On this day in 1931, President Herbert Hoover officially dedicates New York City’s Empire State Building, pressing a button from the White House that turns on the building’s lights. Hoover’s gesture, of course, was symbolic; while the president remained in Washington, D.C., someone else flicked the switches in New York.
The idea for the Empire State Building is said to have been born of a competition between Walter Chrysler of the Chrysler Corporation...
Minggu, 30 April 2017
Daily Quiz for May 1, 2017
Nova Scotia Supreme Court justice, member of the British House of Commons, and writer, Thomas Haliburton, created this literary character.
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Sabtu, 29 April 2017
April 30, 1945: Adolf Hitler commits suicide
On this day in 1945, holed up in a bunker under his headquarters in Berlin, Adolf Hitler commits suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule and shooting himself in the head. Soon after, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allied forces, ending Hitler’s dreams of a “1,000-year” Reich.
Since at least 1943, it was becoming increasingly clear that Germany would fold under the pressure of the Allied forces. In February of that year, the German 6th...
Daily Quiz for April 30, 2017
Guy Carleton was twice governor of this Canadian province.
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Jumat, 28 April 2017
April 29, 2004: World War II monument opens in Washington, D.C.
On April 29, 2004, the National World War II Memorial opens in Washington, D.C., to thousands of visitors, providing overdue recognition for the 16 million U.S. men and women who served in the war. The memorial is located on 7.4 acres on the former site of the Rainbow Pool at the National Mall between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. The Capitol dome is seen to the east, and Arlington Cemetery is just across the Potomac River to...
Daily Quiz for April 29, 2017
The Treaty of Utrecht ended this war.
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Blue and Gray: Photography’s Power
A lone image can serve as a point of departure. The Civil War beckons to modern Americans in many ways. Most important is the mass of information in letters, diaries, memoirs and other literary sources that allows us to recon- struct the world of the wartime generation. Often just as compelling is the immense photographic …
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Past and Present- Civil War Times June 2013
Two Monitor Crewmen Honored at Arlington On March 8, 2013—the 151st anniversary of the historic Monitor-Merrimac battle of 1862—the remains of two unidentified Monitor sailors were buried with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery. In the decade since two skeletons were discovered inside the turret of the wrecked USS Monitor, the Navy has attempted to …
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Letters from Readers- Civil War Times June 2013
Mortar From the Wrong War As a resident and craftsman at Colonial Williamsburg, I was naturally interested in your April 2013 news brief on the cannonball discovered atop the Bruton Parish Church—since I was able to examine it firsthand! Fellow blacksmith Chris Henkels and I noticed the round cast-iron finial at the base of the …
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CWT Book Review: Kennesaw Mountain
Kennesaw Mountain: Sherman, Johnston, and the Atlanta Campaign Earl J. Hess, University of North Carolina Press In the summer of 1864, two great armies engaged in a deadly, red-dirt minuet in the hills of northern Georgia. Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman had set his sights on taking Atlanta, while his opponent, General Joseph E. …
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CWT Book Review: Kennesaw Mountain
Kennesaw Mountain: Sherman, Johnston, and the Atlanta Campaign Earl J. Hess, University of North Carolina Press In the summer of 1864, two great armies engaged in a deadly, red-dirt minuet in the hills of northern Georgia. Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman had set his sights on taking Atlanta, while his opponent, General Joseph E. …
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CWT Book Review: Conflicting Memories on the “River of Death”
Conflicting Memories on the “River of Death”: The Chickamauga Battlefield and the Spanish-American War, 1863-1935 Bradley S. Keefer, Kent State University Press Bradley Keefer’s absorbing new book explores the rich history of the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. Established in 1896 to commemorate the sacrifices of Northerners and Southerners—thanks to Union veterans Henry Boynton …
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CWT Book Review: The Louisiana Scalawags
The Louisiana Scalawags: Politics, Race, and Terrorism During the Civil War and Reconstruction Frank J. Wetta, LSU Press Louisiana politics was never more corrupt than during the Civil War and Reconstruction. In his profile of the era, Frank Wetta explains the part played by scalawags, “Southern white Republicans in positions of influence and leadership, or …
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CWT Book Review: A Disease in the Public Mind
A Disease in the Public Mind: A New Understanding of Why We Fought the Civil War Thomas Fleming, Da Capo Press Thomas Fleming has carved out a niche for himself as a serious revisionist—that is, he always is willing to consider an alternative view to a popularly held belief and turn it on its head. …
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CWT Book Review: Civil War Dynasty
Civil War Dynasty: The Ewing Family of Ohio Kenneth J. Heineman, NYU Press For many, the expression “Ewing dynasty” evokes only images of actor Larry Hagman, oil wells, conniving in-laws and everything else associated with the sudsy 1980s TV series Dallas. But Civil War historians and buffs have an entirely different connotation for that family …
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CWT Book Review: McClellan’s Other Story
McClellan’s Other Story: The Political Intrigue of Colonel Thomas M. Key— Confidential Aide to General George B. McClellan William B. Styple, Belle Grove Publishing Political Intrigue. Confidential Aide. The Other Story. The title of well-known author Bill Styple’s latest book about Colonel Thomas Key seems to promise nefarious agents, secret plots, cloak-and-dagger exploits and tales …
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CWT Review: The Valley of the Shadow Project
The Valley of the Shadow Project valley.lib.virginia.edu As we ponder the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, I encourage readers to visit a favorite old website, “The Valley of the Shadow Project.” Here you can see how two communities experienced the Civil War. Begun in the early 1990s, this site may already be familiar …
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CWT Review: Photography and the American Civil War
