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A Tuesday Tea: "Come In" When Mrs. Grant Visits Mrs. Davis

Oct 06

June 1893. A sixty-seven-year-old former First Lady quietly knocks on a hotel door. It is answered by an equally distinguished sixty-seven-year-old former First Lady, and so begins a long-overdue meeting between two women who, just thirty years earlier, had stood on opposite sides of a bitter conflict, leaving behind memories and divisions that would linger long after the guns fell silent.

In peace, could these two women come together in friendship?

In many ways Julia Grant and Varina Davis had much in common by June of 1893. Both were widows, mothers and grandmothers. Both had lived through the American Civil War as the wives of extraordinarily...

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Walter H. Taylor's Terrible Handwriting (Lee's A.A.G.)

Oct 06

Hi everyone!

I recently got this Confederate document from the Medical Director's Office, Army of Northern Virginia, that is endorsed by Robert E. Lee's A.A.G., Walter Taylor. I believe I have deciphered most of it, but am stumped on the last line above his name (please see cropped image).

Here is a (rough) transcription of what I have so far:
...Col. H. R. David...who is authorized to order the super-numerary surgeon on duty in Staunton to...for orders to Sur. L. Guild Med. Dir. A. N. Va.
...
W H Taylor
aag

I've seen a couple other documents stamped, "By command of Gen. R.E. Lee", but it doesn't look like it says that exactly. The last word of the line is definitely "Lee".

Does...

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Shepherdstown during the Civil War

Oct 05

From the FB Group - "Civil War Explained". A small group of us were just in Shepherdstown in June for a few days going over the Civil War history there. It was my second or third time there and learning about how every building possible was used as makeshift hospitals.

On September 17, 1862, the bloodiest day in American history occurred just across the river from Shepherdstown, Virginia. (Now West Virginia ) A 12-year-old girl named Mary Bedinger Mitchell watched her entire town turn into a hospital. Twenty-four years later, she wrote it all down — and her account is one of the most vivid civilian records of the Civil War.

It began on Saturday, September 13, when "a hungry horde of...

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Chatham Artillery of Savannah

Oct 02

I was researching the Savannah Volunteer Guards recently and it took me into other Pre War militia research in Savannah. A good book is the Chatham Artillery history which is very detailed to include uniforms. In the account I could not figure out the description of their forage cap of 1860 "a Navy cap, in blue cloth" until I found the below.

(LT Charles C. Jones Jr.)
Also reading the insignia on the front you have to read it literally without preconceived ideas about insignia on the cap.

Regardless their history is available for free at the below link. They are probably the premier light artillery GA produced. Not necessarily for their combat records but for the number of guns...

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★ ★ Buford, John

Mar 04

5,365
25

John Buford Jr.

Born: March 4, 1826
Birthplace: Woodford County, Kentucky
Father: Colonel John Buford Sr. 1778 – 1847
Mother: Ann B. Watson
Wife: Martha McDowell "Pattie" Duke 1830 – 1903

Children:

James Duke Buford 1855 – 1874

(Buried: Georgetown Cemetery, Georgetown, Kentucky)

Pattie McDowell Duke Buford 1857 – 1863

(Buried: Georgetown Cemetery, Georgetown, Kentucky)

Education:

1848: Graduated from West Point Military...

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Biographies

Where is it Wednesday, Gettysburg? 9-30-2026

Sep 30

Not directly connected with the battle, but in Gettysburg.
1. Name this site.
2. For whom is it named

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CivilWarTalk is a forum for students and fans of the American Civil War. Our online community of Historians, Skirmishers, Re-enactors, Educators, and Enthusiasts is dedicated to the exchange of ideas and information related to the War Between the States. Our goal is to become the leading resource for every researcher seeking historical information and opinions relating to the American Civil War.

The American Civil War

The American Civil War, arguably the most traumatic event in the history of the United States, was fought from 1861 to 1865, and was the culmination of sectional issues which deeply divided the country between a pro-Federal government North and a pro-states rights, in the pro-slavery South, whose eleven states formed a breakaway government called the Confederate States of America. The costliest war in terms of human lives, the American Civil War claimed in excess of 620,000 battle or disease-related deaths - roughly two percent of the country's total population, and nearly more deaths than all other American wars combined.