The Election of 1860 mirrored the divided nature of the United States both in the presidential candidates and the voting results.  The four major candidates represented three parties, a result of sectional discord: Stephen Douglas (northern Democratic party), John Breckinridge (southern Democratic party), Abraham Lincoln (Republican party), and John Bell (Constitutional Union party).  This pro-Breckinridge political cartoon shows Douglas (on the left) and Lincoln (on the right) duking in out in a boxing ring, while Breckinridge points towards the White House with one hand and thumbs his nose (a sign of disrespect) at the boxers with the other.  The boxers’ coaches reflect the stereotypical perception of their constituency: an Irishman backs Douglas, reflecting the northern Democrats, while a black man coaches Lincoln, the antislavery-Republican candidate.  According to the artist, who may have published this cartoon in Cincinnati, Breckinridge could slip into the White House while Douglas and Lincoln were preoccupied with their “political prize fight.” Although the cheering line of gentlemen on the path to the White House would reflect the lower-Southern states’ unanimous support of Breckinridge, the split nature of the Democratic party helped enable Lincoln’s electoral victory.

American Political Prints, 1766-1876 (1991) catalogues Library of Congress’s collections, giving a brief contextual summary as well as the date and place of publication for their political images.  The book’s introduction briefly explains the history of American printmaking and also includes a selected bibliography for further research.

Early on the morning of July 1, 1863 Union soldiers met Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania after his initial invasion into the state. The first of three days of battle centered around Gettysburg and saw a promising start for the Confederate force. Confederates successfully pushed Union soldiers out of the town and left the latter force with one of the only remaining defensive positions in the area – Cemetery Hill – located southeast of Gettysburg. After the fighting ceased around 4:30PM, Union General George G. Meade and other military leaders oversaw the arrival of Union reinforcements and prepared for the next day’s battle. Meanwhile, Lee’s forces began securing their occupation of the town and planning the logistics for the new offensive strategy the general had undertaken.

A broad research engine will yield several thousand resources and images pertaining to the Battle of Gettysburg and its first day of combat. Navigating through these sources only highlights a select few that offer a clear, accurate, and useful resource for lesson plans and scholarly research. Fortunately, the National Archives collection of Civil War photographs includes those taken of casualties in the battle and the House Divided record of the battle offers historical maps of the area. Military dispatches from the first day contained in The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, as provided by Cornell University’s Making of America collection, cover the preceding day through to the last dispatch on the evening of July 1^st. By combining each of these online resources into a short film on the Battle of Gettysburg, the U.S. Army’s website offers educators an easily navigable and short exploration of how the battle began and concluded.

Some historians separate the first day of combat in Gettysburg from the rest of the battle. Educators and scholars can view many of these close explorations in part on Google Books, including Warren W. Hassler, Jr.’s The First Day at Gettysburg: Crisis at the Crossroads (1970) and The First Day at Gettysburg: Essays on Confederate and Union Leadership (Edited by Gary W. Gallagher, 1992). More recent publications do not treat the first day as a separate entity, but they expand the historiography of the battle, as seen in Margaret S. Creighton’s The Colors of Courage: Gettysburg’s Forgotten History (2005) and its focus on immigrants and women affected by the battle. For educators searching for modern scholarship on the battle as a symbol of the Civil War and legend in American history, Thomas A. Desjardin’s These Honored Dead: How the Story of Gettysburg Shaped American Memory (2003) revisits the popular story of the Battle of Gettysburg and the persistent myths one can trace back to the first day of combat.

Charles Rawn, a lawyer who lived in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, wrote over 11,000 daily entries between 1830 and 1865. The entire journal is now online thanks to the efforts of Pennsylvania University State Professor Michael Barton and the Historical Society of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Rawn, who was born in Georgetown in July 1802, moved to Harrisburg in 1826 and got married seven years later. His journal entries largely contain notes about his daily life – from various legal matters to financial expenditures. While “he rarely mentioned grand ideas or personal feelings in his daily record,” Professor Barton argues that “[these] records are valuable guides to understanding everyday life in antebellum America.” Rawn was a “record keeper rather than a story teller,” as Baron explains. Yet Rawn’s journals include some interesting notes about political events in Harrisburg, including President-Elect Abraham Lincoln’s visit in 1861. On February 22 Rawn described:

“[Lincoln] rode in a Barouche drawn by 6 White Horses to Coverlys Hotel where he was addressed by Gov. Curtain & [replied?]. The enthusiasm of the people was perfectly and literally wild & unrestrainable…. Altogether it was such a day & time as Harrisburg has never before witnessed. The number Military here in time of the Buckshot Wars was approached nearly perhaps to the number here yesterday. Mr. L’s appearance is younger considerably than was generally expected and he is not so tall [nor so?] Rawboned as we had been given to believe from his pictures and what we had read.”

