Random Thoughts on History

Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood was nothing if not committed to his belief in offensive attacks. Rather than attempting to out maneuver th...

A colleague at work shared this interesting photograph he recently located of Frank Lane Wolford. Wolford was colonel of the 1st Kentuc...

A couple of months back I posted on antebellum white Kentuckians' perceptions of free people of color . I recently read a scholarly ar...

In my recent posts I have focused on the soldiers' stories, and rightly so, they after all put it all on the line whether in combat in...

Gen. John Bell Hood wasted little time once in command of the Army of Tennessee. He immediately went to work on offensive plans. Hood desi...

Since I spend a great deal of time sharing various Kentucky Civil War stories here on Random Thoughts , I thought I'd share a great pi...

Unidentified Union soldier with enlisted man's dress hat (Hardee hat) and frock coat. Courtesy of the Library of Congress

On July 9, 1864, a Union force under the command of Gen. Lew Wallace and Confederate force led by Gen. Jubal Early clashed on the Monocacy...

Steven Vincent Benet once wrote that General John Bell Hood was "All lion, none of the fox." Indeed, Hood was a fighter of the m...

As the guns fell silent at Kennesaw Mountain on June 27th, 1864, Sherman was already looking for ways around the Confederate defenses. Fed...

Often overlooked due to actions going on at the same time in the Petersburg/Richmond region and over in northern Georgia, the Shenandoah V...

The Union attack at Kennesaw Mountain on June 27, 1864, produced about 3,000 in killed, wounded, and missing. The following two days saw a...

During my research I have assumed that a good deal of the customers for Frankfort's black barbers came from the state's body of...

When Sherman attacked at Kennesaw Mountain on the morning of June 27, 1864, a major focus of the assault was a salient in the Confederate ...

When I became interested in researching antebellum Kentucky's black barbers I wondered if these men would only advertise in newspaper...

On June 22, 1864, Sherman's attempt to flank the Confederates off of Kennesaw Mountain caused an engagement at Kolb's Farm. Johnst...

This rare photograph shows a Union army camp scene where soldiers are entertained by a group of African American minstrel performers. T...

Sorry for the lack of posts this past week, but I was busy forwarding the flag of history in College Park, Maryland, at the National Histo...

Other than horses and basketball, Kentucky is best known for its bourbon whiskey. Whiskey has been distilled in Kentucky longer than Ke...

Like Richmond, Atlanta, too, was a hard road to travel - for both those on the offensive, and those on the defensive. One of those defendi...