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Caught in the Maelstrom: The Indian Nations in the Civil War, 1861–1865. By Clint Crowe. Bibliography, footnotes, photographs, maps, index. 300
The Indian Nations, or Indian Territory as it was also known, due to the U.S. government’s ceding the area to the “Five Civilized Tribes” (the Cherokee, Creek (Muscogee), Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole) in the 1830’s. This area would mostly become present day Oklahoma. Prior to, and during the Civil W the Indian Nations and their pol tics were split among pure blood non-slaveholders, and mixed bloods, many of whom were slaveholders. It is not surprising the slav ers sided with the Confederacy, providing various regiments to the Confederate Army, and a general officer, Brigadier General Stand Watie, a Cherokee; while the non-slaveholders stood with the Union, providing the Union Indian Brigade. The Civil War in the Indian Nations was thus a Civil War within a Civil War, as found in Tennessee, Missouri, and western Virginia, with all the tragedy a hatred of brother against brothe There were a number of battle
readers with timely nt Civil War research and
fought within the Indian Nations by Indian troops supported by Texans or Kansans. Within the territory’s borders the population was at the mercy of guerilla bands, bandits and people out for themselves or to pay off grudges. The latter included the Union siding Keetoowah Society, made up of Cherokee full-bloods. Stand Watie surrendered his troops on June 23, 1865. The author states that he was “likely” the last Confederate general to surrender. All other sources state he was the last and it is unusual that a scholarly work of this nature would not seek a definitive answer to that question. Stand Watie’s surrender may have ended the fighting but did no end the war in the Nations because it was not a state, and therefore different federal laws and treatie applied there. It would take until September when a council met and terms and a full government was agreed to by both sides. The volume also includes a very interesting “exclusive excerpt:” “Chapter 6: Protecting Johnsonville: Union Defense of the Supply Depot,” from the publishers recent Johnsonville: Union Supply Operations on the Tennessee River and the Battle of Johnsonville, November 4-5, 1864. This will be of special interest to fans of Nathan Bedford Forrest and the Civil War in Tennessee. Caught in the Maelstrom is based on the author’s dissertation and has been ably researched by the author. It is highly recommended to those with special interest in the Trans-Mississippi Civil War, as well as in the forme Indian Nations and the areas surrounding it.
Capt. Joe Derie is a longtime Civi War buff with a special interest i War naval history and the Civil Wa the West. He is a retired USCG off and a licensed officer of the Merc Marine, currently self-employed as marine surveyor and marine acciden investigator in Portland, OR.
CWN Finally—An Objective Look at Sigel in the Shenandoah
Union Command Failure in the Shenandoah: Major
General William Franz Sigel and the War in the Valley of Virginia, May 1864. By David A. Powell. Photos, maps, notes, index, 264 pp., 2019. Savas Beatie
Twenty-seven years ago, histo rian Stephen D. Engle, in his bi ography of Union general Franz Sigel, Yankee Dutchman, offered a scathing assessment of Sigel’s conduct in the Shenandoah Valley during the spring of 1864. Engle concluded that Sigel’s generalship in the weeks leading up to and during the Battle of New Market proved Sigel a “fool.” While historians prior to the pu lication of Engle’s biography reached similar conclusions and scholars have continued to asses Sigel’s ability to command in a similar vein since, author David Powell’s thoughtful volume convincingly challenges that notion in this outstanding study. Powell, best-known for his work on Chickamauga, does not profess to be an apologist for Sigel, but rather aims to scruti nize him under a more objective lens to illustrate that Sigel’s duct in the Shenandoah Valley during the spring of 1864 was no that of “a blundering fool, and all of his decisions wrong-headed.” Through careful analysis of a wide array of primary and secondary sources Powell offers an unprejudiced examination that shifts Sigel from “caricature” t “commander.” Throughout the book’s ten chapters, the author masterfully recounts the decision to appoint Sigel to command and how Sigel’s Department of West Virginia fit into Grant’s overal strategy in the spring of 1864.
