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Tag Archives: Bruce Catton
September 16, 1862: The Night Of No Return
Civil War soldiers vividly remembered, and recalled, certain days of their military careers, both the highs and lows, the good ones and the bad ones. For those soldier participants in the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, the September 17, … Continue reading
Grant, the Wilderness, and the Loneliness of Command
On the evening of May 6, 1864, Lieutenant General U.S. Grant considered the day’s events. The Battle of the Wilderness had just ended its second day, and Grant’s forces had been beaten and battered in a way he’d never seen. … Continue reading
Posted in Armies, Battlefields & Historic Places, Battles, Campaigns, Leadership--Federal, Personalities, Ties to the War
Tagged Army of the Potomac, Battle of the Wilderness, British Army, Bruce Catton, Burma, Dunkirk, France, Gerald Templer, India, Lord Gort, Orde Wingate, Overland Campaign, The War in 1864, U.S. Grant, William Slim, World War II
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Ed Bonekemper’s Lost Cause Fact-Check (part one)
Part one of two Historians debunked the myth of the Lost Cause decades ago, but it still defines the way many (if not most) Americans remember the narrative of the Civil War. Its influence on popular imagination holds sway over … Continue reading
Posted in Books & Authors, Emerging Civil War, Memory, Reconstruction, Slavery
Tagged Alan Nevins, Bruce Catton, civil rights, civil war memory, Ed Bonekemper, Edward Bonekemper, Jim Crow, Jubal Early, Lost Cause, Lost-Cause-Fact-Check, Memory, Shelby Foote, slavery, William Nelson Pendleton
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Thoughts on Ken Burns: Chris Kolakowski
This series really brought the war to life in a human way for me. It still holds up all these years later, and will do so for a long time to come. In that sense it belongs in the category … Continue reading
Posted in Civil War in Pop Culture
Tagged Bruce Catton, Daniel Davis, Ken Burns, Ken Burns' The Civil War
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A Surfeit of Heroes: Custer At Gettysburg, July 3, 1863 Part I of a 2-part Series
In American history, it is doubtful if any battle has been studied more closely than the battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863. Strategy, tactics, weather, politics, communications, personalities, and just plain luck have been written about ad nauseam. The historiography … Continue reading
Posted in Armies, Battlefields & Historic Places, Battles, Campaigns, Civil War Events, Emerging Civil War, Leadership--Confederate, Leadership--Federal, Personalities, Politics, Sesquicentennial
Tagged Battle of Gettysburg, Bruce Catton, Custer, general custer, Gettysburg, Gettysburg National Battlefield, Pickett's Charge, Robert E. Lee
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Eastern Theater versus Western Theater: Where the Civil War Was Won and Lost: The Conclusion to a Series
The conclusion of a series. This series was put together from one of my extended graduate school research papers. The sources used were the current research between 2007-2008, obviously the historiography of the Civil War expands on a monthly basis, … Continue reading
Posted in Memory, Western Theater
Tagged Antietam, Battle of Chickamauga, Blue and Gray Magazine, Bruce Catton, Dave Roth, Eastern Theater versus Western Theater: Where the Civil War Was Won and Lost, Fredericksburg, George Thomas, Gettysburg, Gettysburg the Movie, John Badger Bachelder, Joseph Glatthaar, Joseph Johnston, Ken Burns, manassas, Robert E. Lee, Shelby Foote, Trans-Mississippi
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Telling History vs. Making Art: “a tension between Art and Science”
Part one in a series As a battlefield guide at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park (FSNMP), I frequently speak with folks who’ve come to the battlefields because they’ve read The Killer Angels, which in turn inspired them to come … Continue reading
Posted in Books & Authors, Memory, National Park Service
Tagged Bruce Catton, David Blight, David McCullough, Gary Gallagher, Gettysburg, Gods & Generals, Gone with the Wind, History-vs-Art, Jeff Shaara, Ken Burns, Michael Shaara, National Park Service, NPS, Scott Hartwig, Shelby Foote, Telling History vs. Making Art, The Civil War: A Narrative, The Killer Angels
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Pick #1 on My Top Ten List–The Army of the Potomac, a Three-Volume set by Bruce Catton.
Part of a Series: Books Every Civil War Buff Ought to Own My #1 pick for Civil War books we should all have on our bookshelves is Bruce Catton’s trilogy The Army of the Potomac. This classic, first published in … Continue reading
Posted in Books & Authors
Tagged A Stillness at Appomattox, Abe Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln, Army of the Potomac, Battle of Chancellorsville, Battle of Fredericksburg, Books Every Civil War Buff Ought to Own, Bruce Catton, Gettysburg, Glory Road, Jefferson Davis, Mr. Lincoln's Army, Pulitzer Prize, Robert E. Lee, Top Ten, Ulysses S. Grant
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My Top Ten List, or Building Your Civil War Library
“Everyman his own historian,[1]” is a quote bandied about in many classrooms, but it is rarely more true than when it is describing Civil War folk. I use the word folk because I have no wish to begin a Sumter-like … Continue reading
Posted in Emerging Civil War
Tagged books, Bruce Catton, Carl Becker, Civil War books, favorite books, libraries, Top Ten
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American Oracle and the dangers of political fanaticism
Reading David Blight’s American Oracle this weekend, I’ve noticed a subtle, cautionary note that keeps playing itself as an occasional undertone. It reminds me again why the study of history has something to tell us about current events—and also that no one … Continue reading
Posted in Books & Authors, Memory, Politics
Tagged American Oracle, Bruce Catton, centennial, David Blight, Memory, Robert Penn Warren, Sesquicentennial, writers
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Emerging Civil War 