly, bringing Pope to battle near Manassas Junction, the site of the First Battle of Manassas, which had been fought the summer before. With the defeat of Pope's Army of Virginia at the Second Battle of Manassas on August 28–30, a route north lay open for the Army of Northern Virginia. Lee decided to take it, bringing the war into Maryland and eventually defeating Union troops at the Battle of Antietam on September 17.
Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:52:15 EST

Potomac River During the Civil War

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:33:18 EST

The Potomac River, which is located in Maryland with Virginia on its southern shore, extends 383 miles from the Appalachian Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay and serves as the geographical boundary between the states of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. From the colonial period until well into the nineteenth century, it was an important navigation route and helped facilitate exploration inland from the coast. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the Potomac traced the border between the Union and the Confederacy and lent its name to the most important Union army, the Army of the Potomac. Throughout the war, the river functioned largely as it always had—as an avenue for transport.
Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:33:18 EST

James River During the Civil War

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:32:52 EST

The James River begins where the Cowpasture and Jackson rivers join in the western part of Virginia. It flows approximately 340 miles, passing over the falls at Richmond, and on to Hampton Roads. The James ranks near the Mississippi River in its significance during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and in importance to the Confederacy. Using the James River and Kanawha Canal system, boats moved materials such as pig iron and coal from Virginia's Shenandoah Valley and Piedmont regions to the capital. After the loss of Norfolk, Richmond became the state's major port, naval base, and shipbuilding facility. South and east of Richmond the James saw significant combat, including actions between the Confederate and Union navies. In addition, the river aided large-scale movement of Union troops and military supplies.
Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:32:52 EST

Civil War Battlefield Preservation

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:27:01 EST

Though Virginia has always been considered a focal point of the American Civil War (1861–1865), battlefield preservation in the state initially lagged far behind other areas. Virginia witnessed the greatest number of battles, engagements, and skirmishes, not only because of its geographic location but also because it was home to the Confederate capital in Richmond. Moreover, most of the postwar historiographical disputes, at least in the decades just after the war, focused on Virginia battles and Virginia generals, especially Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. That Virginia battlefields fell decades behind others in Civil War battlefield preservation is ironic, then, even startling. Major battleground states, such as Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, and even other Eastern Theater states, such as Maryland and Pennsylvania, saw their battlefields preserved comparatively soon after the war. Despite success in other areas to memorialize the war, such as establishing the Museum of the Confederacy and erecting memorial statues along Monument Avenue, both in Richmond, it took sixty years to establish the first park in Virginia.
Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:27:01 EST

The Battle of Trevilian Station

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:24:34 EST

The Battle of Trevilian Station, fought June 11–12, 1864, during the American Civil War (1861–1865), was a victory for Confederate cavalry under Wade Hampton when they turned back Union raiders under the command of General Philip H. Sheridan. Fought solely by cavalry, this was the largest such battle during the war (the larger Battle of Brandy Station, fought a year earlier during the Gettysburg Campaign, involved some infantry). Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant had hoped that Sheridan's troopers might destroy the Virginia Central Railroad west to Charlottesville while distracting Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia enough that Grant might sneak across the James River and around to Petersburg. Instead, Hampton's cavalry blocked the way, and although Sheridan claimed to have decommissioned the railroad, he was unable to fulfill the last part of Grant's plan: to reinforce Union general David Hunter in the Shenandoah Valley.
Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:24:34 EST

Sailor's Creek, Battles of

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:21:46 EST

The Battles of Sailor's Creek—there were three of them—were fought on April 6, 1865, part of the Appomattox Campaign on the fourth day of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's retreat from Petersburg during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant had besieged the railroad hub south of Richmond for ten months before finally breaking through at the Battle of Five Forks on April 1. Both Richmond and Petersburg fell the next day, and Lee set his Army of Northern Virginia in retreat to the west, harassed the whole way by Union cavalry and quickly marching infantry. On April 6, a gap opened up between Confederate troops under James Longstreet and those under Richard H. Anderson, Richard S. Ewell, and John B. Gordon. Union cavalry and infantry attacked Anderson at Marshall's Crossroads. At the same time, the Union Sixth Corps attacked and overwhelmed Ewell after crossing the rain-swollen Sailor's Creek. A later attack against Gordon was stopped by darkness, but by day's end, the Confederates had suffered more than 8,000 casualties, including the capture of Ewell and eight other generals. Lee, watching from a hilltop, wondered if his whole army hadn't dissolved. He would surrender to Grant three days later.
Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:21:46 EST

Bristoe Station, Battle of

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:03:28 EST

The Battle of Bristoe Station on October 14, 1863, marked the first major encounter between the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac since the stinging Confederate defeat at Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863) during the American Civil War (1861–1865). After Union commanders dispatched two corps to fight in the West, Confederate general Robert E. Lee attacked, but a blunder by A. P. Hill led to two Confederate brigades being destroyed by Union forces concealed behind a railroad embankment; as a result, Confederate general Carnot Posey was killed. Although a nominal Union victory, Bristoe Station led to troubling conclusions for both sides. Hill's poor performance added to concerns in the Confederate high command that he and Richard S. Ewell had been promoted beyond their abilities. (The two were given corps commands following the death, in May 1863, of Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson.) Union general George G. Meade, meanwhile, failed to take full advantage of Confederate missteps, strengthening perceptions in Washington, D.C., that the Army of the Potomac needed a new and more aggressive leader.
Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:03:28 EST

Appomattox Campaign

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:54:58 EST

The Appomattox Campaign, March 29–April 9, 1865, consisted of a series of engagements south and west of the Confederate capital at Richmond that ended in the surrender by Robert E. Lee of the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865). During his Overland Campaign the previous spring, Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant had relentlessly pursued Lee before settling into a ten-month siege of the Confederate transportation hub at Petersburg, south of Richmond. Grant was finally able to dislodge Lee's army at the Battle of Five Forks (1865), allowing him to take Petersburg and then Richmond. The Confederates fled to Southside Virginia in an attempt to unite with Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee, but Grant maneuvered Lee into a trap near the village of Appomattox Court House. There, on April 9, the Confederate general received terms of surrender from Grant. In short order, the remaining Confederate armies also laid down their arms and the war ended.
Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:54:58 EST

Staunton During the Civil War

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:25:48 EST

Staunton, Virginia, the seat of Augusta County, was a key target in two major campaigns during the American Civil War (1861–1865), and remained strategically important throughout the entire war. With a population of about 4,000 in 1860, Staunton was situated at a vital transportation crossroads in the Shenandoah Valley, and the Confederacy sought to utilize and protect its infrastructure and wealth from the recurrent threat of destruction by Union forces. Various Confederate leaders, including the generals Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and Richard S. Ewell, used the town as their headquarters, and it served almost continuously as an army depot, quartermaster and commissary post, and training camp. Union troops targeted Staunton for more than two years before they were able to break the Confederates' protective hold and lay waste to much of the town and miles of nearby railroad track.
Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:25:48 EST

Bread Riot, Richmond

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:12:46 EST

The Richmond Bread Riot, which took place in the Confederate capital of Richmond on April 2, 1863, was the largest and most destructive in a series of civil disturbances throughout the South during the third spring of the American Civil War (1861–1865). By 1863, the Confederate economy was showing signs of serious strain. Congress's passage of an Impressment Act, as well as a tax law deemed "confiscatory," led to hoarding and speculation, and spiraling inflation took its toll, especially on people living in the Confederacy's urban areas. When a group of hungry Richmond women took their complaints to Virginia governor John L. Letcher, he refused to see them. Their anger turned into a street march and attacks on commercial establishments. Only when troops were deployed and authorities threatened to fire on the mob did the rioters disperse. More than sixty men and women were arrested and tried, while the city stepped up its efforts to relieve the suffering of the poor and hungry.
Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:12:46 EST

Mechanicsville, Battle of

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:21:49 EST

The Battle of Mechanicsville on June 26, 1862, marked the beginning of the Seven Days' Campaign during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Union general George B. McClellan had marched his Army of the Potomac up the Peninsula, his campaign against the Confederate capital at Richmond stalling out at the Battle of Seven Pines–Fair Oaks (May 31–June 1, 1862). When Confederate commander Joseph E. Johnston was seriously wounded in the fighting, Robert E. Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia and went on the offensive, attacking McClellan's forces on June 26 near Mechanicsville, along a creek known as Beaver Dam Run. Lee created a complicated battle plan that depended upon Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's men meeting up with Confederate forces and signaling A. P. Hill to begin his attack. Unfortunately, Jackson was running late, and when Hill attacked anyway, Confederate forces were repulsed by Union troops who were well protected by the creek and artillery on the high ground. Despite his victory, however, McClellan decided to pull his troops back to Gaines's Mill. Lee attacked and defeated him there the next day.
Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:21:49 EST

Virginia State Capitol During the Civil War, The

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:01:24 EST

The State Capitol on Capitol Square in Richmond served as the center of political power and civic ceremonies for both Virginia and the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861–1865). The building was the meeting place for the Virginia Convention of 1861 and wartime sessions of the General Assembly and the Confederate Congress. Robert E. Lee accepted command of Virginia's military and naval forces there in April 1861. President Jefferson Davis was inaugurated on Capitol Square in February 1862 and Governor William "Extra Billy" Smith was inaugurated inside the Capitol in January 1864. Political speeches, military drills, band concerts, and public assemblies for celebration and protest occurred on the Capitol grounds throughout the war. Several prominent Confederate leaders lay in repose inside the Capitol. Capitol Square became a safe refuge for city residents during the Evacuation Fire in April 1865 and the Capitol itself quickly became a headquarters for Union authorities in the early phase of the military occupation of Richmond.
Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:01:24 EST

Appomattox, Surrender at

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:49:29 EST

The surrender at Appomattox Court House occurred in April 1865 when Confederate general Robert E. Lee submitted to Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant, all but ending the American Civil War (1861–1865). After the fall of Richmond on April 2–3, Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia had retreated west to the village of Appomattox Court House when, on April 9, the well-positioned Army of the James forced them to raise a white flag. Within hours an elated Grant hosted his adversary in the drawing room of a house owned by Wilmer McLean, who four years earlier had fled his home near the fighting at the First Battle of Manassas for the comparative quiet of the Appomattox countryside. Now Lee, in a spotless dress uniform, accepted generous terms from the more informally dressed Grant, who paroled the Confederate soldiers and allowed the officers to keep their sidearms and horses. Lee subsequently issued his famous farewell orders, praising his men's courage and blaming their defeat on superior Union resources. These documents, combined with stories by Confederate general John B. Gordon and Union general Joshua Chamberlain of generous Union tributes at the formal surrender on April 12, formed a narrative of reconciliation that remained influential into the twenty-first century. Generally left out of that narrative, however, have been African Americans, who, after emancipation, struggled against white supremacy in the South.
Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:49:29 EST

Pickett's Charge

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:33:08 EST

Pickett's Charge was the climax of the Battle of Gettysburg (1863), and one of the most famous infantry attacks of the American Civil War (1861–1865). Lasting about an hour on the afternoon of July 3, 1863, it pitted 12,000 Confederates—including three brigades of Virginians under George E. Pickett—against half that number of Union troops. On July 2, Robert E. Lee had unsuccessfully attacked the Union flanks; in what even some of his own men perceived as a desperate gambit, he now attacked the center, asking his troops to cross an open field nearly three-quarters of a mile long. They were bloodily repulsed, losing half their number. Controversy resulted, as Confederate veterans struggled to lay claim to honor and glory, pitting Virginians against North Carolinians in efforts to explain why the attack had failed. Many Southerners came to believe the charge represented the "High Water Mark" of Confederate hopes for independence, a view cultivated by proponents of the Lost Cause interpretation of the Civil War. Meanwhile, twentieth-century popular culture transformed Pickett into a soldier as "gallant and graceful as a knight of chivalry riding to a tournament," in the words of his wife, LaSalle Corbell Pickett. And films like Gettysburg (1993) glorified the attack even while historians continued to debate Lee's decision, sometimes comparing it to Union general Ulysses S. Grant's equally futile attacks at Cold Harbor in Hanover County in 1864.
Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:33:08 EST

Virginia Central Railroad During the Civil War, The

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:21:31 EST

The Virginia General Assembly chartered the Louisa Railroad, the predecessor of the Virginia Central Railroad, in 1836. The line's eastern terminus was at Hanover Junction (present-day Doswell), about twenty miles north of Richmond, where it joined the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad (RF&P), and Charlottesville was the western terminus. Construction proceeded slowly, and in 1850, after the line had been extended westward of Louisa County, the name was changed to the Virginia Central Railroad. At first, the railroad had shared track to Richmond with the RF&P, but in 1851 it began constructing its own line to the city. Eventually the western terminus was extended to Covington in the Allegheny Mountains, linking the line with the Covington and Ohio Railroad. By the time of the American Civil War (1861–1865), the Virginia Central Railroad was about two hundred miles long, from Richmond to Covington, and traversed the heart of the state.
Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:21:31 EST

Richmond and Petersburg Railroad During the Civil War, The

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:18:40 EST

The Richmond and Petersburg Railroad extended for twenty-two miles and linked the two central Virginia cities. The Virginia General Assembly chartered the company in 1836 and the line was completed two years later. Despite its name, however, the southern terminus of the railroad actually was in the suburb of Pocahontas, which lay on the north bank of the Appomattox River across from Petersburg. Goods and passengers had to be off-loaded and disembarked at the Pocahontas station and then transported by wagon and carriage across a bridge into Petersburg. Once in the city, there were several rail-transportation options. The Petersburg Railroad, also known as the Weldon Railroad, led south to North Carolina, while the South Side Railroad ran west to Lynchburg and the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad linked those two cities.
Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:18:40 EST

Saltville During the Civil War

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:13:11 EST

Saltville is a small town that lies mostly in Smyth County in southwestern Virginia, between the Holston River and the Tennessee and Virginia Railroad. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), Saltville was of strategic importance for two reasons: the railroad provided an important link between the eastern and western theaters of the war, and the town's salt mines were crucial in supplying provisions for the Confederate army. As such, Saltville was the target of numerous Union raids. It was also the site of a battle on October 2, 1864, when outnumbered Confederate cavalry troops repulsed the advance of Union troops, including members of the 5th U.S. Colored Cavalry, under the command of General Stephen G. Burbridge. The next day, according to some accounts, Confederate soldiers killed a number of the wounded black troopers, who were being held as prisoners of war at nearby Emory and Henry College. The notorious and still-disputed incident is known as the "Saltville Massacre."
Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:13:11 EST

Botetourt Artillery

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:09:53 EST

The Botetourt Artillery was one of only a handful of Virginia units to serve in the Western Theater during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Organized in December 1861 from a company in the 28th Virginia Infantry Regiment, the unit experienced heavy combat and losses during the Vicksburg Campaign in the spring and summer of 1863. Following Vicksburg, the Botetourt Artillery returned to western Virginia, where it saw little action.
Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:09:53 EST

Gordonsville During the Civil War

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:06:19 EST

Gordonsville, Virginia, in Orange and Louisa counties, was founded as a stop on a stagecoach route and the site of a tavern. By the time of the American Civil War (1861–1865), it was a key railroad stop connecting the Shenandoah Valley and the Confederate capital at Richmond, and as such, it attracted attention from both Confederate and Union troops. The Exchange Hotel in Gordonsville was also used by the Confederacy as an important military hospital.
Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:06:19 EST

Family Life During the Civil War

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:03:08 EST

Family life in Virginia and across the South suffered devastating effects during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Few households, whether slave or free, or located in the Tidewater, Piedmont, or mountainous Southwest, could remain insulated from a war fought on their lands and in their towns. Many families were uprooted as they witnessed the destruction of their homes and landholdings. Most profoundly, all families dealt with the ordeal of separation. The war pulled white families apart in unprecedented ways, as a large proportion of men enlisted and fully one in five white men who fought for the Confederacy died. And while the chaos of war similarly dispersed the state's large population of African Americans, it also offered a chance for those families to overcome the longstanding separations wrought by slavery.
Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:03:08 EST

Savage's Station, Battle of

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:36:53 EST

The Battle of Savage's Station, fought on June 29, 1862, was the fourth major engagement of the Seven Days' Battles during the American Civil War (1861–1865). After Union general George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign—an attack on the Confederate capital at Richmond from the southeast—stalled at the Battle of Seven Pines–Fair Oaks on May 31–June 1, 1862, Confederate general Robert E. Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia. Joined by Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's forces from the Shenandoah Valley, he attacked McClellan first unsuccessfully at Mechanicsville (June 26), then successfully at Gaines's Mill (June 27). McClellan withdrew his troops south over the Chickahominy River to consolidate them near a new supply base at Harrison's Landing on the James River. Lee pursued and his troops engaged the Union rear guard at Savage's Station. Confederates won a victory, but the bulk of the Army of the Potomac managed to escape. The next day, June 30, the armies would meet again at White Oak Swamp.
Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:36:53 EST

Reams Station, Battle of

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:32:13 EST

The Battle of Reams Station, fought on August 25, 1864, marked the culmination of Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant's fourth offensive during the Petersburg Campaign of the American Civil War (1861–1865). The combat swirled around a small depot on the Petersburg (Weldon) Railroad, some eight miles south of the central Virginia town of Petersburg, a key to the nearby Confederate capital of Richmond. This rail line linked Wilmington, North Carolina, with Petersburg, Richmond, and Confederate general Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, and provided the goal of Grant's offensive. Although the Confederates won the engagement, the Union Army of the Potomac retained control of the railroad, seized a week earlier during the Battle of the Weldon Railroad, August 18–21.
Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:32:13 EST

Jefferson Davis's Imprisonment

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:49:53 EST

Union cavalrymen arrested former Confederate president Jefferson Davis near Irwinville, Georgia, on May 10, 1865. Davis was taken into custody as a suspect in the assassination of United States president Abraham Lincoln, but his arrest and two-year imprisonment at Fort Monroe in Virginia raised significant questions about the political course of Reconstruction (1865–1877). Debate over Davis's fate tended to divide between those who favored a severe punishment of the former Confederate political leaders and those who favored a more conciliatory approach. When investigators failed to establish a link between Davis and the Lincoln assassins, the U.S. government charged him instead with treason. U.S. president Andrew Johnson's impeachment hearings delayed the trial, however, and in the end the government granted Davis amnesty.
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:49:53 EST

United Daughters of the Confederacy

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:59:22 EST

The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) was formed in 1894 to protect and perpetuate Confederate memory following the American Civil War (1861–1865). According to the group's founding documents, it sought "to fulfill the duties of sacred charity to the survivors of the war and those dependent upon them … to perpetuate the memory of our Confederate heroes and the glorious cause for which they fought." Through chapters in Virginia and other southern states (and even a handful in the North), members directed most of their efforts toward raising funds for Confederate monuments, sponsoring Memorial Day parades, caring for indigent Confederate widows, sponsoring essay contests and fellowships for southern students, and maintaining Confederate museums and relic collections. The context of these efforts was the Lost Cause interpretation of the Civil War, which emphasized states' rights and secession over slavery as causes of the war and was often used to further the goals of white supremacists in the twentieth century. The organization continues to perform memorial work, its national headquarters located in the former Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:59:22 EST

Winchester During the Civil War

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:52:29 EST

Located in the Shenandoah Valley, Winchester was the most contested town in the Confederacy during the American Civil War (1861–1865), changing hands more than seventy times and earning its reputation (in the words of a British observer) as the shuttlecock of the Confederacy. Three major battles were fought within town limits and four others nearby. In 1862, Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson won a victory there during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign that solidified his reputation as the Confederacy's first hero. Following Jackson's death in May 1863, Richard S. Ewell took over his corps and, on the way to Gettysburg, scooped up the Union garrison at Winchester, suggesting to many that he might have the stuff to replace the fallen Stonewall. The Third Battle of Winchester (1864) was a Union victory, part of Union general Philip H. Sheridan's successful Valley Campaign against Jubal A. Early. The war, meanwhile, brought huge changes for the town's residents, including rampant inflation, often harsh measures imposed by occupiers, and the destruction of slavery. By 1865, the town was largely destroyed.
Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:52:29 EST

Banks, Nathaniel Prentiss (1816–1894)

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:10:08 EST

Nathaniel Prentiss Banks was a Massachusetts state legislator (1849–1853), a ten-term United States Congressman (1853–1857, 1865–1873, 1875–1879, 1889–1891), Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (1856–1857), governor of Massachusetts (1858–1861), and a Union general during the American Civil War (1861–1865). One of the most prominent political generals of the conflict, Banks lacked military talent and experience but rose to high command on the strength of his public stature and his staunch support of the administration of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln, despite having been one of Lincoln's political rivals in 1860. Banks's tendency to subordinate military affairs to political ambition, his penchant for grandiose planning without devoting sufficient attention to tactical details, and his inability to admit or correct mistakes ensured that a once-promising career in arms would fall short of expectations. As commander of the Department of the Shenandoah, he was outmaneuvered by Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson in 1862, especially on May 25 at the Battle of Winchester. Jackson defeated him again at the Battle of Cedar Mountain on August 9, after which Banks was transferred to New Orleans, Louisiana. In the spring of 1864, he participated in the botched Red River Campaign in Texas, ending his field command. Banks returned to Congress after the war and died in Massachusetts in 1894.
Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:10:08 EST

Beale, R. L. T. (1819–1893)