Photography and the American Civil War Metropolitan Museum of Art, Through September 2 Leaning in, to peer through a large tabletop stereoscope, you press your face gently against the eyepiece. And as your eyes begin to focus on the black and white photograph in three dimensions, you smell cedar. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s …
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‘Landscape on the Edge’
Mississippi’s tortuous terrain fought Grant’s men at every step. Vicksburg, a strategic, well-fortified hub of the Confederacy, lay squarely in the path of a Union victory. What Union troops discovered when they arrived at Vicksburg and Port Hudson, La., was a landscape arrayed against the Union aims. Each location boasted not only rough terrain that …
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Stealing the Sun: Mathew Brady’s Gettysburg Photographs
Photographer Mathew Brady reached Gettysburg nearly two weeks after the battle ended 150 years ago this summer, forcing him to make decisions about what to photograph that he might not have made had he arrived sooner. His former protégés and now competitors, Alexander Gardner, Timothy O’Sullivan and James F. Gibson, had easily beaten him there, …
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Lights, Camera, Abe-Mania
How we remember Lincoln says more about us than it does about him. Was I really seeing what I thought I was seeing? A tall figure in a stovepipe hat and long black coat, striding toward me through the fog. Staring out at the Pacific Ocean, a hint of a beard as he turned his …
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‘Hundreds of Rebels Lay There’
A New York sergeant’s firsthand account of fighting on Culp’s Hill. Lorenzo Coy was 30 years old when he enlisted in the Union Army in Granville, N.Y., on August 5, 1862. Agreeing to a three-year term of service, he joined Company K of the 123rd New York Infantry. Coy’s 19-year-old brother Chauncey followed suit a …
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Fighting on Strange Ground: Confederates at Gettysburg
Can poor planning and bad maps explain the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg? In early June 1863, two Union topographical engineers spent several days studying the southern banks of the Rappahannock River with their field glasses, ascending repeatedly in a willow basket suspended from a gas-filled observation balloon. They were keeping close watch on General Robert …
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Letter from the Editor- Civil War Times August 2013
Battle Extraordinaire During the 150th anniversary commemorations of the Battle of Gettysburg and the Gettysburg Address, visitors will pore over the peculiar topographical and geological features of the battlefield. The three-day fight still captures our imagination. Bookshelves groan under the weight of thousands of volumes written about the battle: Micro-studies of regimental actions; large-scale narratives …
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Blue and Gray: Admirers Across the Big Pond
Most British historians were Lee fans. In November 1865, Robert E. Lee informed Jubal A. Early that he intended to write a history of the Army of Northern Virginia. “My only object,” he explained regarding the soon-abandoned project, “is to transmit, if possible, the truth to posterity, and do justice to our brave Soldiers.” Early …
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In General Ewell’s Corner: Interview with Donald C. Pfanz
Asked to present a paper on the 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign at a Civil War Roundtable some years ago, National Park Service historian Donald Pfanz initially planned to focus on Southern General Turner Ashby rather than Ashby’s counterpart, Richard Ewell. But he soon became intrigued by the man most often blamed for the South’s loss …
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Past and Present- Civil War Times August 2013
Ready, Willing and ‘Abe L.’ to Take the Stage When the Association of Lincoln Presenters recently assembled for their 19th annual convention, held in Columbus, Ohio, it was an impressive sight. Roughly three dozen black-coated, bearded and top-hatted gents came together for a weekend in April, when they visited venues frequented by the former president, …
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Letters from Readers- Civil War Times August 2013
More on the Story In the June 2013 “Past & Present” there was a mention of Mississippi finally approving the 13th Amendment. But I have some questions. Did Mississippi vote on the issue in 1865? You say Mississippi was the “last state”—does that mean last out of the 1865 states or today’s? Does its present-day …
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Mystery Ship: May 2017
Can you identify this experimental aircraft? Click here for the answer.
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Mystery Ship: May 2017
Rohr R.M. 1 “Guppy” Frederick H. “Pappy” Rohr designed and built the fuel tanks for the Ryan NYP, in which Charles A. Lindbergh flew from New York to Paris nonstop in May 1927. On August 6, 1940, he established the Rohr Aircraft Corporation in Chula Vista, Calif., with help from Reuben Fleet, whom he had …
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Cold Warrior
The North Korean MiG-17 pilots charged their guns and rolled in behind their target over international waters in the Sea of Japan. They believed they were attacking a P2V Neptune, but the subtle beauty and supple grace of the Lockheed patrol plane were missing in the sturdy hunk of blue iron that was cruising along …
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Kamis, 27 April 2017
April 28, 1945: Benito Mussolini executed
On this day in 1945, “Il Duce,” Benito Mussolini, and his mistress, Clara Petacci, are shot by Italian partisans who had captured the couple as they attempted to flee to Switzerland.
The 61-year-old deposed former dictator of Italy was established by his German allies as the figurehead of a puppet government in northern Italy during the German occupation toward the close of the war. As the Allies fought their way up the Italian peninsula, defeat...
Daily Quiz for April 28, 2017
The bloodless 1838-1839 Aroostook War was a dispute over a border between these two countries.
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Portfolio: Images of War as Landscape
Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, Civil War photographers brought the war home and opened people’s eyes to its realities. A new exhibit—called East of the Mississippi—puts Civil War-era photography into the broader context of the American landscape. Through daguerreotypes, albumen prints, cyanotypes, stereographs, and other...
CWT Reviews: Voices From the Past
Voices From the Past: Civil War-Soldiers’ Letters and Diaries Indiana Magazine of History http://ift.tt/2p8PXMS vcsfrmpst/voices_cvlwr/index.html Voices From the Past: Civil War Soldiers’ Letters and Diaries, hosted by the Indiana Magazine of History, shares article-length full transcriptions of wartime letters and diaries of Union soldiers from Western regiments, usually from Indiana and Kentucky, that previously appeared …
The post...
