First Person Civil War Podcast

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 West Virginia were tasked with supporting...

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 C.S. Bayou City and the C.S. Neptune for added pr...

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 wagons carrying wounded men fr...

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 of Pennsylvania Reserves advances upon the sam...

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 Union Army in digging five total Sap trenches, an...

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 Wisconsin. 1LT Fitch and the 21st Wisconsin successfull...

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, PVT McMorries and the 1st Alabama become caught...

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 officer: 1st Lieutenant Nathan H. Edgerton rallied t...

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 south east of the Dunker Church and surrounded by...

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 their final positions by noon of 3 May. Crotty, Danie...

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 Confederate line. It is after this assault and while o...

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 M. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation...

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 .

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 Chaplain at the Siege of Petersburg 1865 . Lond...

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 the Rebellion: A Compilation of th...

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 .