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:43:17 EST

R. L. T. Beale was twice a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1847–1849; 1879–1881), member of the Convention of 1850–1851, member of the Senate of Virginia (1857–1860), and a Confederate army officer during the American Civil War (1861–1865). After earning a law degree at the University of Virginia, Beale practiced law in his native Westmoreland County. He was first elected to Congress as a proslavery Democrat but did not seek reelection. Instead, he served as a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1850, generally opposing proposals to make state government more democratic. After serving a term in the state senate, he joined the Confederate cavalry and fought with the Army of Northern Virginia throughout the war. In June 1862, a newspaper reporter accompanied Beale during J. E. B. Stuart's famous ride around the Union army, and in March 1864, Beale's cavalry detachment killed Union colonel Ulric Dahlgren, ending the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid. After the war, Beale wrote a history of the 9th Virginia, published posthumously, and served a second term in Congress.
Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:43:17 EST

Guerrilla Warfare in Virginia During the Civil War

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:39:53 EST

Although guerrilla warfare did not ravage Virginia to the extent that it did some other Confederate states during the American Civil War (1861–1865), nevertheless it did play a significant role in shaping the nature of the conflict. Guerrilla fighters, by definition, are combatants who operate outside the formal constraints of the military and, therefore, outside the laws of war. In Virginia, guerrillas took up arms as a natural response to Union invasion—especially where conventional Confederate troops were too few or too distant to oppose the enemy—and as a favored means of intimidating perceived enemies within small, usually rural, communities. What resulted, first in Unionist northwestern Virginia and then in Confederate Virginia, was often a "neighborhood" war, where residents brutally fought one another, rather than outsiders, for local control. Partisan leaders such as John D. Imboden and John Singleton Mosby made names for themselves, the latter described as having "danced on the nerves of opponents where they were most vulnerable." At times, however, the conflict's violence, which sometimes included terrorist tactics directed at civilians, seemed to rage out of control and alarmed Confederate authorities. Where the authorities had once encouraged the guerrillas, by 1862 they sought to bring them under Confederate control, creating sanctioned "partisan rangers." Efforts to rein in the guerrilla fighters were only partially successful.
Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:39:53 EST

Causes of Confederate Defeat in the Civil War

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:34:01 EST

The surrender of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, effectively ended the American Civil War (1861–1865). But why did Lee surrender? And why in the spring of 1865? Historians have argued over the answers to these questions since that day at Appomattox. Explanations for Confederate defeat in the Civil War can be broken into two categories: some historians argue that the Confederacy collapsed largely because of social divisions within Southern society, while others emphasize the Union's military defeat of Confederate armies. These arguments are not mutually exclusive—no historian would deny that Southern society was riven by racial, class, gender, and regional antagonisms and, similarly, all historians recognize the enormous force brought to bear by Northern armies and the high casualties suffered by Confederate soldiers. Nonetheless, the disagreement has produced sharply different explanations for why the Civil War ended as it did.
Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:34:01 EST

Seven Days' Battles

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:30:15 EST

The Seven Days' Battles, fought June 25–July 1, 1862, were the decisive engagements of the Peninsula Campaign during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Union general George B. McClellan had attempted to march his Army of the Potomac up the Peninsula between the York and James rivers but was stalled first at Yorktown, then at Williamsburg, and finally at the fierce battle at Seven Pines–Fair Oaks (May 31–June 1), during which Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston was severely wounded. General Robert E. Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia and, to prevent a siege of the Confederate capital at Richmond, went on the offensive. The first of Lee's attacks occurred on June 26, and after two days of fighting he forced McClellan to abandon his supply line and begin a retreat back to the James River. Lee pursued and came close to destroying the Union army on June 30 at Glendale. He suffered a major tactical defeat the next day at Malvern Hill, but McClellan ensured a Confederate strategic victory by continuing his retreat to Harrison's Landing. The battles ended McClellan's campaign to take Richmond, as well as the last chance to end the war under circumstances that might resemble the status quo of 1860.
Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:30:15 EST

Mosby, John Singleton (1833–1916)

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:27:14 EST

John Singleton Mosby was a Confederate colonel during the American Civil War (1861–1865). As a private in the 1st Virginia Cavalry, Mosby chose his commander, General J. E. B. Stuart, as his role model and mentor. Stuart and General Robert E. Lee came to value Mosby's skills as a scout and raider. In June 1863 Confederate secretary of war James A. Seddon permitted Mosby to form and recruit soldiers for Company A, 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry (Partisan Rangers). The battalion expanded steadily to the size of a regiment (approximately 1,900 men served in the command during its existence) and Mosby was accordingly promoted to colonel. The raids of "Mosby's Men" helped to demoralize Union cavalry and rally Southern support for the war. Wounded seven times, the combative Mosby disbanded his troops, rather than surrender, on April 21, 1865. After the war he resumed his career as a lawyer and turned Republican. Mosby served as U.S. consul to Hong Kong, and from 1904 until 1910 worked as assistant attorney general in the U.S. Justice Department. An excellent writer, Mosby devoted his latter years to letters, articles, and books defending the actions and reputation of his own command, the reputations of J. E. B. Stuart and Ulysses S. Grant, and arguing that slavery was the main cause of the war. Mosby died in Washington, D.C., in 1916.
Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:27:14 EST

Black Confederates

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:50:37 EST

Black Confederates is a term often used to describe both enslaved and free African Americans who filled a number of different positions in support of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Most often this assistance was coerced rather than offered voluntarily. Male slaves were either hired out by their owners or impressed to work in various departments of the Confederate army. Free black men were also routinely impressed or otherwise forced to perform manual labor for the army. The government's use of black labor, whether free or slave, followed patterns established during the antebellum period, when county governments routinely engaged the service of black men to help maintain local roads and other public property. While large numbers of black men thus accompanied every Confederate army on the march or in camp, those men would not have been considered soldiers. Only a few black men were ever accepted into Confederate service as soldiers, and none did any significant fighting. Through most of the war, the Confederate government's official policies toward black men maintained that those men were laborers, not soldiers; changes to that policy in March 1865 came too late to make any difference to Confederate prospects for victory. Those changes were also accompanied by widespread debate indicating that a significant minority of white Southerners opposed any change to the institution of slavery, even if that change might help bring about a Confederate victory.
Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:50:37 EST

Early, Jubal A. (1816–1894)

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:51:02 EST

Jubal A. Early was a lawyer, a politician, and a Confederate general in the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865). An excellent brigade and division commander, he was quick and aggressive on the offensive and steady and tough on the defensive. While, at times, he was outstanding in independent command or temporary corps command, especially at Chancellorsville (1863), he was less successful leading the Army of the Valley during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864. Known as "Old Jube," Early was opinionated and critical of others but slow to see his own faults. In an army famous for its religious revival, he was notoriously quick-tempered, witty, and profane; Robert E. Lee called him "my bad old man." Prematurely bent by arthritis, he was described by one Confederate in 1861 as "a plain farmer-looking man … but with all, every inch a soldier." In his later years, Early became preeminent in debates over the war, working to venerate Lee and isolate James Longstreet, who had once been Lee's second in command. In so doing, Early helped to invent the highly influential Lost Cause view of the war. As long as Early was alive, one of his former soldiers wrote, "no man ever took up his pen to write a line about the great conflict without the fear of Jubal Early before his eyes."
Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:51:02 EST

Museum of the Confederacy

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:19:39 EST

The Museum of the Confederacy opened in the former Confederate capital of Richmond in 1896 as the Confederate Museum. One of Richmond's oldest museums, it is the only institution in Virginia that began as a Confederate shrine and transformed itself into a modern history museum. The museum was a preservation effort on two levels: it rescued from destruction the former Confederate executive mansion and displayed in the mansion's rooms the artifacts—"relics" as they were called in the 1890s—of Confederate soldiers and civilians from the American Civil War (1861–1865) and the postwar Lost Cause era.
Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:19:39 EST

Cooke, John Esten (1830–1886)

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:52:39 EST

John Esten Cooke was a novelist, biographer, and veteran of the American Civil War (1861–1865). One of the most important literary figures of nineteenth-century Virginia, Cooke was the prolific author of historical adventures and romances in the tradition of Walter Scott and James Fenimore Cooper. His most famous and perhaps best work, The Virginia Comedians: or, Old Days in the Old Dominion (1854), follows the aristocratic cad Champ Effingham in Virginia before the American Revolution (1775–1783). In fact, Cooke saw himself as a critic of aristocracy, but that criticism was rarely particularly sharp, and after the Civil War, his work unselfconsciously glorified the Confederacy in the tradition of the Lost Cause. "Come!" Cooke wrote in Surry of Eagle's-Nest (1866). "Perhaps as you follow me, you will live in the stormy days of a cavalier epoch: breathe its fiery atmosphere, and see its mighty forms as they defile before you, in a long and noble line." A relative by marriage to Confederate general J. E. B. Stuart, Cooke served with the cavalryman during the war and wrote hagiographic biographies of generals Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and Robert E. Lee.
Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:52:39 EST

Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:22:56 EST

Organized in 1889, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA), currently known as APVA/Preservation Virginia, was the nation's first statewide historic preservation organization. Spearheaded by an elite mix of female antiquarians and their "gentlemen advisers," it became a sanctioned instrument of conservatives who strove to counter social and political changes after the American Civil War (1861–1865) by emphasizing southern history and tradition. The APVA enshrined old buildings, graveyards, and historical sites—many of which were forlorn, if not forgotten—and exhibited them as symbols of Virginia's identity. As the national preservation movement evolved, the APVA became less overtly political and now identifies itself as a professional organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the Commonwealth's heritage.
Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:22:56 EST

City Point During the Civil War

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:47:24 EST

City Point (now Hopewell), located in central Virginia at the confluence of the James and Appomattox rivers, was the site of Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant's field headquarters during the Petersburg Campaign at the end of the American Civil War (1861–1865). Founded in 1613 and incorporated as a town in 1826, City Point was a tiny, out-of-the-way place before the war, with few homes or businesses. But once the Union Army of the Potomac fought its way south to Petersburg late in the spring of 1864, City Point became a crucial Union port and supply hub. At least 100,000 Union troops and 65,000 animals were supplied out of the town, and in August 1864, a member of the Confederate Secret Service detonated a time bomb on a docked barge, hoping to disrupt work at the port. As many as fifty-eight people were killed, but the wharf was soon rebuilt and service to the front continued. City Point also was the site of the sprawling Depot Field Hospital, which served 29,000 patients. After the war, the United States government established City Point National Cemetery, and in 1983, the National Park Service reconstructed a cabin that had served as General Grant's headquarters on its original location.
Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:47:24 EST

Impressment During the Civil War, Confederate

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:00:17 EST

Impressment was the informal and then, beginning in March 1863, the legislated policy of the Confederate government to seize food, fuel, slaves, and other commodities to support armies in the field during the American Civil War (1861–1865). The tax-in-kind law, passed a month later, allowed the government to impress crops from farmers at a negotiated price. Combined with inflationary prices and plummeting morale following military defeats, impressment sparked vocal protests across the South. Discontent was exacerbated by what was perceived as the government's haphazard enforcement of the law, its setting of below-market prices, and its abuse of labor. As a result, citizens hoarded goods and in some cases even impersonated impressment agents in an effort to steal commodities.
Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:00:17 EST

Ambler, James M. (1848–1881)

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:54:57 EST

James M. Ambler was a Confederate cavalryman during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and, after the war, a United States Navy surgeon. Ambler graduated from medical school in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1870 and joined the Navy, serving on various ships and at the Norfolk Naval Hospital. In 1878, he reluctantly volunteered for service with an Arctic expedition aboard the Jeannette, a ship commanded by George W. De Long. The ship became imprisoned by ice late in 1879, and Ambler did well to keep the crew not only alive but relatively healthy. Still adrift in June 1881, the Jeannette struck ice, which crushed its wooden hull. While a few of the crew's thirty-three men survived, many froze to death, drowned, or starved, including Ambler, who died with De Long sometime around October 30, 1881.
Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:54:57 EST

Delany, Martin R. (1812–1885)

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:10:52 EST

Martin R. Delany was an African American abolitionist, writer, editor, doctor, and politician. Born in Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia), he was the first black field officer in the United States Army, serving as a major during and after the American Civil War (1861–1865), and was among the first black nationalists. A fiercely independent thinker and wide-ranging writer, he coedited with Frederick Douglass the abolitionist newspaper North Star and later penned a manifesto calling for black emigration from the United States to Central America. He also authored Blake; or, The Huts of America, a serial publication about a fugitive slave who, in the tradition of Nat Turner, organizes insurrection. In his later life, Delany was a judge and an unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor of South Carolina. Despite all this, he remains relatively unknown. "His was a magnificent life," W. E. B. DuBois wrote in 1936, "and yet, how many of us have heard of him?" Historians have tended to pigeonhole Delany's contributions, emphasizing his more radical views (which were celebrated in the 1970s), while giving less attention to the extraordinary complexity of his career.
Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:10:52 EST

Van Lew, Elizabeth L. (1818–1900)

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:34:14 EST

Elizabeth Van Lew was a Richmond Unionist and abolitionist who spied for the United States government during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Leading a network of a dozen or so white and African American women and men, she relayed information on Confederate operations to Union generals and assisted in the care and sometimes escape of Union prisoners of war being held in the Confederate capital. Van Lew, who worked with invisible ink and coded messages, has been called "the most skilled, innovative, and successful" of all Civil War–era spies. While some historians have claimed that she was open about her Unionist politics, deflecting suspicion by behaving as if she were mentally ill, others have argued that these "Crazy Bet" stories are a myth. After the war, Van Lew served as postmaster of Richmond during the administration of U.S. president Ulysses S. Grant, one of the generals to whom she had once fed information.
Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:34:14 EST

Christian, William S. (1830–1910)

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 10:47:55 EST

William S. Christian was a Confederate army officer, a temperance organization leader, and a doctor who worked in Middlesex County. In 1859 Christian raised a cavalry company known as the Middlesex Light Dragoons, which became Company C of the 55th Virginia Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Christian was wounded twice during the war: first at the Battle of Glendale (1862) and then again at the Battle of Chancellorsville (1863). Christian participated in the Army of Northern Virginia's advance into Pennsylvania in the summer of 1863 and was captured by Union forces after the Gettysburg campaign (1863). He was imprisoned for less than a year at Johnson's Island in Ohio, where he composed a long poem entitled "The Past." After the war Christian returned to Urbanna to practice medicine. From 1876 to 1881 he served as state head of the Independent Order of Good Templars, an international temperance league. In 1880 he set up a segregated Dual Grand Lodge in Richmond, accommodating members who believed African Americans should be admitted to the society while pacifying white southerners who resisted that notion. Christian was also a member of the Medical Society of Virginia and Middlesex County's board of health and, from 1890 to 1909, the superintendent of Middlesex County's public schools. He died on December 10, 1910.
Tue, 02 Aug 2011 10:47:55 EST

Virginia Convention of 1864

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 13:26:54 EST

The Virginia Convention of 1864, called by the loyal Restored government meeting in Alexandria during the American Civil War (1861–1865), adopted the Constitution of 1864, which finally accomplished a number of changes that reformers had agitated for since at least the 1820s. It abolished slavery, provided a way of funding primary and free schools, and required voting by paper ballot for state officers and members of the General Assembly. It also put an end to longstanding friction over regional differences by recognizing the creation of West Virginia as a separate state. Members of the convention proclaimed the new constitution in effect, rather than submitting it to voters for approval in a popular referendum. Initially only the areas of northern and eastern Virginia then under Union control recognized the authority of the Constitution of 1864, but after the fall of the Confederacy in May 1865 it became effective for all of Virginia and remained in effect until July 1869.
Mon, 01 Aug 2011 13:26:54 EST

New Market, Battle of

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 10:45:35 EST

The Battle of New Market, fought on May 15, 1864, was part of Union general Franz Sigel's attempt to sweep the Shenandoah Valley of Confederate troops in conjunction with General Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign during the American Civil War (1861–1865). While Grant battled Confederate general Robert E. Lee at the Wilderness and then at Spotsylvania Court House, he sent Sigel into the Valley to prevent the Confederates there from reinforcing Lee. Confederate general John C. Breckinridge quickly cobbled together two brigades of infantry, some cavalry, even a couple of hundred cadets from the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, and confronted Union forces at the village of New Market. There, he attacked Sigel and was beaten back, but Sigel's counteradvance wavered. At about three o'clock in the afternoon, in a driving rainstorm, Breckinridge called for the cadets—"May God forgive me," he reportedly said—and ordered them and the rest of his men to charge. Sigel was forced to retreat across the Shenandoah River, burning the bridge behind him. Forty-seven VMI cadets were wounded and ten killed in the action, but Breckinridge's forces were now free to reinforce Lee north of Richmond.
Wed, 29 Jun 2011 10:45:35 EST

Weather During the Civil War

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:23:55 EST

Weather was influential in shaping events during the American Civil War (1861–1865). For instance, concerns about weather helped determine overall strategy as well as tactics on the battlefield. Generals looked to the skies to decide when to begin spring campaigns, cursed at flooded rivers for impeding progress, and pushed their men to endure the extremes of the Southern climate. Weather also colored the war experience for soldiers and civilians. Becoming a veteran soldier meant being seasoned by the weather as much as being transformed by combat. Meanwhile, men and women in Virginia and across the nation religiously recorded meteorological events in diaries, letters, and newspapers, knowing how decisive this force of nature, so completely beyond human control, could be on wartime events.
Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:23:55 EST

Maury, Dabney Herndon (1822–1900)

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 10:20:50 EST

Dabney Herndon Maury was a Confederate general during the American Civil War (1861–1865). The nephew of renowned scientist Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury, he fought in the Western Theater, rising quickly in the ranks after the battles of Pea Ridge, Iuka, and Corinth in 1862. As commander of the District of the Gulf in the war's last two years, he became known for his tenacious defense of the port of Mobile, Alabama. After the war, however, he struggled with poverty. In 1869, he helped to found the Southern Historical Society, which became an important institution for advocates of the Lost Cause view of the war. His 1894 memoir, Recollections of a Virginian in the Mexican, Indian, and Civil Wars, was marked by Maury's distinctively intelligent affability. In fact, he was rare among former Civil War officers on either side for his willingness to maintain an equitable view of the Civil War.
Thu, 09 Jun 2011 10:20:50 EST

Davis, Varina (1826–1906)

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 09:37:48 EST

Varina Howell Davis was the second wife of Confederate president Jefferson Davis and the First Lady of the Confederacy during the American Civil War (1861–1865). She was manifestly ill-suited for this role because of her family background, education, personality, physical appearance, and her fifteen-year antebellum residence in Washington, D.C. (She once declared that the worst years of her life were spent in the Confederate capital at Richmond while the happiest were in Washington.) A native of the urban South, she always preferred the city to the country, and after her husband died in 1889, she moved to New York, where she resided until her death in 1906.
Thu, 09 Jun 2011 09:37:48 EST

Harrison, Burton, Mrs., (1843–1920)

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 08:42:40 EST

Mrs. Burton Harrison, also known as Constance Cary Harrison, was a prolific American novelist late in the nineteenth century who came from a prominent Virginia family. As a young woman, she witnessed the destruction of the American Civil War (1861–1865) and nursed the Confederate wounded in Manassas and Richmond. After the war, Harrison toured Europe, eventually married, and settled down in New York City. She was active in elite New York society and produced a large body of work, much of it popular serialized fiction and sentimental romance, in which she recorded the social mores of her time. The author of more than fifty works, including short stories, articles and essays, children's books, and short plays, she is best known for her 1911 autobiography, Recollections Grave and Gay.
Thu, 09 Jun 2011 08:42:40 EST

Belle Isle Prison

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:15:07 EST

Belle Isle Prison, located on an island in the James River and connected by footbridge to Richmond, was a Confederate military prison during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Opened in June 1862 and closed in October 1864, the facility was subject to multiple closures and re-openings, which were contingent upon prisoner exchanges. While Richmond's Libby Prison was set aside for Union officers, Confederate authorities used Belle Isle to hold noncommissioned officers and privates. It was originally intended only as a holding facility until more adequate prisons were available. A hospital for prisoners and an iron factory were located on the island, but no barracks were ever built for the prisoners. They were sheltered only by tents,and forced to withstand excessive heat in the summer, frigid temperatures in the winter, and multiple disease epidemics.
Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:15:07 EST

Castle Thunder Prison

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 13:08:11 EST

Castle Thunder in Richmond (not to be confused with the prison of the same name in Petersburg) was an infamous Confederate military prison during the American Civil War (1861–1865). In service from August 1862 until April 1865, the facility was established for political prisoners, Unionists, and deserters, but its use quickly expanded to include women, spies, and African Americans. Castle Thunder's keepers—particularly Commandant George W. Alexander, who presided over the prison from October 1862 until February 1864—earned a reputation for brutality and were subject to investigation in 1863 by the Confederate House of Representatives. At the end of the war, Union military personnel took control of Castle Thunder and used it to incarcerate former Confederates.
Tue, 07 Jun 2011 13:08:11 EST

