Everyone has met someone like them: the well-meaning person for whom something always goes awry. These unfortunate souls are found in all times and all places. The Civil War was no different. In his book Hardtack and Coffee, John D. Billings writes of people like this he encountered during his service in the Union… [Continue Reading]

Captured and sent to Point Lookout prison camp, a Confederate soldier is determined not to stay long. He soon finds an opportunity to try and get away and takes advantage of it. Published in Confederate Veteran in 1914, the following article details one Confederate soldier’s adventures as the war was coming to a close.

As civil war began in the United States, everyone had an opinion on what the outcome would be. This wasn’t restricted to this country, as the war itself would impact other nations. The following article was published in the British publication The Economist on June 29, 1861. The war was just beginning, but they had their opinion on how it would end.

From the start of the Civil War, the Confederacy faced the trouble of supplies. The South didn’t have the inventory and stockpiles of military supplies that the North did. They also didn’t have the ability to make those items in the numbers that the North did. So when an opportunity came to recover a pair cannon from a foundered U.S. ship, no matter how difficult it was they had to give it a try.

In Monday’s article, we heard from Maj. M. B. Ruggles who, with two friends, encountered John Wilkes Booth as he tried to escape after assassinating the president. Ruggles and his companions helped Booth get across the Rappahannock River and to the Garrett farm. Today’s part of the article is from Capt. E. P. Doherty of the 16th New York Cavalry. It was Doherty and his men who were able to track down and capture the assassin.

The president was dead. It was the first time in the country’s history that a president had been assassinated, and now the killer had to be found. The story of the pursuit is a story told from both sides.

While the title of this article is “The First Ironclad,” it is about much more. First published in the Houston Chronicle in November 1902, the article is the story of Capt. Charles W. Austin and his exploits, which included commanding “the First Ironclad.”

When we left Dennis Thompson in part one of this article on Monday, he had been captured by Confederates, escaped, and captured again. His latest captors had decided that since Thompson couldn’t keep up with them as they were fleeing Union cavalry, they would have to kill him.

Dennis Thompson should have been safe. Commanding part of an ambulance train at the Battle of Cedar Creek he was a non-combatant. When he was separated from the train and on his own, however, he was fair game. When he was captured by retreating horsemen and couldn’t keep up, his life was in danger.