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Here is a look inside A Short History of the War of Secession, one of the volumes in our Civil War: A Soldier’s Perspective collection. This book is fully searchable and easy to cite when used by students and writers. Author Rossiter Johnson explains the guiding principles behind this easy to read book in his preface shown here:

Preface

New York, April 19, 1888.

I had been for some years collecting books, articles, and memoranda concerning the great insurrection and its causes, intending to write its history in full, when I received in 1885 an invitation to tell the story in thirty articles for the pages of the New York “Examiner.” The reception given to those articles made it plain that there was a demand for a history of the war not so extended as to bewilder the reader with multiplicity of details, and not so concise as to preclude all color.

Current literature abounds in minute studies of the separate campaigns and engagements, most of them purely military, and many of them exceedingly valuable; but the reader finds no ready answer to his question, How did it happen that the war took place at all, what was its general course, and what were the motive forces that brought it on, prolonged it, and finished it?

To meet this demand with a single compact volume, is the purpose of the present effort. The “Examiner” articles have been thoroughly revised and extended, and several new chapters are added; so that it is hoped the book will present a fair idea of the great conflict that so nearly wrecked the Republic, though innumerable interesting particulars are necessarily omitted. Scarcely another war in history has had a theatre so extended, few have called out so large armies, and none have sprung from a more popular cause.

There were two thousand four hundred engagements of sufficient importance to be officially named, and many that were costlier of life and limb than some of the famous battles of the Revolution cannot even find mention in a volume like this. Current writers, intent upon military details, almost ignore the causes of the war, the spirit in which it was conducted, the complications that actually arose or were avoided by skillful diplomacy, and the significance of the results. I have therefore treated these subjects in somewhat larger proportion than the battles and sieges.

As the book is intended for easy reading, and not for hard study, I have avoided tripping up the reader on every page with foot-notes and references. In a few cases it seemed desirable to cite my authority, but generally the sources of information are such that this is unnecessary, and the reader that wishes to pursue the subject more minutely can readily find them.

Rossiter Johnson

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In my never-ending quest to ferret out every detail of the lives of my ancestors, I have found some branches of my family tree to be more, shall we say, accessible, than others. Case in point: my mother’s entire family line. My mother’s parents were born in Hardin County,Tennessee where their families had lived for generations. But they spent their adult lives in Oklahoma where my mother was born. I don’t remember ever meeting any of her Tennessee extended family. One of the few family stories that made it from my grandparents, through my mother to me was my grandmother’s childhood memory of seeing show boats on the Tennessee River. The county seat of Hardin County, Savannah, is situated on this river.

So having very few family clues to go on, I started looking for historical information that might give me some context for my ancestor’s lives in that place. Fortunately for me (although not so much for the soldiers involved) a major Civil War battle was fought in Hardin County….the Battle of Shiloh. Oh for a family diary about those days! Hey I can dream. Now you could probably fill many libraries exclusively with books about Civil War battles and the Battle of Shiloh is no exception. Surely somewhere in that sea of ink is something about Hardin County and the people who lived there.

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The newest expansion of our Civil War collection, Northeast Regimental Histories, includes several new books we added last week.

One of the new volumes, History of the Forty-Fifth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia: The Cadet Regiment contains wonderfully informative chapters about the history of the regiment and anecdotes from the war years.

The introduction ends with this passage:

We earnestly hope that this “History of the Forty-Fifth” will meet with the cordial approval of our comrades-in-arms, and interest all who peruse its pages.

Comrades, in the words of our eloquent War Governor, John A. Andrew: “We have proud memories of fields of conflict; sweet memories of valor and friendship; tender memories of our fallen brothers, whose dying eyes looked last upon our country’s flag; grand memories of heroic virtue, sublime by grief; thankful memories of a deliverance wrought out for humanity itself; immortal memories, with immortal honors blended.”

–ALBERT W. MANN
Historian of the Forty-Fifth Regiment,
Massachusetts Volunteer Militia.

History of the Forty-Fifth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia: The Cadet Regiment

This short excerpt explains how the Forty-Fifth managed to pull together a band of its own from among its enlisted men.

The Cadet Band

By Private John R. Morse, a member of the band.

The Forty-Fifth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia was mustered into service September 15th, 1862. Contrary to the custom established in the early part of the war, the Forty-Fifth had no band. Two months prior to this time all the regimental bands had been “mustered out” by orders from headquarters.