Lynchburg During the Civil War

Tue, 31 May 2011 10:25:50 EST

Lynchburg, Virginia, is located just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains on the banks of the James River, where its founder, John Lynch, established a ferry service in 1757. On the eve of the American Civil War (1861–1865), Lynchburg was Virginia's sixth-largest city and a major transportation center, with access to the James River and Kanawha Canal, as well as the Virginia and Tennessee, the South Side, and the Orange and Alexandria railroads. In addition, the city was a major manufacturer of plug tobacco and, by the 1850s, the second-wealthiest city per capita in the United States. During the war, Lynchburg women established the Ladies' Relief Hospital, and the Confederate military made the city a major hub of supplies and transport, which Union troops attempted to disrupt at the Battle of Lynchburg in June 1864. After the fall of Richmond in April 1865, the state government relocated to Lynchburg briefly, only to return after Robert E. Lee's surrender a few miles to the east at Appomattox.
Tue, 31 May 2011 10:25:50 EST

South Side Railroad During the Civil War

Thu, 26 May 2011 16:48:24 EST

The South Side Railroad, completed in 1854, was one of the most important supply routes in southern Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865). With tracks laid east to west across the state, the railroad began at City Point in Hopewell on the James River and extended westward through Petersburg, Burkeville, Farmville, Appomattox Station, and finally Lynchburg, in western Virginia, for a total of about 132 miles. The South Side Railroad was imperative to the Confederate army for the transport of food, military supplies, and troops throughout the war. Behind the lines of battle, the South Side line saw little damage for the first few years of the war; as the conflict moved south in 1864 and 1865, however, the railroad incurred heavy damage from both the Confederate and Union army as each sought to cut the supply lines of the other.
Thu, 26 May 2011 16:48:24 EST

Letcher, John (1813–1884)

Thu, 26 May 2011 16:41:48 EST

John Letcher was a lawyer, newspaper editor, member of the United States House of Representatives (1851–1859), and governor of Virginia (1860–1864) during the American Civil War (1861–1865). In a career that lasted decades, he weathered radical shifts of opinion and power by consistently positioning himself as a moderate, supporting, for instance, increased commercial ties between the eastern and western portions of the state and more political representation for western counties, codified in the Convention of 1850–1851. He advocated for a gradual emancipation of slaves and resisted the entreaties of radical secessionists while still arguing on behalf of states' rights. Western support and a divided Whig Party helped him narrowly win the governorship as a Democrat in 1859, but his term was often a difficult one. He ably mobilized Virginia for war and then threw the state's tremendous resources behind the Confederacy. But his willingness to requisition for the Confederacy needed supplies such as salt caused controversy at home, as did his support of impressments. Letcher returned to Lexington in 1864, ran for the Confederate Congress and lost, and was briefly imprisoned at the conclusion of the war. After his release, he resumed his law career, returning to state politics before dying in 1884.
Thu, 26 May 2011 16:41:48 EST

Charlottesville During the Civil War

Thu, 26 May 2011 14:45:02 EST

Charlottesville provided the Confederate war effort with swords, uniforms, and artificial limbs during the American Civil War (1861–1865). It was also home to a 500-bed military hospital that employed hundreds of the town's residents, cared for more than 22,000 patients, and was superintended by Dr. James L. Cabell, a professor of medicine at the nearby University of Virginia. In the summer of 1861, the 19th Virginia Infantry Regiment was organized, recruiting most of its members from Charlottesville and Albemarle County. The unit served with the Army of Northern Virginia all the way through to the Appomattox Campaign (1865), including at Pickett's Charge (1863), where it lost 60 percent of its men. African Americans, both enslaved and free, who composed a majority of the town and county's population, were the subject of heightened white fears of violence, their movements controlled by a curfew. In 1863, black members of the biracial First Baptist Church established the Charlottesville African Church. Although the war's fighting stayed mostly to the east and west, a raid led by Union general George A. Custer was stopped just north of the city in the spring of 1864. Early the next year, town leaders surrendered Charlottesville to Custer, preventing the community's destruction.
Thu, 26 May 2011 14:45:02 EST

Fort Monroe During the Civil War

Thu, 26 May 2011 14:42:22 EST

Fort Monroe is a military installation located in Hampton Roads, Virginia, on the Peninsula overlooking the Chesapeake Bay. It was the only federal military installation in the Upper South to remain under United States control throughout the American Civil War (1861–1865). Early in the war, the fort became an outpost of freedom within the Confederacy when Union commanders used it to house refugee slaves. The fort also headquartered the Union Department of Virginia and North Carolina, and several significant military campaigns and combined operations were launched from the installation. Most notably, it served as the staging area for Union major general George B. McClellan's ill-fated Peninsula Campaign of 1862. After the war, the fort served as a destination for another brand of fugitive. Following his capture in May 1865 until his bail bond was accepted two years later, Confederate president Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe.
Thu, 26 May 2011 14:42:22 EST

Martinsburg, Virginia, During the Civil War

Mon, 23 May 2011 16:02:02 EST

Martinsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia), the county seat of Berkeley County, was in 1860 the Shenandoah Valley's second largest town, with a population of 3,364. Located in the northern portion of the valley, Martinsburg enjoyed a booming economy because of its location along the paved Valley Pike and because it was a major depot along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The same strategic location that made Martinsburg economically prosperous prior to the American Civil War (1861–1865), however, also spelled its wartime demise. The town changed hands between Confederate and Union forces thirty-seven times, was the site of two battles, and played host for a time to the intrigue of Confederate spy Belle Boyd, who was born there.
Mon, 23 May 2011 16:02:02 EST

Newspapers in Virginia During the Civil War, Confederate

Wed, 18 May 2011 15:25:51 EST

Confederate newspapers in Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865) served as vital, if often flawed, sources of reporting on the conflict, as organs of national propaganda, and as venues in which to attack or defend the administration of Confederate president Jefferson Davis. At the start of the war, nearly every town in Virginia boasted a newspaper, with four dailies in Richmond alone. (A fifth began publishing in 1863.) These papers were staunchly partisan: the Richmond Enquirer endorsed the Democratic Party, the Richmond Whig cheered on the largely defunct Whig Party, and the Staunton Vindicator endorsed secession. During the war, they updated their readers on the Confederacy's military progress and relied on Northern papers when their own reporting failed. Along with its rivals, the Enquirer trumpeted victories and downplayed defeats, blurring the line between news and propaganda. The Richmond Examiner, meanwhile, under the editorship of John M. Daniel, became the loudest organ of dissent in the Confederate capital, its criticisms of President Davis turning more intense and more personal as the war dragged on. Propaganda from Virginia newspapers helped prop up Southern spirits early in the war, and it is likely that their political attacks eventually helped depress Confederate morale.
Wed, 18 May 2011 15:25:51 EST

Scott, Winfield (1786–1866)

Mon, 16 May 2011 09:55:53 EST

Winfield Scott was a hero of the Mexican War (1846–1848), the last Whig Party candidate for U.S. president, and commanding general of the United States Army at the start of the American Civil War (1861–1865). Known as "Old Fuss and Feathers" for his equal love of discipline and pomp, Scott by 1861 had served in the military for more than fifty years and under fourteen U.S. presidents. He had been severely wounded in battle, avoided several wars with his diplomatic skills, and commanded the army that conquered Mexico City in 1847, all of which made him the most admired and famous soldier in America. Less well known is the fact that Scott was convicted by court-martial for conduct unbecoming an officer, was investigated by a court of inquiry, once was accused of treason, and several times offered his resignation from the army. When the Civil War began, the Dinwiddie County native remained loyal to the Union, and while age had so reduced his once-towering frame that he could no longer even mount a horse, his ego and intellect were still intact. Scott's Anaconda Plan for winning the war proved to be prescient but politically out of step, and he eventually lost control of the army to George B. McClellan. He soon retired, published a two-volume memoir in 1864, and died in 1866.
Mon, 16 May 2011 09:55:53 EST

Sigel, Franz (1824–1902)

Mon, 16 May 2011 09:27:11 EST

Franz Sigel was a Union general during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Born in Germany and a leader of the failed insurrections of 1848, Sigel rallied German-Americans to the Union cause in 1861 with the slogan, "I goes to fight mit Sigel." As a general, however, he was only modestly successful and his relationship with his superiors was so contentious that he resigned from the army twice before returning; only his ties to the politically important German-American constituency saved him. In addition, those ties allowed him to be promoted to command of the Department of West Virginia in 1864, but he led his troops to a disastrous defeat at the Battle of New Market on May 15, 1864, against Confederate forces that included cadets from the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. When a Confederate army under Jubal A. Early was able to reach the outskirts of Washington, D.C., a month later, Sigel was relieved of command and he resigned from the army a year later.
Mon, 16 May 2011 09:27:11 EST

Culp's Hill and Wesley Culp (1839–1863)

Mon, 09 May 2011 11:14:37 EST

Culp's Hill is located about three-quarters of a mile south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It forms the barb of a fishhook-shaped series of hills and ridges on which the fiercest fighting took place during the second and third days of the Battle of Gettysburg (1863) during the American Civil War (1861–1865). It was also near, if not on, Culp's Hill that Private John Wesley Culp of Company B, 2nd Virginia Infantry Regiment, Stonewall Brigade, was killed.
Mon, 09 May 2011 11:14:37 EST

Chancellorsville Campaign

Mon, 09 May 2011 11:13:30 EST

The Chancellorsville Campaign, which culminated in the Battle of Chancellorsville, fought May 1–6, 1863, produced one of the most stunning and ambivalent Confederate victories of the American Civil War (1861–1865). Confederate general Robert E. Lee had trounced the Army of the Potomac at Fredericksburg the previous December, but since then, Joseph Hooker had thoroughly reorganized and revitalized his dispirited Union troops. Declaring that he had created "the finest Army on the Planet," he set into motion an elaborate plan designed to quietly turn the left flank of the outnumbered and underfed Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, which was camped not far from Fredericksburg. In the face of Hooker's attack, Lee dangerously divided his army, sending Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson through the Wilderness, a wild and tangled woodland, and around Hooker's right side in what became one of the most famous flanking maneuvers of the war. A combination of bad Union generalship and good Confederate luck forced Hooker to retreat across the Rappahannock River. Jackson was accidentally killed by his own men in the fighting, and while his death may have been devastating for the Confederacy, so were the additional 13,459 casualties. Combined with the shocking losses at Gettysburg two months later, they nearly destroyed the army's offensive capabilities.
Mon, 09 May 2011 11:13:30 EST

Crater, Battle of the

Mon, 09 May 2011 11:12:21 EST

The Battle of the Crater, part of the Petersburg Campaign, was the result of an unusual attempt, on the part of Union forces, to break through the Confederate defenses just south of the critical railroad hub of Petersburg, Virginia, during the American Civil War (1861–1865). For several weeks, Pennsylvania miners in Union general Ambrose E. Burnside's Ninth Corps worked at digging a long tunnel, packed the terminus with explosives, and then on the morning of July 30, 1864, blew it up. In the words of a Maine soldier, the sky was filled with "Earth, stones, timbers, arms, legs, guns unlimbered and bodies unlimbed." Burnside had initially planned to send a fresh division of black troops into the breach, but his superiors, Ulysses S. Grant and George G. Meade, ruled against it. That role—literally via a short straw—went to James H. Ledlie, a hard-drinking political general who spent the day well behind the lines as his white soldiers piled into the explosion's deep crater rather than go around it. Unable to escape, and followed by Burnside's other three divisions, they turned into what one New Hampshire soldier described as "a mass of worms crawling over each other"—easy targets for Confederates. The battle was a Union disaster and marked by particularly cruel treatment of the black troops who participated, many of whom were captured and murdered. Although Congress later blamed Meade for the loss, it was Ledlie and Burnside who lost their commands.
Mon, 09 May 2011 11:12:21 EST

Anaconda Plan

Mon, 09 May 2011 11:10:47 EST

The Anaconda Plan was the nickname attached to Lieutenant General Winfield Scott's comprehensive plan to defeat the Confederacy at the start of the American Civil War (1861–1865). Scott called for a strong defense of Washington, D.C., a blockade of the Confederacy's Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and a massive land and naval attack along the Mississippi River aimed at cutting the Confederacy in two. Although United States president Abraham Lincoln immediately instituted a naval blockade, he bowed to political pressure in 1861 and shelved the rest of the plan. In retrospect, Scott's strategy seems broadly prescient, although it aimed at political conciliation and did not anticipate the hard war fought in Virginia and elsewhere.
Mon, 09 May 2011 11:10:47 EST

Newton, John (1822–1895)

Mon, 09 May 2011 09:43:49 EST

John Newton was a Virginia native and a Union general during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Born in Norfolk, the son of a long-serving congressman, Newton graduated from West Point and served in the Army Corps of Engineers before commanding a brigade and then a division in the Army of the Potomac. After the disastrous Union defeat at Fredericksburg in December 1862, Newton and fellow general John Cochrane met with United States president Abraham Lincoln in a veiled attempt at seeing Ambrose E. Burnside removed from command. Lincoln did remove him, but Newton's career suffered for his effort. Newton fought well during the Chancellorsville Campaign in May 1863, and after the death of John F. Reynolds on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, he took command of the First Corps. Within a year, however, he had been denied promotion, been sent west to participate in the Atlanta Campaign (1864), and eventually exiled to Florida. There, in March 1865, he was defeated in his ill-advised attempt on Tallahassee at the Battle of Natural Bridge. Newton worked as an army engineer after the war, retiring in 1886 and dying in New York City in 1895.
Mon, 09 May 2011 09:43:49 EST

Butler, Benjamin F. (1818–1893)

Mon, 09 May 2011 09:42:48 EST

Benjamin F. Butler was a controversial, self-aggrandizing, and colorful politician who served as a Union general during the American Civil War (1861–1865). A state senator in Massachusetts, Butler was a delegate to the 1860 Democratic National Convention, where he briefly supported Jefferson Davis. Always popular, he was nevertheless dogged by charges of corruption, abuse of power, and, when he accepted a general officer's commission from Abraham Lincoln in 1861, incompetence. Even his appearance inspired commentary. A Union staff officer penned in his diary how Butler cut "an astounding figure on a horse! Short, fat, shapeless; no neck, squinting, and very bald headed, and, above all, that singular, half defiant look." During the Civil War, Butler made substantial contributions to the Union war effort, including a policy that allowed the United States government to skirt the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law by claiming that escaped slaves were "contraband of war." In this way, he was able to put African American refugees to work on fortifications and helped to pave the way for emancipation. He also served as a military administrator for occupied regions in Virginia and Louisiana—where he was particularly hated—before a lackluster performance as commander of the Army of the James during the Petersburg Campaign (1864–1865). After the war, Butler was elected governor of Massachusetts. He died in 1893.
Mon, 09 May 2011 09:42:48 EST

Lost Cause, The

Mon, 09 May 2011 09:35:42 EST

The Lost Cause is an interpretation of the American Civil War (1861–1865) that seeks to present the war, from the perspective of Confederates, in the best possible terms. Developed by white Southerners, many of them former Confederate generals, in a postwar climate of economic, racial, and gender uncertainty, the Lost Cause created and romanticized the "Old South" and the Confederate war effort, often distorting history in the process. For this reason, many historians have labeled the Lost Cause a myth or a legend. It is certainly an important example of public memory, one in which nostalgia for the Confederate past is accompanied by a collective forgetting of the horrors of slavery. Providing a sense of relief to white Southerners who feared being dishonored by defeat, the Lost Cause was largely accepted in the years following the war by white Americans who found it to be a useful tool in reconciling North and South. The Lost Cause has lost much of its academic support but continues to be an important part of how the Civil War is commemorated in the South and remembered in American popular culture.
Mon, 09 May 2011 09:35:42 EST

Hill, A. P. (1825–1865)

Thu, 05 May 2011 15:29:12 EST

A. P. Hill was a Confederate general in the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Behind Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and James Longstreet, "Little Powell," as he was sometimes called, was Robert E. Lee's most trusted lieutenant, best known for leading his Light Division in headlong charges but just as effective when making stubborn defensive stands. Though usually reserved and courteous, he also was notoriously short-tempered. An argument with Longstreet almost led to a duel, while a dispute with Jackson put Hill under arrest as his division entered Maryland in 1862. Still, he fought hard and well at Antietam (1862) and Chancellorsville (1863), and after Jackson's death he took over the army's new Third Corps. For the remainder of the war, Hill's generalship and administrative skills were sometimes lackluster, at other times inspired, and he was forced to miss parts of campaigns due to illness. Exactly a week before Lee's surrender at Appomattox, he was killed outside Petersburg.
Thu, 05 May 2011 15:29:12 EST

First Rockbridge Artillery

Thu, 05 May 2011 09:01:11 EST

The First Rockbridge Artillery was organized on April 29, 1861, in Lexington, Virginia, and served throughout the duration of the American Civil War (1861–1865), firing its first shot in anger at the First Battle of Manassas on July 21, 1861, and fighting in most major battles of the Army of Northern Virginia until its surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Initially led by Lexington rector and West Point graduate William N. Pendleton, the battery quickly became renowned for its daring and firmness under fire as part of the Stonewall Brigade. Pendleton, with ecclesiastical panache, named the first four tubes of the battery "Matthew," "Mark," "Luke," and "John."
Thu, 05 May 2011 09:01:11 EST

Army of the Valley

Tue, 03 May 2011 09:45:02 EST

The Army of the Valley was a detachment of Confederate forces, commanded by Jubal A. Early, which Robert E. Lee ordered to the Shenandoah Valley in 1864 for independent operations. As Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Potomac pressed Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in the Overland Campaign, Lee desperately needed to relieve pressure on his dwindling Confederate forces, divert attention away from the capital at Richmond, and open a second front in Virginia. This newly created Army of the Valley broke camp with Lee's main army on June 13, 1864, and moved toward the Valley to begin one of the most critical campaigns of the American Civil War (1861–1865).
Tue, 03 May 2011 09:45:02 EST

Burnside, Ambrose E. (1824–1881)

Tue, 03 May 2011 09:42:33 EST

Ambrose E. Burnside was a major general in the Union army during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Instantly recognizable for his bushy sideburns (the term itself is derived from reversing his last name), Burnside was one of four men to command the Army of the Potomac in Virginia. Offered the job twice previously—following George B. McClellan's failed Peninsula Campaign in 1862 and following the Second Battle of Manassas later that summer—he turned it down, citing his own lack of experience and encouraging his peers and, subsequently, historians to question his self-confidence. When he did take command of the army, he led it into disaster at the Battle of Fredericksburg (1862), perhaps the Union's most lopsided defeat of the war. After his corps was badly defeated at the Battle of the Crater (1864) he went home on a leave of absence from which he was never called back to duty. Burnside's dismal reputation is probably unfair, however. He was an innovative engineer but an unlucky general who was often made a scapegoat for larger failures.
Tue, 03 May 2011 09:42:33 EST

McClellan, George B. (1826–1885)

Tue, 03 May 2011 09:39:42 EST

George B. McClellan was a major general in the Union army during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Styled the "Young Napoleon" by the press, his battlefield successes and failures were eclipsed by controversies that arose between him and his superiors, especially U.S. president Abraham Lincoln. Following the Union debacle at the First Battle of Manassas in July 1861, McClellan formed and took command of the Army of the Potomac, expertly training it and earning the love and devotion of his men. He led the army first through the unsuccessful Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days' Battles outside Richmond in 1862, and then through the climactic Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, which forced Confederate general Robert E. Lee to abandon his invasion of the North. Lincoln, however, was dissatisfied with McClellan's lack of aggression and relieved him of command. McClellan, a Democrat, responded by challenging the Republican president in the 1864 election. It was both the logical culmination of his advocacy for a limited-war strategy, and perhaps the clumsiest confirmation of his critics' accusations that his military caution was politically motivated. After McClellan lost his run for the presidency, he retired first to Europe and then to New Jersey, where he became governor.
Tue, 03 May 2011 09:39:42 EST

McCausland, John A. (1836–1927)

Tue, 03 May 2011 09:32:55 EST

John A. McCausland was a Confederate general during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Known as "Tiger John," the former mathematics professor was hailed as a hero by the citizens of Lynchburg, Virginia, for repulsing an attack by the Union general David Hunter in June 1864. A month later, however, McCausland was condemned as a villain by the citizens of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, for acting on the orders of Jubal A. Early and burning their Cumberland Valley town in retaliation for Union actions in the Shenandoah Valley. The incident followed the famously unreconstructed McCausland through the rest of his long life, forcing him to leave the country for a time after the surrender at Appomattox, and becoming the headline of his many obituaries in 1927.
Tue, 03 May 2011 09:32:55 EST

Confederate Battle Flag

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 11:30:34 EST

The Confederate battle flag, initially authorized for units of the Confederate armed forces during the American Civil War (1861–1865), has become one of the most recognized, misunderstood, and controversial symbols in American history. Originally designed as a Confederate national flag by William Porcher Miles of South Carolina, it was rejected by the Confederate Congress but subsequently adopted by the Confederate army, which needed a banner that was easily distinguishable from the United States flag. The battle flag transformed into a national symbol as the Army of Northern Virginia, with which it was closely associated, also became an important symbol. It even was incorporated into the Confederacy's Second and Third National flags. Following the war, proponents of the Lost Cause used the battle flag to represent Southern valor and honor, although it also was implicitly connected to white supremacy. In the mid-twentieth century, the battle flag simultaneously became ubiquitous in American culture while, partly through the efforts of the Ku Klux Klan, becoming increasingly tied to racial violence and intimidation. African Americans conflated the battle flag to opposition to the civil rights movement, while neo-Confederates argued that its meaning had to do with states' rights and southern identity, not racial hatred. The political and social lines of dispute over the flag remain much the same at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Wed, 27 Apr 2011 11:30:34 EST

