Paper Trail
Printed on a thin strip of paper cut from a newspaper page and tucked behind the mat of Oliver Gardner’s portrait are poignant details of his Civil War service. He
Tag: national
Camp Douglas to Cold Harbor
First Sergeant B. Fayette Green and his pards in the 126th New York Infantry got off to a rocky start in the summer of 1862. The newly formed regiment mustered
Team Frailey on the Quaker City
Leonard August Frailey’s first gig as a naval officer was a plum assignment. In August 1864, authorities dispatched the newly minted acting assistant paymaster to the sidewheel steamer Quaker City.
The Mnemonical Anatomy Professor
Tall, slow-speaking William Henry Gobrecht looked every inch the soldier and might easily be confused for a general. His commanding bearing came not from battlefield glory, but lecture halls where
“I am an American and a Union Man”
Career navy officer Richard Worsam Meade was an irascible man. This quirk in his personality may have been hereditary; his uncle famously exhibited the same trait—Maj. Gen. George G. Meade.
Gum Blankets and Ammunition Boxes at Bermuda Hundred
An unnamed aide to a Union general observed the favorable position occupied by federals along one section of the front line at Bermuda Hundred, Va., on May 18, 1864. At
Survivor of Vermont’s Deadliest Day
The deadliest day in Vermont history, May 5, 1864, lives in infamy. Hundreds of miles south of the Green Mountain State, in the rough and tumble landscape of The Wilderness
Brutal Assault
John William Fenton brutally assaulted Tony Fisher inside a New Bern, N.C., saloon owned by Fisher, a free black man, on Dec, 15, 1864. According to witnesses, Fenton, a captain
Custer’s “Main Stay In a Tight Place”
The veteran 2nd Ohio Cavalry earned high praise for its service from legendary golden-haired Brig. Gen. George Armstrong Custer. According to the June 1, 1865, issue of the Cleveland Daily
Freedmen Teacher, Overland Campaign Nurse
A pall of gloom and uncertainty darkened Washington, D.C., as accounts of horrific fighting in Virginia trickled into the city in early May 1864. But as citizens across the capital