Spotsylvania Civil War Blog

  The following is the culmination of a project I began over sixteen years ago, brought out again currently by the expressed desire of others to place a historical marker pertaining to the d...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-death-of-general-thomas-stevenson.html

Last May the Emerging Civil War blog published a piece about the American Battlefield Trust's acquisition of the Fox House, a vital landmark of the North Anna Campaign, and location of a near fa...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2020/05/fox-house-below-north-anna-front-has.html

     Today is the 156th anniversary of the fighting on Myer's Hill, an important opening engagement of the second week of fighting at Spotsylvania, Virginia, May 14, 1864.      After 20 ...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2020/05/myers-hill-map-examinations.html

Two immigrants, born on the same day, a year apart, came to America for all the opportunity it offered. The Civil War brought them both to a hilltop farm near Spotsylvania Court House, Virgin...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2020/02/new-book-coming-may-2021.html

It's been some time since I've posted here while handling numerous other projects, but today I decided to head up to Myer's Hill on the 155th Anniversary of the fighting there. May 14, 1864. Stud...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2019/05/155th-anniversary-of-action-on-myers.html

     This posting will certainly open a can of worms, I have no doubt, but I will present this with great confidence, for as you will see, there is substantial evidence to back it up.    ...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2018/12/jacksons-line-at-first-manassas-radical.html

Today is the 155th anniversary of the action known as Second Fredericksburg, fought along the Stone Wall. It is also the same day this image of the Confederate dead behind the wall was taken by C...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2018/05/2nd-fredericksburg-captain-russells.html

It's always exciting to find new images to study. A batch of previously unseen stereoviews from the April 1866 Bontecou expedition has been revealed, and they fill a few holes in the 121 image se...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2017/08/photo-reveals-fredericksburg-landscape.html

Since Garry Adelman has chosen to go after the work I have done on the "Harvest of Death" images, yet again, five years after his initial efforts, and state that he "looks forward" to my rebuttal...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2017/04/harvest-of-death-vs-garry-adelman.html

     Some final photographs delivered by our friend Stephen Masters, who has been on-site today, documenting the tragic loss of one of Northern Virginia's historic treasures. Admittedly, the M...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2016/09/and-just-like-that-gone-minor-house-is.html

     More modern images from our friend Stephen Masters. As the bulldozer draws nearer, here are some then and now glimpses. Many thanks to Stephen for his work on trying to save this landmark...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-minor-house-supplemental.html

Our friend Stephen Masters brings us very sad news today. The Minor House is coming down. When an asking price of two million, and a 24 hour deadline produced no results, the bulldozers began to ...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-minor-house-coming-down-history-lost.html

     Sadly, the much altered original structure is about to meet the wrecking ball, but thanks to our intrepid reader, Stephen Masters, we are able to provide a then and now look at the spot w...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2016/08/mcclellan-at-minor-house-arlington.html

Recently, a reader of this site, Stephen Masters, left comments to this blog's August and October 2013 postings regarding the location of the Minor House in Fairfax County, Virginia. On a site on...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2016/07/blog-reader-locates-minor-house-soon-to.html

     An observation made during an all over review of yesterday's primary image, reveals what is apparently the coat and sword belt of Battery G's captain, Nelson Ames, hanging from the branch...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2016/05/supplemental-material-re-blog-post-of.html

     It has been said that several images taken by photographer Timothy O'Sullivan along the North Anna River were made on May 25, 1864. The first we see here, looking to the southwest, across...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2016/05/a-question-of-date-north-anna.html

     One hundred and fifty-two years ago today, the armies of north and south clashed in a forbidding landscape, partly along the Orange Plank Road, in western Spotsylvania County, Virginia. T...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-human-wreckage-of-wilderness-dr.html

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - MARCH 30, 2016 CONTACT NAME: JOHN HENNESSY 540-693-3200 X 4010   SPOTSYLVANIA, VA - The National Park Service has announced...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2016/04/real-time-tour-of-dr-bontecous.html

     This post contains REVISIONS, based on continued examinations of the ground on March 31, 2018. These revisions are made to clarify and correct certain aspects that were made two years pr...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-battlefield-of-first-manassas-then.html

     I am now two weeks away from the fourth anniversary of my initial investigations into the location of Gettysburg's "Harvest of Death", and "Field Where Reynolds Fell" photo series. Over t...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2015/11/gettysburg-field-where-reynolds-fell.html

    Just a quick post, with a video using the Gibson exposure of the view looking to the northeast. The video points out many of the finer details the photograph shows, and how they relate t...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2015/10/gettysburg-harvest-of-death-etc-debate.html

     Next month, on November 18, I will mark the fourth anniversary of my investigations into the Harvest of Death/Field Where General Reynolds Fell photos. My adventure began as support to t...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2015/10/gettysburg-harvest-of-death-and-field.html

     One of the last remaining pre-Civil War structures along lower Sophia Street in downtown Fredericksburg, Virginia, has succumb to years of neglect with an as of yet unspecified plan for t...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2015/08/172-year-old-witness-to-battle-of.html

     Tomorrow is the 152nd anniversary of the death of the men seen in this photograph, taken by Timothy O'Sullivan, and published by Alexander Gardner. This is the image that has caused coun...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2015/06/iconic-photograph-of-gettysburg-dead-is.html

     UPDATED 12/21/2014! SEE END OF POST FOR RECENT SALE ACTIVITY ON THE PROPERTY! ADDITIONAL PHOTOS ADDED TO THE POST 9:15 AM, 12/21/2014, SHOWING THE SAD THEN AND NOW. UPDATE 12/24/14: AR...

https://spotsylvaniacw.blogspot.com/2014/12/spotsylvania-battle-landmark-gone.html