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Civil War Blog

A project of PA Historian

Civil War Cannons: Canister Shot

| July 15, 2013

Let’s end this summer project with a bang. How about 18 rounds of canister shot fired from a Civil War bronze cannon? Canister rounds consist of several dozen iron balls packed into the barrel of a cannon and rammed home with a charge of black powder. When fired they turn the gun into a massive […]

Jebediah Hotchkiss, Confederate Mapmaker, and Lykens Valley School Teacher?

| July 13, 2013

Few men were as important to the Army of Northern Virginia as Jebediah Hotchkiss. Hotchkiss had served the army throughout the war, and gain notoriety with “Stonewall” Jackson as a mapmaker. In early 1863, thirty-five year old Hotchkiss was given the task of sending scouting parties to map the Shenandoah and Cumberland Valleys from Virginia […]

A Description of the Battlefield at Gettysburg

| July 10, 2013

This account of the battlefield in the days following the fight comes from the Daily Patriot and Union published July 11, 1863.   “The battle field around the quiet town of Gettysburg will be an object of absorbing interest to many of our citizens for weeks to come. We visited the scene of the strife on Thursday […]

Troop Train Wreck on Northern Central Railroad

| July 9, 2013

  -Evening Telegraph, July 11, 1863 Serious Accident.—From the Sunbury American we learn that an accident occurred on the Northern Central Railroad on Monday afternoon, near Port Trevorton. A cow sprang on the track suddenly, from behind a wood pile. The result was, the locomotive was run off the track, the mail and baggage car […]

Lykens Valley Coal Strikes During 1863

| July 7, 2013

The Lykens Valley was mostly known for one major item in the years of the Civil War. Anthracite coal. This hard, stony coal burned hotter and longer than almost every other fuel available at the time, and the Lykens Valley anthracite was considered by many to be the best in the world.  One article, published […]