As any good writer knows, you’re never really sure what you’re getting into when starting a new project … until you’re ready to submit it. Even then, there are always more surprises awaiting you, and the final product often looks different from how you originally envisioned it. Paul Magid learned this lesson first-hand when he … Read more
Fort Blakeley, in Spanish Fort, Alabama, may not be as famous as Shiloh or Gettysburg, but it remains one of the Civil War’s best preserved battlefields with important stories to tell. “Rarely do stories of national importance happen entirely ‘somewhere else,’” says Mike Bunn, director of operations of the 2,000-acre site. “By learning the specifics … Read more
Historians might describe Gen. George Thomas as something of a cipher. He is the man in the plain blue uniform who comes to a party and yet no one remembers his arrival or departure. Thomas was in the thick of numerous battles: Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge, Chattanooga and Atlanta, Stones River and Mill Springs, Peachtree … Read more
Scott Hartwig is a popular historian for BGES, and while he has spent his career at Gettysburg working for the National Park Service, his interest and scholarship is at Antietam. He has been working on the definitive campaign study in two volumes for the 1862 Maryland Campaign. Volume One was published by Johns Hopkins Press … Read more
Hank Koopman wants to correct decades of inaccuracies and revisionism in the various accounts of the two-day battle at Shiloh in April 1862. He has spent 20 years pursuing in-depth research, and he doesn’t mince words. Perhaps his great-great-grandfather’s suffering as a prisoner—he was captured with General Prentiss in the Hornets’ Nest at Shiloh—explains his … Read more
The art of bringing news of the battle, words and pictures intertwined, began with the very first war correspondents and special artists during the mid-19th century. Acclaimed war illustrators such as Alfred Waud and painter Winslow Homer captured the public’s ravenous attention for news of the war, as did the early photojournalists Timothy O’Sullivan and Andrew … Read more
After the Civil War, southerners were faced the challenge of reintegrating back into and moving forward to help rebuild their nation. Award-winning author Stephen M. “Sam” Hood, in his new book Patriots Twice: Former Confederates and the Building of America after the Civil War, dives into the contributions of more than 300 Confederate soldiers, sailors, … Read more
The BGES Blog never misses an opportunity to talk with Paul Severance. An Army veteran, he is an acknowledged expert on Gettysburg and a living history enthusiast. Severance has hosted several BGES tours, and was originally scheduled to lead another, “A Walking Tour of the Battle of Fredericksburg,” in December—thanks to Covid-19 it’s been rescheduled … Read more
Perhaps the most difficult race in track & field is the 400-meter, or quarter-mile. It requires a combination of speed and endurance that pushes the human body to its physical limitations. There also is a psychological component. Competitors do not ease into the 400-meter. They achieve full speed as quickly as possible and then push … Read more
Sometimes it takes a village. That was the case seven years ago when Fort Clinch, located on a peninsula near the northernmost point of Amelia Island in Florida, got a full-scale operating 10-pounder Parrott Rifle artillery piece. Built in 1847, the fort was part of the “Third System Fortifications” that gained prominence after the War … Read more
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