"A True Type of an American Soldier; Brave, Cool, and Determined"
Life on the Civil War Reserach Trail
•
11m
After the initial burst of patriotism, the quintessential citizen-soldier in an infantry regiment is left to ponder existential questions that haunt almost every soldier who makes it onto a battlefield for the first time: How will I perform in combat? Willie Rexford answered these questions in 1862. Here's the story.
Up Next in Life on the Civil War Reserach Trail
-
The Soldier-Architect of Nashville Wh...
William Crawford Smith is remembered in architectural history for his designs of buildings on the campus of Vanderbilt University. Yet he also served in the Civil and Spanish-American Wars. Here's his story.
-
U.S. Grant on War, Peace, Race, Forei...
The memoirs of Lt. Gen. and President Ulysses S. Grant are filled with subtle—and not so subtle—commentaries. Here's one, which appears at the end of his second volume, and it speaks to American power and the future.
-
The Hero of Smithfield Captures a Yan...
On a January day in 1864, Confederate Capt. Nathaniel Sturdivant and his patrol arrived at Cherry Grove, a landing along Virginia’s James River, to seek out the enemy. He and his men soon found them in the town of Smithfield. Here's what happened next.