CWT Book Reviews: The Cherokee Nation in the Civil War
The Cherokee Nation in the Civil War Clarissa W. Confer, University of Oklahoma Press Just as the Civil War’s root causes were planted long before 1861, so the Five Civilized Tribes’ involvement followed decades of tensions with the U.S. government. Clarissa Confer investigates the role played by the Cherokees. Two factors lay behind the Cherokees’ …
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CWT Book Review: Lincoln’s Citadel
Lincoln’s Citadel: The Civil War in Washington, DC Kenneth J. Winkle, W.W. Norton & Company In following up on the re-publication of Margaret Leech’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Reveille in Washington: 1860-1865 in 2009, Kenneth Winkle deserves an award for courage. Like Leech, Winkle examines “the attitudes, actions, and motivations,” not only of Abraham Lincoln and Washington …
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CWT Book Review: Grant at Vicksburg
Grant at Vicksburg: The General and the Siege Michael B. Ballard Southern Illinois, University Press A commander, observed Carl von Clausewitz in his monumental work forth the appropriate decision. By total assimilation with On War, “must always be ready to bring his mind and life, the commander’s knowledge must be transformed into genuine capability.” In …
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CWT Book Review: Surgeon in Blue
Surgeon in Blue: Jonathan Letterman, the Civil War Doctor Who Pioneered Battlefield Care Scott McGaugh, Arcade Publishing After its unsuccessful 1862 Peninsula Campaign, the Army of the Potomac underwent a revolution, led by Dr. Jonathan Letterman. The army’s medical director, Letterman instituted a series of reforms that revolutionized the care soldiers received during and after …
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Dig It: Archaeology and Relic Hunting
Can archaeologists and weekend relic-hunters find common ground in the search for Civil War knowledge? I can’t help but feel a bit nervous as the two men approach, wearing full Army fatigues adorned with patches, formidable-looking in their combat boots and aviator sunglasses. It’s a sunny April morning in the sleepy town of Orange, Va., …
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The Abrupt Demise of a Maverick: Daniel Harvey Hill
Confederate General D.H. Hill was his own worst enemy. EARLY IN THE WAR, Daniel Harvey Hill was known as one of the Confederate Army’s most fearless and successful officers, a key contributor in the fighting at Big Bethel, on the Virginia Peninsula, and at Antietam’s “Bloody Lane.” But by the summer of 1863, Hill found …
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In Camp with Holcombe’s Legion
A long-lost Conrad Wise Chapman masterpiece comes to light. CONRAD WISE CHAPMAN was among the most prolific Southern artists working during the war. Most of his known martial-themed works are in museums, but one long believed to have been “lost” has resurfaced. That painting, Cavalry Camp of the So. Ca. Holcomb Legion, New Kent Co. …
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‘Ethiopia’ On Broadway
New York City women tried to erase the memory of the Draft Riots by helping raise a U.S. Colored Troops regiment. On March 5, 1864, “a vast crowd” of 100,000 New Yorkers “of every shade of color, and every phase of social and political life” thronged into the city’s principal outdoor rallying point, Union Square, …
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July 2017 Table of Contents
The July 2017 issue features a cover story about Nazi German assassination squads known as Werewolves
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A Question of Loyalty: Why Did Robert E. Lee Join the Confederacy
Why, exactly, did Robert E. Lee fight for the Confederacy? ROBERT E. LEE should not be understood as a figure defined primarily by his Virginia identity. As with almost all his fellow American citizens, he manifested a range of loyalties during the late-antebellum and wartime years. Without question devoted to his home state, where his …
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Narrow Path to Victory
Though almost comical in aspect, narrow-gauge trains proved a lifeline to frontline troops in World War I
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Letter from the Editor- Civil War Times October 2013
Minié Balls and Memory Who knows how many millions of Minié balls were cast or pressed between 1861-1865? Those soft lead slugs were a constant presence in soldiers’ lives. Relichunters have collected thousands of bullets that had been fired in battle and were scored with rifling, as well as some others that dropped harmlessly to …
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Rebel Woman: Interview with María Agui Carter
In 1876 Loreta Janeta Velazquez penned a 600-page memoir, The Woman In Battle, about serving as a Confederate soldier during the Civil War. Documentary filmmaker María Agui Carter became so intrigued with the historical evidence surrounding Velazquez’s account that she spent 10 years researching Velazquez’s story. The result is a dramatic one-hour film, Rebel, that …
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Blue & Gray: Deciding What to Read
Separate the wheat from the chaff through bibliographies. The deluge of Civil War-related publications during the sesquicentennial complicates the problem of separating the wheat from the chaff in a literature that runs to scores of thousands of titles. Attempting to keep abreast of new work can be confusing and frustrating, and the process of trying …
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Past & Present- Civil War Times October 2013
Monster Cannons on Display No other Civil War armament was as formidable as Rodman cannons. Named for their inventor, Thomas Jackson Rodman, the distinctively streamlined cannons were cast in a way that made them much less vulnerable to accidental explosions. Two of the largest Rodmans, behemoths that weighed 90 tons and could fire 20-inch shells …
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Letters from Readers- Civil War Times October 2013
On Churchill, Grant—and Socks I have less respect for Winston Churchill after reading his half-baked criticisms of U.S. Grant (see “Blue&Gray,” by Gary W. Gallagher, in the August issue). From May 1864, Grant fought a successful defense in the Wilderness, came near to defeating Lee at Spotsylvania, wisely did not take Lee’s bait at North …
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Krupp 28 cm K5(E) Railway Gun
Germany used the K5 to strike Allied landing zones in World War II
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Author Neal Bascomb
Bascomb's latest book centers on Norwegian efforts to thwart Nazi Germany's nuclear ambitions
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July 2017 Readers’ Letters
Readers sound off about American traitor Martin Monti, World War II U-boats and OSS operative Walter Lord
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Book Review: My Lai
Howard Jones revisits the March 16, 1968, massacre at My Lai, South Vietnam, and its aftermath
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Book Review: The Quartermaster
Robert O'Harrow Jr. profiles Montgomery C. Meigs, the pivotal Union quartermaster general during the American Civil War
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Book Review: Caesar’s Greatest Victory
John Sadler and Rosie Serdiville review the 52 BC siege of Alesia, fought in present-day central France
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Book Review: Praetorian
Guy de la Bédoyère details the history of ancient Rome's elite Praetorian Guard
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Book Review: Heligoland
Jan Rüger relates the complex strategic history of the rocky North Sea isle of Heligoland
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Book Review: America’s Sailors in the Great War
Lisle Rose focuses on the role the developing U.S. Navy played in World War I
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A Civil War Surprise
You never know where the Civil War will turn up. During restoration of his 1810 “Cape Cod” style farmhouse in Newbury, Vt., homeowner Justin Squizzero uncovered this Thomas Nast engraving titled “Christmas, 1863,” which depicts a Union soldier returning home for the holidays to a happy family, still glued to the wall. Farmer George Burroughs …
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Book Review: Rendezvous With Death
David Hanna recalls the American volunteers to served with the French Foreign Legion in World War I
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Rabu, 26 April 2017
April 27, 4977: Universe is created, according to Kepler
On this day in 4977 B.C., the universe is created, according to German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, considered a founder of modern science. Kepler is best known for his theories explaining the motion of planets.
