Category Archives: Col. Alfred G.W. O’Brien

The Knoxville Whig & Rebel Ventilator

Parson William Brownlow’s Knoxville Whig newspaper added the words Rebel Ventilator to its flag in the runup to the Civil War. The fiery Union editor maintained it until the occupying Rebels drove him out of town, turning his steam presses … Continue reading

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Reprise: Camp Chase, the fiddle tune

Camp Chase was a Union prisoner-of-war camp in Ohio which took several of the captured Rebels from the Battle of Fort Sanders, including the 13th Mississippi’s Lieutenant Colonel Alfred George Washington O’Brien. The POW camp already had, by tradition anyhow, a … Continue reading

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Camp Chase, the fiddle tune

Camp Chase, a Union prisoner-of-war camp in Ohio, took several of the captured Rebels from the Battle of Fort Sanders, including the 13th Mississippi’s Lieutenant Colonel Alfred George Washington O’Brien. The POW camp already had, by tradition anyhow, a fiddler … Continue reading

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Reprise: The LeMat revolver

The revolver which the historical Lt. Col. Alfred George Washington O’Brien pointed at the novel’s fictional Sergeant Timothy Chase’s nose was a curious one. The LeMat,first made in New Orleans in 1856, had two barrels: the upper one was a smoothbore … Continue reading

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Reprise: Stonewall’s Unionist Sister

One of the themes of Knoxville 1863 is the bitter division of the town and surrounding area between Unionists and Confederates. Leila Ellis, Confederate Major Clayton Ellis’s widow, is herself a Union sympathizer. Not to mention Knoxville Unionist Elisa Brownlow’s … Continue reading

Posted in "Knoxville 1863", Col. Alfred G.W. O'Brien, Families Divided By The War, Laura Jackson Arnold | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Reprise: East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad

Its roadbed, somewhat elevated from the surrounding terrain, gave the novel’s Private Bird Clark and his fictional cousin, the historical Lt. Col. Alfred George Washington O’Brien, a convenient place from which to view Fort Sanders. Although, unfortunately, not enough of … Continue reading

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Reprise: Camp Chase Prison

In the novel, as in history, Thirteenth Mississippi Lt. Col. Alfred George Washington O’Brien was captured in Fort Sanders. His older sister, Elisa, the wife of radical Unionist Parson William Brownlow, had the privilege of nursing his minor wounds in … Continue reading

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Rebel Gen. McLaws’ Union brother-in-law

Another major Civil War figure whose family life buttresses my fictional division between Unionist Parthenia Leila Ellis and her Confederate husband Clayton Ellis, was Gen. Lafayette McLaws. McLaws, whose division was the first in the attack on Fort Sanders, joined … Continue reading

Posted in "Knoxville 1863", Col. Alfred G.W. O'Brien, Elisa Brownlow, Gen. Lafayette McLaws, Parthenia Leila Ellis, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment