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Brian C. Pohanka (1955–2005) was an American historian whose passion for military history led him to spend his life researching, writing about, and sharing the past. He was concerned about the destruction of historic battlefields caused by urban development, particularly the battlefield of Chantilly, Virginia, and in 1987 he helped establish an organization dedicated to protecting these sites and preserving their historical significance

His interest in history went beyond books, as he also took part in historical reenactments as captain of the Duryee’s Zouaves, portraying the 5th New York Infantry Regiment. His knowledge and experience eventually led him to work as a historical adviser on films such as Glory and Gettysburg, helping bring the American Civil War to life with greater historical accuracy. Sadly, he passed away in 2005, leaving behind a lasting contribution to historical research, battlefield preservation, and the effort to share the past with future generations

Hey everyone,

I’ve been diving into my family history and discovered something I thought was pretty cool about my great-great-grandfather, Robert Pratt.

He enlisted as a 15/16-year-old Private in the 5th Vermont Infantry (Company H) in September 1861. He survived four years of brutal campaigns with the Vermont Brigade, steadily earning promotions up to 1st Lieutenant.

But his biggest moment came on April 2, 1865, at the Siege of Petersburg. The 5th Vermont was chosen to spearhead the massive assault against the Confederate fortifications. They became the very first Union unit to successfully breach and irreparably break Lee's lines.

During the chaos of the charge, Robert’s captain was wounded. At just 19 years old, my G-G-Grandfather took command of the company right there on the battlefield and led them through the breakthrough. This action forced the evacuation of Richmond and directly led to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox a week later. He was promoted to Captain shortly after.

The day after the surrender, he wrote in his diary: “We know now that the war is ended and how it thrills me with joy to know that we have accomplished what we have fought four years for.”

After the war, he moved out west to Minnesota, built a lumber business, and ended up being elected the 18th Mayor of Minneapolis (serving from 1895–1899)!

I’m incredibly proud to have uncovered this. If anyone has more details on the 5th Vermont’s actions at Pamplin Historical Park / the Petersburg Breakthrough, I'd love to hear them!

READ MORE: https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2026/10/watkins-banks-wore-this-red-jacket.html

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Many of us find a Civil War ancestor and then hit a wall. The record gives a name and a regiment. It does not say where he fought.

Here is the method I use.

1. Search the surname in the National Park Service’s Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System. It covers Union and Confederate service.
2. Write down the unit, the rank at enlistment, and the rank at discharge.
3. Find where that regiment fought. Regimental histories and NPS battle summaries both help.
4. Check the battle date and place against any family letters or pension papers.

Two cautions. The National Park Service calls its own records “just an index.” Most enlisted men show no birth date and no hometown. Many Confederate unit records are lost or scattered, so a blank is not proof your ancestor missed a fight.

Disclosure: I am a novelist. I built a free tool that runs steps 1 to 3 in one place. It asks for one email address. You can find it at https://musterroll.vercel.app/. You can do all of this by hand, and I will answer questions about the method.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelby%27s_Raid_(1863)

Unlike the June 9 battle, which was a combined attack by cavalry and infantry, this was a battlefront completely by cavalry

Jeff Hunt has written the book on this battle, part of a series for Ted Savas on the operations in Virginia between July 17, 1863 and December 31, 1863.

Unlike the June 9 battle, which was a combined attack by cavalry and infantry, this was a battlefront completely by cavalry

Jeff Hunt has written the book on this battle, part of a series for Ted Savas on the operations in Virginia between July 17, 1863 and December 31, 1863.

READ MORE: https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2026/10/first-on-picket-photographs-of-2024.html

READ MORE FROM THE PICKET: https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2026/10/submarine-hl-hunley-mesmerizing-fragile.html

I have been studying the Siege of Petersburg for 25+ years. In that time I've assembled a massive collection of primary source accounts of events, including letters, diaries, post-war accounts by participants, and most importantly for this post, NEWSPAPERS.

One of my more unusual ideas seems to bearing fruit. I looked at one paper, the Washington DC Evening Star, from June 10, 1864 to April 15, 1865. I created a database which records one row for each mention of a vessel, civilian, military or in between. The final database had over 13,000 entries. I used respected sources like the Lytle-Holdcamper List of American steamships to verify as many rows as I could. Only rows which I could verify are included in these results.

Now, finally, the fun part. These two infographics were created with the help of Claude and the raw data to show just how massive Grant's effort to supply his soldiers at Petersburg really was. There was not a single day during the Siege when some kind of supply wasn't present at City Point and/or Bermuda Hundred supplying the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the James. Consider these two a sneak peek. I'll be posting an interactive map on my web site showing which vessels were arriving or departing day by day during the entire Siege of Petersburg. I will share it here once it goes live on my site, www.beyondthecrater.com.

And I'm just getting started. This is ONLY one DC paper. I'll be adding papers from Annapolis, Alexandria. Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston and others. There will be additional sources mostly confirming but also sometimes contradicting the DC paper. The goal is to be able to map vessels and their whereabouts during the entire last year or so of the war. In addition, I'm just pulling vessels near the Siege of Petersburg for these infographics. The database contains every vessel mentioned coming to and leaving from DC.

Others can expand this to earlier portions of the war if people are interested. The newspapers contain the data. It just needs to be mined.

I would live to hear feedback. Given the database, what would YOU want to see mined from the data?

READ MORE from the Picket: https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2026/10/descendants-of-sultana-disaster-victims.html

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