Random Thoughts on History

Each of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's offensives to take Petersburg resulted in not only killed and wounded soldiers, they also produced th...

The 14 African American soldiers who earned the Medal of Honor for their heroic acts at the Battle of New Market Heights set a high stand...

The VI Corps was among the most accomplished in the Army of the Potomac. Through several different leaders, the VI Corps time and again...

In conducting my research on prisoners of war captured during the Petersburg Campaign, I've come across instances where soldiers capt...

For the past ten years or so a handful of environmental Civil War studies have appeared in print. Books like Nature's Civil War by K...

A few months back, I decided to Google "Tim Talbott and "Random Thoughts on History" just to see what turned up. Among the...

In my  last post  I shared some comments by 1st United States Colored Infantry chaplain, Henry McNeal Turner, on how Union soldiers in ...

I am currently reading Freedom's Witness: The Civil War Correspondence of Henry McNeal Turner , edited by Jean Lee Cole. Turner is no...

“Free Soil, Free Labor, and Fremont” was an early rally cry for the emergent Republican Party in the mid-1850s. To many of its Northern ...

With the uncertainty that comes with our nation's present situation, I've been trying to limit my purchases to the necessities. ...

I find it interesting to think about what makes people who come from the same geographical area experience such different paths in life. ...

One of the oldest formats for Civil War histories are individual unit studies. Often authored by its soldier members, the first unit his...

I've been finding some pretty good prisoner accounts while looking through regimental histories of some units that served during th...

It has been a while since I shared a "Zooming In" post, but I located a neat image on the Library of Congress website that pr...

When temperatures turned cooler during the Civil War, armies often looked to establish winter quarters to better shelter the men. Due la...

When most people are asked to think about the various motivations that prompted men (and some women) to enlist in the Union and Confeder...

Estimates for the number of amputations during the Civil War vary somewhat, but most hover around 50-60,000. Losing hands, arms, feet, ...

Armed conflicts often produce prime opportunities for new inventions to emerge and technology to evolve. Many new developments come as t...

If I am able to find some silver lining to this COVID-19 pandemic black cloud, it is that it is affording numerous opportunities to get i...