First Person Civil War Podcast

At the Battle of Cold Harbor, 3 June 1864, PVT Martin A. Haynes and the 2nd New Hampshire, just days from the expiration of their enlistments, advanced into what would become one of the great debacles of the Civil War as the XVIII, VI and II Corps suffered heavy casualties during their failed advance upon Confederate fortifications.  Sources used for this episode:  Haynes, Martin A. A History of t...

At the Battle of Cherbourg, 19 June 1864, Seaman Magee aboard the USS Kearsarge spotted the CSS Alabama, commanded by CPT Semmes as it departed the safety of Cherbourg Harbor to do battle in the English Channel. While both sloops-of-war were almost evenly matched in terms of cannon, the USS Kearsarge also had an armored hull, which became a deciding factor in the coming engagement. Sources used fo...

On the evening of 24 February 1863, the expedition that captured the USS Indianola involved a Confederate force of four ships: CSS Queen of the West, CSS Webb, CSS Batey and CSS Grand Era, the latter two being support vessels only. MAJ Joseph L. Brent commander of the expedition, caught up with the USS Indianola as it steamed up the Mississippi river to rendezvous with MG Grants army. Though outma...

At the Second Battle of Charleston Harbor, July – September 1863, CH Denison and the 3rd Rhode Island Heavy Artillery supported the X Army Corps as it occupied Morris Island at the mouth of the Harbor and assaulted Fort Wagner in July. In the wake of these failed assaults, BG Gillmore, the Union Army commander, ordered the 3rd Rhode Island Heavy Artillery and several other units to dig gun emplace...

At the Battle of New Market, 15 May 1864, Cadet Captain Frank Preston and the Cadets of the Virginia Military Institute, as an infantry battalion, marched north from Lexington to the town of New Market Virginia, where they joined the Confederate Army under MG Breckenridge. Initially placed in a reserve linethey advanced across the muddy fields north of New Market. After a failed Union Advance, CPT...

At the Battle of the Wilderness, 5-7 May 1864, 2LT Camille Baquet and the 1st New Jersey marched to the aid of the V Corps which discovered the Confederate 2nd Corps along the Orange Turnpike. The thick vegetation of the Wilderness meant the Jerseymen fought blind, unable to see the Confederate lines in front of them or in some cases the lines of adjacent Union regiments. Sources used for this epi...

At the Action at Mount Zion Church, 6 July 1864, PVT John W. Munson and the 43rd Virginia Cavalry Battalion, or Mosby’s Rangers, intercepted a Union Cavalry detachment that had perused them for three days after their successful raid of the Army Garrison at Point of Rocks Maryland. Mosby’s Rangers specialized in disrupting lines of supply and communication but were more than capable of fighting in...

At the Second Battle of Corinth, 3-4 October 1862, CPT William H. Chamberlin and the 81st Ohio alongside the entire 2nd Division are driven from their first position but manage to rally around a White House. After holding the line for the rest of the day, the Ohioans march with their division further east and face another day of hard fighting on 4 October around Battery Powell.  Sources used for t...

At the Battle of Williamsburg, 5 May 1862, the 2nd Florida engaged two Union regiments southeast of the town. COL Ward, the 2nd Florida’s commander, was killed in action and the regiment was forced to retreat to a second position. Once the lines stabilized, 1LT Fleming joined a party to recover COL Ward’s body, but was himself wounded. Brought to the town of Williamsburg by his brother and several...

At the Battle of Pea Ridge, on the morning of 7 March 1862, an advance Cavalry and Artillery force which included CPL Dysart and the 3rd Iowa Cavalry witnessed some of the first shots of the battle as three artillery pieces fired into the Confederate Right Wing as it marched along the Ford Road toward Elkhorn Tavern. A “running cavalry fight” ensued, but the Union force was routed, and CPL Dysart...

At the Battle of Dallas, 28 May 1864, 2LT Lot D. Young and the 4th Kentucky as part of the Orphan Brigade advanced upon a heavily entrenched Union Army. What was intended to be a three-brigade advance was cancelled by the division commander, but the Orphan Brigade and the Floridians to their south, never received the order. Sources used for this episode: Young, Lot D. Reminiscences of a Soldiers o...

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. Sources used for this episode: Abbott, Lemuel A. Per...

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 send a flag of truce and asked for surrender. Under...

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 barrage of the war, 3LT Rogers and the 47th North Caro...

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 Years of Civil War From Sept. 16, 1861 to July 21,...

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 Arkansas Regiment Infantry May, 1861 to 1865. 1912. h...

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 of the War of 1861 as Private, Sergeant and Lie...

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 Firing Line . Chattanooga: The Imperial Press, 1914....

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 & Company, 1869. https://www.gutenberg.org/c...

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: The Eighty-Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry Associ...

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, Fred C. and Kirkley, Joseph W. The War of the R...

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.B. Reminiscences of the Nineteenth Massachusetts R...

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 other. Armed with Colt Navy Revolvers, PVT Hubbar...

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 engaged the advancing Confederates, but were...

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 the Second Division VIII Corps, and future 19th P...