Primary Sources

Portrait of Robert E. Lee

February 6, 2010

The Library of Congress sponsors discussions on various books and broadcasts them via their website. One of the webcasts was about Robert E. Lee and features the author Elizabeth Brown Pryor. The author talks about her research into Robert E. Lee and provides a unique insight into this famous historical figure. Check out the webcast [...]

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So many statistics….So little time

December 29, 2009

According to John Busey’s “These Honored Dead: The Union Casualties at Gettysburg”, the following is a list of the number of soldiers killed during the Battle of Gettysburg. Army Of the Potomac : New York 978 Pennsylvania 745 Massachusetts 200 Michigan 200 US Regulars 182 Ohio 139 Maine 119 Wisconsin 105 Indiana 96 New Jersey [...]

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Merry Christmas

December 25, 2009

On January 3, 1863, Harper’s Weekly ran the following Thomas Nast image of Santa Claus visiting the Civil War Soldiers What can you see in the picture? There is so much to see in this photo. From the drummer boys playing with the Jack-in-the-box to the troops chasing a pig in the background (notice one [...]

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Christmas Eve

December 24, 2009

The above illustration by Thomas Nast is entitled “Christmas Eve, 1862″ and is from an 1862 issue of Harper’s Weekly. On the right side of the illustration is a Civil War soldier on duty sitting next to a fire on a cold night. In addition to holding his musket, he is holding a photo of [...]

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Weapons of the Civil War

December 16, 2009

Civil War infantry soldiers, Union and Confederate, carried what was known as a musket. These muskets came in numerous varieties and flavors, however for the purpose of this post, we will discuss only the more common models. 1861 percussion rifle-musket The Model 1861 Springfield Musket was the standard and most widely used rifle-musket of the [...]

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Civil War era Presidential Elections

November 21, 2009

In this season of elections, I thought it would be interesting to share a website on Civil War era elections. Harper’s Weekly has created a website for researching historical elections from 1860 to 1912. According to the website, the Presidential Elections page features political cartoons from several different digital resource centers such as Harper’s Weekly, [...]

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Image of Lincoln at Gettysburg

November 19, 2009

Since I have posted on The Gettysburg Address in the past, I thought I would share this USA Today headline article about a “new” image of Abe Lincoln at Gettysburg being found at the Library of Congress. The story discusses how an amateur historian was looking at photographs of the famous Gettysburg Address and found [...]

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PA Civil War 150 Website

October 9, 2009

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (also on Twitter @phmc) launched a new website dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and the role Pennsylvania played in that war. In addition to the new website, the commission also announced that there will be a Pennsylvania Civil War Road Show. According to a press [...]

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The Journal of Harriet Tubman

September 25, 2009

While the website is from 2006, here is an interesting idea on how to use a blog in the classroom. http://dowell.typepad.com/harriet_tubman/ The students in this classroom have researched a historical figure and created a blog that reflects entries as that historical person. The famous person in this case is Harriet Tubman. The students in this [...]

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President Lincoln Using Technology

September 19, 2009

There is a very good book called Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails by Tom Wheeler that I encourage everyone to read. The book discusses how President Lincoln used technology, in this case the telegraph, to stay connected with his troops in the field. In today’s technological society, the President knows exactly what is going on with his [...]

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