Lee, Robert E. (ca. 1806–1870)

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 21:00:20 EST

Robert E. Lee was a Confederate general during the American Civil War (1861–1865) who led the Army of Northern Virginia from June 1862 until its surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Descended from several of Virginia's First Families, Lee was a well-regarded officer of the United States Army before the war. His decision to fight for the Confederacy was emblematic of the wrenching choices faced by Americans as the nation divided. After an early defeat in western Virginia, he repulsed George B. McClellan's army from the Confederate capital during the Seven Days' Battles (1862) and won stunning victories at Manassas (1862), Fredericksburg (1862), and Chancellorsville (1863). The Maryland and Pennsylvania campaigns he led resulted in major contests at Antietam (1862) and Gettysburg (1863), respectively, with severe consequences for the Confederacy. Lee offered a spirited defense during the Overland Campaign (1864) against Ulysses S. Grant, but was ultimately outmaneuvered and forced into a prolonged siege at Petersburg (1864–1865).
Wed, 20 Apr 2011 21:00:20 EST

Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad During the Civil War

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:05:23 EST

The Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad (RF&P) was a strategically important rail line linking the Potomac River near the United States capital at Washington, D.C., and the Confederate capital at Richmond during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Incorporated in 1834, the railroad was seized by Confederates after Virginia seceded in April 1861, but struggled to maintain its lines under the increased traffic of men and matèriel. The Union army captured a portion of the railroad at Aquia Creek, and engineers led by Herman Haupt engaged in sometimes astonishing feats of engineering—laying three miles of track in three days, for instance, and constructing a 400-foot-long bridge in nine days. Throughout the war, portions of the railroad were destroyed and rebuilt, and Confederates found it increasingly difficult to keep up with repairs for lack of equipment and labor. By the end of the war, its lines were almost completely unusable, but within two months of Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, service between Richmond and Hamilton's Crossing in Spotsylvania County was restored.
Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:05:23 EST

Weldon Railroad, Battle of the

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:03:39 EST

The Battle of the Weldon Railroad (or Globe Tavern) was fought August 18–21, 1864, and provided the key element of Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant's fourth offensive during the Petersburg Campaign of the American Civil War (1861–1865). This Union victory resulted in the permanent capture of one of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's most important supply lines. On August 18, the Union Fifth Corps of the Army of the Potomac seized a portion of the vital railroad that connected Petersburg with Wilmington, North Carolina, at a point three miles south of Petersburg. A determined Confederate counterattack the following day battered but did not break the Union troops' hold on the tracks, and a second Confederate assault on August 21 failed miserably.
Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:03:39 EST

Danville During the Civil War

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 14:50:18 EST

Danville, Virginia, in Pittsylvania County, is situated on the banks of the Dan River just three miles from the North Carolina border. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), its relative remoteness spared its citizens from many of the hardships experienced by other Virginians. It successfully converted its pre-war tobacco industry–related buildings into a variety of facilities that supported the Confederate war effort, such as hospitals, factories, and prisons. Because of their relative prosperity throughout the war years, Danville's residents extended charitable assistance to the families of soldiers and other needy individuals. The same isolation and wealth that protected Danville throughout the war made it the object of widespread interest at the end of the war. After the fall of Richmond on April 2, Confederate president Jefferson Davis and his cabinet relocated to Danville, and following Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, many homeward-bound Confederate troops found the town an attractive passing-through point. Union forces occupied the town briefly at war's end, leaving by the end of 1865.
Fri, 15 Apr 2011 14:50:18 EST

Richmond and Danville Railroad During the Civil War

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:47:11 EST

The Richmond and Danville Railroad, which connected the Confederate capital at Richmond with Southside Virginia, was an instrumental supply route for the Confederacy during the American Civil War (1861–1865). The railroad began construction in 1848 and maintained 140 miles in Virginia, holding one of the largest rolling stocks. The line moved southwest from Richmond to the city of Danville, Virginia, near the North Carolina border. While this railroad's tracks did not exceed the state's boundaries, it did provide connections to various sections of Virginia, particularly Southwest Virginia, through the Richmond and Petersburg and South Side railroads. Though the Richmond and Danville suffered immense damage during the Civil War, the Confederacy continuously used the railroad until Confederate general Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox in April 1865.
Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:47:11 EST

Civil War in Virginia, The American

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:12:56 EST

The American Civil War was fought from 1861 until 1865. It began after Virginia and ten other states in the southern United States seceded from the Union following the election of Abraham Lincoln as U.S. president in 1860. Worried that Lincoln would interfere with slavery and citing states' rights as a justification, Southern leaders established the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis as its president and Richmond as its capital. After Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, the war moved to Virginia. Union forces made several failed attempts to capture Richmond, and Confederate general Robert E. Lee twice invaded the North, only to be defeated in battle. Most, but not all, Virginians supported the Confederacy. In 1863, Unionists in the western part of the state established West Virginia. On the home front, both white and African American families suffered food shortages or were forced to flee their homes. The Confederate government instituted a draft, or conscription law, and in some cases impressed, or confiscated, private property. By the time Lee surrendered in 1865, much of the state had been ravaged by war. But the end of fighting also meant emancipation, or freedom, for enslaved African Americans. In the years that followed, many white Virginians saw their fight for independence as the Lost Cause, while black Virginians struggled to overcome institutionalized white supremacy and earn full citizenship rights.
Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:12:56 EST

Slavery During the Civil War

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 11:46:34 EST

Virginia had the largest population of enslaved African Americans of any state in the Confederacy, and those slaves responded to the American Civil War (1861–1865) in a variety of ways. Some volunteered to assist the Confederate war effort, while many others were forced to support the Confederacy, working on farms and in factories and households throughout Virginia. Thousands escaped to the Union army's lines, earning their freedom and forcing the United States to develop a uniform policy regarding emancipation. Others remained on their home plantations and farms but took advantage of the war to gain some measure of autonomy for their families. Slaves' wartime actions most often exhibited their strong desire for freedom, and even those who chose not to escape frequently welcomed the Union army as liberators.
Thu, 14 Apr 2011 11:46:34 EST

Pendleton, William Nelson (1809–1883)

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:01:30 EST

William Nelson Pendleton was an Episcopal priest and chief of artillery for the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865). No Confederate officer in the East generated less heat on the battlefield and more away from it than Pendleton. As Robert E. Lee's chief of artillery, he was responsible for hundreds of guns and thousands of cannoneers, but he never fully utilized the potential of the army's "long arm" in battlefield to merit his high standing. Pendleton's efforts usually resulted in controversy, the most scandalous occurring when he abandoned his command at the Battle of Shepherdstown on September 19, 1862. Yet Pendleton did make a few important contributions in reorganizing the artillery into the more efficient and effective battalion system that enabled battery commanders to maximize their limited firepower. Pendleton was also a man of the cloth and his attention to the spiritual needs of the rank-and-file must have endeared him to the pious Lee.
Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:01:30 EST

Old Men and Young Boys, Battle of (June 9, 1864)

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:58:40 EST

The Battle of Old Men and Young Boys, sometimes known as the First Battle of Petersburg, was fought on June 9, 1864, on the outskirts of Petersburg during the American Civil War (1861–1865). While Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Potomac were north of the James River, facing the Army of Northern Virginia north of the Confederate capital at Richmond, Union general Benjamin F. Butler devised a plan to take the important transportation hub of Petersburg. He sent a force of infantry and cavalry, commanded by Quincy A. Gillmore, to attack the lightly defended city on June 9, but Gillmore's infantry was turned away from the east. To the south, his cavalry was met by a small battalion of Virginia reserves—old men and young boys, mostly—who beat back the Union troopers for a couple of hours until reinforcements arrived. In the end, the expedition was a failure and added to Grant's concerns about Butler's competence in the field. The raid also alerted the Confederates to Petersburg's vulnerability, and thus when Union troops reappeared outside the Cockade City six days later, they faced substantial resistance.
Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:58:40 EST

Whig Party in Virginia

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:51:27 EST

The Whig Party was a political party in Virginia and across the United States that was founded in 1833 in opposition to the policies of U.S. president Andrew Jackson—a Democrat who was criticized for his expansion of executive powers—and in support of states' rights and, eventually, the sectional interests of the South. Whigs, especially in the North, vigorously opposed the Mexican War (1846–1848), a conflict that led to increased sectional friction as the federal government attempted, without great success, to strike a balance between the interests of North and South, free and slave, when admitting the newly captured territory into the Union. By 1856, that friction had destroyed the party, both within the state and nationally, forcing its members to affiliate with different parties dictated largely by their stance on slavery and secession. In the years leading up to the American Civil War (1861–1865), many prominent former Virginia Whig Party members, such as John Minor Botts, were vocal in their resistance to Democratic calls for secession. Other prominent Virginia Whigs included Mexican War heroes Zachary Taylor, who served as U.S. president from 1849 until 1850, and Winfield Scott, who ran unsuccessfully for the office in 1852.
Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:51:27 EST

Yellow Tavern, Battle of

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:41:10 EST

The Battle of Yellow Tavern was fought on May 11, 1864, at a vital crossroads in Henrico County, only six miles north of the Confederate capital of Richmond during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Part of Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign in the spring of 1864, the cavalry battle resulted from Philip H. Sheridan's quest to track down the famous Confederate trooper J. E. B. Stuart and "whip" him. Stuart, like Robert E. Lee, preferred to be on the offensive and immediately set out after Sheridan, but by the time he caught up with him at an inn called Yellow Tavern, his outnumbered force was hard-ridden and tired. The Confederate cavalry fought hard for a full day, and as Stuart rode up and down the front lines in the driving rain to rally his men, a Michigan sharpshooter shot the general in the side. Fitzhugh Lee then took command, but was forced to withdraw. Stuart died the next day, and Sheridan rode all the way to the outskirts of Richmond, where he eventually joined up with the Union forces of Benjamin F. Butler on the James River. In the end, the battle put to rest notions that the Confederate cavalry was invincible and it claimed the life of one of Lee's most trusted and flamboyant lieutenants.
Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:41:10 EST

Rockingham Rebellion

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:23:51 EST

The Rockingham Rebellion in April 1862 occurred when several militiamen from Rockingham County, Virginia, violently resisted their incorporation into the Confederate army during the American Civil War (1861–1865). The incident came at a time when the Confederacy faced a crucial manpower challenge, but not all members of the state militia, in particular the German Baptists of the northern Shenandoah Valley, agreed with an executive order from Virginia governor John L. Letcher forcing them into Confederate service. Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson dispatched troops from his Valley Army to crush the rebellion, which they did after briefly shelling the militiamen's hiding place at Swift Run Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Jackson had a reputation for discipline, but, more important, the incident marked the Confederacy's willingness to use force against dissidents, in some instances even going after civilians who were harboring deserters.
Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:23:51 EST

Loring-Jackson Incident

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:17:20 EST

The Loring-Jackson incident refers to the acrimonious quarrel between Confederate generals Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and William W. Loring during the Romney Expedition in the winter of 1861–1862 during the American Civil War (1861–1865). The winter campaign resulted in the Confederate occupation of the strategic Shenandoah Valley town of Romney on January 14, 1862. The Loring-Jackson incident unfolded when Loring, believing that Jackson had treated his men unfairly during the expedition in western Virginia, campaigned to have his men recalled from Romney. When Confederate secretary of war Judah P. Benjamin granted Loring's withdrawal request, Jackson offered his resignation. Less than one month after capturing Romney, Loring's men abandoned Romney, which subsequently allowed Union forces to regain their stronghold in the Potomac River Valley.
Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:17:20 EST

Kernstown, Battle of

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:11:08 EST

The Battle of Kernstown on March 23, 1862, set the stage for Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's successful Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862 during the American Civil War (1861–1865). While a tactical defeat for the Confederates, and Jackson's only loss, the battle nevertheless was an important strategic victory. In order to deal with Confederates in the Shenandoah Valley, the Fifth Corps of Union general Nathaniel P. Banks was forced to stray even farther away from the bulk of the Army of the Potomac, which was advancing up the Peninsula and threatening the Confederate capital at Richmond. Jackson's pugnacious actions also contributed to U.S. president Abraham Lincoln's anxieties that Confederates might swarm out of the Valley and strike at Washington, D.C. Finally, the battle provided a compelling example of Jackson at his most inflexible and quarrelsome: when his subordinate, the popular Confederate general Richard B. Garnett, withdrew his troops without explicit orders, Jackson had him arrested.
Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:11:08 EST

Centreville During the Civil War

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:07:25 EST

Centreville is an unincorporated community in Fairfax County, Virginia, settled by the English in the 1720s. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), its elevated topography and its proximity to Washington, D.C., made Centreville attractive to both the Union and Confederate armies. So, too, did the junction of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad with the Manassas Gap line, a few miles to the southwest, which allowed the village to be used as a supply depot throughout the war. The First Battle of Manassas (1861) and the Second Battle of Manassas (1862) were fought nearby, and the Confederate partisan John S. Mosby used the village as a base during the war.
Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:07:25 EST

Seven Pines, Battle of

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:48:13 EST

The Battle of Seven Pines–Fair Oaks (May 31–June 1, 1862) was an attempt by forces under Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston to repulse the Union Army of the Potomac under George B. McClellan from the outskirts of Richmond during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Due to poor coordination, communications failure, and a confused command structure, the battle ended in a stalemate, with heavy casualties for both sides that far outstripped the last major confrontation in the East, the First Battle of Manassas (July 21, 1861), but paled in comparison to the recent carnage at Shiloh, Tennessee (April 6–7, 1862). The most momentous event of the battle occurred as night fell on May 31, when an exploding Union shell gravely wounded Johnston. Confederate president Jefferson Davis took the opportunity to place his military advisor, General Robert E. Lee, in command of the Confederate army.
Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:48:13 EST

Virginia Soldiers (Confederate) During the Civil War

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:35:31 EST

Approximately 155,000 Virginia men served in Confederate forces during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Another 32,000 served in Union forces; most of these came from the counties that today comprise the state of West Virginia, while a number of West Virginia troops were recruited from the neighboring states of Ohio and Pennsylvania. The total number of men eligible for military service in the state was 224,000. When those areas of Union-controlled Virginia are subtracted, the total drops to 174,000, making the enlistment rate in Confederate Virginia 89 percent. This represents a remarkable mobilization of resources and demonstrates how the Civil War represented an all-consuming experience for those who lived through it. Virginia sent more men to fight for the Confederacy than did any other state. Though Virginia soldiers served in all branches and participated in all theaters of war, a significant majority of them fought within the boundaries of their own state.
Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:35:31 EST

Photography During the Civil War

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:26:57 EST

During the course of the American Civil War (1861–1865), more than 3,000 individual photographers made war-related images. From Southerners' first pictures of Fort Sumter in April 1861 to Alexander Gardner's images of Richmond's ruined cityscape in April 1865, photographers covered nearly every major theater of military operations. They documented battlefields, soldiers' activities and movements, and the destructive effects the conflict had on civilians. Virginia and Virginians figured prominently in Civil War–era photography. Brothers Daniel and David Bendann, who began their careers in Richmond, for example, photographed noted Confederates, including Robert E. Lee, while scores of wartime images featured Virginia landmarks and landscapes.
Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:26:57 EST

Army of Northern Virginia

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:21:04 EST

The Army of Northern Virginia was the most successful Confederate army during the American Civil War (1861–1865). With Robert E. Lee at its head, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson commanding one of its corps, and J. E. B. Stuart leading its cavalry, the army won important victories at Fredericksburg (1862) and Chancellorsville (1863) while the Union Army of the Potomac shuffled through a series of commanders and crises of morale. Lee's army numbered 90,000 at its strongest and was organized into state-specific regiments and brigades, with about 55 percent of its men coming from the Upper South. Most of these soldiers were farmers and the vast majority had direct contact with slavery. By implementing a strategy of aggressively confronting Union armies and inflicting casualties, the army itself suffered high casualties, with more than 30,000 killed in action. In part because of this high toll, which placed it at the center of the South's fight for independence, the Army of Northern Virginia—like its battle flag and its commander—became a symbol of the Confederate nation. One woman lamented, after the army's surrender on April 9, 1865, that "we have depended too much on Gen Lee[,] too little on God, & I believe God has suffered his surrender to show us we can use other means than Gen Lee to affect his ends."
Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:21:04 EST

Civil War Widows

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:00:46 EST

Civil War widows in Virginia are defined as women married to Confederate soldiers who died during the American Civil War (1861–1865). The numbers of these women are difficult to determine—historians estimate between 4,000 and 6,000—but their characteristics are clearer. They were relatively young and their marriages had been relatively brief; if they had children, they were still too young to be of help in supporting the family. About half of all widows remarried during or after the conflict, with the youngest ones the most likely to do so; however, because of the war's toll on young men, they were substantially more likely to marry men who were much older or younger than themselves. Few of these women worked, but beginning in 1888, some were eligible for a state pension that provided the minimal support of $30 per year.
Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:00:46 EST

Hard War in Virginia During the Civil War

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:54:46 EST

Hard war describes the systematic and widespread destruction of Confederate civilians' property at the hands of Union soldiers in the final two years of the American Civil War (1861–1865). At the war's beginning, the dominant thinking of Union generals Winfield Scott and George B. McClellan had emphasized conciliation. They believed that the war should be fought in a way that encouraged Unionism in the South and did not preclude a peace short of overwhelming casualties. Repeated Union military failures in Virginia in 1861 and 1862, however, led to hard-war policies aimed at crushing civilians' will to resist, as well as their ability to deliver services and supplies to the Confederate armies. In Virginia, hard war was practiced by Union generals David Hunter and Philip H. Sheridan during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864. Although Union soldiers practiced more restraint than legend or the Lost Cause credits them for, the Valley was largely burned and many of its residents made refugees. Confederate generals Jubal A. Early and John A. McCausland retaliated that same year during raids into Maryland and Pennsylvania, but opportunities for a Confederate hard war were few.
Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:54:46 EST

Virginia Military Institute During the Civil War

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:55:45 EST

The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) is a state-funded military academy founded in 1839. Located in the Shenandoah Valley town of Lexington, it was only the second governmental military academy in the United States, after the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York (founded in 1802), and represented increased educational opportunity for non-elite southern men. Future Confederate generals Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and John McCausland were VMI instructors during John Brown's raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry in 1859, and they led cadets to his execution in Charles Town, where they helped to provide security. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), approximately 1,800 VMI graduates served (including 19 in the U.S. Army), with about 250 of them killed in action. Cadets famously were called to fight in the Battle of New Market, contributing to the Confederate victory on May 15, 1864. In June, Union general David Hunter ordered the school burned, and the cadets relocated to Richmond, where they helped to defend the Confederate capital.
Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:55:45 EST

Manassas Gap Railroad During the Civil War

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:50:30 EST

The Manassas Gap Railroad was chartered in 1849 and served as a short but crucial line for both Confederate and Union forces during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Although it had just seventy-seven miles of track, the railroad also connected points near the United States capital to the Shenandoah Valley, which made the line strategically important. Nearly thirty miles southwest of Washington, D.C., at Manassas Junction the tracks intersected the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, continued west into the Valley via the Blue Ridge Mountain pass known as Manassas Gap, and then went west through Strasburg, to terminate at Mount Jackson. Consequently, this railroad linked the Orange and Alexandria with other rail lines in northern and central Virginia, while its western terminus was in the Valley. The line also showed the strategic advantage railroads played in changing the tide of battle, highlighted during the First Battle of Manassas on July 21, 1861.
Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:50:30 EST

Lee Chapel

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:38:33 EST

Lee Chapel, whose spired clock tower rises above the tree-shaded campus of Washington and Lee University (formerly Washington College) in Lexington, Virginia, is the final resting place of Confederate general Robert E. Lee and is popularly known as "The Shrine of the South." Lee commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865). During his tenure as president of Washington College from October 1865 until his death in October 1870, he recommended the construction of and helped design a new chapel for worship and assembly. His wife, Mary Custis Lee, selected the chapel as Lee's burial site, and he was interred in a vault in the chapel basement. A mausoleum addition was dedicated in June 1883 that housed sculptor Edward Valentine's evocative memorial statue of the recumbent Lee. The nondenominational chapel was named a National Historic Landmark in 1961, and continues to accommodate large gatherings and special events. A museum on the basement level and tours of the chapel are available to the public.
Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:38:33 EST

Anderson, Joseph Reid (1813–1892)

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 10:22:21 EST

Joseph Reid Anderson was an iron manufacturer and Confederate army officer during the American Civil War (1861–1865). In 1848 he purchased the Tredegar Iron Company, the largest producer of munitions, cannon, railroad iron, steam engines, and other ordnance for the Confederate government during the Civil War. One of Anderson's most notable decisions was to introduce slaves into skilled industrial work at the ironworks, and by 1864, more than half the workers at Tredegar were bondsmen. Anderson served as a brigadier general for the Confederate army, and fought and was wounded during the Seven Days' Battles. He resigned his commission in the Confederate Army in 1862 to resume control of the ironworks, and after the war, Anderson was a strong proponent for peace, hoping to keep the Union army from taking possession of the ironworks. He failed, but regained control of Tredegar after he was pardoned by U.S. president Andrew Johnson in 1865. By 1873 Anderson had doubled the factory's prewar capacity, and its labor force exceeded 1,000 men, many of them black laborers and skilled workmen who received equal pay with white workers. Though Tredegar failed to make the transition from iron to steel production late in the nineteenth century, the company survived into the 1980s. Anderson was a well-known member of the Richmond community, serving multiple terms on the Richmond City Council and in the House of Delegates before and after the war.
Thu, 07 Apr 2011 10:22:21 EST

