From the Editor

Just before Christmas, my family had a COVID scare that threw the holiday into tumult. Plans were canceled. Travel was suspended. Family members spent holiday time in isolation.

My wife and I are fully vaccinated and boosted, but our four-year-old son is not. Neither is my year-and-a-half-old granddaughter. We all try to take extra precautions to protect them. Even so, COVID managed to find a way to slip down the chimney and hide beneath the Christmas tree.

Thankfully, everything turned out okay for everyone, but the episode offered a sobering reminder of all the people not able to spend the holidays with their loved ones this year. COVID has claimed the lives of more than 800,000 Americans. Those are a lot of vacant chairs around the holiday dinner table.

That idea of the vacant chair was most famously put into words by poet Henry S. Washburn as he mourned the death of a friend, John William Grout, a member of the 15th Massachusetts killed at the Battle of Ball’s Bluff in October 1861. His poem, “The Vacant Chair,” was later turned into a song and remains a familiar, haunting lament for loved ones lost.

During the Civil War’s four years, somewhere between 620,000 to 740,000 Americans lost their lives. In half that time, we’ve lost hundreds of thousands more to COVID. Regardless of anyone’s politics, the number of lives lost and the families bereaved is tragic.

This holiday season, please remember those families who have lost loved ones. Please, too, give your own families an extra hug and do all you can to keep them safe.

And if you are one of those families who now have a vacant chair at the table, I pass along the final words of Capt. Sewell Gray of the 6th Maine: “May God strengthen the bereaved.”

-- Chris Mackowski, Ph.D.

Editor-in-Chief, Emerging Civil War

The January 2022 issue of Gettysburg Magazine (vol. 66) features an ECW trifecta. Rob Orrison and Kevin Pawlak collaborated on an article about John S. Mosby and the beginning of the Gettysburg campaign, “His Information was Always Reliable.” In addition, Jon Tracey wrote a piece called “A Man of Iron: Theodore Pease’s Medical Treatment and Resiliency.” Jon’s piece follows a soldier of the 19th Indiana, and how the lengthy treatment of his Gettysburg wound affected the rest of his long life.

From Edward Alexander: “Over the course of the year, I had twelve books go to print with a similar number of projects already completely finished and just waiting in the cluttered publishing pipeline for early next year. I hope that means this time next year I'll be looking at a significantly larger stack of books I had a hand in helping create. I've taken advantage of the bit of a delay to better familiarize myself with ArcGIS and design styles within Illustrator.”

Sarah Kay Bierle spent part of the holiday season acting as an unofficial tour-guide at historic sites in the Shenandoah Valley and at Colonial Williamsburg for family/friends. She's also been baking lots of goodies which admittedly has cut into her usual reading time! She is looking forward to the new year, reams of writing, and is even outlining some new programs to share with Civil War Round Tables.

From Sheritta Bitikofer: “I'll be giving my FIRST Roundtable presentation. Yes, terrifying. It'll be on January 11, 2022, for the Pensacola Civil War Roundtable about the Clotilda, the last slave ship to land on U.S. soil in Mobile.”

Bert Dunkerly is giving a talk for Henrico County about Bacon's Rebellion on January 23. He will be speaking to the Revolutionary War Round Table of Richmond on January 19 about his new Brandywine book. He is also helping plan the annual Arnold's Raid event to be held at St. John's Church in Richmond on January 8. Bert has not forgotten about the Civil War and is hard at work on several projects, including a Stones River book for the ECW series with Caroline Davis, and editing a reprinting of Chris Calkins’ classic studies of Appomattox: The Final Bivouac and The Battles of Appomattox Station and Appomattox Court House. For Christmas, he would like gift certificates, good beer, and a brand new Steelers team.

Jon-Erik Gilot has an article in the February 2022 issue of Civil War Times magazine, examining how Grand Army of the Republic "Personal War Sketches" help shed light on the soldier experience during and after the conflict. 

“So far, I’ve done two virtual presentations and have lived to tell about them!” says Meg Groeling, who’s promoting her to-be-released-any-day bio on Elmer Ellsworth, First Fallen. “Joanie Mitchell called it, ‘Stoking the starmaker machinery behind a popular song.’” As ECW followers know, Meg has been battling cancer this year. “My white blood cell count has held steady for several weeks now, and I feel good, so there's that,” she reports. Finally, she says she and her husband, Robert, are looking for someone who wants to partner up on creating a rootbeer in honor of Harriet Tubman, who brewed rootbeer for “her” soldiers during the war: “Anyone?? Please? It will be fun!! Merriest of Christmasses to all—folks, cats, dogs, horses, mules, grandkids & grandfolks! Remember Ellsworth!”