Additionally, Powell analyzes how, at times, Grant’s decisions
impeded Sigel’s ability for success, including not providing Sigel the manpower required properly carrying out his missio and preventing Confederates in the Shenandoah from supporting the Army of Northern Virginia’s operations east of the Blue Ridg Mountains. Securing the Valley
was a task that proved the bugbear of many Union Shenandoah
commanders since the conflict’s outset. Beyond insightful analysis of the ways in which Grant’s decision adversely impacted Sigel; Powell does a remarkable job of analyzing the varied abilities o the regiments and subordinates who comprised Sigel’s command. Not only did some units lack combat experience, animosity existed amongst regiments as some regimental commanders balked at the idea of servin in brigades with regiments they believed inferior. For example, some in the 34th Mass. Inf. did not approve of being in the same brigade with the 116th and 123rd Ohio Inf. Although the two Ohio regiments had combat experience, and the 34th had none, some of the 34th’s officers believed the regiment better-disciplined and more proficient in drill. While indeed, as the author notes, the 34th might have appeared better on the parade ground, their lack of combat experience proved detrimental during the culmination of Sigel’s spring campaign in th Shenandoah Valley, the Battle of New Market. Enmity, as the author rightfu ly concludes, not only existed between various regiments, but between some of those regiments and Sigel. When Sigel staged mock battles in Winchester durin early May, dissension among some subordinates rose significantly. Among those who did not see any merit in mock battles wa the 34th Massachusetts’ Colonel George Wells. He believed them
so asinine that he feigned illne to avoid them. While some his-
torians previously characterized Sigel’s mock battles as another example of his foolishness, Powell views them as evidence of Sigel’s awareness of the lack of combat experience that existed i his army and his reasonable effo
to remedy that deficiency. Although Powell does a terrif
ic job highlighting various factors working against Sigel, he i balanced in his assessment and points out critical strategic er rors Sigel made leading up to th Battle of New Market, such as his ill-advised decision to send Colonel William H. Boyd with a hodge-podge cavalry command to Luray. Powell also enumerates Sigel’s tactical errors at Battle of New Market, covered in three of the book’s chapters, including ordering a counterattack against Confederate General John C. Breckinridge’s command on Bushong Hill and his failure to appropriately utilize Brigadi General Jeremiah Sullivan at New Market. This study, solidly written, soundly researched, profusely illustrated, and enhanced with detailed maps is indispensable reading for anyone interested in Shenandoah Valley Civil War conflict. Its importance transcends those who study that oft-contested region. To those i terested in understanding the an imus existing among soldiers of the same army Powell’s volume is also quite useful.
Jonathan A. Noyalas is director of Shenandoah University’s McCormick Civil War Institute in Winchester, Virginia, a professor in Civil War Era Studies at Shenandoah University, and founding editor of Journal of th Shenandoah Valley During the Civil War Era. He is the author or editor of thirteen books including Civil War Legacy in the Shenandoah: Remembrance, Reunion, and Reconciliation.
The Second American Revolution: The Civil WarEra Struggle over Cuba and the Rebirth of the American Republic. By Gregory P. Downs. Notes, Bibliography, and Index, 232 pp., 2019. The University o
The Civil War was more than a fight between two regions of the United States. This was gre er than a domestic struggle, or fight to preserve the nation. T differences were not only natio al but international as well. I spilled into many other nations confronting how the world was going to change. Would countrie be free-labor republics and gov erned by a constitution with sl ery ended or would empires continue to dominate many countrie and regions? In the end, Americans called four-year nineteenth century co flict such names as the Rebelli or the War of Secession. During the early 20th century, people phrased the term Civil War as a effort to depoliticize the stru gle between the states and rec-
Southerners. Some people even used the phrase second American Revolution for this momentous period in U.S. history. The New York Herald used this phrase on March 4, 1869, to describe