Lee, Mary Anna Randolph Custis (1807–1873)

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 16:42:57 EST

Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee was an artist, author, and early antislavery activist. The great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, she enjoyed virtually unequalled social status throughout her life. Tutored in history and philosophy, she became acquainted with the early republic's leaders, who visited her father's estate, Arlington. Following her mother's lead, she fought slavery, and helped to ease the lives of her own family's slaves. Her uncle's death in 1830 prompted a religious awakening, and marriage the next year to Robert E. Lee put her in the position of being an army wife, a somewhat uncomfortable role for someone of her background. She followed her husband to his various outposts, sketching her travels and becoming an artist of some note. While her connection to Lee did not immediately augment her social standing, when he led the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865), she was accorded further deference. Mary Custis Lee had not supported secession, but she was a devoted Confederate, her grace under pressure making her a symbol of quiet strength in wartime Richmond. At the end of her life, she was embittered by the Union occupation of her beloved Arlington and felt betrayed by her family's former slaves. She died in 1873.
Wed, 06 Apr 2011 16:42:57 EST

Military Organization and Rank During the Civil War

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:31:51 EST

The Union and Confederate armies employed similar systems of organization and rank during the American Civil War (1861–1865).
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:31:51 EST

Military Executions During the Civil War

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:30:10 EST

More soldiers were executed during the American Civil War (1861–1865) than in all other American wars combined. Approximately 500 men, representing both North and South, were shot or hanged during the four-year conflict, two-thirds of them for desertion. The Confederate Articles of War (1861) specified that "all officers and soldiers who have received pay, or have been duly enlisted in the services of the Confederate States, and shall be convicted of having deserted the same, shall suffer death, or such other punishment as, by sentence of a court-martial, shall be inflicted." The General Orders of the War Department (1861, 1862, 1863) directed that those men convicted of desertion were "to be shot to death with musketry, at such time and place as the commanding General may direct."
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:30:10 EST

Meade, George Gordon (1815–1872)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:27:45 EST

George G. Meade was a Union major general and one of the most important commanders of the American Civil War (1861–1865). He defeated Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia in the Battle of Gettysburg (1863) and led the main Union army in Virginia until the end of the war. Still, U.S. president Abraham Lincoln was often dissatisfied with the prudence and caution that characterized Meade's generalship. That, combined with a prickly personality that led some to refer to Meade as a "goggled eyed snapping turtle," played a significant role in Ulysses S. Grant's decision to assume principal direction of the Union war effort in Virginia from 1864 to 1865.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:27:45 EST

McDowell, Battle of

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:25:31 EST

The Battle of McDowell, fought May 8, 1862, was a costly but important Confederate victory that came near the beginning of Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's brilliant Shenandoah Valley Campaign during the American Civil War (1861–1865). As Union general George B. McClellan prepared to march his Army of the Potomac up the Virginia Peninsula and on to Richmond, Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston entrusted Jackson with preventing Union troops in the Shenandoah Valley from reinforcing McClellan. After a defeat at the Battle of Kernstown on March 23, Jackson retreated south, where his Army of the Valley joined with Edward "Allegheny" Johnson's Army of the Northwest and a reinforcing division under Richard S. Ewell. The Confederates, ensconced atop Sitlington's Hill on the west side of Bull Pasture Mountain, fended off the uphill attacks of Robert H. Milroy's Union troops in fighting that lasted until darkness fell. At one point General Johnson shouted a dare to Union forces to flank him, and although they failed, they did severely wound him. Confederates lost many more killed during the fray, but still counted the battle as a victory. McDowell set the stage for the rest of Jackson's hard-marching, hard-fighting campaign that, over the next month, kept Union troops penned up in the Valley.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:25:31 EST

Malvern Hill, Battle of

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:20:26 EST

The Battle of Malvern Hill, fought on July 1, 1862, and the final engagement of the Seven Days' Battles, resulted in a Confederate defeat, yet it still managed to halt Union general George B. McClellan's offensive up the Peninsula and against the Confederate capital at Richmond during the American Civil War (1861–1865). After a week of hard marching and maneuvering, the new Confederate commander, Robert E. Lee, decided to attack McClellan full-on at Malvern Hill, where the Union general had massed his artillery. His assault was piecemeal, however, and bloodily repelled, prompting Confederate general D. H. Hill to remark that "it was not war—it was murder."
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:20:26 EST

Longstreet, James (1821–1904)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:16:39 EST

James Longstreet was a Confederate General who served as Robert E. Lee's second-in-command for most of Lee's tenure as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Longstreet fought in many of the most important battles of the conflict and ended the war as a respected figure. Lee affectionately called him "my old war horse," while his soldiers nicknamed him "the old bulldog" and "the bull of the woods." In the postwar period, however, Longstreet drew criticism for his support of Republican policies during Reconstruction (1865–1877), and controversy erupted over his conduct years earlier at the Battle of Gettysburg (1863). As southerners in general and Virginians in particular enshrined Lee's memory, Longstreet became a scapegoat for Lee's failures and the central figure in the emergent Lost Cause mythology white southerners developed to explain the loss of the war.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:16:39 EST

Limber, Jim

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:15:22 EST

"Jim Limber" or James Henry Brooks—his legal name and his life dates are uncertain—was a free, mixed-race child in the Confederate capital of Richmond during the American Civil War (1861–1865) who lived for slightly more than a year in the household of Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Contemporary accounts suggest that he enjoyed an intimate relationship with the Davis family, leading some modern observers to make unverified claims that he was "adopted" and effectively became a member of the family. In the beginning of the twenty-first century, the child has become a symbol of the Confederate first family's supposed liberality on racial issues.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:15:22 EST

Libby Prison

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:14:14 EST

Libby Prison, in the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, housed Union prisoners of war during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Beginning as a hospital and general prison in 1861, Libby was converted into an officers-only facility in 1862, while also serving as a processing center for all Union prisoners. (Union enlisted men were often routed to Belle Isle on the James River.) The officers who stayed at Libby were crowded inside a three-story former tobacco factory in sparsely furnished rooms that exposed them to the elements; they often also suffered from severe food shortages. Their guards, in turn, struggled with controlling a large prison population. In February 1864, 109 prisoners escaped by tunnel, with 59 eventually reaching Union lines. A few weeks later, Union cavalry general H. Judson Kilpatrick and his one-legged protégé Colonel Ulric Dahlgren mounted an ambitious but disastrous rescue attempt, prompting Libby officials to dig a mine, fill it with explosives, and threaten to destroy the facility if any prisoners attempted to escape. Shortly thereafter, Confederate officials began transferring Libby's population to Georgia, with the facility being used as a place of temporary confinement for the next year. After Richmond fell on April 2, 1865, former Confederate officials became Libby's newest inmates.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:14:14 EST

Lee, Fitzhugh (1835–1905)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:07:29 EST

Fitzhugh Lee was a Confederate general during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and governor of Virginia (1886–1890). The nephew of Robert E. Lee, "Fitz" Lee commanded the cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia during the last months of the conflict. Neither an innovative tactician nor an astute strategist, he achieved modest success during his Confederate service. Thirty years after the war, he became a national hero thanks to his well-publicized promotion of American interests as United States consul general in Havana, Cuba, on the eve of the Spanish-American War (1898). At the time of his death he was hailed as "Our Dear Old Fitz," a celebrated symbol of postbellum reconciliation.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:07:29 EST

Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:05:54 EST

The Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid (February 28–March 3, 1864) was an ambitious attempt by Union cavalrymen to assault the lightly defended Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, and free prisoners of war during the American Civil War (1861–1865). The brainchild of the flamboyant Brigadier General H. Judson Kilpatrick, the raid turned into a fiasco when Kilpatrick's men were stopped northwest of the city and a supporting column, under the command of twenty-one-year-old Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, was routed to the east. Dahlgren was killed, and papers found on his body, which were subsequently published by the Richmond press, detailed plans to burn the city and assassinate Confederate president Jefferson Davis and his cabinet. Public opinion in both the North and the South was inflamed, and historians continue to debate the authority behind these so-called Dahlgren Papers. When she read of Dahlgren's corpse being mistreated, Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union spy in Richmond, used her contacts secretly to exhume the body and rebury it elsewhere.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:05:54 EST

Kemper, James Lawson (1823–1895)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:03:55 EST

James Lawson Kemper was a Confederate general during the American Civil War (1861–1865), who later served as governor of Virginia (1874–1877). Kemper volunteered in the Mexican War (1846–1848), but returned to his civilian life as a lawyer. He served five terms in the Virginia House of Delegates (1853–1863), including time as Speaker of the House (1861–1863). There he garnered a reputation for honesty and attention to duty. Kemper volunteered for service in 1861, and with his promotion in June 1862 became the Confederacy's youngest brigade commander. Badly wounded at Gettysburg in July 1863, Kemper oversaw the Virginia Reserve Forces for the remainder of the war. He helped found the Conservative Party during Reconstruction (1865–1877). Soundly defeating the Republican candidate in the 1873 gubernatorial race, Kemper found himself, as governor, at odds with previous supporters over his progressive stance on civil rights, prison reform, and public school improvements. Still suffering from his wound, Kemper retired to his law practice, and died in Orange County in 1895.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:03:55 EST

Johnston, Joseph E. (1807–1891)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:02:56 EST

Joseph E. Johnston was a veteran of the Mexican War (1846–1848), quartermaster general of the United States Army, a Confederate general during the American Civil War (1861–1865), a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1879–1881), and a U.S. railroad commissioner in the first administration of U.S. president Grover Cleveland (1885–1889). The highest-ranking U.S. Army officer to resign his commission at the start of the Civil War, Johnston helped lead Confederates to victory at the First Battle of Manassas in July 1861; a month later, however, when Confederate president Jefferson Davis appointed five men to the rank of full general, he was only fourth on the list, igniting a bitter feud with the president that would last the war and even spill into his postwar memoir, Narrative of Military Operations (1874). Historians, meanwhile, have split on his military performance, with some dubbing him "Retreatin' Joe," citing, among others, his retreats in the face of General George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac on the Peninsula in 1862. Johnston was wounded on June 1, 1862, at the Battle of Seven Pines, and Davis turned the Army of Northern Virginia over to General Robert E. Lee, who led it for the remainder of the war. Other historians have argued that Johnston's strategy of withdrawal saved Confederates from destruction during the Atlanta Campaign (1864); nevertheless, Davis replaced him then, too.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:02:56 EST

Jackson, Thomas J. "Stonewall" (1824–1863)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:00:12 EST

Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson was a West Point graduate, veteran of the Mexican War (1846–1848), instructor at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, and Confederate general under Robert E. Lee during the American Civil War (1861–1865). One of Lee's ablest commanders, Jackson earned his famous nickname during the First Battle of Manassas in 1861 when a fellow general is said to have cried out, "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians!" A few contemporary accounts suggest that the stone-wall comparison was not intended to be complimentary, but it hardly matters. The real Jackson—peculiarly earnest and single-minded but in many ways not so different from other soldiers of his day—was being transformed into the mythological one, an Old Testament God of wrath contrasting with Lee's Christ-like figure. When Jackson was accidentally wounded by his own men during the Battle of Chancellorsville (1863), Lee relayed to him a message: "Give General Jackson my affectionate regards, and say to him: he has lost his left arm but I my right." Jackson died eight days later due to complications from the injury. A martyr to his cause during the war, Jackson has become an iconic figure in Southern culture, second only to Lee in the pantheon of Confederate heroes.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:00:12 EST

Harland, Marion (1830–1922)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:55:42 EST

Marion Harland was a writer of novels, short stories, biographies, travel narratives, cookbooks, and domestic manuals whose career stretched across seven decades of sectional conflict and great change in American life. Harland chronicled much of that change, penning novels that suggested her own divided loyalties between North and South before establishing herself as an expert and often a sly and sarcastic commentator on the domestic arts of homemaking.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:55:42 EST

West Virginia, Creation of

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:52:33 EST

West Virginia was recognized by the United States government as the thirty-fifth state on June 20, 1863, an event that was the culmination of more than sixty years of heated sectional politics and legislative maneuverings. From the first political rumblings of new-state advocates at the turn of the nineteenth century through the formative sessions of the Wheeling conventions held from 1861 until 1863, the creation of West Virginia was a complex and contentious process that divided the residents, communities, and political leaders of Virginia. Spearheaded by northwestern Virginians, the statehood movement began as an effort to expand western political influence and the region's growing industrial economy. Final approval of West Virginia's statehood was forged amid the chaos and divisiveness of the secession debate and the bloodshed of the American Civil War (1861–1865).
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:52:33 EST

Grant, Ulysses S. (1822–1885)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:51:38 EST

Ulysses S. Grant rose from command of an Illinois regiment to general-in-chief of all Union armies during the American Civil War (1861–1865), and served as the eighteenth president of the United States (1869–1877). Victor at important battles in the western theater, Grant arrived in Virginia in March 1864 as a newly minted lieutenant general and the military leader of all Union forces. He took the field with the Army of the Potomac rather than running the war from a desk in Washington, D.C., and provided de facto direction of that army from May 1864 until April 1865. Grant's stature as the preeminent Union general catapulted him into the White House for two terms, and his legacy, though still debated, remains that of the soldier who won the war for the Union.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:51:38 EST

Glendale, Battle of

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:50:06 EST

The Battle of Glendale, fought on June 30, 1862, was the second-to-last conflict during a series of engagements known as the Seven Days' Battles, which occurred at the tail end of the Peninsula Campaign during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Union major general George B. McClellan, charged with capturing the Confederate capital of Richmond, instead found himself in retreat from General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. While withdrawing back toward the James River, the Union army successfully stopped Lee's forces from overrunning its retreat, repulsing the Confederates outside the village of Glendale in eastern Henrico County, some eighteen miles east of Richmond. This resistance allowed McClellan to move his troops safely to a highly defensible position on Malvern Hill. The battle went McClellan's way in part because of intricate plans that were not well executed by Lee's lieutenants, in particular Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, who spent part of the day's fighting asleep under a tree.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:50:06 EST

Gettysburg Campaign

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:48:47 EST

The Gettysburg Campaign, which culminated in the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), was the most ambitious offensive attempted by the Confederacy during the American Civil War (1861–1865). In June 1863, Confederate general Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia invaded the North in hopes of relieving pressure on war-torn Virginia, defeating the Union Army of the Potomac on Northern soil, and striking a decisive blow to Northern morale. George G. Meade had commanded the Union army only three days when his advance columns collided unexpectedly with Confederates at the small town of Gettysburg in southeastern Pennsylvania. Fighting raged for three days, inflicted a combined 51,000 casualties, and climaxed on July 3 with the doomed Confederate frontal assault known as Pickett's Charge. After retreating across the Potomac, the Army of Northern Virginia was never again an offensive force, and Lee's aura of invincibility was shattered. Historians have long argued that this, along with the capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi, on July 4, was the war's turning point. It was also a turning point for how the war would be perceived by generations to come. In the immediate postwar years, Virginians in particular began a debate over generalship during the battle, often seeking to prop up heroes like Lee and to destroy supposed villains, such as Lee's South Carolina–born lieutenant, James Longstreet. These arguments formed the basis of the Lost Cause view of the war.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:48:47 EST

Gaines's Mill, Battle of

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:45:11 EST

The Battle of Gaines's Mill, fought on June 27, 1862, and one of the Seven Days' Battles, was a Confederate victory and remembered by many of its participants as the most intense fight of the American Civil War (1861–1865). As Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson arrived with his troops from the Shenandoah Valley, Robert E. Lee determined to take the offensive against Union general George B. McClellan and his Army of the Potomac, which threatened the Confederate capital at Richmond. On June 26, Lee was turned back at Mechanicsville, but McClellan retreated anyway. The following day at Gaines's Mill—named for the nearby grist mill of Dr. William Gaines—Lee attacked again, finding Union troops positioned behind a stream that was entirely absent from Confederate maps. While Richmond's elite looked on, Confederate generals A. P. Hill and Richard S. Ewell charged up a steep hill, suffering horrific casualties, before Jackson's men—late-arriving and slow to engage—finally joined the fight. At dusk, the battle turned in the Confederates' favor, and an evening cavalry charge led by Union general Philip St. George Cooke was a costly failure. In nine ghastly hours of fighting, Union and Confederate casualties totaled about 15,000 men.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:45:11 EST

Fredericksburg, Battle of

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:42:45 EST

The Battle of Fredericksburg at the end of 1862 was perhaps the Confederacy's most lopsided victory of the American Civil War (1861–1865). Union Major General Ambrose E. Burnside, charged with aggressively pursuing and destroying General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, instead led his own Army of the Potomac to what was perhaps its greatest defeat. On December 13, Burnside sent six Union divisions across an open field against Lee's well-fortified line, causing such slaughter that Burnside wept openly at the outcome and Lee was inspired to utter his famous remark to his subordinates, "It is well that war is so terrible. We should grow too fond of it." The Fredericksburg defeat was one of the lowest points for Union fortunes in the war. Eight months later, when Confederates experienced a similar fate at Gettysburg, jubilant Union troops were heard to yell, "Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!"
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:42:45 EST

Ford, Antonia (1838–1871)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:58:21 EST

Antonia Ford was a Confederate spy during the American Civil War (1861–1865), credited with providing the military information gathered from her Fairfax Court House home during the First Battle of Manassas (1861) and in the two years following. In October 1861, Confederate cavalry general J. E. B. Stuart issued an order declaring her an honorary aide-de-camp. The document was used against Ford in 1863, however, when she was accused of spying for John Singleton Mosby, whose partisan rangers famously captured the Union general Edwin H. Stoughton in his headquarters. Mosby later denied that Ford ever spied for him. After several months in prison, Ford was released and married one of her captors, Union major Joseph C. Willard. Ford stopped spying, Willard resigned from the army, and they returned to managing the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., and had three children.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:58:21 EST

Floyd, John B. (1806–1863)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:57:09 EST

John B. Floyd was governor of Virginia (1849–1852), secretary of war in the administration of United States president James Buchanan (1857–1860), and a Confederate general during the American Civil War (1861–1865). As governor, he helped usher in the apportionment and suffrage reforms proposed by the constitutional convention of 1850–1851, but at Buchanan's War Department his reputation plunged because of various corruption scandals. His good name would never recover. At Fort Donelson, Tennessee, in February 1862, he held off the forces of Union brigadier general Ulysses S. Grant for two days. Rather than personally surrender, however, he and his Virginia soldiers fled by steamboat in the middle of the night, leaving the duty to his third in command. Floyd was relieved of his command a month later.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:57:09 EST

Five Forks, Battle of

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:55:50 EST

The Battle of Five Forks, on April 1, 1865, was the last major battle of the Petersburg Campaign during the American Civil War (1861–1865). By defeating Confederate infantry under George E. Pickett and cavalry under William H. F. "Rooney" Lee, Fitzhugh Lee, and Thomas L. Rosser, Union general Philip H. Sheridan was able to flank the Confederate lines at Petersburg. The action allowed the Union Army of the Potomac, after nearly ten months of siege, to break through Confederate general Robert E. Lee's lines and, by April 2, claim Petersburg and the Confederate capital at Richmond. When it was through, Union troops were positioned along the major transportations routes south, forcing evacuating Confederate troops to travel west during the Appomattox Campaign. Their attempt to unite with the Confederate army of Joseph E. Johnston was foiled, however, and Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9. Besides hastening the end of the war, the battle had major implications on two careers: When the fighting started, Pickett was famously absent behind the lines at a shad bake and failed to coordinate the action properly, staining his reputation. Union general Gouverneur K. Warren, meanwhile, was actually relieved of command during the battle, a move by Sheridan that was ruled improper in 1879.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:55:50 EST

Ewell, Richard S. (1817–1872)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:44:20 EST

Richard S. Ewell was a Confederate lieutenant general during the American Civil War (1861–1865) who apprenticed under Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862, and later took charge of the Army of Northern Virginia's Second Corps after Jackson's death. Nicknamed "Old Bald Head" and said to be "blisteringly profane," Ewell courted controversy with his decision not to attack Cemetery Hill on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg (1863). Some historians have claimed that Ewell's inaction in this episode cost the Confederates the battle, although Robert E. Lee's orders on the matter were vague and it is unclear whether Ewell's men could have carried the day in any case.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:44:20 EST

Emory and Henry College During the Civil War

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:43:01 EST

Emory and Henry College, located in the town of Emory in Washington County, is the oldest college in southwestern Virginia and was attended by the future Confederate cavalry general J. E. B. Stuart. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the school was closed while many of its students fought in the Confederate army, and the Confederate government used its buildings to establish the Emory Confederate States Hospital. After the nearby Battle of Saltville in October 1864, wounded Union soldiers, including members of the 5th U.S. Colored Cavalry, were treated there. On the morning of October 3, Confederate soldiers reportedly killed several black troopers and their white lieutenant in what has come to be known as the "Saltville Massacre."
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:43:01 EST

Terrill, William R. (1834–1862)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:41:16 EST