Dwight Hughes gave a virtual presentation to the Dan Sickles Civil War Round Table on the USS Monitor and the Battle of Hampton Roads. He received this thank-you note: “In no way do I mean to take anything away from your own great storytelling abilities—but in addition to that, this was one of the most thorough and well-made Power Point presentations I’ve seen. Great Job!”

The November issue of Civil War News posted a great review of Dwight 's new ECW Series volume, Unlike Anything That Ever Floated: “A fantastic account of the epic March 9, 1862, Monitor vs. Virginia clash and the preceding day’s Hampton Roads battle. What makes Hughes’s account so engrossing is that it is written in much the way as a novel.”

Chris Kolakowski just put the final edits and indexing to his next book, Nations in the Balance: The India-Burma Campaigns, December 1943-August 1944. It is due out by Casemate next year, and is available for pre-order now. 

Jon Tracey was lucky enough to acquire a reunion ribbon from his 4th-great grandfather's unit and take it for a visit to Antietam, where it had been worn. He wrote an article about that experience here.

Besides the ongoing preservation easement work on the newly acquired Beckham tract and Myer's Hill he’s overseeing at Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, Terry Rensel made a recent trip to Erie, PA, and got to spend the better part of a day doing research at the Hagen History Center.

Dan Welch published an article in the Fall 2021 issue of Hallowed Ground titled “Battle of the Bands.” “While political and ideological debates persisted,” Dan wrote, “it was music the provided a universal language that enabled warring people to bridge the divide.”

In early December, Kris White and Chris Mackowski took a swing through middle Tennessee and northern Mississippi as part of a video project for the American Battlefield Trust. The team, which included ABT’s chief historian, Garry Adelman, hit Forts Henry and Donelson, Shiloh, Corinth, Stones River, Parker’s Crossroad, Brice’s Crossroad, Franklin, and Nashville. You can see the videos from that trip on the ECW blog or on the Trust’s Facebook and YouTube pages. (Below, Kris White captures Chris Mackowski and NPS Historian Jim Lewis at Stones River National Battlefield.)

ECW Bookshelf

Chris Mackowski’s latest book is now available, Decisions at Fredericksburg: The Fourteen Critical Decisions That Defined the Battle, published by the University of Tennessee Press as part of its Command Decisions in America’s Civil War series.

Decisions at Fredericksburg looks at the fourteen critical decisions by leaders on both sides, north and south, that shaped the action. As defined by series editors Matt Spruill and Larry Peterson, “A critical decision is a decision of such magnitude that once it was made, it affected the flow and sequence of events of a battle or campaign from that point on.” Critical decisions cover the entire spectrum of war. “They can occur on the strategic, operational, and tactical levels or within organizational or logistical structures. They can also involve personnel,” the editors write.

Historian A. Wilson Greene said of Mackowski’s book while reviewing it, “The author has done an outstanding job of unpacking those decisions and making the case for their centrality to the campaign’s outcome.” Greene also said, “The author possesses solid knowledge of his subject matter . . . and employs lively writing that avoids the dry prose that often infects such analytical studies.”

10 Questions . . . with Steve Davis

Stephen Davis is Emerging Civil War’s book review editor. His experience goes back decades and includes work for Blue & Gray magazine and Civil War News. You can read his full ECW bio here.

Book reviews seem to be an important part of the culture of Civil War buffs. Why do you think that’s so? 

I used to work for physicians' organizations, and they were very proud of their commitment to continuing medical education—a.k.a. "keeping up in the field." Well, we Civil Warriors can take even more pride in keeping up with the literature—it's our passion, not our profession. So staying informed of what's out there is a proud trademark of Civil War enthusiasts' identity.

Your experience as a book review editor goes back decades. What got you first interested in serving as a book review editor, as opposed to just being a book reviewer? 

I had my first review published in 1976 when I was in grad school (Rowell's Yankee Artillerymen, Georgia Historical Quarterly). Dave Roth got Blue & Gray going in 1984, I think. His first BRE was Rowena Reed (Combined Operations, 1978). When she quit in '85, Dave called me and asked if I'd take on the "job." Of course I agreed. I served in that capacity for twenty years (until marriage struck).

From your perspective as an editor, what changes have you seen in the book business over that period of time? 

a) fewer books published, sadly

b) increased specialization in topics/titles

c) heightened criticism of Confederate-oriented titles in the national conversation

d) price, price, price. Some university press titles are going for $75 these days!

What do you like best about being a book review editor? 

Keeping up with the literature.

Book reviews aside, what projects are you working on right now? 

a) Bill Hendrick (forty-year veteran of Atlanta journalism) and I have written a book, The Atlanta Daily Intelligencer Covers the Civil War. It'll be published by the University of Tennessee Press next summer.

b) I'm in contract with Savas Beatie for a collection of articles from the National Tribune on the Atlanta Campaign. (General Hazen cried after Pickett's Mill!) Ted Savas has the manuscript.

c) I'm proud to be a contributor and Advisory Board member for America's Civil War. Chris Howland, editor, recently published our article on when Old Abe encouraged Sherman to pursue peace talks with Joe Brown and Aleck Stephens.

