;

Civil War Blog

A project of PA Historian

The Most Mispronounced Words When Describing the Civil War

| October 31, 2016

There is a handy book for those who frequently discuss the Civil War and want to make sure that they are correctly pronouncing the names of people, places and battles associated with it.  Civil War Spoken Here, by Robert David Quigley, was published by C. W. Historicals of Collingswood, New Jersey, in 1993.  As the […]

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 […]

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 […]

Henry Keiser: After Gettysburg

| July 4, 2013

For the Army of the Potomac, Gettysburg didn’t mean the end of campaigning in the summer of ’63. Henry Keiser and the rest of the 96th PA waited on the battlefield until Lee’s army left the area. Then the long pursuit began which required tough marching in the infamously muddy conditions from Gettysburg. Here is […]

Constructing Harrisburg’s Defenses

| June 20, 2013

Almost as soon as the threat to Harrisburg became apparent in June 1863, preparations were made to properly defend the city from the Confederate advance. Civilian and military leaders in Washington approved the creation of a new military district that included Central Pennsylvania. Known as the Department of the Susquehanna, this new district would be […]