Civil War Times April 2022

THE LAST PATIENTS A remarkable 1865 photograph captures the staff and residents of a New York City hospital. bit.ly/LastPatients ‘A TERRIBLE EXPLOSION WAS HEARD’ An eyewitness describes the horrible 1862 Allegheny Arsenal Explosion. bit.ly/AlleghenyExplosion NAMING THE DEAD Exhaustive research efforts are helping identify occupants of anonymous graves at Fredericksburg. bit.ly/UnknownDead HISTORYNET Now! Sign up for our FREE monthly e-newsletter at: historynet.com/newsletters LET’S CONNECT Like Civil War Times Magazine on Facebook FOLLOW US @CivilWarTimes GO DIGITAL Civil War Times is available on Zinio, Kindle, and Nook A Complete Civil War Times index from 1958 to present is available at historymagazinearticles.com…

Nice article in the February issue about the image of dead Union soldiers at Antietam! I decided to go and check it out for myself, and I agree with you. It seems likely those men belonged to the 20th New York. Kevin Pawlak Antietam Battlefield Guide Manassas, Va. Martin Pritchett’s “Irwin’s Brigade at Antietam”(February 2022) overlooks Colonel William H. Irwin’s serious misconduct at Antietam. When Irwin ordered Major Thomas W. Hyde’s 7th Maine Infantry to make an attack requiring at least a brigade, Hyde realized the order came “from an inspiration of John Barleycorn in our brigade commander alone.” Hyde obeyed and his regiment was ambushed and only by leadership that earned him a Medal of Honor did he save at least half his men; “I wished I had been old enough, or distinguished…

WHY MARX? Of all the historical figures that have been why would you stoop so low as to point out that Karl Marx was a lover of Lincoln? Why would a man who authored the political ideology that brought about the brutal death of tens if not hundreds of millions disgrace the pages of Civil War Times? Was it because he was instrumental in the abolition of slavery or, worse, because it’s an effort on your part to present his ideology in a more favorable light? In my view you cannot help yourselves. Rick Huff Sykesville, Md. Editor’s note: We objectively pointed out that Marx had an interest in the American Civil War and Lincoln, an intriguing bit of history. To claim those few sentences illustrate some sort of ideology on our part is…

When artist and genealogist Shayne Davidson was working on the family tree of a friend and stumbled upon a miniature photo album with gem-sized portraits of Black soldiers, she unearthed a fascinating story. It was one she felt needed to be shared and, because she’s an artist, also illustrated. The album had belonged to William Prickitt, the White captain of Company G of the 25th United States Colored Troops, and the great-grandfather of Davidson’s friend. According to family history, Prickitt felt a special kinship for the men of his company after they nursed him through a debilitating illness that nearly took his life in 1864. Prickitt’s album contains locket-sized photos of 17 of the men of his command, each one carefully labeled with the soldier’s name. “I kept wondering….would it be possible,…

AFTER MUCH ANTICIPATION and on the second attempt, officials in Richmond found the 1887 time capsule embedded in the pedestal of the Robert E. Lee statue, which was removed from Monument Avenue on September 8, 2021. The copper box about the size of a large hat box harbored some 60 items. Books, newspaper items, records of Confederate units, a tome from the Grand Lodge of Virginia, Confederate currency and notes, artifacts of battle including several Minié balls, as well as a Bible, Richmond guide, and coins from 1883 and 1853 were included. Soldier badges along with a small intricately carved Masonic flag and the Masonic icon compass and square, made from a tree that had grown over a grave, were also retrieved. The items were discovered relatively intact, despite fears…

WHEN THIS UNION VOLUNTEER went to have his image taken in uniform, he took along a framed print of the nation’s first president, making a symbolic statement that he was going to war to defend the country led by George Washington. The print appears to be a copy of a painting by Gilbert Stuart, an affordable decoration that would have been in many middle-class homes of the era. Both North and South claimed Washington as an inspiration, and believed they were fighting to keep his ideals alive. This young soldier with a sense of history is unidentified, but he wears a jacket often attributed to New York State issue. TIMES DISPATCH/AP PHOTO; DANA B. SHOAF COLLECTION…