(Thank the Lord for retirement!)

Lightning Round (short answers with a one-sentence explanation) 

Favorite primary source? 

The Official Records, without doubt. I bought my set in college ($800). I still remember Charlie Harrison, frat brother, shaking his head. You should see the worn-out parts of volume 38 (Atlanta Campaign).

Favorite Civil War-related monument? 

The small obelisk on Pine Mountain, Georgia, site of Biship Polk's death. Gid Morris, a Confederate veteran, raised money and in 1902 placed a monument whose inscription reads "Veni, vidi, vici with five to one." (Back then, Confederate apologists maintained that 600,000 Rebels had fought 3 million Yankees.)

Favorite unsung hero of the Civil War era? 

Sgt. Isaac P. Collier of Company C, 5th Georgia. In the trenches at Kennesaw Mountain, the men of Brig. Gen. John K. Jackson's brigade were under artillery fire when a Northern shell struck the Confederates' earthen parapet, skipping over it and falling into their trench. With the fuse smoking, the men scattered, expecting an explosion. Sergeant Collier, though, grabbed the projectile and threw it out of the ditch. 

Collier's bravery was witnessed by a half-dozen of his comrades. They sent word of it through the ranks to General Jackson, who immediately promoted Sergeant Collier to lieutenant. Collier, though, declined the promotion. "In throwing the shell from the ditch," he explained in a note to his captain, "I am conscious of having done nothing but my duty. I prefer to remain in my company, with my comrades, with whom I left home on the 7th day of May, 1861." (The Intelligencer carried this story.) 

What’s a bucket-list Civil War site you’ve not yet visited? 

Fort Donelson National Battlefield. The surrender of the Harpers Ferry garrison in September '62 is cited along with the capitulation at Corregidor as the largest surrender of American troops (11,500 or so at both places). Well, Buckner gave up over 12,000 at Donelson. Weren't these men Americans, too?

Favorite ECWS book that’s not one of your own?

Groeling's The Aftermath of Battle. (Way to go, Meg!)

The month of December defined the American Revolution for the Patriot cause. From the victory at Trenton on December 26, 1776, to the march into Valley Forge on December 19, 1778, the last month of the year was a time to take stock of what had happened and to plan for the future.

That is exactly what Emerging Revolutionary War is doing. One of those future endeavors is the second annual bus tour, scheduled for November 11-13, 2022, and titled "The Rise of the American Army: Valley Forge and the Battle of Monmouth.” Tickets can be secured through the "symposium" link on the Emerging Revolutionary War blog. For further information, click on over to that page as well. 

In addition to planning for the future, the popular "Rev War Revelry" series, which continues on December 26, and into the new year, will be featured in podcasts in the upcoming weeks and months. Started in April 2020 and with more than 60 hours of American Revolutionary Era content, episodes are now available via Spotify or Apple podcast applications. Just type in "Emerging Revolutionary War" into your podcast app of choice and follow. Don't worry, the "Rev War Revelry" will continue to be posted to the ERW YouTube page and will also reside on the “video” tab on ERW's Facebook page. So, stay tuned and thank you for your continued support in viewing these historian happy hours every other Sunday evening. 

January

10th: Sheritta Bitikofer, “Clotilda: The Last Slave Ship,” Pensacola Civil War Roundtable, Pensacola, FL

13th: Dwight Hughes, “Unlike Anything That Ever Floated: The USS Monitor, the Virginia, and the Battle of Hampton Roads,” Chickamauga & Chattanooga Civil War Round Table, Chattanooga, TN

21st: Dwight Hughes, “The Sailor and The Soldier at Vicksburg: Porter, Grant, and Unprecedented Joint Operations,” Falls Church Military History Forum, Falls Church, VA

February

7th: David Dixon, “August Willich’s Civil War: Radical, International Revolutionary,” Rock River Valley CWRT via Zoom

12th: Chris Mackowski, Lincoln as a Writer, Irish Brigade Camp, SUV, Fredericksburg, VA

14th: Jon-Erik Gilot, Mahoning Valley Civil War Roundtable

14th: Dwight Hughes, “Unlike Anything That Ever Floated: The USS Monitor, the Virginia, and the Battle of Hampton Roads,” Rappahannock Valley Civil War Round Table, Fredericksburg, VA

15th: David Dixon, “August Willich’s Civil War: Radical, International Revolutionary,” Union Club of Chicago

15th: David Dixon, “August Willich’s Civil War: Radical, International Revolutionary,” Lincoln-Davis CWRT

23rd: Chris Mackowski, “A Season of Slaughter: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House,” Fredericksburg (VA) Civil War Roundtable