the change that was happening with Ulysses S. Grant’s upcoming presidential inauguration. The paper emphasized that the Union general would help bring about a transformational change Significant modifications were the end of slavery, citizenship for freed people, forcing the l Southern states to accept voting rights for African American men and the 13th, 14th, and 15t amendments with the threat of martial law. In the end, Gregor Downs makes the excellent point that these reforms came about due to a violent reconstructing of a reunified nation’s politic structure. Downs explains that people in this time period wanted to see how the United States would influence old traditional powers such as Great Britain France, and Spain and others as an emerging world power. This wonderful monograph starts off by detailing not only changes that occurred because of the Ci War and the passage of the Civi War/Reconstruction amendments but how citizens can reevaluate our founders, their legacy, the First American Revolution, and the establishment of a new government under a ratified consti tution. The chapter titled “The Civil War the World Made” goes into great detail concerning ho the U.S. helped bring about an end to global slavery as well a bringing about the establishmen of constitutional republics and increased freedom and rights for colonial controlled countri such as Cuba. Chapter three assesses what Civil War and Reconstruction ac complished and what disappointments happened during the Jim Crow era to race relations and civil rights. The author furthe develops that, due to the turmo that occurred in the United Sta
sulting changes failed to go fa enough in Western Hemisphere countries including their own revolutions and independence in the years following the Civi War and the Second American
Revolution. Finally, the chapter titled Afterward proposes that the Second American Revolution is unfinished today and did not go far enough in the nineteenth century. This excellent historian proves that many changes were significant such as freeing four million individuals who were held in bondage, the greatest emancipation in world history and the largest confiscation property in any one nation’s his tory. Downs shows that the Civil War reshaped the United States, politically, socially, and econo ically, however, in the end bigg changes could have happened faster concerning civil rights f blacks, assistance with, and all ances with Atlantic world emerging revolutionary nations seekin independence from old world countries such as Spain. Using numerous primary and secondary sources, Downs was able to bypass many opinions of previous authors and demonstrated an important new and insightful interpretation of a gre deal that has not been studied i the past. He makes a substantial contribution to understanding what comprehensive deviations arose in the U.S. and in the wor by providing fresh insight that helps us understand the motivation, strategies, tensions, cont versies, and triumphs that have characterized the work and lives of people and nations involved in this excellent book. While th volume contains six important illustrations, it would have bee helpful to all readers to have i cluded many more images and a few maps. Highly recommended by this reviewer.
David Marshall is a high school American history teacher in the
Miami-Dade School district for the past thirty-three years. A l
is president of the Miami Civil War Round Table Book Club. In addition to numerous reviews in tions, he has given presentation to Civil War Round Tables on
Joshua Chamberlain, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, the Batt
The Petersburg Regiment in the Civil War: A History of the 12th Virginia Infantry from John Brown’s Hanging to Appomattox, 1859–1865. By John Horn. Maps, photos, diagrams, footnotes, bibliogra phy, index, 440 pp., 2019, Sav
Many Civil War enthusiasts are, probably, familiar w George S. Bernard’s, 1892, War Talks of Confederate Veterans and Hampton Newsome’s, John Horn’s, and John G. Selby’s excellent edition (2012) of Bernard’s previously unpublished, Civil War Talks: Furth Reminiscences of George S. Bernard & Fellow Veterans, (UVA). Mr. Horn has expanded his research and produced this very good and much needed, Confederate regimental history The 12th Virginia served wi distinction from the Peninsula though the rest of the war, wi
Crater. Interpreted through th astute observations of several more participants other tha Bernard, this work puts the re er in the ranks to observe the in all its grim reality from t
ground up. Thoroughly illustra ed with over 30 clear, easy to
marking where the 12th was on the field, where I learned tha
part, to General William “Bill Mahone, whose contributions to
battles I never really knew very little about. Throughout the pages of this book, he emerges as a uniformed bantam rooster. The author makes no apologies or excuses for the regiment’s feelings toward African Americans in the Union Army or for their brutality in battle. The chapters on the Crater and Petersburg starkly describe how desperate and unforgiving the fighting had become by the last stages of the war in the East. Mr. Horn clearly has honestly portrayed the combat brutality, some of which shocked veteran George S. Bernard. I also noted how he used the soldiers’ slang to describe their camps, their officers, and the U. flag, which I had never heard referred to as the “gridiron.” They called Mahone “Porte,” the reason for which you will have to read the book to discover. Critics will probably find issues with the footnotes, because they only refer to primary source concerning the 12th Virginia and not every secondary or Union regimental history cited in his extensive bibliography. That did not detract from the quality of the writing or the information in this book. Mr. Horn invested a lot of time and effort in creatin this thorough regimental and it shows.
Mike Priest is author of Antietam The Soldiers’ Battle (1989) and Before Antietam: The Battle of South Mountain (1992).