William R. Terrill was a Virginia-born Union general during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Three of his brothers fought for the Confederacy, two of whom died, including James B. Terrill, who was killed in 1864. Disowned by his family, William Terrill distinguished himself in the Western Theater of the war, including at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862. A strict disciplinarian, he was "a drunken old tyrant" in the words of one soldier. Others were more sympathetic, with a Union captain arguing that he was "a first rate fighting man." Terrill was promoted to brigadier general in September 1862 and, in October, commanded a brigade at the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky, where he struggled with coordinating both infantry and artillery, raw recruits and professional soldiers. He was killed in the fighting.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:41:16 EST

Taylor, Walter H. (1838–1916)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:40:03 EST

Walter H. Taylor served for most of the American Civil War (1861–1865) as adjutant to Robert E. Lee, overseeing the paperwork and administrative functions of the Confederate general's commands. A businessman and banker before and after the war, Taylor is best known for writing books that defended the reputations of Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia, books that today are considered to be important contributions to Lost Cause literature.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:40:03 EST

Stuart, J. E. B. (1833–1864)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:38:55 EST

J. E. B. Stuart, popularly known by his nickname "Jeb," was the chief of cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865). A Regular Army veteran who participated in the capture of John Brown at Harpers Ferry in 1859, Stuart fought well at the First Battle of Manassas (1861) but became a Confederate hero the following summer when he led 1,200 troopers in a famous ride around Union general George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac. In particular, he was praised for his ability to gather intelligence and act as Robert E. Lee's "eyes and ears," leading a second long ride later that year. At Chancellorsville (1863), Stuart temporarily led Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's corps when both Jackson and A. P. Hill were wounded, and helped to push Joseph Hooker's forces back across the Rappahannock River. Stuart cultivated himself as the epitome of Virginia's mythical Cavalier, sporting a long beard and a plumed hat. He enjoyed staging elaborate reviews like the two near Brandy Station, Virginia, in June 1863, which attracted many local women. The day after the second review, Stuart's troopers fended off a surprise attack in the largest cavalry battle of the war, but soon after, another long ride around the Union army failed, hampering Lee's intelligence at the Battle of Gettysburg (1863). Stuart was wounded at the Battle of Yellow Tavern and died one day later on May 12, 1864.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:38:55 EST

Stuart, Flora Cooke (1836–1923)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:37:56 EST

Flora Cooke Stuart was the wife of Confederate general J. E. B. Stuart and the daughter of Union general Philip St. George Cooke. She met Stuart, a dashing subordinate of her father, while living in the Kansas Territory in the 1850s, and after marrying, the two settled in Virginia. Secession, however, split their family, with Cooke, a respected cavalryman, remaining in the United States Army and Stuart eventually becoming chief of cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia. "He will regret it but once & that will be continually," Stuart said of his father-in-law's decision; he even renamed his and Flora's months'-old son, Philip St. George Cooke Stuart, after himself, James Ewell Brown Stuart Jr. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), Flora Stuart spent as much time as possible in camp with her husband, and chafed at the generous attention he received from admiring women in Virginia and across the South. When Stuart died after being wounded at the Battle of Yellow Tavern (1864), she donned mourning garb and wore it for the remaining fifty-nine years of her life. During that time, she served as headmistress of a women's school in Staunton that was subsequently named for her. She later moved to Norfolk, where she died in 1923.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:37:56 EST

Stonewall Brigade

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:36:27 EST

The Stonewall Brigade was a collection of five Virginia infantry regiments and an artillery battery in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Trained and first led by Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, it was perhaps the most accomplished—and certainly one of the most famous—units of its kind in American military history. The brigade saw action in many of the bloodiest battles of the war, from First Manassas (1861) to Antietam (1862) to Gettysburg (1863) to Spotsylvania Court House (1864), losing only a single engagement under Jackson's command but also losing more than 96 percent of its men by 1865.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:36:27 EST

States' Rights

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:35:21 EST

States' rights is a political philosophy that emphasizes the rights of individual states to fight what proponents believe to be the encroaching power of the United States government. Although the discourse around states' rights dates from the American Revolution (1775–1783) and the writings of Thomas Jefferson, it became critically important first during the Nullification Crisis (1828–1832), when South Carolina attempted to overrule a federally imposed tariff, and then during the Secession Crisis (1860–1861), when South Carolina and a number of other Southern states, including Virginia, seceded from the Union rather than accept the election of Abraham Lincoln as U.S. president. In theory, states' rights generally favors state and local control over federal control. During the 1850s, however, it was a malleable political philosophy that both Northerners and Southerners employed to advance their sectional interests. Deep South politicians acquiesced to federal power when it protected slavery but cited states' rights when questioning federal attempts at regulating the spread of slavery into new territories. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the philosophy served both as a pillar of Confederate propaganda and, at times, as a drag on Confederate unity. Ironically, Confederate president Jefferson Davis had little trouble expanding the central government in order to prosecute the war.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:35:21 EST

Spotsylvania Court House, Battle of

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:34:03 EST

The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, fought May 8–21, 1864, was the second major engagement of the Overland Campaign during the American Civil War (1861–1865). After the Battle of the Wilderness (May 5–6), in which Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant had tried to turn Confederate general Robert E. Lee's right flank and was pushed back, Grant refused to regroup or retreat. Instead, he continued to maneuver south toward the Confederate capital at Richmond, next meeting Lee at the strategically important hamlet of Spotsylvania Court House. There, the Union Army of the Potomac and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia clashed for nearly two weeks, with the heaviest fighting occurring for approximately twenty-one hours from May 12 to May 13. In what some historians have called the most intense combat of the war, the two sides fought largely hand to hand inside Confederate entrenchments. The worst of it occurred at an exposed portion of the line Confederates dubbed the "Mule Shoe" and a nearby a curve that came to be known as the "Bloody Angle." Bodies piled up five deep in a driving rainstorm so that blood mixed with water and some wounded men drowned. "No Mardi Gras Carnival ever devised such a diabolical looking set of devils as we were," a Mississippian recalled. "It was no imitation of red paint and burnt cork, but genuine human gore and gun powder smoke." Casualties were horrific for both sides, but when it was through, Grant continued to push south.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:34:03 EST

Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:25:54 EST

The Shenandoah Valley Campaign, conducted from February to June 1862 during the American Civil War (1861–1865), catapulted Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson from relative obscurity to the first rank of Southern generals. In six small engagements—at Kernstown, McDowell, Front Royal, Winchester, Cross Keys, and Port Republic—Jackson tied down large Union forces in the Shenandoah Valley that otherwise would have been used—probably decisively—in a Union offensive against the Confederate capital at Richmond. Jackson drove his troops hard and fast, outpacing and outsmarting an array of Union generals, including Nathaniel P. Banks, Irvin McDowell, John C. Frémont, James Shields, Robert H. Milroy, and Robert C. Schenck. In the process, he arrested and recommended for court-martial one of his own—Richard B. Garnett—and lost to battle another, the cavalry general Turner Ashby. In addition to its strategic importance, the victorious campaign also provided a huge boost to Southern morale at a time when the Confederacy had suffered through a springtime of defeats. As Jackson said early in the campaign, "If the Valley is lost, Virginia is lost."
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:25:54 EST

Ruffin, Edmund (1794–1865)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:15:40 EST

Edmund Ruffin was a prominent Southern nationalist, noted agriculturalist, writer and essayist, and Virginia state senator (1823–1827). After dropping out of college and serving briefly in the Virginia militia during the War of 1812, Ruffin began a long career farming along the James River and studying the soil. He published the results of his experiments and founded a journal, the Farmers' Register, in 1833. During these years, Ruffin's politics also became radicalized, first around banking issues, and then around states' rights, slavery, and secession. After John Brown's failed raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in October 1859, Ruffin began speaking out against what he considered to be Northern aggression, and he even joined cadets from the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington so he could attend Brown's execution. Ruffin continued to agitate for secession during the United States presidential election of 1860, and he is erroneously credited with firing the first shot on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, starting the American Civil War (1861–1865). A popular hero in the South, Ruffin nevertheless suffered financial setbacks during the war, as well as declining health, and in 1865, following the Confederates' defeat, he killed himself.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:15:40 EST

Randolph, George Wythe (1818–1867)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:56:33 EST

George Wythe Randolph was a lawyer, Confederate general, and, briefly, Confederate secretary of war during the American Civil War (1861–1865). The grandson of former U.S. president Thomas Jefferson, Randolph hailed from an elite Virginia family but largely shunned public life until John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. He supported secession, founded the Richmond Howitzers, joined the Confederate army, and fought at the Battle of Big Bethel (1861). Appointed the Confederacy's third secretary of war in March 1862, he helped to reform the War Department at a time when the Confederate capital at Richmond was threatened by Union general George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign (1862). Randolph helped to improve procurement and authored the Confederacy's first conscription law, having already done the same for Virginia. His independence and focus on the strategic importance of the West put him into conflict with Confederate president Jefferson Davis, and he resigned in November 1862, his health failing. He died of tuberculosis in 1867.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:56:33 EST

Popular Literature During the Civil War

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:48:51 EST

With the formation of the Confederacy at the beginning of the American Civil War (1861–1865), the Southern literary establishment foresaw the dawning of a new literature. Southern audiences would no longer, in the words of the editor of the Richmond-based Southern Illustrated News, be compelled to read "the trashy productions of itinerant Yankees." Instead, he predicted, the region would enjoy "Southern books, written by Southern gentlemen, printed on Southern type, and sold by Southern publishing houses." And, indeed, by the end of 1862 that newspaper made the claim that the Richmond firm of West & Johnson had published more books from original manuscripts during the past year "than any firm in Yankee land." Nevertheless, the output of belles letters in the Confederacy was what historian Elisabeth Muhlenfeld has characterized as "the perennial poor relation of Southern literature."
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:48:51 EST

Pope, John (1822–1892)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:47:43 EST

John Pope was a Union general during the American Civil War (1861–1865) with a reputation for outspokenness and arrogance. After serving in the Mexican War (1846–1848) as an engineer, the West Point graduate fought well in the West during 1861 and 1862, prompting U.S. president Abraham Lincoln to transfer him east. There, he exacerbated his already bad relations with Union generals George B. McClellan and Fitz-John Porter by issuing a proclamation trumpeting his own generalship. When he declared that he would make his "headquarters in the saddle," some quipped that he had mistaken his hindquarters for his headquarters, and when he announced a series of hard-war policies aimed at punishing Confederate civilians, Confederate general Robert E. Lee labeled him a "miscreant." At the head of the new Army of Virginia, Pope got the opportunity to confront Lee at the Second Battle of Manassas in August 1862 but was soundly defeated. Pope was transferred to the Dakotas, where he fought against Indians in the aftermath of the Sioux Uprising (1862). During Reconstruction (1865–1877), he held military administrative posts in the South. He died in 1892.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:47:43 EST

Pickett, LaSalle Corbell (1843–1931)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:44:50 EST

LaSalle Corbell Pickett was a prolific author and lecturer, and the third wife of George E. Pickett, the Confederate general best known for his participation in the doomed frontal assault known as Pickett's Charge during the American Civil War (1861–1865). After her husband's death in 1875, she traveled the country to promote a highly romanticized version of his life and military career that was generally at odds with the historical record. George Pickett emerged from the war with a strained relationship with Robert E. Lee—whom he partly blamed for the destruction of his division at Gettysburg (1863)—and accused of war crimes. But in his wife's history, Pickett and His Men (1899), this not-always-competent soldier was transformed into the ideal Lost Cause hero, "gallant and graceful as a knight of chivalry riding to a tournament." This image largely stuck in the American consciousness, leaving historians to spend much of the next century attempting to separate Pickett from his myth.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:44:50 EST

Petersburg Campaign

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:41:00 EST

The Petersburg Campaign was one of the final campaigns in the eastern theater during the American Civil War (1861–1865). It began on June 15, 1864, with the sustained contest to control the city—Virginia's second largest and the supply center for the Confederate capital at Richmond—and concluded with its occupation by Union forces on April 3, 1865. The campaign included parallel actions north of the James River, east of Richmond, and was inextricably linked with simultaneous military actions elsewhere, most directly in the Shenandoah Valley. Union armies under Ulysses S. Grant failed to storm Petersburg from June 15 to 18 and on July 30, following the Battle of the Crater, in which a mine was exploded under the Confederate works. Southern forces led by Robert E. Lee, aided by an elaborate system of field fortifications that eventually stretched thirty-seven miles, fought on the strategic defensive, gradually surrendering the city's supply lines to a series of Grant's offensives. Grant at last shattered Lee's defenses on April 2, 1865, leading to the evacuation of Richmond and Petersburg that night. Within a week, Lee would surrender the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant at Appomattox Court House, ninety miles west of Petersburg, for all practical purposes ending the Civil War in Virginia.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:41:00 EST

Peninsula Campaign

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:39:28 EST

The Peninsula Campaign, fought during the spring and summer of 1862, was an attempt by Union general-in-chief George B. McClellan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond from the southeast during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Pressured by United States president Abraham Lincoln to mount an offensive—Union forces had been dormant since the previous July—McClellan steamed his Army of the Potomac down the Chesapeake Bay, landed it at Fort Monroe, and marched it up the Peninsula between the James and York rivers. He was confronted at Yorktown by Confederates under John B. Magruder, who convinced McClellan that Confederate forces were stronger than they actually were. Consequently, on April 5 McClellan began a siege rather than attacking, providing time for Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Northern Virginia to arrive. Union and Confederate forces next fought each other at Williamsburg on May 5. Then Johnston took advantage of the fact that McClellan's army was caught on both sides of a rain-swollen Chickahominy River, attacking him at the Battle of Seven Pines–Fair Oaks on May 31. Johnston was wounded in the two-day battle, and Robert E. Lee took command of Confederate forces, attacking McClellan three weeks later and, in the Seven Days' Campaign, driving him off the Peninsula and saving Richmond.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:39:28 EST

Pendleton, Alexander S. (1840–1864)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:35:52 EST

Alexander S. Pendleton was a Confederate staff officer in the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Nicknamed Sandie, he was best known for his service under Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, who died following the Battle of Chancellorsville (1863), but he also served under Jackson's successors Richard S. Ewell and Jubal A. Early. Henry Kyd Douglas, a fellow member of Jackson's staff, called him "the most brilliant staff officer in the Army of Northern Virginia and the most popular with officers and men."
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:35:52 EST

Numbers at Pickett's Charge

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:31:33 EST

Pickett's Charge, which might be better understood either as Longstreet's assault or the Trimble-Pickett-Pettigrew Charge, was a failed Confederate frontal assault on July 3, 1863, on the third and final day of the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Although it is the most famous attack of the war, many of its basic facts remain unclear. "For a pivotal moment in military history replete with eyewitnesses," the historian Carol Reardon has written, "consensus on many aspects of the afternoon's events is surprisingly hard to reach." In particular, historians continue to disagree on the following: a) how many Confederate artillery pieces participated in the pre-attack bombardment, b) how long the artillery fired, c) how many Confederate troops participated in the attack, and d) how far they marched to reach the Union lines on Cemetery Ridge.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:31:33 EST

North Anna, Battle of

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:30:25 EST

The Battle of North Anna was fought May 23–26, 1864, during the American Civil War (1861–1865). It came three days after the bloody Battle of Spotsylvania Court House during the Overland Campaign of 1864, the spring offensive in which the Union army's new general-in-chief, Ulysses S. Grant, stubbornly pursued Confederate general Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia all the way to the Confederate capital of Richmond. A number of small engagements along the North Anna River in central Virginia rather than a single pitched fight, the battle marked one of many instances when Lee managed to outmaneuver his more powerful foe. Still, the Battle of North Anna highlighted the exhaustion of both armies and led Grant to believe that the Confederates were nearing defeat.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:30:25 EST

Mourning During the Civil War

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:26:03 EST

Mourning is the process of grieving the death of a loved one. In the mid-nineteenth century, middle- and upper-class Americans observed an elaborate set of rules that governed behavior following the death of a spouse or relative. The astronomical rate of death during the American Civil War (1861–1865) often hindered the mourning process, transformed the ways in which individuals and communities responded to death, and heightened women's public role in mourning traditions.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:26:03 EST

Winder, John H. (1800–1865)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:20:17 EST

John H. Winder was a Confederate general who served as provost marshal of Richmond (1862–1864) and commissary general of Confederate prisons (1864–1865) during the American Civil War (1861–1865). A career military officer, Winder served with distinction during both the Second Seminole War (1835–1842) and the Mexican War (1846–1848), but faced criticism from Union officials and, subsequently, historians for his management of Richmond's wartime prisons and, beginning in June 1864, the notorious Andersonville Prison in Georgia. Described by his biographer as "short-tempered" and "aloof," Winder was responsible for the Castle Thunder, Belle Isle, and Libby prisons when they became infamous in the North for their poor conditions. While he was at Andersonville, the mortality rate of Union prisoners surged as a result of overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and poor rations. Winder's defenders argue that he struggled with an inefficient Confederate bureaucracy and scarce resources, and that he instituted policies, late in the war, that reduced the number of prisoner deaths. He died of a heart attack in February 1865; his subordinate at Andersonville, Henry H. Wirz, was hanged later that year.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:20:17 EST

Willey, Waitman T. (1811–1900)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:19:22 EST

Waitman T. Willey was a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850–1851, a delegate to the Virginia Convention of 1861 that voted to secede from the Union, a United States senator from the Restored government of Virginia (1861–1863), and, alongside Peter G. Van Winkle, one of the first two United States senators from West Virginia (1863–1871). A native of western Virginia, he was instrumental in the formation of the new state of West Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865). As a member of the U.S. Senate, he authored the Willey Amendment in 1863—a compromise on the question of the freedom of the state's African Americans that extinguished his hopes for compensated emancipation. Instead, it decreed that slaves younger than twenty-one years old on July 4, 1863, would become free once they reached that age. The compromise assured West Virginia's acceptance into the Union.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:19:22 EST

Wilderness During the Civil War, The

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:17:54 EST

The Wilderness of Spotsylvania was a tightly forested area nearly twelve miles wide by six miles long; it was located south of the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers, ten miles west of Fredericksburg, in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), two major battles were fought there: Chancellorsville, in May 1863, where Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson famously outflanked Union forces under Joseph Hooker; and the Wilderness, in May 1864, where the Union's new general-in-chief, Ulysses S. Grant, initiated the Overland Campaign. The topography of the Wilderness—dense woods and thick undergrowth broken up by a number of small clearings—made the maneuvering of large armies particularly difficult and the experience of fighting claustrophobic. In both battles, burst shells ignited the woods, burning wounded soldiers. At Chancellorsville, Jackson was killed by a volley from his own men and, a year later, Confederate general James Longstreet was wounded, also by friendly fire.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:17:54 EST

Wise, Henry A. (1806–1876)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:10:03 EST

Henry A. Wise was a lawyer, a member of the United States House of Representatives (1832–1844), U.S. minister to Brazil (1844–1847), governor of Virginia (1856–1860) during John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, and a brigadier general in the Confederate army during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Born in Accomack County on Virginia's Eastern Shore, Wise rose to national prominence during the political turmoil of the late antebellum period. A fiery politician and gifted orator with a mercurial temperament, he advocated a number of progressive positions, including capital improvements in western Virginia, broadening Virginia's electoral base through constitutional reform, and public funding for universal elementary education. Wise also was a stout defender of slavery and eventually became an ardent secessionist. Perhaps best known for being governor when Brown attempted to spark a slave rebellion at Harpers Ferry, Wise had the authority to commute Brown's death sentence. Instead, he allowed the execution to take place, making possible the radical abolitionist's ascension to martyrdom. After Virginia's secession in 1861, Wise served in the Confederate army. In 1872, he supported U.S. president Ulysses S. Grant, the former Union general-in-chief, in his campaign for reelection.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:10:03 EST

Wilderness, Battle of the

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:05:56 EST

The Battle of the Wilderness, fought May 5–6, 1864, was the opening engagement of the Overland Campaign during the American Civil War (1861–1865). The newly appointed general-in-chief of the Union armies, Ulysses S. Grant, personally led the Army of the Potomac south across the Rapidan River in what he hoped would be a quick maneuver around the right flank of Confederate general Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia. Instead, Lee engaged Grant where he had engaged Joseph Hooker almost exactly a year earlier—in the seventy-square-mile patch of tangled undergrowth known as the Wilderness. The battle that resulted was uncoordinated, bloody, and often confused, with a testy Grant pressing Lee's men on May 5 and very nearly breaking through the Confederate lines on May 6. Lee was famously restrained by his men from leading a countercharge, and his top lieutenant, James Longstreet, was seriously wounded when he was accidently shot by Virginia troops near the spot where, at Chancellorsville the year before, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson had been similarly wounded. Unlike Jackson, Longstreet survived, and amid burning trees the Confederates won a tactical victory. Grant, however, refused to turn back, confronting Lee again and again until finally stalling before Petersburg.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:05:56 EST

Virginia Convention of 1861

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:01:52 EST

The Virginia Convention of 1861, also known later as the Secession Convention, convened on February 13, 1861, on the eve of the American Civil War (1861–1865), to consider whether Virginia should secede from the United States. Its 152 delegates, a majority of whom were Unionist, had been elected at the behest of the Virginia General Assembly, which also directed that their decision be ratified by a statewide referendum. Several states in the Deep South, beginning with South Carolina, had already left the Union in response to the election in November 1860 of Abraham Lincoln as United States president. Virginia, however, hesitated, and debate raged on for months. On April 4, secessionists badly lost a vote but prepared for the possibility of war nevertheless. Former Virginia governor Henry A. Wise worked behind the scenes and outside the legal process to secure the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry by military means, a move that prompted a furious objection from Unionist delegate John Baldwin of Staunton. After the fall of Fort Sumter on April 13 and Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers on April 15, the momentum turned toward secession, and the convention voted on April 17 to leave the Union. Virginians expressed their agreement at the polls on May 23. The state had joined the Confederacy.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:01:52 EST

