At the Third Battle of Winchester, 19 September 1864, 1LT Lemuel A. Abbott and the 10th Vermont, form as part of a two Corps advance upon the first Confederate position east of the town of Winchester Virginia. By virtue of rugged terrain and a fierce cannonade, the assaulting force fractures and 1LT Abbott’s Brigade faces the Confederates alone. So…

At the First Battle of Collierville, 11 October 1863, 1LT Dinkins and the 18th Mississippi Cavalry Battalion form in the center of an attacking Confederate force that possessed five times the men against a fort and ammunition depot held by approximately 500 men at Collierville Tennessee along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. The Confederates se…

At the Battle of Gettysburg, 3LT Rogers and the 47th North Carolina on 1 July advance through a wood line into an open field. As they march toward McPherson’s Ridge, a line of infantry appears on its crest, CPL Strong and the 121st Pennsylvania, and unleash a withering fire upon the North Carolinians. On 3 July, following the largest artillery barr…

At the Battle Thompson’s Station, 5 March 1863, CPL McBride and the 33rd Indiana, alongside their reinforced brigade meet MG Earl Van Dorn’s Cavalry while conducting a reconnaissance from Brentwood TN toward Spring Hill. Sources used for this episode: McBride, John W. History of the Thirty-Third Indiana Veteran Volunteer Infantry During the Four Ye…

At the Battle of Ringgold Gap, PVT William E. Bevens and the 1st Arkansas are ordered to the top of White Oak Mountain, just north of the gap, to repel advancing Union Regiments and give the retreating Army of Tennessee time to reach Dalton Georgia. Sources used for this episode: Bevens, William E. Reminiscences of a Private Company “G” First Arkan…

At the Battle of Glendale, the evening of 30 June 1862, SGT Charles Augustus Fuller and the 61st New York advance at the head of their brigade north of the Long Bridge Road. As night descends on their position, an unfamiliar voice asks the 61st New York to identify themselves. Sources used for this episode: Fuller, Charles A. Personal Recollections…

At the Battle of Peach Tree Creek on 20 July 1864, COL James Cooper Nisbet and the 66th Georgia, participate in an echelon assault upon the Army of the Cumberland. After being repulsed, COL Nisbet reforms his command and advances again in support of a separate Confederate Brigade. Sources used for this episode: Nisbet, James C. Four Years on the Fi…

At the Battle of First Manassas, also known as First Bull Run, CPT William W. Goldsborough and the 1st Maryland meet PVT Bicknell and the 5th Maine on the battlefield at Chinn Ridge late in the afternoon of 21 July 1861. Sources used for this episode: Goldsborough, William W. The Maryland Line in the Confederate States Army. Baltimore: Kelly, Piet …

At the Siege of Vicksburg, 1SG Marshall and the 83rd Ohio participated in two separate assaults upon the Confederate works and conducted siege operations that culminated in the 4 July 1863 surrender of the city. Sources used for this episode: Marshall, Thomas B. History of the Eighty-Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, The Greyhound Regiment. Cincinnati…

Captured at the Battle of Wyse Fork, 8 Mar 1865, PVT Ernul was transported to Point Lookout Maryland and stayed there until paroled in June 1865. Sources used for this episode: Ernul, J. B. Life of a Confederate Soldier in a Federal Prison. Vanceboro, 1914. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nc01.ark%3A%2F13960%2Ft4pk1qn30&seq=3. Ainsworth, Fre…

At the Battle of Fredericksburg, 11 December 1862, 2LT John G.B. Adams and the 19th Massachusetts, alongside the 7th Michigan, conduct the first opposed river crossing and urban warfare of the Civil War. On 13 December, 2LT John G.B. Adams earned the Medal of Honor during the assault on Marye’s Heights. Sources used for this episode: Adams, John G.…

At the Battle of Brice’s Cross Roads, PVT John Milton Hubbard and the 7th Tennessee Cavalry, as part of MG Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Cavalry Corps, advanced against a numerically superior Union force on 10 June 1864. Union Cavalry held the cross roads before the Confederates arrived and during that morning dismounted cavalry squared off against each…

At the Battle of Shiloh, on the morning of 6 April 1862, CPL Leader Stillwell and the 61st Illinois heard the first shots of the battle off to their right and managed to form alongside their brigade and the 6th Division before a brigade of Alabamans and Louisianan's emerged from the woodline and engage them just south of their camp. The Illinoisans…

At the Battle of Cedar Creek, the morning of 19 October 1864, Corporal Preston L. Ledford and the 14th North Carolina participated in a surprise attack upon the Army of West Virginia, also known as the VIII Corps. Thanks to a dense fog, the Confederate Army of the Valley surprised the Union Soldiers in their camp. COL Rutherford B. Hayes, commander…

At the Third Battle of Petersburg, 2 April 1865, 1LT William Hewitt and the 12th West Virginia were tasked with assaulting Fort Gregg, immediately following The Army of the Potomac's VI Corps assault and breakthrough against Confederate positions around Hatcher's Run. The first assault upon Fort Gregg was unsuccessful, and 1LT Hewitt and the 12th W…