Kepler was born on December 27, 1571, in Weil der Stadt, Germany. As a university student, he studied the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus’ theories of planetary ordering. Copernicus (1473-1543) believed that the sun,...
Daily Quiz for April 27, 2017
Built in 1901, the Hartland Bridge over the St. John River which connects the New Brunswick communities of Hartland and Somerville has this distinction.
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Civil War Times: The Gettysburg Campaign in Numbers
The Gettysburg Campaign in Numbers and Losses J. David Petruzzi and Steven Stanley, Savas Beatie This is the final entry in J. David Petruzzi and Steven Stanley’s trilogy of Gettysburg Campaign guides, joining The Complete Gettysburg Guide and The New Gettysburg Campaign Handbook. (Don’t confuse this with John Busey and David Martin’s seminal book Regimental …
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Civil War Times: Shooting Gallery
Shooting Gallery Anne and Ridley Enslow Curate the Civil War Through Music In their albums When Johnny Comes Marching Home and Music for Abraham Lincoln, musicians and historians Anne and Ridley Enslow deliver a powerful gift to anyone interested in the Civil War’s cultural history. The former CD provides a more general approach to this …
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Civil War Times Review: Milliken’s Bend
Milliken’s Bend: A Civil War Battle in History and Memory Linda Barnickel, LSU Press The battlefield at Milliken’s Bend, La., no longer exists. There are no markers commemorating the uncommon valor of three U.S. Colored Troop regiments that fought there on June 7, 1863, during the Vicksburg Campaign. The ever-shifting channel of the Mississippi River, …
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Civil War Times: War Flowers
War Flowers (2013) Written and directed by Serge Rodnunsky (available on DVD and VOD) War Flowers poses an important question: Why is it so difficult to make a good Civil War movie? Is it because writers and directors are so overwhelmed by the scale of the conflict or the challenge of conveying so many events? …
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Civil War Times Reviews: Protecting the Flank at Gettysburg
Protecting the Flank at Gettysburg: The Battles for Brinkerhoff’s Ridge and East Cavalry Field, July 2-3, 1863 Eric J. Wittenberg, Savas Beatie Although the outcome of the Gettysburg Campaign, like all major land operations, ultimately rested on the weary shoulders of the infantry, Union and Confederate cavalry played an unquestionably important role in shaping its …
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Civil War Times Review: The Gettysburg Story
The Gettysburg Story (2013) Written and directed by Jake Boritt (available on DVD and for download) When PBS’s War many reviewers and historians aired in September 2012, Death and the Civil wondered when documentary filmmakers would move beyond using what can be called the “Ken Burns” effects—slow pans across photographs, landscape shots and interviews with …
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CWT Review: New Museum Fills a Niche at Gettysburg
The newly opened Seminary Ridge Museum has a unique story to tell, and tells it in elegant, educational and occasionally gruesome ways. Located in the restored Schmucker Hall at Gettysburg’s iconic Lutheran Theological Seminary, the museum opened on July 1 during the 150th commemoration of the battle. From this same building’s cupola, Union cavalry commander …
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‘Hallo, Sam. I’m Dead’
Jesse Reno’s death cost the Federals one of their best generals. IT WAS AROUND DUSK on Sunday, September 14, 1862, when Maj. Gen. Jesse Lee Reno, commander of the Army of the Potomac’s IX Corps, arrived at Fox’s Gap, near the summit of South Mountain. Darkness was already descending across the battle-scarred mountain, the roar …
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Pilgrimage to Gettysburg
Hundreds travel to Gettysburg to pay tribute to their ancestors at the battle’s 150th celebration. The July 2013 commemoration of the Battle of Gettysburg has been the high point of the sesquicentennial thus far. An estimated 300,000-plus travelers came to Gettysburg, Pa., from June 29 through July 7 to attend museum and movie openings, observe …
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A Boy Named Chancy
Union General O.O. Howard named his son after one of the North’s worst defeats. The Army of the Potomac’s XI Corps suffered a resounding a defeat on May 2, 1863 at Chancellorsville. The onslaught by Lt. Gen. Stonewall Jackson’s that overwhelmed the corps stands as one of the most devastating surprise attacks in American military …
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The Minstrel Man: Thomas Brigham Bishop
Forgotten songwriter and impresario Thomas Brigham Bishop still casts a long shadow in American culture. UNION TROOPS WERE IN FIRM COMMAND of Chattanooga, Tenn., by the fall of 1863, and soldiers, traders, adventurers, poor whites, refugees and escaped or newly freed slaves—drifting in on the currents of war—mingled uneasily in the strategic railroad hub. Even …
