Civil War Times April 2016

WHY THE SOUTH LOST THE WAR Ten historians weigh in on the reasons for the Confederacy’s defeat. NATHAN BEDFORD FORREST The most feared Southern cavalryman displayed a remarkable grasp of strategy and tactics. WHO KEPT GRANT SOBER? Aware that liquor had ruined Grant’s reputation, Adjutant John Rawlins was vigilant for signs the general might revert to his old ways. VISIT CIVILWARTIMES.COM LET’S CONNECT Like Civil War Times Magazine on Facebook DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION Civil War Times is available on iPad and other digital platforms…

MONUMENT MAN I enjoyed Sarah Beetham’s excellent article on Civil War monuments [“Town Square Soldiers”] in the February 2016 issue. Recently, I visited Madison, Ga., and located on the south side of the city is what I think is a Confederate soldier monument. It’s in a small park next to the main street going into the city and is facing north. I would like any information on this monument. Thank you again for Sarah’s wonderful article. I love your magazine and read it cover to cover. Keep up the excellent work. Bill Greenwald Minneapolis, Minn. Editor’s note: Thanks for the compliment! The monument in question is the Morgan County, Ga., Confederate monument. Put up by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1908, the statue was moved in 1955 to Hill Park in Madison,…

Thanks to quick-thinking utilities employees in Fairfax County, Va., parts of a long-buried Civil War–era corduroy road as well as the remains of a circular fort are being documented. It all started last October, when engineer Mohamed Kadasi, of the Fairfax County Utilities Design and Construction staff, realized that a backhoe operator working on road improvements near the City of Fairfax had uncovered a cedar log road just beneath a layer of macadam. The county made sure the site was protected, then arranged to have archaeologists evaluate and document the discovery. That in turn has led to the creation of topographic maps of the whole area, using light detection and ranging data. Using this new information, county officials hope to virtually reconstruct the road in addition to war-era encampments and…

ERIK MINK, NATIONAL Park Service Historian and Cultural Resource Manager at Fredericksburg-Spotsylvania, was walking through Fredericksburg when he spotted this graffiti carved on a brick: L B Ellis Co A. Few soldiers, North or South, fit these initials and company affiliation. One possible candidate is Private Lewis B. Ellis of Company A, 39th Battalion Virginia Cavalry. That battalion served at Army of Northern Virginia headquarters during most of its service, including the winter of 1862-1863. Its members, which acted as couriers, would certainly have had reasons to visit Fredericksburg. QUOTABLE SHOOT UP EVERYTHING BLUE AND KEEP UP THE SCARE —Confederate Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest to his men during the April 30, 1863, fight at Crooked Creek, Ala.…

A trio received well-deserved recognition at the 20th annual Lincoln Forum, held in Gettysburg last November. William C. “Jack” Davis (flanked above by Lincoln Forum Chairman Frank J. Williams and Vice Chairman Harold Holzer), the author of more than 60 books, a recently retired history professor at Virginia Tech and a former editor of this magazine, was awarded the Richard Nelson Current Award. Also receiving that award was Edward Steers Jr., (not pictured), an authority on the Lincoln assassination, whose background as a biologist has brought what Holzer described as “a forensic approach” to his many books. In a surprise announcement, Holzer himself received a Current Award, the organization’s highest honor.…

http://www2.vcdh.virginia.edu/civilwar THE EDUCATIONAL WEB COMPANION TO THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR CENTER (ACWC) AT HISTORIC TREDEGAR The Educational Web Companion to the American Civil War Center (ACWC) at Historic Tredegar was designed to complement the experience of visitors to the ACWC in Richmond, Va. Created by the Virginia Center for Digital History at the University of Virginia, the Educational Companion can actually be used on its own by anyone who wants to learn about or teach the war era. That said, the ACWC’s programs for K–12 students and a sampling of its exhibits will inspire viewers to visit the ACWC on their next trip to Richmond. The site’s greatest strengths are videos featuring historians, archivists and other experts describing artifacts and historic documents such as the Emancipation Proclamation, or simply talking about the war’s…