Category Archives: Gettysburg Campaign

still salient

Posted on September 15, 2023 by SUMPTER

Thirty years after the Battle of Gettysburg, Union General Daniel Sickles’ management of the Third Corps on the second day of the battle was still controversial. From the August 24, 1893 issue of The National Tribune: THIS country is fortunate … Continue reading →

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“Eighty-odd years since …”

Posted on July 4, 2020 by SUMPTER

The Fourth of July 1863 was a glad day for the Union during the American Civil War. Rebels surrendered Vicksburg, Mississippi to Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant, and that evening the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia began to … Continue reading →

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“incongruous” fourth

Posted on July 4, 2017 by SUMPTER

Talk about progress. Thanks to the global media, seemingly more and more omnipresent, we can be more and more aware of all the pain and agony throughout this world. I realize I don’t have enough empathy for all the people … Continue reading →

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first anniversary

Posted on July 3, 2014 by SUMPTER

A year after Gettysburg, General Meade reflected on his great victory in a letter to his wife. From The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade … (page 210): HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, July 3. 1864. We are not … Continue reading →

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general review

Posted on October 5, 2013 by SUMPTER

From The New-York Times October 6, 1863: Lee’s Report. The specific object of LEE’s Summer invasion of Pennsylvania was a matter of profound mystery and endless speculation at the time; and the mystery is not perfectly cleared up by his … Continue reading →

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“All honor to the Flag”

Posted on August 19, 2013 by SUMPTER

Six weeks after Gettysburg, the assistant surgeon for the 126th New York Volunteer Infantry wrote home to explain that newspaper accounts had missed the extraordinary courage of the 126th’s color bearers during the battle. From a Seneca County newspaper in … Continue reading →

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the town pump

Posted on August 1, 2013 by SUMPTER

I was a bit surprised that the Richmond paper could publish a letter the day after it was written. Apparently the Virginia Central Railroad was in fine feather 150 years ago this week. Massachuset describes the wounded thronging to the … Continue reading →

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Charlie Wheeler’s Funeral

Posted on July 26, 2013 by SUMPTER

150 years ago today a young woman from Canandaigua, New York attended the funeral of a soldier killed at Gettysburg. Captain Wheeler of the 126th New York Infantry had been killed by a sharpshooter on the morning of July 3rd. … Continue reading →

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draft matters

Posted on July 22, 2013 by SUMPTER

A short cutting about a couple big topics 150 years ago this month – Gettysburg and the draft. From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in July, 1863: The 44th Regiment (Ellsworth) suffered terribly during the three days battle at … Continue reading →

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the usual suspects

Posted on July 20, 2013 by SUMPTER

A Democrat newspaper in from a small town in New York state digests the information that Lee’s army retreated from Gettysburg and made it south of the Potomac largely unscathed. It has to be the Republican administration’s fault. Everything was … Continue reading →

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