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‘Brave But Vain Valor’: Letter from the Battle of Malvern Hill
Lieutenant George W. Finley’s previously unpublished letter describes the ordeal he and the 14th Virginia endured during the July 1862 Battle of Malvern Hill. BORN AT MELROSE PLANTATION in Yanceyville, N.C., and raised in Clarksville, Va., George Williamson Finley belonged to a group of students dismissed from Washington College (Va.) in March 1858 for burning …
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Letter from the Editor: Four Great Days
Months before the 150th anniversary commemorations at Gettysburg, the Civil War Times staff decided it was important to be on hand. All of us were excited about going, but as the battle anniversary dates drew closer, that decision seemed questionable. The pace in our office had been frenetic: A steady stream of special issues, regular …
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Mary Boykin Chesnut’s Ballgown Rescued
A ball gown worn by Mary Boykin Chesnut has been rescued from the ravages of time, thanks to a collaboration of historic groups in Columbia, S.C., where Chesnut lived during the Civil War. In 1981, the Historic Columbia Foundation received a donation from Catherine Glover Herbert, a descendant of Mary Boykin Chesnut. The items comprised …
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Jefferson Davis: More Than a Figurehead- Interview of Bertram Hayes-Davis
In his early 20s, Bertram Hayes-Davis was chosen to head the Davis Family Association, dedicated to commemorating his great-great-grandfather, Jefferson Davis. In speaking of his ancestor today, Hayes-Davis points out that his career as a public servant has largely been forgotten in light of his brief stint as Confederate president. He is now the executive …
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Blue and Gray: Poor George Gordon Meade
An unsent letter has plagued the general for more than 150 years. On July 14, 1863, Abraham Lincoln drafted a letter to Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade, whose Army of the Potomac had recently mauled the Army of Northern Virginia in the Battle of Gettysburg. “I am very—very— grateful to you for the magnificent success …
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Past and Present- Civil War Times December 2013
Help sought for a timeworn memorial In 1879 the survivors of Battery B, 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery—often called “Cooper’s Battery” after James H. Cooper, the battery’s captain—put up a small monument on Gettysburg’s Cemetery Hill to commemorate their role in silencing Confederate artillery on July 2. When Keith Foote and some friends visited the monument …
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Letters from Readers- Civil War Times December 2013
Lee’s Loyalty I have great respect for Robert E. Lee as a man and a soldier, but disagree with his example, cited in Gary Gallagher’s October article, “A Question of Loyalty,” of George Washington as a person who had to change his conduct after fighting against the French in the service of the British king …
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Prelude to Revolution
The Earl of Dunmore stamped his name on a 1774 Indian war and took credit for its success, earning the lasting enmity of the Virginia militiamen who actually fought. What could be considered the opening shots of the American Revolution came not at Lexington and Concord, Mass., in April 1775 but six months earlier and …
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The 11-Day War
The so-called Christmas Bombings in 1972 brought the North Vietnamese back to the negotiating table, but at a high cost
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6 Questions | Author Cate Lineberry
CATE LINEBERRY is the author of Be Free of Die: The Amazing Story of Robert Smalls’ Escape from Slavery to Union Hero, which will be published in June by St. Martin’s Press. She is the author of The Secret Rescue: An Untold Story of American Nurses and Medics Behind Enemy Lines (Back Bay Books, 2014), a #1 Wall …
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Hall of Valor | Harvey Barnum
The Marine rushed through a hail of enemy fire. Harvey Curtiss “Barney” Barnum Jr. was born a Marine. It simply took 18 years for him to grow into the uniform and sign the paperwork. From early on, he exhibited a drive to face every challenge, seize every opportunity and make the most of each …
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Selasa, 25 April 2017
April 26, 1954: Polio vaccine trials begin
On this day in 1954, the Salk polio vaccine field trials, involving 1.8 million children, begin at the Franklin Sherman Elementary School in McLean, Virginia. Children in the United States, Canada and Finland participated in the trials, which used for the first time the now-standard double-blind method, whereby neither the patient nor attending doctor knew if the inoculation was the vaccine or a placebo. On April 12, 1955, researchers announced the...
Daily Quiz for April 26, 2017
Marilyn Bell became a Canadian hero when she did this.
