A Mostly Civil War Blog
Thursday, April 4, 2024
Saturday, February 3, 2024
Social Media
Friday, January 12, 2024
RIP Gordon Granger IV
Gordon Granger IV died on January 6, aged 96, at his home in Earlysville, Virginia.
He was a great help to me in writing the 2013 biography of his great-grandfather, General Gordon Granger: The Savior of Chickamauga and the Man Behind Juneteenth.
Tuesday, October 10, 2023
From Letchworth, NY, to Brunswick, Maine
The casualty numbers listed above, 294 fatalities out of 1,414 who served in one regiment, the First New York Dragoons, are a reminder of the war's horrifying cost. I'd barely heard of Todd's Tavern, a cavalry engagement in Grant's Overland Campaign between the much bloodier battles of Wilderness and Spotsylvania.
Sunday, September 24, 2023
Man of Peace
Frank Scaturro speaks at Grant Cottage on Saturday about President Grant's peacemaking efforts. Scaturro is an author whose books include President Grant Reconsidered (1998), and a lawyer who played a key role in the restoration of Grant's Tomb.
As president, Scaturro said, Grant resisted political pressure to wage war against both Spain and Britain, and submitted U.S.-British disputes to international arbitration which set a far-reaching and positive precedent.
He also talked about the book published earlier this year, Grant at 200: Reconsidering the Life and Legacy of Ulysses S. Grant, which he co-edited with Chris Mackowski. They both contributed essays to it, along with others including every living U.S. president, Grant scholars John F. Marszalek and Ronald C. White, and Ben Kemp, Grant Cottage operations manager.
I asked Scaturro about the successes and failures of Grant's peace policy toward American Indians, to which he gave a long and well-informed reply.
On international relations, I think Grant's two-term presidency has much in common with those of two other former generals, Washington and Eisenhower. All three knew well the horrors of war, and in part for that reason tried hard, for the most part successfully, to keep the nation at peace during their years in office.
Friday, September 22, 2023
Revolutionary Days
Thursday, August 24, 2023
A Day at the Races
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(Galveston mural by Reginald Adams) In June 1861, when the jayhawker James Montgomery was commissioned by the governor of Kansas as “Co...
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On this date in 1861, newly promoted US Army Colonel George Thomas, serving under Major General Robert Patterson, was stationed in souther...
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I had the honor of giving the fine actor Treat Williams, who died Monday as the result of a motorcycle accident, his first tour of Grant C...