In addition, Rawn took detailed notes when he traveled into Virginia three months after Confederates attacked Fort Sumter in April 1861. On July 22, 1861, the day after the First Battle of Bull Run, Rawn observed:

“Dead, wounded and dying being brought in continually. I saw several of the wounded. One man with a Buck shot in the neck….From all accounts which of course are measurably wild and unforgettable [?] in a degree the slaughter on both sides has been immense—in the thousands. There was desperate fighting—desperate fright in some quarters and desperate getting out of the way in all many directions and in all imaginable disorder by some of our troops as I make out by the statements.”

The Battle of Milliken’s Bend took place on June 7, 1863 in Madison Parish, Louisiana and represented one of the most famous and courageous episodes for Black troops during the Civil War. While the opposition of Black troops in the Union Army persisted, the effort and bravery of the soldiers at Milliken’s Bend inspired the Union, beginning to convince the nation of the merit of Black troops and debunking the myth that Black soldiers would not fight.

In order to boost the strength of his Army for an attack on the Confederate-controlled city of Vicksburg, Union General Ulysses S. Grant stripped his forts along the Mississippi river including the 150-yard wide Union camp Milliken’s Bend that laid fifteen feet above the right bank of the Mississippi. Of the 1410 soldiers left at Milliken’s Bend, 160 were whites, a part of the 23rd Iowa. The others were ex-slaves from Mississippi and Louisiana that were organized into three incomplete regiments, the 9th and 11th Louisiana and the 1st Mississippi.

The Confederates launched an attack on Milliken’s Bend on the night of June 6 led by Confederate Brigadier General Henry E. McCulloch who planned to attack at night to avoid the heat and reduce the amount of assistance the fort’s defenders could receive from the Union gunboats. By 2:30 AM on June 7, the Confederate regiments encountered the Union pickets. With the order to withhold their fire until the Rebels were within musket-shot range, the battle turned into a bloody and scathing hand-to-hand fight noted as the longest bayonet-charge engagement of the war. By noon, the Federal warship Choctaw sent by Acting Rear Admiral David D. Porter turned the tide of battle firing shells on the Confederate Army causing the soldiers, already exhausted from the extreme heat to retreat.

The estimated casualties were high for the Black troops. Union Colonel Herman Lieb’s 9th Louisiana regiment sustained 66 killed and 62 mortally wounded, almost 45 percent of the entire regiment. Despite their losses, the greater significance of the battle lies with the effort and gallantry of the Black troops. Admiral Porter described the aftermath in a letter to General Grant, “The dead Negroes lined the ditch inside of the parapet or levee and were mostly shot on the top of the head. In front of them, close to the levee, lay an equal number of rebels, stinking in the sun.”

The Battle of Milliken’s Bend produced a change in army sentiment about Black troops that gradually echoed throughout the Union. Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. Dana noted their accomplishment proclaiming, “The bravery of the blacks at Milliken’s Bend completely revolutionized the sentiment of the arm with regard to the employment of negro troops.” One of the most widespread testimonies on the battle was from Captain M.M. Miller, a white captain of the 9^th Louisiana who commented, “I never more wish to hear the expression ‘the nigger won’t fight.” Come with me a 100 yards from where I sit and I can show you the wounds that cover the bodies of 16 as brave, loyal and patriotic soldiers as ever drew bead on a rebel.” Black historian W.E. DuBois eloquently described the transformation of the Black solider from slave to man:

“He was called a coward and a fool when he protected the women and children of his master. But when he rose and fought and killed, the whole nation proclaimed him a man and brother. Nothing else made emancipation possible in the United States. Nothing else made Negro citizenship conceivable, but the record of the Negro soldier as a fighter.”