This was done because the men were enlisted as musicians, and not as soldiers, liable to do active duty in the field. As time went on, these musicians numbered into the many thousands, and it was held that the enormous expense to the government was not warranted, considering that such service was of the ornamental, rather than of the most serious kind. But Colonel Codman said a band he would have, and in this he was warmly seconded by the officers and men of the Forty-Fifth. He instituted a search among the men of the different companies for those who were musical, and who had more or less knowledge of musical instruments used in bands.

As a result, details were made from the several companies, as follows:

• Company A – Charles P. Goldsmith, Robert B. Hasty, John R. Morse.
• Company D – Alva M. Richardson.
• Company E – Henry Cummings, Henry L. Saxton, Henry C. Whitcomb, John D. Whitcomb.
• Company G – Danforth K. Olney.
• Company H – John A. Jones, James R. McLeran.
• Company I – John L. Collyer, Freeman D. Hopkins, Joseph K. Melcher, John A. Spofford, Myron W. Whitney.
• Company K – Hosea E. Holt.

These men were organized into a band and John A. Spofford was made leader, with the rank of Sergeant.

It was understood that these men should give up their guns, and henceforth serve as musicians, unless by reason of great loss they should be needed as fighting men, in which case every man should return to his company. They were, in either capacity, to receive the same pay, the same company rations, and the same clothing. Our “gridiron front” of blue stripes was the only distinguishing mark of the band.

Forty Fifth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia Cadet Band

Our duties were to furnish music in camp at “guard mount” and “dress parade,” give evening concerts, or whatever else was necessary for the good and pleasure of officers and men. It should be said that our instruments were furnished by officers and friends of the regiment. At the expiration of our term of service each member was generously presented with the instrument he used. Being “armed” with musical instruments we began preparations for our first appearance at “dress parade.” In this we were greatly helped by Seignor Mariani, the old drum major of Gilmore’s Band. He was very tall and commanding in appearance, always proud, and at the same time, jolly. When he marched before us, dressed in his gorgeous uniform, with his long gold-headed baton and his bearskin hat, with pompom topping all, he was inspiring. I used to think of him as a “moving shield” to cover the defects of our inexperienced work.

Notes

All individual subscribers, as well as institutions with access to our Civil War collection, can read or search within this books after logging in to the system.  If you do not have access, learn more about obtaining access to the Accessible Archives databases.

Continuing its commemoration of the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the Charleston Museum presents Blasted: Assorted Projectiles and Explosives of the Civil War. This original exhibition explores the varied and sometimes revolutionary artillery shells and small arms projectiles that were used during this country’s defining conflict.

Artifacts on exhibit include a rare Quinlivan shot designed to penetrate Federal ironclads and a two-chambered incendiary shell likely intended for use in Charleston’s defense.

The Wall Street Journal has a nice write up of the exhibit:

CHARLESTON, S.C. — They were the messengers of death in America’s bloodiest war: special rifle ammunition that caused mayhem on Civil War battlegrounds, artillery shells designed to blow ironclads out of the water and early mines and napalm.

As part of the sesquicentennial of the war that started in nearby Charleston Harbor and saw the city bombarded by Union shells for 567 days, the museum is mounting the exhibit “Blasted: Assorted Projectiles and Explosives of the Civil War.”

More than 100 rarely seen items from museum collections are on display through Sept. 10 chronicling the shot and shells used in the war in which historians estimate more than 600,000 died.

Read on at the Wall Street Journal:
Ammunition meant death in nation’s  bloodiest war – WSJ.com.

Preview the Exhibit

One of our newest collections is The Civil War Part VI: Northeast Regimental Histories.  These volumes were written while many of the members of the various regiments were still alive and able to recall specific events, stories, and places that shaped their lives during the war years.

While these books contain many somber passages, including lists of the dead and wounded, they also record stories like the one below that sheds some light on an individual member of the 12th Regiment – New Hampshire Volunteers.

Experiences, Anecdotes, and Incidents

One of the sergeants of Company H, whose first name is Alma, was a great lover of doughnuts, and different from most of young husbands he thought his wife could make quite as good or better doughnuts than his mother. So he wrote home to her from Point Lookout for a recipe how to make them. (more…)