Vol. 46, No. 1 $ Remembrance Day, 2019, Getty
The world will li – Abraham Lincoln by Joe Bordonaro President Lincoln was wrong
correct about the second part this famous phrase from his ma nificent “Gettysburg Address.” On Nov. 23, 2019, reenactors a members of the general public gathered in Gettysburg, Penn.,
to remember the actions of the soldiers and the President 156
Remembrance Day 2019. Stafford County Science Teacher Don Mullen, portrays
President Lincoln. (Garry Adelman, American Battlefield Trust)
Members of the 14th Brooklyn years ago. The Sons of Union Veterans held their 62nd ann
War reenactors. Members of r enacting groups commemorated the actions of various indiv and units by conducting marc es and visiting monuments. A “Remembrance Illumination” o Gettysburg National Cemetery
graves occurs each year, as Although the numbers of reen
tors are down from its 2000 when Wikipedia estimated the were about 50,000 Civil War enactors; a still impressive ber showed up this year and
panying photos highlight som activities that took place.
Joe Bordonaro is a USAF vete an (1973–1977), Glassboro St
The False Cause: Fraud, Fabrication, and White Supremacy in Confederate Memory. By Adam H. Domby. Illustrated, bibliography, index University of Virginia Press,
The author states in the last chapter, “Anyone can make up an interpretation of history.” True to his word, Adam Domby does just that. Using North Carolina as a microcosm the old Confederacy, he presents selected incidents in four areas; opposition to secession by some North Carolinians, the presence of Union sentiment in the state, the resistance to conscription, and desertion rates among North Carolina Confederate soldiers, a evidence that North Carolina’s support for the Confederacy was lukewarm at best. No mention is made of similar Union difficulties, e.g. New York draft riots, desertion among Union troops in response to the Emancipation Proclamation, or Northern citi-
zens going South to fight for th Confederacy. To have explained these might have tempered the author’s obsession with trying t make the Lost Cause School of historical thought nothing more than a justification for white s premacist ideology. Professor Domby then launches
Civil W 520 Folly Road, Su Charleston, S Email cover image to bookrevie
into attacks on Confederate monuments as inspired by a desire to justify white supremacy. Pensions awarded to blacks who served the Confederacy were dismissed as an early welfare syste that rewarded subservient blacks Confederate soldiers fighting fo what Col. John S. Mosby called “my Country” were portrayed as nothing more than protectors of slavery that was crucial in glorifying white control. While he concedes Confederate soldiers fought nobly, even if for a bad cause, he contends they were nevertheless racists who either intentionally, accidentally, or even unintentionally stood for white supremacy. The author uses a selective series of quotes from North Carolina political speeches, as well as UDC and SCV talks, principally from 1902–1926, including one 8th grade graduation speech, to hammer home his ideology of white supremacy inherent in everything from the dedication of Confederate monuments to Southern soldiers, to supporting black pensioners, to voting for President Donald Trump. This selectivity omits an reference to opposing viewpoints of Black Power movements, or even just the good intentions of Southern populace trying to honor their ancestors. The battle f States’ Rights is relegated to t dustbin of historical myth. For all of these reasons, despite including some pension fraud cases, political self-serv speeches, and desertion rates th were illuminating, the overall liberal bias displayed precludes a recommendation that the book be purchased by Civil War his-
torians. If you are looking for balanced treatment of a sensitiv
Wayne L. Wolf is Professor Emeritus at South Suburban College and the author of numerous Civil War books and articles including Two Years Before the Paddlewheel and The Last Civil War Scout.
CWN Julia Grant’s Memoirs: The 45th Anniversary Edition The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant (Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant): 45th Anniversary Edition. Edited by John Y. Simon. Photos, notes, index. 351 pp. Southern Illinois University Press, 2020. siupress.siu.edu.
