By Dick Crews
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the winter of 2001.
“The History of mankind,” said the old Scotsman Thomas Carlyle, “is a history of its great men; to find out these, clean the dirt from them, and place them on their proper pedestal is the true function of a historian.”
Continue reading “Andrew Johnson: A Tough Man for Tough Times”By Dick Crews
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2011, All Rights Reserved
Conscript is not a word frequently used in discussing soldiers in the Civil War. In his book They Went into the Fight Cheering: Confederate Conscription in North Carolina, Walter Hilderman III, a man of the South, said the following: “Naturally, I assumed that my great, great Grandfather had eagerly volunteered for the Confederate army when the first shots were fired. Such was not the case. Through his letters, I found that he and most of his army companions were known as con-scripts. When I first came across the word, I had to look it up in the dictionary. The words eager and volunteer were not part of the definition.”
Continue reading “Conscripts in the Civil War”By David Thomas
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the spring of 1999.
In the beginning of the Civil War, the Confederacy won many decisive victories. As the war continued, however, the Confederacy weakened and in the end, the Union was the victor. But, could the South have won? There are five events that, had they turned out differently, might have allowed the South to win:
Continue reading “How the South Could Have Won the War”By John C. Fazio
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2014, All Rights Reserved
Editor’s note: Following is a Sept. 12, 1864 letter written by General William Tecumseh Sherman, Commander of the Western Theater of the War, to James M. Calhoun, Mayor, and E. E. Rawson and S. C. Wells, representing the City Council, of Atlanta, in reply to their petition to revoke his orders for the civilian population to evacuate the city. Italics are mine. Commentary is also mine. – John C. Fazio
By John C. Fazio & Carol Buchanan
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2011, All Rights Reserved
Editor’s note: In February 2005 CCWRT past president John Fazio published his article The Vigilantes of Montana in The Charger, the CCWRT newsletter. The article was later republished here on the CCWRT Website and in November 2010 a revision of the article was published in The Montana Pioneer, where it caught the attention of Montana writer Carol Buchanan. Ms. Buchanan is the author of God’s Thunderbolt: The Vigilantes of Montana, an historical novel set in Montana during the vigilante period. Ms. Buchanan wrote to us taking exception to several points made by Mr. Fazio in his article and even graciously submitted her own overview of the period, Gold, Greed and a Vacuum of Law, for publication on the CCWRT website.
The article below is a dialog between our two authors, John Fazio and Carol Buchanan discussing their differences on the history of the vigilante period in Montana.
By Carol Buchanan
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2011 Carol Buchanan, All Rights Reserved
As he helps to bury a murdered friend, attorney Daniel Stark (the protagonist in my historical novel God’s Thunderbolt: The Vigilantes of Montana) wonders how to find the killer and bring him to justice:
Continue reading “Gold, Greed, and a Vacuum of Law”By John C. Fazio
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2005, All Rights Reserved
Previously, I have argued in these pages that the decisive battle of the Civil War was not Gettysburg, as so many assume (though its critical importance cannot be denied), but Spotsylvania and Grant’s literal turning south that preceded it after his defeat in the Wilderness. My point was that the rolling twelve-day slugfest that was Spotsylvania demonstrated to Robert E. Lee both the unprecedented doggedness of the new commander of the Army of the Potomac and the terrible arithmetic that spelled the doom of the Confederacy, that is, Grant’s ability and Lee’s inability to replace losses.
Continue reading “The Vigilantes of Montana”By Matt Slattery
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in The Charger in March 2002. Its author, Matt Slattery, wrote it shortly before his death in December 2001. Even at 90 years of age Matt was still looking at new ideas about his and our favorite hobby, the American Civil War. Matt will be missed.
In 1865, the Civil War ended and the North had won. Had the South lost? Their generals had to admit it. Their armies were broken, their cities demolished, their railroads a wreck. Was all this acceptable to the Confederates? They ignored it (as best they could) by not writing about it, not speaking about it. Instead, they trumpeted The Lost Cause.
Continue reading “The Illusion of “The Lost Cause””By Dennis Keating
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2016, All Rights Reserved
The year 2016 marks the 100th anniversary of the United States Supreme Court decision in Ex Parte Milligan. In 2012, I wrote about “Lincoln’s Suspension of Habeas Corpus” for The Charger. In this archived article I recounted the issues and U.S. Supreme Court cases surrounding Lincoln’s controversial wartime policy.
Continue reading “Ex Parte Milligan Anniversary”By Dennis Keating
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2015, All Rights Reserved
As the United States celebrated its Centennial in Philadelphia in July 1876, President U.S. Grant was nearing the end of his second term in office. Saddled with scandals affecting high officials in his administration, Grant had given up on the possibility of seeking an unprecedented third term. Attention turned to several other Republican politicians as the GOP nominating convention met in Cincinnati in June.
Continue reading “The Contested Centennial Presidential Election of 1876”