What is the greatest overlooked story at the end of the Civil War?

chellers

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cssshenandoah cwt.jpg


"CSS Shenandoah (1864-1865) Painting depicting the Confederate cruiser in the Arctic ice, circa June 1865. This image has been credited to the "Illustrated London News", though it appears to be a painting on canvas and not a line engraving. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. (U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.)"

Read more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/what-...480c46-cd8b-11e4-a2a7-9517a3a70506_story.html
 
I'll vote for the largest loss of Union (& other) lives* during the war itself , not caused by combat - the burning and sinking of the transport General Lyon on March 31st 1865. It's so overlooked that the article about overlooked events overlooked it.

*I exempt Sultana (never been overlooked) 1 day after Johnson surrendered, on the grounds that it was "after" the war - even though the war was not officially over until mid-1866. (And since failure to count April 1866 as an Easter Sunday 'during' the war didn't invalidate certain answers in a certain trivia contest which will remain unnamed, harrumph!) :happy::smile::playfull:

With over 55o deaths - paroled soldiers, time-expired soldiers, Rebel prisoners, civilian men, women and children, merchant seamen including a would-be rescuer and one French-speaking capitalist dealing in blockade running . (His was a name well-known in New York even today, but omitted from the passenger lists in the NY Times.... one wonders why) - it's just a footnote, if even that.

This oversight will be partially corrected when my book on the Lyon comes out (12th of Sometime-ber 20something).
 
View attachment 65479

"CSS Shenandoah (1864-1865) Painting depicting the Confederate cruiser in the Arctic ice, circa June 1865. This image has been credited to the "Illustrated London News", though it appears to be a painting on canvas and not a line engraving. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. (U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.)"

Read more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/what-...480c46-cd8b-11e4-a2a7-9517a3a70506_story.html
All three stories are fascinating. Thank you for posting.
 
To me the most overlooked story after the war is the rest of Robert E. Lee's life. There's probably a book about it somewhere. He certainly didn't go out of his way to be in the limelite. He didn't write about the war, or write memouirs.

There are two full books about it already.

Charles Bracelen Flood: Lee: The Last Years
Douglas Savage: The Last Years of General Robert E. Lee

It's also a part of any major biography of Lee. Douglas Southall Freeman's R. E. Lee discusses the rest of Lee's life, as does Emory Thomas's Robert E. Lee: A Life.
 
I'll go with the Shenandoah story, because it had considerable effect out here in Oregon. Nobody knew where she was, and Portlanders expected her to sail up the Columbia River, guns blazing, at any minute. She was one of the reasons that Fort Stevens was built at the mouth of the Columbia in 1865. This fort was named for the same Stevens as was the better known fort in "the other Washington" (DC). The only "combat" seen here was when it was shelled by a Japanese submarine in World War II (destroyed the backstop on the baseball diamond). The fort is now an Oregon State Park and is the site of an annual Civil War reenactment over Labor Day weekend.

Thanks, @Mark F. Jenkins, for the book recommendation!
 
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