A useful general interest website for teachers and students appears online at Milliken’s Bend:  Honoring the Contributions of Black Soldiers in the Civil War (edited by Louis Elloie, Jr.)

One of the more complete descriptions of the battle can be found in Benjamin Quarles’ The Negro in the Civil War, one of the leading secondary sources on Black troops which is partially available of Google Books. Martha M. Bigelow’s article “The Significance of Milliken’s Bend in the Civil War” provides a good overview on the battle and highlights the significance of the Negro troops. For primary materials on the battle, teachers should utilize the Official Records, volume 24 for reports on the battle including ones from Union Admiral David Porter and Confederate General Henry E. McCulloch. Also available from the Library of Congress are the Papers of Cyrus Sears, 11th Louisiana.

On November 23-25, 1863 the Battle of Chattanooga took place in Hamilton County, Tennessee.  Beginning in late September, the Confederate forces under the direction of General Braxton Bragg  placed Major General William Rosecrans’s Union forces under siege and cut off its supply line.  In October and November, Union General Ulysses S. Grant and the Union soldiers were able to capture Orchard Knob, Lookout Mountain, and also forced the Confederates off of Missionary Ridge.  The National Park Service’s website provides an overview of the battle as well as information on planning a visit to the battlefield.  The website also offers two pamphlets that may be useful: The Campaign for Chattanooga (1932) and Chickamauga and Chattanooga Battlefields (1956). The battle could be connected to a lesson on Sherman’s March to the Sea in 1864 since Union General William T. Sherman was able to use Chattanooga as the base for his march as a result of the Union victory in 1863.  Grant commented on Chattanooga in his memoirs:

“Sherman had, as already stated, crossed to the north side of the Tennessee River at Brown’s ferry, in full view of the troops on Missionary Ridge until they met their assault.  Bragg knew it was Sherman’s troops that had crossed, and, they being so long out of view, may have supposed that they had gone up the north bank of the Tennessee River to the relief of Knoxville and that Longstreet was therefore in danger.  But the first great blunder, detaching Longstreet, cannot be accounted for in any way I know of.  If he had captured Chattanooga, East Tennessee would have fallen without a struggle.  It would have been a victory for us to have got our army away from Chattanooga safely.  It was a manifold greater victory to drive away the besieging army; a still greater one to defeat that army in his chosen ground and nearly annihilate it.” 

Some other resources that may be helpful to browse are Battles and Leaders of the Civil War which gives a firsthand account of the campaign and battle from General Grant, and Three Days Battle at Chattanooga which provides a copy of the dispatch on the battle from General Meigs to the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton.  The Library of Congress’s website contains a few different letters with transcriptions, including one from General Grant reporting the beginning of the conflict and one reporting its end.  Also, the Civil War Preservation Trust’s website provides historical articles on the battle, including “Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain, and Missionary Ridge Battles” that gives a detailed summary of the actions and consequences for the Union and Confederate forces at each location.

On September 23, 1897 Horatio Collins King, a member of Dickinson College Class of 1858, received a Medal of Honor for his acts of bravery during the battle of Five Forks.  As quartermaster of the first cavalry division of the Army of the Shenandoah, King fought in one of the final Eastern battles of the Civil War in Five Forks, Virginia on April 1, 1865.  Maj. General Philip Sheridan led 50,000 Union troops in a victory over a Confederate force only one-fifth the size.  In his military history, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac (2008), William Swinton explains the Union victory and capture of the Southside Railroad at Five Forks in terms the battle’s greater significance in the war.  Within the eight days following the battle of Five Forks the Confederate Army had retreated from Petersburg and Richmond and General Robert E. Lee had surrendered his army to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse.

