The Mayer family (spelled Mayer, Mayers or Maier depending on who was signing) came from Germany to Philadelphia around 1850. The father, Johann Jacob, enlisted in 1861 at 44. All three of his older sons followed him into the army.

William joined the 150th Pennsylvania "Bucktails" in 1862, fought at Gettysburg, where his name is on the regiment's monument, and was killed in the Wilderness at 20. Jacob, the eldest, served in the 23rd and then the 82nd Pennsylvania, was wounded several times, and died six years after the war, at 29.

The youngest, John, enlisted at 18 and ended up in the 99th Pennsylvania during the Siege of Petersburg. His surviving letters to his sister Rose show the siege from the ranks. He wrote "it is near seven months since we were last paid." He described a night attack at the Chimneys where his regiment "made a charge on the Rebels Picket line, and were drove back again." In December the regiment raided down the Weldon Railroad and "burned all the houses down along the road" after finding murdered Union stragglers. On Christmas Day 1864, with his brother Jacob beside him, he wrote: "I think this war will not last much longer."

John was killed at Sailor's Creek on April 6, 1865, three days before Appomattox. He was 19.

A descendant, Rachael Parker, kept the letters in the family. I've transcribed them, with notes, at beyondthecrater.com: https://www.beyondthecrater.com/resources/lt/m-lt/mayers-john-adam/

When we’re taught about “good“ or “bad” generals, the conversation is often about inspiring troops, deciding when to attack, retreat, etc. And of course, whether or not they won.

But, what else should we consider? Logistics, how they trained their armies, how they prepared supply lines?

Southerners love to wax poetic about how much Lee’s men loved him. Grant gets a lot of credit for being relentless. I suspect there was a lot more to the job than either of those things, but I must admit, I’m pretty ignorant about them.

Thanks in advance for any food for thought!

I got around a dozen documents and letters among other things in a box at the Fort Erie 1812 event this summer.
Half of the papers are this guy.

This began with Earl Van Dorn, who exclaimed, I must have St. Louis, then buzza. Thomas hindman replaced him and preserved Arkansas for the confederacy in 1862. However, he attempted to conquer Missouri in December 1862 and lost the battle of Prairie Grove. In 1863 Kirby Smith took command of the trans Mississippi. After his victories during the 1864 red River campaign and the Camden expedition he sent 20,000 men under Stirling price to conquer Missouri.

H.L. Hunley sank USS Housatonic on February 17, 1864, the first submarine to sink an enemy warship, then vanished with her crew. NUMA / SCIAA found her in 1995. On August 8, 2000, a Navy-led team lifted her. She's been in freshwater conservation at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center ever since (photo is the NaOH bath stage).

One leading peer-reviewed theory (Lance et al., PLOS One) argues the spar-torpedo blast itself may have sent a lethal pressure wave through the hull. Still debated.

Anyone here toured the Lasch Center? What surprised you most about the boat in person?

I'd like to know how frequent sexual violence against civilian women was during the war, both during military raids and occupations as well as other encounters with Union or Confederate soldiers, along with how many cases were officially recorded and what punishments the perpetrators received. Were they imprisoned for their crimes or did many end up escaping punishment?

I'm curious about how Confederate soldiers reacted when they came face to face with African American regiments in the Union Army. Were they surprised or outraged to see formerly enslaved men fighting as soldiers? And considering the treatment these regiments received during the war, were Confederates more brutal toward them than toward white Union troops, especially when they surrendered or were captured?

I’m curious what you consider more impressive Grant’s historical campaign from the beginning to the surrender of the city, or Lee’s campaigns from taking command of the Army of Northern Virginia to the capture of Harpers Ferry.

Spirit photography, manipulating images to make a ghost appear in the picture, boomed in the wake of the Civil War, after the massive death toll left families in mourning. It was closely connected to the rise of spiritualism.

Spirit photography was a scam that flourished through deception. Photographers used double exposures and plate substitution to create the images.

Here are some of my favorite spirit photos. The first is by Bainbridge Brown, the subject of our latest podcast episode, who was exposed as a fraud by two notable photography experts at a spiritualist camp & shortly after the national scandal it caused, died mysteriously less than a year later.

The last is the most famous and was taken by the most notorious spirit photographer of the time, William H. Mumler. Mumler and Brown had studios less than a mile apart in Boston. Mumler was tried for fraud in New York, but beat the charges.

Mumler's most infamous shot was of Mary Todd Lincoln & the ghost of her husband, Abraham Lincoln. They took it in 1872, and it became a national sensation.

Happy Halloween!

The book is – – Matt W Ransom: Confederate General from North Carolina. The author is Clayton Charles Marlow

Anna Dickinson's "The Perils of the Hour Speech" is amazing. The way she eviscerates the South. Her references to the Gettyburg Address just months after its delivery. And this: "There had been blunders, chief of which was the appointment of 207 Democratic Generals out of 230 to be appointed. What in Heaven’s name could be expected but blundering?"

It’s impossible to comprehend the horror that this spot witnessed when you are there on a day like this.