Ulysses S. Grant has received a much-needed reevaluation in recent years, largely due to major biographies by Ron Chernow and Ronald C. White, as well as a new annotated edition of Grant’s Memoirs, edited by John F. Marszalek. It is fitting that wife’s memoirs should also receive renewed attention with thi new, 45th-anniversary edition. Julia Dent Grant was the firs First Lady to write a memoir, bu her book remained unpublished until 1975, more than seven decades after her death in 1902. Fortunately, Grant’s great-grand children gave John Y. Simon, the late, eminent historian who for many years served as editor of
The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, permission to publish this impor
ant book. Now, forty-five years after it first appeared in print Southern Illinois University Pre has released a special anniversa edition with a new foreword by John F. Marszalek and Frank J. Williams, and a new preface by Pamela K. Sanfilippo. Mrs. Grant’s recollections begin with her childhood at her family’s plantation, White Haven, near St. Louis, Missouri, where she was born in 1826. The
first six chapters cover her ear life, the Civil War, and her hus band’s presidency. Chapters 7-12 recall the Grants’ post-White House years, with significant at tention given to their two-year
trip around the world (1877– 1879). In the Introduction, Bruce Catton writes that this section of the book “is highly interesting; she was having fun, and she conveys her feeling of pleasant excitement.” In fact, the entire book teems with wonderful anecdotes from the lives of Julia and Ulysses Grant. As a schoolgirl, Julia tol her friends that she wanted to marry “a soldier, a gallant, brav dashing soldier—and I got him, did I not?” Throughout her memoirs, she recalled touching, personal moments, such as when she was courting Grant and he attended the funeral of her beloved pet canary. Shortly after their wedding, Julia’s father said that sh could remain at home and that Grant could visit “once or twice year” when he received furloughs from the army. Grant could tell that Julia was upset by this idea He put his arm around her and whispered, “Would you like this, Julia?” She replied, “No, no, no, Ulys, I could not, would not, think of that for a moment.” “Then,” said Grant, “dry your tears and do not weep again. It makes me unhappy.” She wrote, “There was never again a word said about my staying at home,” she remained with him for much of the Civil War. Julia’s stories of their child bring the Grant family to life. Once, two-year-old Jesse put on his father’s boots and fell down the stairs. Julia wrote, “The res was dreadful. His neck was not broken, but his four front teeth were broken squarely off, and he lay quivering and fainting in my arms.” On another occasion during the war, when Jesse was now four, a cannonball rolled off a windowsill and landed on his
foot. Jesse’s older brother said, “A soldier never cries, Jess.”
Julia wrote, “Whereupon the dear little fellow grasped his wounded foot in both hands and sank quivering and pale on the floor, but
sob escaped him.” Julia recounted a number of fascinating conversations with her husband and other officers during the War. She also remembered the famous moment when she voted for General George B. McClellan to receive a “magnificent jewel-hilted sword” at the New York Sanitary Fair in 1864. When asked why she voted against her husband, the other contender for the sword, she replied, “Of course, I wish my husband to get the sword, but ... it would not be in good taste for me to vote for my husband.” Her chapter on the end of the war, meeting President and Mrs. Lincoln, and of the aftermath of the Lincoln assassination, is par ticularly poignant. Julia Grant was a great admirer of her husband and defender of his reputation. Her memoir largely focuses on their relationship, and it ends with his death in 188 “For nearly thirty-seven years, I his wife, rested and was warmed in the sunlight of his loyal love and great fame,” she wrote in the concluding sentence of the book, “and now, even though his beautiful life has gone out . . . the of his glorious fame still reaches out to me, falls upon me, and warms me.”
Jonathan W. White is associate professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University and is the author or editor of ten books, including Midnight in America: Darkness, Sleep, and Dreams during the Civil War (2017) and “Our Little Monitor”: The Greatest Invention of the Civ War (2018), co-authored with Anna Gibson Holloway. Visit his websit
If you are a regular Civil W buff looking for a book to toss into the backpack and take to t beach, Jon D. Schaff’s Abraham
Lincoln’s Statesmanship and the Limits of Liberal Democracy is not the book you are seeking. This intellectually demanding study looks at the presidency o Abraham Lincoln, defining the changes in government power, economic power, and exec-
es Lincoln brought to the offic of the presidency up to present times and compares those chang-
tion with the Civil War, Lincol presidency is known for the suc cessful defense of the Union an a redefinition of Presidential time powers. This book looks at Lincoln’s presidency from