United States Presidential Election of 1860

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:58:08 EST

The United States presidential election of 1860 was perhaps the most pivotal in American history. A year after John Brown's attempted slave revolt at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, the national debate over slavery had reached a boiling point, and several Southern states were threatening to secede should the Republican Party candidate, Abraham Lincoln, win. Along with its Upper South neighbors, Virginia struggled with both the perceived threat of Northern abolitionism and the fear that secession would trigger war. The four major candidates, meanwhile, reflected a political system in chaos. At its convention, the Democratic Party split into two factions, with the Northern Democrats nominating U.S. senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, a moderate on slavery, and the Southern Democrats nominating the U.S. vice president, John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, on a proslavery, states' rights platform. After the demise of the Whig Party, many of its former members went to the Constitutional Union Party, which nominated John Bell of Tennessee and advocated compromise. The Republicans, who opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories, best exploited the circumstances, winning 180 electoral votes and 39.8 percent of the popular vote. Reflecting Virginia's moderation, however, the state was one of only three to favor Bell. In the end, Lincoln's election led directly to South Carolina's secession and the American Civil War (1861–1865).
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:58:08 EST

Twenty-Slave Law

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:56:46 EST

The Twenty-Slave Law, passed by the Confederate Congress on October 11, 1862, during the American Civil War (1861–1865), created an exemption to military conscription for the owners of twenty or more slaves. The law was controversial in much of the South, where it served to exacerbate certain social rifts and led to claims by drafted soldiers that they were fighting a "rich man's war." The law did not generate as much opposition in Virginia, home to the Confederacy's largest population of slaves. Supporters viewed the law as essential in guarding against slave rebellion and in maintaining agriculture and industry and, therefore, the nation's ability to carry on the war effort. The Confederate Congress later amended the law to alleviate concerns, limiting the ability of plantation owners to evade military service.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:56:46 EST

Tiernan, Mary Spear (1836–1891)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:42:49 EST

Mary Spear Tiernan was a novelist, essayist, and occasional poet who wrote primarily about central Virginia before and during the American Civil War (1861–1865). She published three novels, as well as short stories, which appeared in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Scribner's Magazine, Century Magazine, and the Southern Review, among others. Her fiction vividly depicted wartime Richmond , and her novel Homoselle (1881) was based on a Virginia slave revolt and can be distinguished for Tiernan's remarkable sympathy for African Americans.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:42:49 EST

Thomas, George H. (1816–1870)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:41:01 EST

George H. Thomas was a Virginia native, a veteran of the Mexican War (1846–1848), and a Union general during the American Civil War (1861–1865) who earned the nickname "the Rock of Chickamauga" after his defensive stand at the Georgia battle in 1863. He won an early Union victory at the Battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky (1862), and decisively defeated the Confederate Army of Tennessee during the Battle of Nashville (1864). He also served as a subordinate at the Battle of Stone's River (1862–1863) and the Chattanooga Campaign (1863) in Tennessee and, under his West Point roommate William T. Sherman, the 1864 Atlanta Campaign. Thomas was a slave owner before the war, but his experience commanding African American soldiers led him to change his views, and he became a staunch defender of civil rights during Reconstruction (1865–1876). As senior military commander in Kentucky and Tennessee from 1865 until 1869, he fought to protect African Americans from the Ku Klux Klan and other white-supremacist groups. He died of a stroke in 1870.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:41:01 EST

Davis, Jefferson (1808–1889)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:21:03 EST

Jefferson Davis was a celebrated veteran of the Mexican War (1846–1848), a U.S. senator from Mississippi (1847–1851; 1857–1861), secretary of war under U.S. president Franklin Pierce (1853–1857), and the only president of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Tall, lean, and formal, Davis was considered to be an ideal leader of the Confederacy upon his election in 1861, despite the fact that he neither sought the job nor particularly wanted it. Davis was a war hero, slaveholder, and longtime advocate of states' rights who nevertheless was not viewed to be a radical "fire-eater," making him more appealing to the hesitating moderates in Virginia. Still, Davis's reputation suffered over the years. Searing headaches, caused in part by facial neuralgia, exacerbated an already prickly personality. "I have an infirmity of which I am heartily ashamed," he said. "When I am aroused in a matter, I lose control of my feelings and become personal." The challenges inherent in holding together a wartime government founded on the idea of states' rights didn't help, either, nor did critics like E. A. Pollard, editor of the Richmond Examiner, who charged after the war that the Lost Cause was "lost by the perfidy of Jefferson Davis." Robert E. Lee, however, spoke for many when he said, "You can always say that few people could have done better than Mr. Davis. I knew of none that could have done as well."
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:21:03 EST

Cross Keys, Battle of

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:13:19 EST

The Battle of Cross Keys, while not a full-fledged battle, was, nevertheless, an important Confederate strategic victory that came near the end of Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862 during the American Civil War (1861–1865). On June 8, 1862, three Confederate brigades under the command of Richard S. Ewell held off a much larger Union force under John C. Frémont in order that they might then unite with the rest of Jackson's army seven miles to the southeast at Port Republic. There on the following day, Jackson successfully attacked another Union force under James Shields, marking the end of what had been a remarkable campaign. After initial setbacks in western Virginia, Jackson had temporarily secured the valley for the Confederacy, confused and demoralized the politicians in Washington, D.C., and freed himself to reinforce General Robert E. Lee ahead of the Seven Days' Battles in front of the Confederate capital at Richmond.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:13:19 EST

Corprew, E. G. (ca. 1830–1881)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:03:49 EST

E. G. Corprew was an African American pastor who, during the American Civil War (1861–1865), lobbied for emancipation in Virginia. He was a missionary for the American Baptist Home Mission Society and may also have served in the 1st United States Colored Cavalry, although the historical evidence is ambiguous. Following the war, Corprew became pastor of the Zion Baptist Church in Portsmouth, Virginia, and moderated the Colored Shiloh Baptist Association, the state's largest and most important black Baptist association.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:03:49 EST

Conway, Moncure Daniel (1832–1907)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:00:03 EST

Moncure Conway was a Methodist minister, Unitarian minister, abolitionist, free thinker, and prolific writer who the historian John d'Entremont describes as "the most thoroughgoing white male radical produced by the antebellum South." Born into a prominent Virginia slaveholding family, he nevertheless became an outspoken critic of the South's "peculiar institution," anguishing over how to reconcile his background with his antislavery convictions in his younger years. He first openly allied himself with abolitionists in July 1854 in the wake of the capture in Boston, Massachusetts, of fugitive slave Anthony Burns, whom Conway claimed to have known in Virginia. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), Conway accompanied thirty-one of his father's slaves, all of whom had escaped to Washington, D.C., on a harrowing train ride to freedom in southwestern Ohio. There he established what came to be known as the Conway Colony; many African Americans continue to live in the area and identify their ancestors as Virginia slaves. In addition, Conway traveled in high literary circles, authoring as many seventy published works, including popular book-length arguments against slavery and important biographies of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Thomas Paine.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:00:03 EST

Cocke, Philip St. George (1809–1861)

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 08:53:04 EST

Philip St. George Cocke was a wealthy plantation owner in Powhatan County, Virginia and in Mississippi, who accumulated hundreds of slaves and thousands of acres of land. He became a leading advocate of agricultural interests, serving as president of the Virginia State Agricultural Society from 1853 to 1856, and promoting agricultural education. Cocke served as a lieutenant in the United States Army during the South Carolina Nullification Crisis in 1832, and in 1860, organized a cavalry troop in response to John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry. When volunteers were combined into the Confederate army following the start of the American Civil War (1861–1865), Cocke's rank was reduced from brigadier general to colonel. He took offense and later complained bitterly when Confederate general Pierre G. T. Beauregard did not praise him enough during the First Battle of Manassas (1861). In a state of despondency and mental anguish over what he regarded as poor treatment by General Robert E. Lee and others, he committed suicide on December 26, 1861.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 08:53:04 EST

Civil Liberties in Virginia during the Civil War

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 08:45:06 EST

Virginians willingly sacrificed various civil liberties during the American Civil War (1861–1865) in hopes that a victory would establish greater security and liberty in the future. During the course of the war, Virginians interacted with three governments: the Virginia state government, the Confederate government, and the United States government. All curtailed the freedoms protected in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and, subsequently, Article 1, section 9 of the Confederate Constitution, including the freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, and redress (petition). Civil liberties have also traditionally included concerns among white Southerners over their ability to reasonably do as they please without government interference. Although historians would, for many years, claim that the Confederacy did not curtail rights in the fashion of the U.S. government, there were, in fact, many such instances. Both the Virginia General Assembly and the Confederate Congress passed drafts and restricted property rights. Travel also was restricted. The Confederate Congress declared martial law, prohibited the sale of alcohol, and suspended the writ of habeas corpus. An entire Habeas Corpus Commission was established whose commissioners could arrest any Confederate citizen and question his or her loyalty. Although there were protests, mostly directed at the Confederate government, most Virginia citizens accepted these limits on their freedoms as the price of military victory.
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 08:45:06 EST

Carter, William Richard (1833–1864)

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:52:17 EST

William R. Carter was a Confederate cavalry officer and diarist, whose observations of his experiences riding with J. E. B. Stuart during the American Civil War (1861–1865) became a boon to researchers after the war and finally were published in part in 1998. A graduate of Hampden-Sydney College, Carter taught briefly in Lunenburg County before moving to Mississippi, where he purchased a school. He returned to Virginia in 1860, earned his law degree, and then, after Virginia's secession, joined the Confederate cavalry. Briefly captured in 1861, he fought with Stuart through nearly all the major campaigns, including at Brandy Station and Gettysburg in 1863, and, in 1864, Yellow Tavern, where Stuart was killed. Carter himself died from wounds he received in June 1864 at the Battle of Trevilian Station and was buried in Nottoway County. Always a good writer, his field diaries became important source material for historians, especially those studying the Confederate cavalry. A partial transcription of the diaries was published in 1998; the complete two-volume transcription is preserved at Hampden-Sydney College.
Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:52:17 EST

Carter, Robert Randolph (1825–1888)

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:50:54 EST

Robert Randolph Carter was a naval officer who is perhaps best known for his diary of an eighteen-month voyage to the Arctic seas in 1850–1851. The expedition's goal was to rescue a missing Briton, Sir John Franklin, who had sailed in search of the Northwest Passage; Franklin was never found. After serving in the U.S. Navy's Pacific Squadron during the Mexican War (1846–1848), Carter joined the Confederate States Navy at the start of the American Civil War (1861–1865). He spent the first part of the war on the James River and the latter part in England, aiding Confederate agent James D. Bulloch (an uncle to future U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt) in equipping ships. Following the war, he worked as a prosperous farmer, dying in 1888 from injuries sustained in an accident.
Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:50:54 EST

Carlile, John S. (1817–1878)

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:46:38 EST

John S. Carlile was a member of the Convention of 1850–1851, the U.S. House of Representatives (1856–1858), the Convention of 1861, the First and Second Wheeling Conventions of 1861, and the United States Senate (1861–1865). As an active and outspoken participant in the Convention of 1850, he supported democratic reforms that invested western Virginia with more political power. In Congress, he supported the rights of slave owners, but as a delegate to the state convention during the secession crisis of 1861, he vehemently opposed leaving the Union, calling secession "a crime against God." The convention voted to secede anyway, and during the American Civil War (1861–1865), Carlile became a U.S. senator representing the Restored government of Virginia. In Washington, D.C., he helped shepherd the West Virginia statehood bill through Congress, only to vote against it in 1862, citing the bill's requirement that the new state adopt a plan of gradual emancipation. While Carlile remained in the Senate until 1865, he had so angered—and confused—his new West Virginia constituents that his political career was largely over. He died on his farm near Clarksburg in 1878.
Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:46:38 EST

Burial of Latané, The

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:32:59 EST

The Burial of Latané was one of the most famous Lost Cause images of the American Civil War (1861–1865). Painted by Virginian William D. Washington in Richmond in 1864, the work shows white women, slaves, and children performing the burial service of a cavalry officer killed during J. E. B. Stuart's famous ride around Union general George B. McClellan's army during the Peninsula Campaign in 1862. The incident first inspired a poem and then the painting, which became a powerful symbol of Confederate women's devotion to the Confederate cause.
Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:32:59 EST

Brown, John (1800–1859)

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:25:04 EST

John Brown was a fervent abolitionist who was accused of massacring pro-slavery settlers in Kansas in 1856 and who, in 1859, led an unsuccessful raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (in what is now West Virginia), in an attempt to start a slave insurrection. On October 16, 1859, Brown and his men occupied the federal arsenal in the northern Shenandoah Valley and were quickly surrounded by the combined forces of local militias and a detachment of United States marines led by Robert E. Lee and J. E. B. Stuart. After a thirty-six-hour shoot-out, Brown and his surviving men surrendered. At the insistence of Virginia governor Henry Wise, Brown was tried in state, not federal, court. At the end of a gripping trial held in Charles Town, he was found guilty of conspiracy, of inciting servile insurrection, and of treason against the state. He was hanged on December 2, 1859. Brown's raid (and the fact that five of his "soldiers" were African Americans) touched off a frenzy among Southern slave-owners and, in the estimation of many historians, set the nation on an irreversible course toward the American Civil War (1861–1865).
Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:25:04 EST

Boyd, Belle (1844–1900)

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:13:15 EST

Belle Boyd was one of the most famous Confederate spies during the American Civil War (1861–1865), repeatedly and under dangerous circumstances managing to relay information on Union troop strengths and movements to Confederate commanders in the field. According to Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, the intelligence she provided helped the general to win victories in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862. Authorities suspected her of being a spy almost from the start, and the Union imprisoned her multiple times, but Boyd was a master of manipulation. Her ability to exploit a soldier's sense of chivalry and the Victorian male's natural deference to "ladies" became legendary and may help explain why so many of the war's best spies were women. In 1864, she fled to London, England, where she married one of her captors and later penned a memoir, Belle Boyd in Camp and in Prison (1865), that detailed her exploits and attracted international attention.
Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:13:15 EST

Beauregard, G. T. (1818–1893)

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:55:26 EST

G. T. Beauregard (also known as Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and, after helping engineer victory at the First Battle of Manassas on July 21, 1861, one of the Confederacy's first war heroes. Raised in an aristocratic French home in New Orleans, Louisiana, Beauregard graduated from West Point and served in the Mexican War (1846–1848) before becoming the Confederacy's first brigadier general and later a full general. He commanded Confederate and South Carolina troops at Charleston Harbor in April 1861, forcing the surrender of Fort Sumter, and, with Joseph E. Johnston, routed Irvin McDowell at Manassas in July. Beauregard's Napoleonic pretensions did not suit the temperament of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, however, and the two quarreled for much of the war and postwar. Beauregard fought well at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862, but left his army without leave for the summer and was transferred east. He was critical in the defense of Petersburg in 1864, but ended the war largely out of favor. After the war, he engaged in politics that were sympathetic to the civil rights of African Americans, criticized Davis and Johnston in a two-volume, ghostwritten memoir, and accumulated wealth that was unusual for a former Confederate commander. Beauregard died in New Orleans in 1893.
Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:55:26 EST

Baldwin, John Brown (1820–1873)

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:49:54 EST

John Brown Baldwin was an attorney, member of the Virginia Convention of 1861, member of the Confederate House of Representatives (1861–1865), and Speaker of the House of Delegates (1865–1867). After attending the University of Virginia, Baldwin studied law in his native Staunton and became politically active on behalf of his law partner and brother-in-law Alexander H. H. Stuart, a Whig Party candidate for presidential elector in 1844. Baldwin served a term in the House of Delegates and, during the secession crisis of 1860–1861, was a staunch Unionist who, as a delegate to the secession convention, voted against leaving the Union, even meeting privately with U.S. president Abraham Lincoln in an attempt to find a compromise. After a brief stint in the Confederate army at the beginning of the American Civil War (1861–1865), he served in the Confederate Congress. After the war, he was a Conservative Party leader and, as Speaker of the House of Delegates, became such an expert on parliamentary law that the rules of the House became known as Baldwin's Rules. He was a moderate who supported limits on the rights of African Americans and, in 1869, as a member of the so-called Committee of Nine, met with U.S. president Ulysses S. Grant to negotiate the end of Reconstruction in Virginia. He died in 1873.
Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:49:54 EST

Ashby, Turner (1828–1862)

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:46:25 EST

Turner Ashby was a Confederate cavalry general who served under Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862 during the American Civil War (1861–1865). An expert horseman whose dead mounts were kept as romantic relics, Ashby was arguably the Confederacy's most renowned combat hero before his death in 1862. His competency for high command and potential for growth are still debated among military historians, but it's clear that his presence in the Shenandoah Valley was a powerful catalyst to the Confederate military effort there during the war's first year. Indeed, his presence resonates even now, as many Shenandoah localities celebrate Confederate Memorial Day on June 6, the day of his death.
Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:46:25 EST

Armistead, Lewis A. (1817–1863)

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:45:17 EST

Lewis A. Armistead was a Confederate general in the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Decorated for bravery during the Mexican War (1846–1848), the West Point dropout and widower earned a reputation as a tough, soft-spoken, and highly respected leader at such battles as Seven Pines (1862), Antietam (1862), and Malvern Hill (1862), and was known to his friends, ironically, as "Lo," short for Lothario. At Gettysburg, on July 3, 1863, he helped to lead the frontal assault that came to be known as Pickett's Charge. When Armistead, at the head of his brigade, reached the stone wall on Cemetery Ridge that protected the Army of the Potomac's Second Corps, he was shot and wounded more than once. The Union troops who fired the fatal shots happened to be commanded by one of Armistead's closest friends, Winfield Scott Hancock. His death was immortalized in the 1993 film Gettysburg and has come to symbolize the Lost Cause-influenced "brother versus brother" view of the war so celebrated in American culture.
Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:45:17 EST

Mahone, William (1826–1895)

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 10:36:35 EST

William Mahone was a Confederate general, Virginia senator (1863–1865), railroad tycoon, U.S. senator (1881–1887), and leader of the short-lived Readjuster Party. Known by his nickname, "Little Billy," Mahone was, in the words of a contemporary, "short in stature, spare almost to emaciation, with [a] long beard, and keen, restless eyes." He attended the Virginia Military Institute on scholarship, worked as a railroad engineer, and eventually became president of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), he distinguished himself at the Battle of the Crater (1864), leading a successful counterattack that also involved the massacre of surrendered black troops. After the war, Mahone founded the Atlantic, Mississippi, and Ohio Railroad, which, before it failed, served his business interests in Norfolk and Southside Virginia. In 1881, he was elected to the United States Senate as a member of the Readjuster Party, an unlikely coalition of poor whites and African Americans interested in repudiating a portion of the massive state debt and, in so doing, restoring social services such as free public education. One of the most successful biracial political coalitions in the New South, the Readjusters held power until 1886, when Mahone lost his Senate seat. A gubernatorial bid in 1889 failed, and Mahone died in Washington, D.C., in 1895.
Thu, 31 Mar 2011 10:36:35 EST

Hotchkiss, Jedediah (1828–1899)

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 09:48:22 EST

Jedediah Hotchkiss served as a staff officer to Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson during the American Civil War (1861–1865). A New York native, Hotchkiss opened a school in 1859 in Augusta County. His specialty, however, was mapmaking, and his topographical skills proved to be crucial to Jackson's success during his famous Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862. Thanks to Hotchkiss's maps, Jackson always had ample knowledge of the geographic setting within which he was operating and a good appreciation of the terrain he would put to use against the enemy.
Thu, 31 Mar 2011 09:48:22 EST

Heth, Henry (1825–1899)

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 09:45:14 EST

Henry "Harry" Heth (pronounced "Heeth") was first a brigade then a division commander in the Confederate army during the American Civil War (1861–1865). He distinguished himself during Braxton Bragg's Kentucky campaign (1862) before being transferred, by order of Robert E. Lee, to the Army of Northern Virginia, where he served under A. P. Hill. As one of the most popular officers in an unusually tight-knit army, Heth is said to be the only general Lee addressed by his given name. Heth took over a division at the Battle of Chancellorsville (1863) and is best known for his role in precipitating the Battle of Gettysburg (1863). His generalship was distinguished by a tendency toward aggressiveness that produced mixed results.
Thu, 31 Mar 2011 09:45:14 EST

Garnett, Richard B. (1817–1863)

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 09:39:21 EST

Richard B. Garnett was a Confederate general in the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865). The first to take over the Stonewall Brigade after the promotion of Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, Garnett was well-regarded by his men but ran afoul of Jackson after the Battle of Kernstown (1862), when he ordered an unauthorized retreat. Jackson placed him under arrest and eventually ordered, but never completed, a court-martial. Robert E. Lee reassigned Garnett to the command of George E. Pickett's former brigade, and he spent much of the following year worried about his reputation and looking for opportunities to demonstrate his courage. He found one on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg (1863), when he died while helping to lead the doomed assault known as Pickett's Charge.
Thu, 31 Mar 2011 09:39:21 EST

Crutchfield, Stapleton (1835–1865)