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WWII Review: WWII & NYC
WWII & NYC At the New-York Historical Society Museum and Library, through May 27, 2013. General admission $15. New York City was one of World War II’s epicenters. It was the largest port on the planet. Its manufacturing output was unmatched. Most North Atlantic convoys jumped off from its spacious natural harbor. Its Brooklyn Navy …
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WWII Book Review: Every Man Dies Alone
Every Man Dies Alone By Hans Fallada, translated by Michael Hofmann. 544 pp. Melville House, 2009. $29.95. The full range of human behavior—opportunism, brutality, compassion, and, above all, courage that verges on the suicidal—is on display in this outstanding first English edition of Hans Fallada’s epic novel. Set in Germany during the war, Every Man …
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WWII Review: Whittle- The Jet Pioneer
Whittle- The Jet Pioneer: His Race Against Time And The Nazis Directed by Nicholas Jones. 71 minutes. Shelter Island, 2012. $24.98. Jet engine-designer Sir Frank Whittle was the quintessential lone British scientist: quiet and determined, he made his immortal mark on aviation history only to fade from the scene as bigger organizations carried his dream …
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WWII Review: Apocalypse- Hitler
Apocalypse: Hitler Directed by Isabelle Clarke and Daniel Costelle. 110 minutes. Entertainment One, 2012. $19.98. How did Adolf Hitler—failed art student, rootless drifter, just one of millions of unemployed ex-soldiers nursing a nagging sense of betrayal in Weimar Germany—morph into the omnipotent Führer? This puzzle has spawned books, essays, and films because it poses some …
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Kneeling to Neptune
On a journey from innocence to experience, a Marine and his buddies found a flash of levity in an ancient mariners’ ritual. IN WAR THERE ARE SOME LINES YOU CROSS AND some lines you don’t. Some of those lines you’ll come back across and some of those lines you will not. Every man who went …
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Defiance of the Lambs
As Nazi propaganda proved increasingly hollow, scores of Germans anonymously vented their frustrations to the Reich’s top radio personality. In a modest apartment in a working-class district of Berlin, a metalworker at the Siemens cable factory sat at his kitchen table one night in 1940, scratching out messages on postcards that he would later leave …
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Time Travel: Still Fighting in Normandy
SHORTLY AFTER MIDNIGHT on June 6, 1944, the sky above the Normandy market town of Sainte-Mère-Église quietly grew thick with billowing silk as American para troopers dropped into the night ahead of the long-expected Allied invasion of Europe; by 4:30 a.m., an American flag was flying above Sainte-Mère’s town hall. Two hours later, as dawn …
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War Letters: A Young Pilot’s Surprising Political Leanings
BRANDED A left-wing peacenik during his 1972 presidential campaign against incumbent Richard M. Nixon, Senator George S. McGovern lost that race in a landslide, winning only Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. A major reason for his defeat was his opposition to the war in Vietnam; many McGovern supporters felt he should have emphasized his own military …
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The Reading List: Maximilian R. H. Bunk
Hitler: eine Biographie (English title: Hitler) Joachim Fest (1973) “Fest spent nearly five years asking how a WWI veteran with a weird biography could lead a highly cultured nation into barbarism. His answer is this masterpiece. If you don’t want to read every book on Hitler this is a great choice.” Das Boot (The Boat) …
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WWII Today- February 2013
Allies Buried Misgivings Over Katyn Killings, Papers Reveal The United States and Britain correctly suspected that the Soviet Union executed 22,000 Polish prisoners, many of them officers, in Katyn Forest, in April and May 1940—but kept silent to avoid riling Joseph Stalin. The cover-up is chronicled in 1,000 pages of documents released last fall by …
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Letters from Readers- World War II February 2013
Cover Band THE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER issue was brought to my attention by my sister, who recognized the cover photograph. It was taken just before 9 a.m. on June 15, 1944, on Saipan’s Charon Kanoa Beach. I was there, landing with the 2nd Platoon of G Company, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marines, 4th Marine Division. Our commander, Lieutenant …
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Desert Warriors: The Civil War in the Southwest Borderlands
he Southwest Borderlands is without question the Civil War’s least understood and appreciated theater. The sparsely populated region, extending from southern California to the Rio Grande, experienced not only clashes between Union and Confederate forces during the war, but also a struggle for survival and dominance among Indian and Hispanic populations on both sides of …
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Senin, 24 April 2017
A Promise Betrayed: Reconstruction Policies Prevented Freedmen from Realizing the American Dream
n January 16, 1865, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman issued Special Field Orders No. 15, which one admiring biographer lauded as “the single most revolutionary act in race relations in the Civil War.” The order promised thousands of freedmen 40-acre parcels of land located in a 30-mile wide swath from Charleston south along the Atlantic …
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April 25, 1983: Andropov writes to U.S. student
On this day in 1983, the Soviet Union releases a letter that Russian leader Yuri Andropov wrote to Samantha Smith, an American fifth-grader from Manchester, Maine, inviting her to visit his country. Andropov’s letter came in response to a note Smith had sent him in December 1982, asking if the Soviets were planning to start a nuclear war. At the time, the United States and Soviet Union were Cold War enemies.
President Ronald Reagan, a passionate...
Was the Battle of Britain ‘Covered-Up’?
Was the Battle of Britain 'Covered-Up'?
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Daily Quiz for April 25, 2017
Sir Frederick Banting, discoverer of insulin, helped create this device to assist the Canadian military during World War II.
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What If the United States Had Lost at Guadalcanal?
ON AUGUST 7, 1942, elements of the U.S. 1st Marine Division storm ashore on Guadalcanal, an island 90 miles long and 25 miles wide in the Solomons Archipelago of the South Pacific Ocean. Their objective is an airfield that the Japanese are constructing, from which long-range enemy air craft could menace the critical supply route …
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WWII Book Review: John C. Robinson
John C. Robinson: Father of the Tuskegee Airmen By Phillip Thomas Tucker. 329 pp. Potomac Books, 2012. $29.95. If only 18th-century adventure novelist Alexandre Dumas had been alive to pen the life story of John C. Robinson, he could have done justice to this aviation pioneer’s adventures. In 1910, the 5-year-old Robinson was inspired by …
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Minggu, 23 April 2017
April 24, 1916: Easter Rebellion begins
On this day in 1916, on Easter Monday in Dublin, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a secret organization of Irish nationalists led by Patrick Pearse, launches the so-called Easter Rebellion, an armed uprising against British rule. Assisted by militant Irish socialists under James Connolly, Pearse and his fellow Republicans rioted and attacked British provincial government headquarters across Dublin and seized the Irish capital’s General Post Office....
Daily Quiz for April 24, 2017
A pathology and medicine professor, John McCrae is best known for having written this poem.
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Sabtu, 22 April 2017
April 23, 1564: William Shakespeare born
According to tradition, the great English dramatist and poet William Shakespeare is born in Stratford-on-Avon on April 23, 1564. It is impossible to be certain the exact day on which he was born, but church records show that he was baptized on April 26, and three days was a customary amount of time to wait before baptizing a newborn. Shakespeare’s date of death is conclusively known, however: it was April 23, 1616. He was 52 years old and had retired...
Daily Quiz for April 23, 2017
Fred Sloman was inducted as a hero into the Canadian Railway Hall of Fame in recognition of this accomplishment.
