Instructions and orders given to Private Thomas D. Oliver, Lucas’s Battery, Missouri State Guard, before his Confederate service and up through his death at Corinth in June 1862. The selection of your hat depends on what you wear, where you are from, and the occasion for which you are selecting it. To understand, consider theContinue reading “How to Live and Die as a Southern Gentleman and Soldier”
Category Archives: Civil War
Say Hi, Robert
They were back in Southern territory, and word was that the enemy was on the other side of these woods. It was spring, and the day had started cool but ended warm. Will was coated in sweat in the late afternoon when orders came to halt their march and set up camp for the night.Continue reading “Say Hi, Robert”
The Day of Your Reward
The opening of Saving Private Ryan has a reading of the famous Bixby Letter. The letter was allegedly written by Abraham Lincoln to a Boston mother of five boys who had allegedly died in the service of the Union. It appears that Mrs. Bixby did not lose five boys for the cause, and it alsoContinue reading “The Day of Your Reward”
The Friendship Quilt
This is a deceptively simple fictional rendering of a story in my family history. It’s meant to be coupled with the “The Littlest Nurse,” and then for further perspectives, you can learn far more at my page on Sadie Bushman. You might wish to read the actual primary sources, as well. It’s worthwhile to thinkContinue reading “The Friendship Quilt”
The Littlest Nurse of Gettysburg
This is a deceptively simple fictional rendering of a story in my family history. It’s meant to be coupled with the “The Friendship Quilt,” and then for further perspectives, you can learn far more at my page on Sadie Bushman. You might wish to read the actual primary sources, as well. The Rebels came throughContinue reading “The Littlest Nurse of Gettysburg”
April Is the Cruelest Month
He was raised in the home of Master Baker Boswell DeGraffenried and only knew himself as Hank. His mother was a housemaid to Mrs. DeGraffenried, and she went by Ginnie. It wasn’t until he was nearly ten that he heard a field hand call her “Virginia,” and he said, “Why does he call you that,Continue reading “April Is the Cruelest Month”
The Last Rose of Summer
Dr. Francis Thornton was the seventh lineal male to bear that name, his father, Reverend Francis Thornton, being the sixth. It was assumed, or at least the younger Francis believed it was assumed, that he was to follow in his father’s steps into the presbytery. His father was a towering man—in body, spirit, and intellect.Continue reading “The Last Rose of Summer”
More Value than the Sparrows
He visited the scene twenty-four hours after the shooting stopped, and thereafter, one detail burned itself deep into his mind. Over the years, that detail had grown nonsensical, a cosmic joke told by a darkly comic creator. He could revisit the shade of that moment anytime he pleased, and for the first two decades, heContinue reading “More Value than the Sparrows”
Petty Slights and Indignities
Huldah, bless her soul, was the first to let Mrs. Lewis know about the new arrivals. She didn’t mean it that way, but she gave them up nonetheless. Sergeant Lewis sent his wife to the other wing to collect more bandages, and when she reached the laundry, Huldah was pulling linens out of the boilingContinue reading “Petty Slights and Indignities”
She Cannot Forget You
Reverend Mrs. Clute carried a secret. Or rather, it was a secret growing inside her. To be clear, it was not her second child who was indeed growing inside her and becoming obvious to others. No, this baby boy was not her secret, and yes, she was certain it was a boy–she had had aContinue reading “She Cannot Forget You”
The Living and the Dead, by Gordon Laws 