At the Battle of Galveston, 1 January 1863, LT Robert M. Franklin and the Texas Sailors, Artillerymen, Cavalrymen and Infantrymen aboard the Cottonclad C.S. Bayou City, with three other ships participated in a combined attack on Union Forces by both land and sea upon Galveston Texas. LT Franklin and his fellow Texans strapped bales of cotton to the…

Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women in 1868, decided to become a Nurse in late 1862 and was assigned to the Union Hospital, a converted Hotel, which was in the Georgetown Neighborhood of Washington D.C. "Nurse Periwinkle," as she called herself, arrived at the "Hurly-burly House," the nickname of the Union Hospital, just three days before 40 …

At the Battle of Second Manassas, or Second Bull Run, PVT Edward A. Moore and the 1st Rockbridge Artillery, as part of the Stonewall Brigade, engage the soon to be named Iron Brigade on the evening of 28 August 1862 at the Brawner Farm. The 1st Rockbridge then duels Battery B of the 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery as BG George G. Meade's Brigade o…

At the Siege of Fort Wagner, 2LT Frederick Tomlinson Peet and a Battalion of Marines arrive at Morris Island after two assaults by the Union Army failed to take Fort Wagner. As Army Engineers begin digging Sap trenches, 2LT Peet and the Marines prepare for an amphibious assault to take Fort Wagner, but is eventually called off. The Marines join the…

At the Battle of Perryville, 1LT Michael H. Fitch of the 21st Wisconsin and PVT Sam Watkins of the 1st Tennessee follow their regiments into the fighting on the northern end of the battlefield. Both regiments directly engage each other in a Cornfield, where the 1st Tennessee, along with other Confederate Regiments, successfully route the 21st Wisco…

At the Battle of Franklin, 30 November 1864, Private Edward Young McMorries and the 1st Alabama Infantry, on the eastern side of the Confederate Army of Tennessee, advanced upon the Union Army of the Ohio's defensive lines. After successfully carrying the first line of defenses, the Confederate Army reorganized and charged the second line. Here, PV…

At the Battle of New Market Heights, CPT McMurray and the 6th U.S.C.T. assaulted Confederate positions on the morning on 29 September 1864. Their advance was through 50 yards of a recently cut forest and proved extremely difficult to navigate. Two Black soldiers: First Sergeant Alexander Kelly, and Sergeant Major Thomas R. Hawkins, and one white of…

At the Battle of Antietam, 17 September 1862, SGT J.J. McDaniel and the 7th South Carolina arrive on the battlefield at a run. They, alongside the 2nd, 3rd, and 8th South Carolina Regiments advance toward the West Woods and the Dunker Church. After pushing Union Infantry back, SGT McDaniel and the 7th South Carolina find themselves on a small hill …

At the Battle of Chancellorsville, Corporal Daniel Crotty, a Color Bearer for the 3rd Michigan in the III Corps Army of the Potomac, recounts the advance of his regiment to the Catherine Furnace on 2 May 1863, the midnight assault on Confederate lines, their retreat to the Chancellorsville House, and their continued retreat until they arrive in the…

On 28 and 29 December 1862, COL Hall and the 26th Louisiana fought against General Shermans Army at the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou in Mississippi, approximately 10 miles north of Vicksburg. The 26th Louisiana held a heavily entrenched line on 28 December against a two brigade attack and fought off the assault on 29 December in the center of the Conf…

Sources used for this episode: Phisterer, Frederick. The Regular Brigade of the Fourteenth Army Corps, The Army of the Cumberland, in the Battle of Stone River, or Murfreesboro, Tennessee, From December 31st 1862, the January 3rd, 1863. 1883. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044011857356&seq=9. Scott, Ltc. Robert N., Lazelle, Ltc. Henry…

Introduction to First Person Civil War Podcast Source used for this Episode: Stillwell, Leander. The Story of a Common Soldier of Army Life in the Civil War, 1861-1865. 2nd ed. Franklin Hudson Publishing Co., 1920. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044051051464&seq=9.By William Coghlan

Sources for this episode: PVT Bowden Co. B 2nd Georgia Bowden, Rev. John Malachi. Some of My Experiences as a Confederate Soldier, In the Camp and on the Battlefield, In the Army of Northern Virginia. https://repository.duke.edu/dc/bowdenjohnmalachi-000846432/secst0281. CH Armstrong 50th Pennsylvania Raul, Hallock F, ed. Letters From a Pennsylvania…

Sources used for this Episode: Morgan, Thomas J. Reminiscences of Service With Colored Troops in the Army of Cumberland, 1863-65. Providence: Soldiers' and Sailors' Historical Society of Rhode Island, 1885. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=dul1.ark:/13960/t3tt7ms2q&seq=9. Davis, Maj. George B., Perry, Leslie J., Kirkley, Joseph W. The War of …

Source used for this Episode: Edwards, Rev. John E. The Confederate Soldier; Being a Memorial Sketch of George N. and Bushrod W. Harris Privates in the Confederate Army. New York: Bullock & Co., 1868. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc1.cu01492306&seq=5.By William Coghlan