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 09:23:38 EST

Stapleton Crutchfield was a professor of mathematics at the Virginia Military Institute and a Confederate artillery officer during the American Civil War (1861–1865). When the war began, Crutchfield served briefly as temporary superintendent of VMI before joining the Confederate army. He served in various Virginia infantry regiments before, in 1862, his friend Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, with whom he had taught at VMI, appointed Crutchfield his chief of artillery. He served under Jackson in all of the Army of Northern Virginia's major battles until, on May 2, 1863, he and Jackson were both wounded at Chancellorsville. Jackson died, while Crutchfield recovered, teaching again briefly at VMI before rejoining the army in January 1865 at Chaffin's Bluff on the James River. Crutchfield was killed at the Battle of Sailor's Creek during the Appomattox Campaign on April 6, 1865, just three days before Robert E. Lee's surrender.
Thu, 31 Mar 2011 09:23:38 EST

Richmond During the Civil War

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:04:44 EST

Richmond, Virginia, was the capital of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861–1865). It also served as the capital of Virginia, although when the city was about to fall to Union armies in April 1865, the governor and General Assembly moved their offices to Lynchburg for five days. Besides being the political home of the Confederacy, Richmond was a center of rail and industry, military hospitals, and prisoner-of-war camps and prisons, including Belle Isle and Libby Prison. It boasted a diversified economy that included grain milling and iron manufacturing, with the keystone of the local economy being the massive Tredegar ironworks. From the start of war, Confederate citizens flocked to the capital seeking safety and jobs, leading to periodic civil unrest, manifested most notably in the Bread Riot of April 1863. Because of its economic and political importance as well as its location near the United States capital, Richmond became the focus for most of the military campaigns in the war's Eastern Theater. In a sense, its success—especially in mobilizing, outfitting, and feeding the Confederate armies—predestined it to near-destruction in 1865. Just as ironic, that destruction was largely caused by Confederates, although images of the city's ruins have become iconic representations of the cost of war.
Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:04:44 EST

Harpers Ferry During the Civil War

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:29:28 EST

Harpers Ferry, in what is now West Virginia, lies at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers and serves as the gateway to the Shenandoah Valley. Before and during the American Civil War (1861–1865), this small, isolated town was an economically thriving community with great strategic importance because of its location along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and its firearms industry—including the United States Arsenal and Armory and Hall's Rifle Works. In 1859, Harpers Ferry emerged onto the national stage when the radical abolitionist John Brown and a small band of followers raided the armory in an attempt to ignite a slave insurrection. The town also became an object of intense military interest immediately after Virginia's secession in April 1861, during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862, the Maryland Campaign of 1862, and the Valley Campaign of 1864.
Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:29:28 EST

Hampton Roads Conference

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:25:41 EST

The Hampton Roads Conference convened on February 3, 1865, in an attempt to find a negotiated settlement to the American Civil War (1861–1865). As Confederate prospects for survival deteriorated, leaders on both sides met aboard the River Queen at Union-controlled Hampton Roads, Virginia. They included U.S. president Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William H. Seward, as well as Confederate vice president Alexander H. Stephens, Assistant Secretary of War John A. Campbell, and Confederate Senator Robert M. T. Hunter of Virginia. In spite of such high-level participation, the meeting lasted only four hours and accomplished little.
Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:25:41 EST

Fredericksburg, Second Battle of

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:14:24 EST

The Second Battle of Fredericksburg was fought May 3–4, 1863, and was part of the Chancellorsville Campaign during the American Civil War (1861–1865). While Union general Joseph Hooker and the Army of the Potomac engaged Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia twelve miles to the west near Chancellorsville, the First and Sixth corps under Union general John Sedgwick were ordered to cross the Rappahannock River and attack at Fredericksburg, on Lee's far right flank. Hooker's plan was to force an already undermanned Lee to shift troops to his right, weakening his defenses and forcing him to retreat. By the time the cautious Sedgwick was in position, however, Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson had outflanked the Union right and it was Hooker, not Lee, who was reeling back. Sedgwick did finally charge up Marye's Heights, where the previous December the Union army under Ambrose E. Burnside had so ignominiously been defeated. This time, a small contingent of Confederates under Jubal A. Early held on for a short while before finally giving way. When Sedgwick failed to press his victory, Lee reinforced his line, attacking at Salem Church on May 3 and Bank's Ford on May 4. On May 5, Sedgwick retreated back across the Rappahannock River, followed shortly by Hooker.
Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:14:24 EST

CSS Virginia

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:00:45 EST

The CSS Virginia was an ironclad ship in the Confederate navy during the American Civil War (1861–1865). The first American warship of its kind—prior to 1862, all navy vessels were made of wood—it was constructed in order to attack the ever-tightening Union blockade on the Confederacy's major Atlantic ports and harbors. The CSS Virginia's launch in March 1862 provided one of the first truly unmistakable signs of a revolution in naval warfare that would transform the conduct of war at sea during the nineteenth century. It quickly met its match, however, in a hastily constructed, Swedish-engineered Union ironclad, the USS Monitor, at the Battle of Hampton Roads (1862). By April 1862, the Confederacy's 3,500 miles of coastline were largely lost (only Wilmington, North Carolina, and Charleston, South Carolina, remained under Confederate control), and in May of that year, the Virginia was intentionally destroyed.
Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:00:45 EST

Manassas, First Battle of

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 12:57:46 EST

The First Battle of Manassas, or Bull Run, fought on July 21, 1861, was the first major battle of the American Civil War (1861–1865). United States president Abraham Lincoln—under pressure from the public that urged the army "On to Richmond!"—went against the advice of his aging general-in-chief Winfield Scott and ordered an attack. Largely untrained Union troops under Irvin McDowell marched to Centreville and then to Manassas Junction, where McDowell hoped to cut the railroad running into the Shenandoah Valley. He failed, and Confederate troops (equally untrained) under Joseph E. Johnston rode the rails from the Valley to Manassas, where they united with P. G. T. Beauregard's army and met McDowell along Bull Run on July 21. The battle was marked by confusion, with Union and Confederate troops wearing similar uniforms and flying similar flags. When it looked as if the Union troops might prevail, Virginians under the command of Thomas J. Jackson rallied on Henry House Hill, where he earned his famous nickname "Stonewall." The Union army was routed in front of spectators from Washington, D.C., and politicians and generals on both sides were left to acknowledge the possibility that the war would last longer than they had thought.
Tue, 08 Mar 2011 12:57:46 EST

Cooke, Philip St. George (1809–1895)

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 15:34:39 EST

Philip St. George Cooke was a Virginia-born Union general during the American Civil War (1861–1865). A West Point graduate and a lawyer, Cooke served on frontier duty and fought in both the Black Hawk War (1832) and the Mexican War (1846–1848). In addition, he helped to protect settlers on the Oregon Trail, fought Apache in New Mexico Territory, helped subdue Sioux in Nebraska Territory, helped restore order in Bloody Kansas, and led an expedition against Mormons in the Utah Territory. When the Civil War began, Cooke was one of the Regular Army's top cavalrymen and he chose to stay with the Union, writing, "I owe Virginia little; my country much." It was a decision that caused a long estrangement from his son, John Rogers Cooke (1833–1891), and a rift with his son-in-law, the future Confederate general J. E. B. Stuart. During the war, he led a controversial cavalry charge at Gaines's Mill (1862) and eventually left the Army of the Potomac, claiming its commanders were inept. Following the war, his involvement in a massacre by Lakota Sioux further tarnished his reputation. He wrote two memoirs and a cavalry manual and in the 1880s reconciled with his son. Cooke died in Detroit, Michigan, in 1895.
Mon, 07 Mar 2011 15:34:39 EST

James River Squadron

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 14:24:24 EST

The James River Squadron was one of the eight major forces that the Confederate States Navy created to defend its rivers and waterways during the American Civil War (1861–1865). At its apogee, the squadron consisted of three steam-powered ironclad warships—including the CSS Virginia, which famously dueled the Union's ironclad USS Monitor at the Battle of Hampton Roads (1862)—and more than a half-dozen small gunboats, converted civilian vessels, and torpedo boats. As was true with the Confederacy's other naval forces, the James River Squadron saw little action and was destroyed by its own men as a result of the defeat of Confederate land forces.
Fri, 04 Mar 2011 14:24:24 EST

Chimborazo Hospital

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 11:33:52 EST

Chimborazo Hospital, located in the Confederate capital of Richmond, was the largest and most famous medical facility in the South during the American Civil War (1861–1865). The hospital admitted nearly 78,000 patients suffering from battlefield wounds and diseases. Of this number, approximately 6,500 to 8,000 died, resulting in a mortality rate of about 9 percent. Few hospitals in the Confederacy had lower mortality rates, and those that did generally received patients who were further along in their recovery. The best-staffed and equipped Union hospitals, in comparison, achieved a 10 percent mortality rate. With no model to draw on, Chimborazo Hospital's success can be attributed to a combination of its open-air, pavilion-style design; the comparatively good quality of care; innovative practices; and the supreme dedication of the caregivers—men and women, black and white, slave and free. Their efforts contributed to one of the great advancements in mid-nineteenth-century medicine: the acceptance of hospital care for the sick and injured, which was a concept not embraced in America prior to 1865.
Tue, 01 Mar 2011 11:33:52 EST

Richmond Howitzers

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:46:39 EST

The Richmond Howitzers is a military unit formed in Richmond not long after John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry late in 1859. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), three companies organized as the Richmond Howitzer Battalion and served in most of the campaigns of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. The Howitzers reorganized in 1871 and saw active duty during both World War I (1914–1918) and World War II (1939–1945). It is now a unit in the Virginia National Guard.
Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:46:39 EST

Bagby, George William (1828–1883)

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:02:34 EST

George William Bagby was a licensed physician, editor, journalist, essayist, and humorist. He is best remembered as the editor who, on the advent of the American Civil War (1861–1865), turned the Southern Literary Messenger from a respected literary journal into a propagandistic tool that endorsed secession and the Confederate cause. After the war, Bagby attempted but failed to make a living as a humorist. As assistant to the secretary of the commonwealth—which, by law, also made him state librarian—Bagby wrote his most well-regarded essay, "The Old Virginia Gentleman" (1877). Many of his essays reflect his personal conflicts with Virginia and the South: at times he is objective, even critical; at others he is sentimental and celebrates the "old days" of a better (pre-Civil War) Virginia.
Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:02:34 EST

Breckinridge, Cary (1839–1918)

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:09:58 EST

Cary Breckinridge was a Confederate cavalry officer during the American Civil War (1861–1865), who suffered five wounds, including at the Second Battle of Manassas (1862), reportedly had five horses shot from under him, and was captured and briefly imprisoned in the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. Following the war, Breckinridge farmed, possibly worked in banking, and served in the House of Delegates (1869–1871). Physically imposing and from a prominent family, Breckinridge remained active in Conservative Party and Democratic Party politics and served as the superintendent of public schools for Botetourt County from 1886 until 1917. He died in 1918 at his home in Fincastle.
Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:09:58 EST

Medicine in Virginia During the Civil War

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 15:34:51 EST

The medicine practiced in Virginia by the Union and Confederate armies during the American Civil War (1861–1865) was state of the art for its day and an important factor in the ability of both governments to raise and maintain armies in the field. More than twice as many soldiers died of disease than from combat-related injuries. Still, despite many nineteenth-century misconceptions about the causes and treatments of disease, three out of four soldiers survived their illnesses. This was due in part to widespread vaccination for smallpox, isolation of most contagious diseases, and especially the recognition of the importance of cleanliness and sanitation. As the war dragged on, combat injuries became more prevalent and the work of surgeons became more important. Surgery, though unsterile, saved lives through amputation. Such procedures were done, for the most part, with adequate pain control and some form of anesthesia. To care for the wounded, both sides established a system of hospitals, ranging from makeshift field hospitals and interim "corps hospitals" (used by Confederates), to large, fixed general hospitals such as the sprawling Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond. It was often painful and dangerous for the wounded to be transported from the battlefield to the hospital, but in the end the quality of medical care they received was generally high and led to important medical advances during the postwar period and twentieth century.
Mon, 13 Dec 2010 15:34:51 EST

Hooker, Joseph (1814–1879)

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 12:53:14 EST

Joseph Hooker was a Union general during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and, for the first half of 1863, commander of the Army of the Potomac. Nicknamed "Fighting Joe," Hooker was a Regular Army veteran with a checkered reputation—rumors of drunkenness dogged him for much of his career—and a talent for political infighting. When he took over the army from Ambrose E. Burnside after the debacle at Fredericksburg (1862), the Army of the Potomac's morale was at an all-time low and desertion an all-time high. He reorganized its forces, virtually halted desertion, established reliable intelligence gathering, and, most important, boosted confidence. He also developed an elaborate plan secretly to flank Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia on the south side of the Rappahannock River, boasting to his army that "certain destruction awaits" the Confederates. At the Battle of Chancellorsville (1863), however, it was Hooker who was famously flanked and eventually forced to retreat. He then became a victim of infighting, and a few days before the Battle of Gettysburg (1863) gave up his command to George G. Meade.
Wed, 01 Dec 2010 12:53:14 EST

Shoes at Gettysburg

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 13:03:14 EST

One of the most persistent legends surrounding the Battle of Gettysburg (1863), which took place during the American Civil War (1861–1865), is that it was fought over shoes. Ten weeks after the battle, Confederate general Henry Heth, a Virginian whose troops were the first to engage on July 1, filed a now-famous report in which he explained why he had sent a portion of his division into the small Pennsylvania town. "On the morning of June 30," Heth wrote, "I ordered Brigadier General [Johnston] Pettigrew to take his brigade to Gettysburg, search the town for army supplies (shoes especially), and return the same day." That parenthetical phrase "shoes especially" has taken on a life of its own over the years. A 1997 newsletter of the American Podiatric Medical Association is typical—it claimed, perhaps due to its interest in foot health, that footwear was the battle's causa belli, adding, "There was a warehouse full of boots and shoes in the town."
Tue, 23 Nov 2010 13:03:14 EST

Petersburg During the Civil War

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 14:30:10 EST

Petersburg, located in south central Virginia, was the second-largest city in the state at the outset of the American Civil War (1861–1865). Originally sharing the conservative political stance of most business-oriented cities in the Upper South, Petersburg's white citizens eagerly embraced the Confederate cause after Virginia's Convention of 1861 voted to secede in April 1861. The city hosted a variety of Confederate installations, particularly hospitals, and served as headquarters for a number of Confederate military departments that bore responsibility for southern Virginia and eastern North Carolina. Petersburg experienced its first nearby combat in the spring of 1864 during the Bermuda Hundred Campaign and then became the focal point of the Petersburg Campaign between June 1864 and April 1865. The city capitulated to Union forces on April 3, 1865, initiating the Appomattox Campaign and just six days before Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House, ninety miles west of Petersburg.
Fri, 15 Oct 2010 14:30:10 EST

Army of the James

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:00:43 EST

The Army of the James was an independent Union command during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Established in April 1864, it consisted of two corps, along with a small cavalry division, and was led by the largely inept political general Benjamin F. Butler. The new Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant had created the force with the intention that it assist in his Overland Campaign by approaching the Confederate capital at Richmond from the south and east. The Army of the Potomac under George G. Meade would attack from the north. Butler stalled on the Bermuda Hundred Peninsula, however, and historians have largely blamed his bungling for the army's ineffectiveness. Still, the Army of the James was important for its technological innovations and for the large number of African American troops in its ranks. Black troops in the army's Twenty-fifth Corps were among the first Union troops to enter Richmond on April 3, 1865.
Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:00:43 EST

Lexington During the Civil War

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 14:19:50 EST

The town of Lexington is the seat of Rockbridge County in the Shenandoah Valley. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), it was home to Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) and the Virginia Military Institute. Although not of great strategic importance, the town nevertheless smoldered in the atmosphere of war long before many other Virginian communities felt the conflict. In November 1859, a detachment of its resident corps of cadets from the Virginia Military Institute was deployed to Charles Town (in what is now West Virginia) to provide security at the execution of the infamous John Brown for his raid on Harpers Ferry. Unionist sentiments prevailed, however, until U.S. president Abraham Lincoln's call for troops, when many of Lexington's male citizens enlisted in service of the Confederate States of America. Events such as the burial of Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and Union general David Hunter's fiery raid brought the quiet mountain town momentary attention from the wider world, but the demands of the Civil War also siphoned its resources on a daily basis.
Mon, 11 Oct 2010 14:19:50 EST

Magill, Mary Tucker (1830–1899)

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 16:03:24 EST

Mary Tucker Magill was a Virginia educator and author whose work portrays the generation of Virginians who endured the hardships of defeat following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and looked ahead to the next century by embracing innovative ideas on health and well-being. Magill wrote two conservative textbooks on Virginia history and a forward-thinking manual of exercises for women. She was also a novelist and short-story writer whose fiction, like her historicism, depicted an idealized version of plantation life in the Old South.
Wed, 22 Sep 2010 16:03:24 EST

Freeman, Douglas Southall (1886–1953)

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 14:17:11 EST

Douglas Southall Freeman was a biographer, a newspaper editor, a nationally renowned military analyst, and a pioneering radio broadcaster. He won the Pulitzer Prize twice: the first, in 1935, for his four-volume biography of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee; and the second, posthumously in 1958, for his six-volume biography of George Washington, with a seventh volume written by John Alexander Carroll and Mary Wells Ashworth after Freeman's death in 1953. The son of a Confederate veteran, Freeman is best known as a historian of the American Civil War (1861–1865) and, in particular, of the high command of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. His description of Lee, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, and their compatriots as "men of principles unimpeachable, of valour indescribable" for some has suggested that his work was influenced by the Lost Cause view of the war that was in part founded by his former neighbor, Jubal A. Early. In reality, Freeman's admiration for the Confederates never influenced his historical conclusions.
Mon, 20 Sep 2010 14:17:11 EST

Shenandoah Valley During the Civil War

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 11:20:44 EST

The Shenandoah Valley in western Virginia stretches about 140 miles north to south between the Allegheny Mountains on the west and the Blue Ridge Mountains on the east. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the strategically important Valley was the site of two major campaigns and numerous battles and represents, in microcosm, many of the military, social, and cultural factors that ultimately explain why the Union won and the Confederacy lost the war. Confederate control of the Shenandoah helped prolong the Confederate war effort until 1864, while the region provided sustenance to Confederate stomachs and succored Confederate nationalism. When those connections were destroyed by Union general Philip H. Sheridan and his Valley Campaign in the autumn of 1864—a campaign that culminated in what residents called "the Burning," and that also helped U.S. president Abraham Lincoln win re-election—victory for the Union and defeat for the Confederacy were all but assured. The Valley, meanwhile, was largely stripped, but for years it had been steeped in mythology—known as the "Granary of the Confederacy," it was considered the very heart of the South. That mythology would survive Sheridan and even the war.
Wed, 15 Sep 2010 11:20:44 EST

Arlington House

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:58:39 EST

Arlington House, also known as the Lee-Custis Mansion, overlooks Washington, D.C., from a rise across the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia. Constructed between 1802 and 1818, it was one of the earliest and boldest expressions of the Greek Revival architectural style in America. Arlington House claims special historical significance through its association with the Washington and Custis families, and particularly with Robert E. Lee. After his family's departure in 1861 at the start of the American Civil War (1861–1865), Arlington House became a Union army facility. In 1863 the United States government established a Freedmen's Village on the property that was intended to serve as a model community for African Americans freed by the 1862 abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia and the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. Its location, meanwhile, was a striking reminder that Arlington had once been a slave labor–based plantation. In 1864 the federal government officially appropriated the grounds and there established Arlington National Cemetery, which continues to serve as a final resting place for members of the United States armed forces.
Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:58:39 EST

Minnigerode, Charles (1814–1894)

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:34:00 EST

Charles Minnigerode was a professor of Latin and Greek and, for thirty-three years, the rector of Saint Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), Saint Paul's was sometimes called "the Cathedral of the Confederacy," and its parishioners included Confederate president Jefferson Davis and Confederate general Robert E. Lee. In 1862, Minnigerode, who immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1839, baptized Davis, and in 1864, he read prayers at the burial of Confederate general J. E. B. Stuart.
Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:34:00 EST

Martin, Thomas Staples (1847–1919)

Thu, 20 May 2010 15:12:58 EST

Thomas Staples Martin was a railroad attorney, a longtime U.S. senator from Virginia (serving from 1895 until 1919), and an architect of the state Democratic Party machine that during his time was known as the Martin Organization. A quiet, behind-the-scenes political player, Martin rose through the party ranks largely due to his influence with powerful railroad interests. Under the leadership of Martin's mentor, John S. Barbour Jr., Democrats reestablished control of state politics that, since Reconstruction (1865–1877), had been in the hands of Republicans and Readjusters. Then, in 1893, in a huge and unexpected upset, Martin defeated former Confederate general and Virginia governor Fitzhugh Lee for election to Barbour's U.S. Senate seat, allowing him to take control of the party and, to a large extent, the state. Accused by his critics of bribery and corruption, Martin stayed in power and managed to rise to the position of Senate Majority Leader at least in part because of his pragmatic willingness to forge coalitions between the competing conservative and progressive wings of the Democratic Party. As a result, Martin's political machine and its successor, the Byrd Organization, dominated Virginia politics until the 1960s.
Thu, 20 May 2010 15:12:58 EST