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Jumat, 21 April 2017
April 22, 1970: The first Earth Day
Earth Day, an event to increase public awareness of the world’s environmental problems, is celebrated in the United States for the first time. Millions of Americans, including students from thousands of colleges and universities, participated in rallies, marches, and educational programs.
Earth Day was the brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, a staunch environmentalist who hoped to provide unity to the grassroots environmental movement...
Daily Quiz for April 22, 2017
Originally a naval dockyard, Chatham, Ontario became a favored destination of these travelers.
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WWII Book Review: Dogs of War, by Katherine Kinsolving
Dogs of War: The Stories of FDR’s Fala, Patton’s Willie, and Ike’s Telek By Kathleen Kinsolving. 64 pp. WND Books, 2012. $19.99. Three of the war’s most prominent canines get their own profiles, complete with pictures, in this charming little book. FDR’s beloved Scottish terrier Fala raised funds as president of Barkers for Britain, yet …
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WWII Review: World of Warplanes
Following the success of their free-to-play armored combat simulator World of Tanks, Wargaming.net is currently bringing to life World of Warplanes, the second entry in their series of mid- 20th-century vehicular combat titles. I recently had the chance to participate in the closed beta test of this new multiplayer air-combat simulator, and I am pleased …
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WWII Book Review: Blackett’s War
Blackett’s War: The Men Who Defeated the Nazi U-Boats and Brought Science to the Art of Warfare By Stephen Budiansky. 336 pp. Knopf, 2013. $27.95. Admiral Karl Dönitz’s U-boats posed the single greatest threat to the Western Allies in World War II. Nothing gave Churchill greater worry, both before and after the United States joined …
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The Avengers: The Doolittle Raid
Four Doolittle Raiders recall the mission that rocked Japan. The first bombs, four 500-pound incendiary clusters, began tumbling down to Tokyo on Saturday, April 18, 1942, at precisely 12:20 p.m. While little is known of Sergeant Fred A. Braemer’s aim, his timing— as well as that of his brother bombardiers who toggled release switches over …
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‘I Am Destiny’: Reporting on the Atom Bomb
To scoop the world on the atomic bomb, a reporter vanished into the corridors of top-secret power In early May 1945, U.S. Army Major General Leslie R. Groves visited the New York Times offices on West 43rd Street to talk with managing editor Edwin James. After he and Groves had conferred, James called science reporter …
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In the Grip of Black Water
When a torpedo fatally struck an American submarine, a new battle began. OCTOBER 6, 1944: THE PACIFIC The weather was deteriorating rapidly, waves doubling in size every hour. As angry green breakers pounded the USS Tang, the submarine’s captain, Richard H. O’Kane, ordered the lookouts to come below deck. Even with all hatches closed, crewmen …
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The Limits of Genius: Erich von Manstein
Erich von Manstein was Germany’s greatest commander, and the Battle of Kharkov was his greatest victory. Why, then, did it matter so little? War, the poet Virgil once wrote, is a tale of “arms and the man.” The outcome of battle hinges on numbers, technology, training, and other impersonal factors, not to mention weather and …
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Time Travel: Behind, Beneath, and Beyond the White Cliffs
THERE ARE NOT NOW, nor have there ever been, “bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover.” The British Isles lack bluebirds, a fact ignored by Walter Kent and Nat Burton, the Americans who composed Vera Lynn’s anthem. So ornithology was not on my mind when friends offered me a stay of nearly a month in …
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Their Darkest Hour: A Handle on How FDR Handled People
FRANKLIN DELANO Roosevelt wrote no memoir, kept no diary, confided in no one. Though celebrated as one of the greatest American presidents, FDR remains an elusive figure. Which is why I so valued the opportunity some years ago to interview George Elsey. Elsey was 24 in April 1942 when, as a recently commissioned navy ensign, …
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War Letters: Words to Live By
FOR 15 YEARS now, the Legacy Project has been encouraging Americans to seek out and share war letters in an effort to help preserve these irreplaceable documents —a campaign that World War II magazine has supported by asking readers to submit their own wartime correspondence. This letter, courtesy of reader Pamela Mitchell, is an eloquent …
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Behind the Lines, Between the Lines: Conversation with Abraham J. Baum
EVEN GREAT LEADERS have terrible ideas, and General George S. Patton was no exception. In late March 1945, Patton hatched a secret plan to send a small task force some 50 miles behind the lines to liberate a POW camp at Hammelburg, Germany. Captain Abe Baum, a street-smart 24-year old New Yorker with the 4th …
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WWII Today- April 2013
Broken Wings, Unbreakable Code? Britain’s modern-day code breakers say a message found with bones from a World War II carrier pigeon remains secret, though a Canadian historian claims he cracked the code. David Martin was cleaning a long-dormant chimney at his home in Surrey in 1982 when he found the bird. A cylinder attached to …
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Letters from Readers: World War II April 2013
Dual Shermans THANKS FOR November/December’s “Heavier Metal,” about the USMC’s first use of the M4 Sherman tank in the Pacific, i.e. on the tough terrain and against the fanatical Japanese Naval Infantry stationed on Tarawa. It was a gripping description of armor in combat in the most adverse conditions one can imagine. I never knew …
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Arsenal | Capturing Enemy Territory on Film
On Oct. 23, 1961, the commander of the Thirteenth Air Force ordered the RF-101Cs of Task Force Pipe Stem to fly a reconnaissance mission over Tchephone airfield in Laos to confirm reports of a North Vietnamese and Soviet presence. The mission provided highly detailed imagery of the airfield and surrounding area. The pictures confirmed the …
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What If Stalin Had Signed an Alliance with the West
THE AUGUST 23, 1939, signing of a nonaggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany came as a thunderclap. The Nazi regime had been so vociferously hostile to communism that rapprochement between the nations and their ideologies scarcely seemed possible—and yet for decades historians have smoothly rationalized the agreement’s logic for both sides. But the …