Nonetheless, for the soldiers who fought at Five Forks, the battle remained a personal experience.  In his Civil War Journal (digitized in the Dickinson College database “Their Own Words”), Horatio King did not go to lengths to discuss the meaning of the battle and the Confederate retreat. Instead, King wrote a poignant passage describing a dead Southern soldier he encountered while collecting the wounded: “his face was raised toward heaven and the open eyes & sweet expression of countenance together with the hands uplifted as in prayer gave me the impression that he still lived.”  Battles were personal affairs for generals as well, as exemplified by Gouverneur Kemble Warren’s obsession with Five Forks. After the battle, Sheridan relieved Warren of his command of the V Corps, and when Warren “personally sought of General Sheridan a reason for his order,”  “he would not or could not give one.” After more than a decade of seeking an explanation, Warren finally received official recognition of his unjust treatment when President Rutherford B. Hayes authorized a court of inquiry on December 9, 1879.

The National Park Service has preserved Five Forks as part of the larger Petersburg National Battlefield. Their website contains Five Forks resources including multiple battle maps. J. Tracy Power’s Lee’s Miserables : Life in the Army of Northern Virginia from the Wilderness to Appomattox (1998) is a unique military history of the last year of the war that uses Confederate soldier’s letters and diaries as a primary source of evidence, giving readers a different angle on the battle of Five Forks.

To view a Flickr slideshow on this battle, click on any of the images below:

On June 9, 1863, the Battle of Brandy Station, also known as the Battle of Fleetwood Hill, took place in Culpeper County, Virginia.  Early in the morning, Union Major General Alfred Pleasonton and his forces began a surprise attack on the Confederates and General James Ewell Brown Stuart.  Brandy Station was one of the largest cavalry battles and marked the opening of the Gettysburg Campaign.  The National Park Service’s website provides a summary of the battle as well as a list of different stops and descriptions of each for those planning on visiting or taking a field trip.  The Brandy Station Foundation has a website that includes tour dates as well as information for visiting  Brandy Station’s “Graffiti House” which contains messages and signatures of Union and Confederate soldiers.  In his book, War Years with Jeb Stuart, W.W. Blackford commented on the battle:

“At that time their cavalry could not stand before us at all, and it was not until the great battle on this same ground on the 9th of June, 1863, “Fleetwood Fight,” that they offered us any determined resistance.  From that time the difficulty of getting remounts acted disastrously upon the strength of our cavalry arm, not only in diminishing the numbers but impairing the spirit of the men.”

Another resource that may be valuable to look at is Henry McClellan’s book I Road with Jeb Stuart: the Life and Campaigns of Major General J.E.B. Stuart; both McClellan and Blackford’s recollections provide a firsthand perspective of General Stuart from men who fought alongside him in battle.  In terms of modern scholarship, Emory Thomas’s Bold Dragoon: The Life of J.E.B. Stuart, available as a preview on Google Books, gives a concise overview of the battle and a map that depicts Stuart’s movements into Pennsylvania during the Gettysburg Campaign.   Also, Brandy Station 1863: First Step Towards Gettysburg  includes a list of all the Union and Confederate troops present at the battle.

Dickinson College‘s 1860 commencement exercises occurred on Saturday evening, July 7, 1860.  Two local papers’ contrasting reports on the evening demonstrate the partisan nature of nineteenth century newspapers.  The Carlisle paper, The Herald, founded by Ekuries Beatty in 1799 originally supported the Whig party, but by 1860 printed articles with a strong Republican bias. In contrast the American Volunteer (another Carlisle paper) founded by William B. and James Underwood in 1814, reported the Democrat Party’s view of the news.  The Volunteer charged Dickinson’s commencement speakers with attacking the “vulnerable” democratic president James Buchanan, himself a Dickinson alum from “when the institution was worthy of the name of a college.” According to the Volunteer many of the commencement speeches were full of dangerous “Abolitionist preaching” which must “be stopped.” Mr. George A. Coffey, of Philadelphia, spoke at an alumni gathering on the Wednesday before commencement and particularly offended the writers of the Volunteer who labeled his speech as “fierce and outrageous.”  While the Herald admitted that Mr. Coffey introduced “topics which were offensive to many in the audience,” the paper concluded “it was a masterly speech.” Overall, the Herald presented a very different picture of the commencement exercises, carefully listing the names of the student speakers followed by a brief, usually complimentary, analysis of their speeches.  The two Carlisle papers’ distinctly partisan accounts of Dickinson’s 1860 commencement reflect the political spin of the press throughout the Civil War era.

