Civil War Articles – May 22, 2015
This post contains a list of Civil War/History articles published this past week around the Internet. Click on the title to go to the full article.
A blog post with three articles by Jason Roe from the Kansas City Public Library.
An excerpt from the “Downfall of the Confederacy.”
“At the beginning of May 1865, a few Confederate commanders and political leaders, including Davis, still called on Confederates to continue the fight through means of guerrilla warfare. Most Confederates followed the lead of General Lee, who rejected the idea because he saw it as pointless, needlessly destructive for the South, and likely to ruin any opportunity for peaceful reconciliation between North and South.”
An excerpt from the “Rebuilding in Missouri and Kansas.”
“As Unionists reveled at the end of the war, the residents of Missouri and Kansas had to consider how to reconcile their differences, rebuild, and move forward. The correspondence between a Missouri couple who were engaged to be married hinted at the various challenges faced in recovering from a decade of violence along the Missouri-Kansas border that predated the Civil War itself.”
An excerpt from the “Missouri Bushwhackers Continue Fighting.”
“Even as most Missourians sought to move on from the war, a number of hardened guerrilla fighters, or "bushwhackers," as they were known, had grown accustomed to personal feuds, brutality, and spoils of plunder. This atmosphere of violence is illustrated in the diary of C.T. Kimmel, an assistant surgeon in the 2nd Missouri State Militia Cavalry.”
An article in the NY Times by Christopher Phillips, professor of history at the University of Cincinnati. He is the author of six books on the Civil War era, including “Damned Yankee: The Life of Nathaniel Lyon” and the forthcoming “The Rivers Ran Backward: The Civil War on the Middle Border and the Making of American Regionalism.” An excerpt …
“In the late winter of 1865, Abraham Lincoln was completing a reconciliation-themed second Inaugural Address, pledging the nation to embrace the end of slavery ‘that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.’
”His thoughts were not solely on the last, violent days of the war in the Confederacy. On Feb. 20, the president wrote to Missouri’s new governor, Thomas C. Fletcher, troubled by persistent violence and distrust among civilians there. ‘Waiving all else, pledge each to cease harassing others, and to make common cause against whomever persists in making, aiding or encouraging further disturbance.’ The president implored. ‘At such meetings old friendships will cross the memory, and honor and Christian charity will contrive to help.’ Less than two months later, Lincoln was dead. Had he lived, he would have learned, painfully, that amity would be difficult to find in slaveholding border states like Missouri, especially over the end of the peculiar institution there.”
An article in the NY Times by Dan Doyle, author of “The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War” and the McCausland professor of history at the University of South Carolina.” An excerpt …
“Even while the Civil War raged, slaves in Cuba could be heard singing, ‘Avanza, Lincoln, avanza! Tu eres nuestra esperanzal’ (Onward, Lincoln, Onward! You are our hope!) — as if they knew, even before the soldiers fighting the war far to the North and long before most politicians understood, that the war in America would change their lives, and the world.
“The secession crisis of 1860-1861 threatened to be a major setback to the world antislavery movement, and it imperiled the whole experiment in democracy. If slavery was allowed to exist, and if the world’s leading democracy could fall apart over the issue, what hope did freedom have? European powers wasted no time in taking advantage of the debacle. France and Britain immediately each sent fleets of warships with the official purpose of observing the imminent war in America. In Paris, A New York Times correspondent who went by the byline ‘Malakoff’ thought that the French and British observers ‘may be intended as a sort of escort of honor for the funeral of the Great Republic.’”
A blog post by Dave Powell at Emerging Civil War, a blog providing fresh perspectives on America's defining event. An excerpt …
“On a personal note, I am interested in Davis’s capture primarily because of the units involved. Not only do we have the 1st Wisconsin and 4th Michigan cavalries, but also longtime western theater personalities like John Croxton and Robert H. G. Minty – all Army of the Cumberland men.
“Of course, Davis’s collaring generated its own share of claims, counter-claims, and controversies. I know of (at least) three other cavalry regiments that would, in the postwar era, try to claim at least a share of reflected glory.”
A blog post at Emerging Civil War by Phil Greenwalt, National Park Service historian at George Washington Birthplace National Monument and Thomas Stone National Historic Site. An excerpt …
“After a walking tour of the Sunken Road on the Fredericksburg Battlefield, I received the following question; ‘What did the war cost?’
“Naturally, my first thought was to explain the casualty figures for the entire conflict, which now surpasses 750,000 men. Furthermore, another 64,000 men died of wounds received during the war and transpired in the immediate years after. I thought I had thoroughly answered the question.
“Wrong.
“She wanted to know what the overall cost, in addition to the casualty figures, which she agreed was extensive, horrible, and completely mind-blowing. All she had heard about was the casualties, but did anyone ever calculate the cost; economically, government-wise, etc.”
Missouri 150 Years Ago
Every week, Len Eagleburger (co-edited by Beverly Shaw) edits a newsletter called “Ozarks Civil War Sesquicentennial Weekly.” One of its sections is entitled “Missouri 150 Years Ago.” These are the links to articles which appeared in the Columbia Daily Tribune newspaper published in Columbia, Missouri.