in a War another angle. Even without the war, Lincoln firmly believed tha Congress should make public policy, not executive whim. In the president’s opinion, the ele ed representatives of the people should not be lobbied in any way we would recognize today. Schaff, a professor of political ence at Northern State Universit in Aberdeen, S.D., highlights Lincoln’s significance in the de velopment of American power institutions and social movement politics. He explains how Lincoln’s views on prudence, natural rights, and economics al contain the notion of limits. We America to be a country ruled entirely by “the people,” then mob rule would take precedence over moderation; because wealth speaks loudest, the government must protect the natural rights of all citizens, especially thos with limited means. Reining in presidential power and trusting elected representation can go fa in containing the scope of abuse Beginning with Lincoln’s earliest political utterances and actions, author Schaff builds
his case that Lincoln stood for balance and statesmanship. Moderate, prudent poli would best serve an American democracy rather than overdependence on the will of the people and the power of institution Schaff goes toe-to-toe with pre-
Holzer, Richard Striner, James McPherson, Thomas Di Lorenzo, and James Randall. Abraham
explain natural rights, the rule of law, and the role of the pres idency to a new generation of
Americans whose vision of the founding ideas of a nation was already dimming. (5)
Lincoln was initially a member of the Whig party, created in its second iteration in the 1830s to oppose Democrat Andrew Jackson. The ideas of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster defined Lincoln’s initial view toward the powers of government. Lincoln’s personal opinions changed as he served a term in Congress as an Illinois representative (1847–49) and practiced law. In 1854 Lincol reentered politics as a leader of the Illinois Republican Party. Hi ongoing arguments with senator Stephen Douglas and the speech at New York’s Cooper Union not only brought him to national attention but further defined his p litical personality. After clearl laying this groundwork, Schaff then compares Lincoln’s views on government to the defense of unlimited government by twentieth-century progressives. A “distributive” policy dominated the nineteenth century. It dealt most ly with rivers and harbors, de-
fense procurement, research and development (think “patents!”), labor business, agriculture, and tariffs. The government distribut ed goods to client groups. Within this environment, patronage and pork flourished, although it may be considered a “win-win” situa-
sive and those who say his presidency foreshadowed industrial, corporate America.
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domestic policies that had littl do with the Civil War. Lincoln’s Congress gave America the Transcontinental Railroad, the Homestead Act (westward settlement), the Pacific Railroad Act, the Land-Grant College Act, the Legal Tender Act, and the National Bank Act. He quotes his torian James Randall: “Lincoln believed in planting, cultivatin and harvesting, not in uprooting and destroying.” Schaff also nev er loses sight of Lincoln’s slav ery politics. He puts them into context:
When the white man governs himself that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government-that is despotism. If the negro a man, why then my ancient faith teaches me that “all men are cre ated equal;” and that there can be no moral right in connection with one man’s making a slave of another. (62).
Schaff’s book, Abraham Lincoln’s Statesmanship and the
Limits of Liberal Democracy rejects the idea that Lincoln was a revolutionary. It urges instea that Lincoln preferred limited presidential power, particularly compared to today’s definition. is statesmanship that emerges as the guide to examining Lincoln
ical view and adherence to the values of the Declaration of Independence that helped a bro-
in a democracy. Jon Schaff’s book is not a quick or easy read, but it is one to which the reader can return time and again for guidance and clarification. Abraham Lincoln’s Statesmanship and the Limits of Liberal Democracy is not a relaxed or casual read. It is however, worth the effort.
Meg Groeling received he Master’s Degree in Military History with a Civil War emphasis, in 2016, from American Public University. Savas Beatie published her first book, The Aftermath of Battle: The Burial of the Civil War Dead, in the fall of 2015. Her biography, First Fallen: The Life of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, the North’s First Civil War Hero. It will be publishe by Savas Beatie in 2020. She is a book reviewer for LSU, Civil War News, and a regular contributor to the blog Emerging Civil War. She lives in Hollister, California in a 1928 bungalow with her husband, her cats, and a lot of books and roses.
The world will l – Abraham Lincol by Joe Bordonaro President Lincoln was wrong
about the first part, but ver correct about the second part this famous phrase from his m nificent “Gettysburg Address. On Nov. 23, 2019, reenactors members of the general public gathered in Gettysburg, Penn. to remember the actions of th soldiers and the President 15
Stafford County Science Teacher Don Mullen, portrays President Lincoln. (Garry Adelman, American Battlefield Trust)
America’s Monthly e, nor long remember what we s er 19, 1863.
Members of the 14th Brooklyn c years ago. The Sons of Union Veterans held their 62nd annua parade, featuring numerous Civ
War reenactors. Members of reenacting groups commemorated the actions of various individ and units by conducting marches and visiting monuments. A “Remembrance Illumination” of Gettysburg National Cemetery graves occurs each year, as we Although the numbers of reenac
tors are down from its 2000 pe when Wikipedia estimated there were about 50,000 Civil War re enactors; a still impressive n ber showed up this year and ke the traditions alive. The acco
panying photos highlight some activities that took place.
