In this day and age, newspapers rarely print fiction. Of course, there is the occasional magical story written by a third grade class that appears every once a week in the Arts and Entertainment section of the paper, but for the most part, fictional stories of real substance are not published in newspapers anymore. This was not the case in the 1800's. Appearing in The Valley Star each week was...
Dr. Theodore S. Christ completed his medical training in 1860, and he joined the Union army the following as a surgeon. In September of 1862, he served as the surgeon for the 45th Pennsylvania Infantry in the Ninth Corps of the Army of the Potomac. On the fourteenth of that month, General McClellan tasked Christ’s regiment with taking Turner’s Gap during the Battle of South Mountain....
Union General McCellan responded to Confederate General Robert Lee's plans of heading north by gathering his Army of the Potomac to counter them. Lee hoped to get to Pennsylvania to regroup, but instead confronted the Union army at Antietam Creek. Despite General McCellan's advantage in men Lee's troops were able to hold their ground. In the end Lee's army returned to Virginia,...
The Civil War was not just one battle that cut the connecting fibers between the North and the South, but a collection of micro battles, that, as a whole made up the Civil War. One battle in particular was the most gruesome in American history, The Battle of Sharpsburg, otherwise known as Antietam; had seen enough bloodshed to hold the victory for most soldiers that died total in a war....
Private Milton S. Lytle of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania joined the Union Army in August of 1862, and found himself assigned to Company C of the 125th Pennsylvania Infantry in the Army of the Potomac. On September 17, 1862, he and the 125th Regiment marched through the East Woods during the Battle of Antietam to protect the artillery batteries supporting Union assaults. Lytle and...
Encouraged by General Robert Lee's defeat at Antietam and hoping to bring in the Border States, President Lincoln decided to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. He declared that starting January 1, 1863, all slaves in rebellious slaves would be declared free. It stated that the executive government would enforce the freedom of the slaves and that no conducts of repression toward their freedom...
On Saturday September 6th 1862 an entertaining article was published in The New South paper in Port Royal regarding the antics of guerrilla warfare. This intriguing article describes the operations of guerrilla fighters during the Civil War. Guerrillas during this period fall into several different categories. Partisan, raiding, and bushwhacking are just several of the main focuses of...
On March 14, 1862 in Shenandoah County, Virginia three Union soldiers marched to the door of Sigismunda S. Kimball, the wife of a southern planter, and demanded supplies. The soldiers threatened Mrs. Kimball saying they had plenty of ladies prisoners and continued to torment her. On July 6, 1862 two Yankee soldiers came up to the house and demanded for the key to the corn house, saying they had...
General George McClellan's inability to secure victory on the battlefield in the summer of 1862 added turmoil to an already fragile situation. Many northern politicians were frustrated with the general's performance, not to mention their anguish over a costly war that was once expected to be a quick victory. Dick Yates, Governor of Illinois, emphasized through speeches and private...
Devastation and upheaval occurred in areas throughout the South where the Union army had gained control. The Union's control meant the freeing of slaves. This led to a shortage of agricultural labor and a scarcity of resources. This situation was further heightened by slaves who fled from nearby areas to the sanctity of Union borders. <br />New Orleans was a particular example of this...