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The words below are not gentle. I will keep this short, but be warned: if you think of General William T. Sherman as a heroic man, you may not like what you learn. Atlanta is now a prosperous city that looks to the future. After all, its symbol is a phoenix rising from the ashes, […]

It was during Lee’s 34th year as a military officer.  The date was May 6, 1864, and the Battle of The Wilderness was raging.  The Wilderness is an area of dense forest in northeast Virginia.  It was there that Lee had an army of 40,000, facing a Union force of 70,000. A Texas brigade was

A lot of Confederate companies called themselves Irish at the beginning of the war, but there were only two Confederate Irish regiments: the 10th Tennessee Volunteers, and the 24th Georgia Volunteers.  I have written about the 10th Tennessee in another article, known for using the “Sons of Erin” flag.    The 24th Georgia is the more

One of the finest sailors America ever produced was Commander John Newland Maffitt, who began his career in the U.S. Navy.  It was not long before he stablished himself as a highly respected officer.  Not long after the Confederacy was formed, the U.S. government began secret arrests of those suspected of Southern sympathies.  A friend

Carrie Berry was ten years old in 1864, when Union soldiers entered her hometown of Atlanta.  She kept a diary, and in Part I of this story we learned of her experiences during weeks of artillery shelling.  Union General Sherman now had an appalling plan for her city, which was about to unfold. Sept. 2. Fri.

The burning of Atlanta by Union General Sherman is a notorious incident of the Civil War.  We can read Sherman’s own words, in a telegram to Ulysses S. Grant: “…utter destruction of its roads, houses, and people will cripple their military resources. …I can make the march and make Georgia howl.” Sherman’s “March to the Sea” began

Sunday mornings were usually quiet at Yale University.  Not so on the January 20th, 1861, when students and professors woke to find a secession flag on top of a campus building.  During the night some students had raised a flag with a red cross displayed in the center.  On the cross were 15 stars representing

This unique flag was created in Richmond, Virginia, for the 5th Texas Regiment:  the “Bloody Fifth.” This was one of three Texas regiments that fought with Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.  Their flag was based on the design of the Confederate First National Flag, the Stars and Bars.  Instead of a circle of stars representing