For modern scholarship on the subject of partisanship and the press see David T. Z. Minchin’s Just the Facts: How “Objectivity” Came to Define American Journalism (1998). The Library of Congress also provides an online newspaper directory to find more information on newspapers from across the country.

The Battle of Oak Grove took place on June 25, 1862 in Henrico County, Virginia and marked the beginning of the Seven Days’ Battles that were part of the Peninsula campaign of 1862, a grand scheme to destroy the Rebel army in Richmond and effectively end the Civil War. Union Major General George B. McClellan planned to end the war through short and decisive battles rather than one major, war-winning battle. He corresponded with his wife before the undertaking; “It now looks to me as if the operations would resolve themselves into a series of partial attacks, rather than a general battle.” McClellan’s goal was to seize the high ground on the Nine Mile Road with the objective of bringing his siege guns within range of the Confederate capital. Union Private Thomas B. Leaver of the 2^nd New Hampshire wrote home on the night prior to the battle, “I hope the day of decision will come soon…I believe the Rebels will skedaddle as they did at Yorktown and Corinth. Keep up good courage dear Mother, the end is near at hand.”

Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee met the Union attack and defended against the attempted Union advance with three brigades of Confederate General Benjamin Huger. Huger encountered the forces of Union Brigadier Generals Joseph Hooker and Philip Kearny. Intense fighting throughout the day led to inconclusive results for the Union Army. McClellan failed to achieve his objective, his troops gaining only 600 yards while sustaining estimated casualties of 626. The Confederate soldiers sustained 441 casualties bringing the total for the battle over 1000. Included in this total is the death of Thomas B. Leaver, whose last letter home predicted his ironic and tragic fate.

The Battle of Oak Grove set the tone for the Seven Days’ Battles and the rest of the Peninsula campaign, alluding to the intensity of fighting that both sides would encounter. Much of the battle consisted of the Union soldiers advancing on ground that they had previously won earlier in the day. Confusion and poor communication hindered the Union Army throughout the battle. Sergeant Edgar Newcomb of the 19^th Massachusetts eloquently described the wearisome nature of battle:

“It is not the marching nor the firing that wears men, but the suspense of the slow advance and frequent halt…till finally when at once the storm of bullets whirs over and on each side, and men begin to fall, and orders come think and fast, the sweet oozes from every pore. It is not fear but uncertainty, that makes men live days in every moment.”

For more information on the battle and the Peninsula campaign, Stephen W. Sears’ To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign is one of the best available secondary sources on the subject and details the Battle of Oak Grove within the context of the grand campaign. The book is partially available on Google Books and includes maps of the battle and a great bibliography for further readings. Another scholarly secondary source partially available on Google Books is John S. Salmon’s The Official Virginia Civil War Battlefield Guide which offers a great overview and background information on the Seven Days’ Battles. For primary material, teachers should utilize the Official Records, volume 11 for reports on the Peninsula campaign including one from Union General Joseph Hooker.

James Smith Colwell, who worked as a lawyer in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, was one of the men who answered President Abraham Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers after Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Colwell joined the Carlisle Fencibles, a local volunteer company under the command of Robert Henderson, as a first lieutenant. Six weeks later the Fencibles left Carlisle for Camp Wayne in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where they received training and were designated Company A of the 7th Regiment, Pennsylvania Reserve Corps. His wife, Ann, had not been happy with that decision. “You left me without talking about it,” as Ann reminded him. While James admitted that “[he] err[ed] frequently,” he observed that “it [was] nearly always an error of the judgment & not of the heart.” Yet in this case he argued that it was impossible to get out of the army. “I do not see how I could get out of the service without bring[ing] disgrace and dishonour on myself & my little family,” as Colwell explained. Colwell had in mind his four children – two sons and two daughters. Colwell’s oldest daughter, Nannie, was about six years old in December 1861 when she announced in her “first letter” that she “[could] read” and “[sent him] a big kiss.” Colwell was able to return to Carlisle on furlough, but on September 17, 1862 he died during the Battle of Antietam. Local newspapers published obituaries, including the Carlisle (PA) American, which noted that “[Colwell’s] high moral character and exemplary life had made him a bright example in our midst.”When Civil War veterans in Carlisle established a local chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic in February 1881, they decided to call it the Captain Colwell Post.