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Arsenal | The .51-Caliber Copter Killer
Operation Lamar Plain from May 15 to Aug. 14, 1969, a follow-up to the Battle of Hamburger Hill in the A Shau Valley, annihilated the North Vietnamese 2nd Regiment. In the end, 497 enemy soldiers were dead, including the regiment’s commander, and 21 were prisoners. The Americans reported 126 dead and 404 wounded. Added to …
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WWII Book Review: Those Angry Days
Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s Fight Over World War II, 1939–1941 By Lynne Olson. 576 pp. Random House, 2013. $30. Now that World War II has been enshrined as The Good War fought by The Greatest Generation, it can be hard to remember that millions of Americans avidly opposed entering it— and even …
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WWII Review: Kid Stuff June 2013
Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon By Steve Sheinkin 272 pp. Roaring Brook Press, 2013. $20. The FBI has its eye on Harry Gold, and he has to stay at least one step ahead of them —because Gold is a Soviet spy, filching from the Manhattan Project. Award-winning author Steve Sheinkin …
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WWII Review: Secret Stories- Nazi Gospels
Secret Stories: Nazi Gospels 120 minutes, now airing on the Military History Channel As head man of the SS, Heinrich Himmler was not only a chief engineer of the Holocaust and Slav slaughter, he assiduously laid the Reich’s ideological foundations for the future. Born Catholic, Himmler cultivated his taste for pomp and ritual while he …
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Arsenal | The First Stealth Aircraft
On July 26, 1968, the North Vietnamese fired two SA-2 surface-to-air missiles at SR-71A No. 976. Neither crewman saw the SAMs detonate about 2 miles behind the supersonic “Blackbird,” whose crews called it “Habu,” after the deadly pit viper in Okinawa, Japan. No missile in the world came as close as the North Vietnamese SAM …
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WWII Book Review: Operation Storm
Operation Storm: Japan’s Top Secret Submarines and Their Plan to Change the Course of World War II By John J. Geoghegan. 496 pp. Crown, 2013. $28. Among the Japanese Navy’s numerous and exotic technical innovations was the monster I-400 class of aircraft-carrying submarines, the world’s largest subs until the late 1950s. Conceived by Admiral Isoroku …
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WWII Book Review: Dog Company
Dog Company: The Boys of Pointe du Hoc By Patrick K. O’Donnell. 320 pp. Da Capo, 2012. $26. On June 6, 1984, Ronald Reagan’s rousing 40th anniversary speech on the cliffs of Normandy’s Pointe du Hoc thrust World War II’s Ranger battalions back into history’s spotlight—a sharp contrast to their historical experience as the U.S. …
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Arsenal | The Aussie’s ‘Soldier Proof’ Gun
Australia’s F1 submachine gun is one of the most recognizable and yet least known of the weapons used in the Vietnam War. Selected to replace the popular World War II–era Owen submachine gun after field testing in 1963, the F1 shared some of the Owen’s characteristics: It had a simple blowback design and fired over …
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True Fiction: The Caine Mutiny
Why a classic World War II story always matters. Herman Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny may be the greatest American novel of World War II. This 1951 study of men at war with a foreign foe and with each other spent 122 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and received a Pulitzer Prize in …
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The Shanghai Gambit
When China lured Japan into urban combat in 1937, the result revealed the Empire’s strengths—and its liabilities. All throughout the 1930s, Japan pecked at China, provoking “incidents,” demanding apologies, brandishing ultimatums, and seizing terrain. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, leader of China’s ruling Nationalist Party, kowtowed to each aggression, surrendering sovereignty and chunks of territory—Manchuria in 1931, …
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Hitler’s Harvard Man: Ernst Hanfstaengl
On his way up, the Nazi leader had help from a source steeped in American culture. On a cold spring morning in 1906, a canoeist on the Charles River in Boston lost control in the swift current and tipped into the water. At that moment, several Harvard students were nearby on the shore trying out …
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Forgotten Valor: Royce Special Mission
An accident of timing consigned a groundbreaking mission to the shadows. The San Antonio Rose II, steel propellers slashing the skies above the Celebes Sea, was hurtling toward hell at 200 miles an hour. The B-17 was leading a flight of 10 B-25s and two other Flying Fortresses, and had just reached the palm-fringed coast …
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Time Travel: The Forgotten Battlefield
WHEN WE FINALLY reached Koror, the economic center of the Republic of Palau, we were very happy to be there; our flight from Los Angeles, with stops at Hawaii and Guam, had lasted 15 hours. A little sleep, showers, then we were off to Peleliu on a spirited 45- minute cruise, speeding 30 miles an …
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Their Darkest Hour: All Too Inhuman
THE JAPANESE assault on the Chinese is one of the least well- known facets of the Second World War. And yet that conflict was immense: At least 20 million Chinese died between 1937 and 1945 as the Japanese Imperial Army sought to turn China into a puppet state. More over, the campaign ground forward with …
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War Letters: A Navy Doctor Describes His Unusual Service in the Gobi Desert
IN 1943, 23-YEAR-OLD New Yorker Henry J. Heimlich left medical school to enlist in the U.S. Navy, which sent him to China for the duration of the war. On September 13, 1945, he wrote to his sister Cecilia about the quirks of the remote China-Burma-India Theater, and about an experience that laid the foundation for …
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At War with the Enemy’s Mind: Conversation with Betty McIntosh
MOST FEMALE spies in World War II weren’t Mata Haris. Witness Elizabeth “Betty” McIntosh (then MacDonald), a disinformation specialist with the U.S. Office of Strategic Services. McIntosh helped the OSS devise campaigns in the Far East that under mined Japanese morale and saved American lives. She detailed those frenetic days in two books, Undercover Girl …
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