Civil War Wednesday: The Navy
Two vessels and their crews carried much history into a February 28 confrontation off Georgia’s coast near Confederate-held Fort McAllister. John L. Worden, former commander of the USS Monitor in the...
View ArticleCivil War Wednesday: Rome, Georgia
In April 1863, the Federal forces set their sights on destroying the main line of supply for Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s army – the Western & Atlantic Railroad. Colonel Abel Streight...
View ArticleCivil War Wednesday: Nurses
Prior to the Civil War, no professional nursing schools existed in the United States, and males occupied the vast majority of all nursing positions, with the “Catholic Sisters of Charity” representing...
View ArticleCivil War Wednesday: The Burning of Darien
The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect January 1, 1863, and afforded African-Americans in the North the opportunity to volunteer for active service in the Federal army, and Governor Andrew of...
View ArticleCivil War Wednesday: The 11th Georgia Infantry at Gettysburg
July 2, 1863, day two of the fighting at Gettysburg, found the corps of Lieutenant General James Longstreet launching an attack against the left of the Federal position. The resultant hard fighting...
View ArticleCivil War Wednesday: The Battle of Brown’s Mill
Major General William T. Sherman issued Special Field Orders, No. 42 on July 25, 1864, once again communicating his plans for taking the city of Atlanta. Sherman’s horse soldiers received special...
View ArticleCivil War Wednesday: Battle of Chickamauga
During the fighting along Chickamauga Creek in September 1863, the soldiers of the 5th Georgia Infantry Regiment epitomized the stream’s English translation “The River of Death.” These Georgians, part...
View ArticleCivil War Wednesday: Nancy Harts
The town of LaGrange, Georgia, sat alongside the Atlanta & West Point Railroad; this line served as a vital artery in moving matériel throughout the Southland and presented a military target for...
View ArticleCivil War Wednesday: Camp McDonald
On May 29, 1861, President Jefferson Davis issued a call to Georgia Governor Joe Brown, “Troops, armed and equipped, ammunition included, are much needed. Please urge forward with all practicable...
View ArticleCivil War Wednesday: Ringgold Gap
The Battle of Chattanooga played out on November 25, 1863 as Federal troops continued to scale the heights of Missionary Ridge, forcing the Confederates holding the high ground to break – a rout...
View ArticleCivil War Wednesday: Alexander Stephens
Alexander H. Stephens, a Georgia native, graduate of Franklin College (later UGA), and a former member of the Georgia legislature and the U.S. Senate, served as vice-president for the Confederate...
View ArticleCivil War Wednesday: Alfred R. Waud
Sketching the American Civil War brought fame to Great Britain native Alfred Rudolph Waud (pronounced Wode). In 1850, this foreign-trained artist arrived in America seeking a job as a scene painter for...
View ArticleCivil War Wednesday: Major General W.H.T. Walker
Hoping to place segments of his army in the rear of the Federals holding the left flank outside Atlanta, on the evening of July 21, 1864, General John Bell Hood ordered Lieutenant General William...
View ArticleCivil War Wednesday: The Plight of the Mill Workers
Hoping to replicate the success of Roswell King, who founded the Roswell Manufacturing Company in the town bearing his name, Colonel James Rogers and former Georgia Governor Charles McDonald built...
View ArticleCivil War Wednesday: The Fall of Atlanta
One hundred fifty years ago this week, Major General William T. Sherman turned his three armies to the southwest, and began maneuvering around besieged Atlanta, in an attempt to cut the remaining...
View ArticleCivil War Wednesday: Sherman’s March to the Sea
Major General William T. Sherman began making final preparations for his advance through Georgia after he received approval from Lieutenant General U.S. Grant in early November. Sherman, working from...
View ArticleCivil War Wednesday: Georgia’s Old Reliable
Lieutenant General William J. Hardee, born in Savannah in 1815, graduated from the United States Military Academy, served in the Mexican-American War, and authored a book on military tactics, which...
View ArticleCivil War Wednesday: Blackshear
“After leaving the cars we were marched off into the pine woods, by the side of a considerable stream, and told that this was to be our camp.”[1] This Federal prisoner wrote of his new home in Pierce...
View ArticleCivil War Wednesday: Oakland Cemetery
Formed as the Atlanta Cemetery in 1850, today’s Oakland Cemetery stretches across 48 acres of beautiful grounds within sight of modern Atlanta. Numbering among the 70,000 interred at Oakland, 6,900...
View ArticleCivil War Wednesday: Major General John B. Gordon
Approaching ten months of siege along the Richmond to Petersburg front in Virginia, General Robert E. Lee continued to seek a way to break the Federal lines opposing his Army of Northern Virginia. As...
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