Tag Archives: American Civil War

Firing the 1861 Springfield

Posted on August 7, 2015 by Dick Stanley

This Hungarian fellow who styles himself capandball on the Internet has a really thick accent but if you listen closely you can get the gist of his description of the 1861 Springfield percussion rifle-musket he’s firing here. Most Confederates, if … Continue reading →

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Chicken guts

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Dick Stanley

“The men call them ‘chicken guts,’” Confederate Major Clayton Ellis tells his wife, Parthenia Leila Ellis, in the novel. He was sheepishly referring to the fancy gold braid on the sleeves of his new uniform coat tailored in Nashville. The … Continue reading →

Posted in "Knoxville 1863", Civil War accoutrements, Knoxville, Parthenia Leila Ellis | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Friedrich Engels on rifled weapons

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Dick Stanley

Benjamin’s Parrott guns were rifled for greater range and accuracy. So were the 3-inch bronze and steel cannon of Parker’s “Boy Battery.” Both types of cannon were new, and also not so easy to make, according to these 1860 newspaper … Continue reading →

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The war’s relevance today

Posted on May 22, 2011 by Dick Stanley

The war’s relevance (or lack of it) in the 2011s is likely to be the subject of considerable pontification over the next three-and-a-half years as the Civil War Sesquicentennial is observed in different ways. Undoubtedly with a few solemn ceremonies, … Continue reading →

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Weak locomotives

Posted on May 18, 2011 by Dick Stanley

Typical, slow locomotive of the times, this one of the Orange & Alexandria RR, similar to the one that pulled the cars Longstreet’s veterans rode in from Chattanooga to the vicinity of Knoxville. Well, “rode.” They rode downhill. They had … Continue reading →

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USS Monitor

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Dick Stanley

Twenty-Ninth Massachusetts’ Sergeant Timothy Chase’s “washtub on a skillet,” the USS Monitor. Taken some time after its fight with the Merrimac/Virginia. Note minor damage (left) on the turret.

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The war begins

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Dick Stanley

It has nothing (directly) to do with the Rebel attack on Fort Sanders, but today’s 150th anniversary of the Confederate mortar and other shells fired at Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C., Harbor was the beginning of the war. It began … Continue reading →

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Rebel Gen. McLaws’ Union brother-in-law

Posted on April 8, 2011 by Dick Stanley

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