Warfare & Technology

Minie ball

James Burton, minie ball drawings from Harpers Ferry, 1850

 

Petersburg

Captured Confederate railroad artillery piece, Petersburg, VA

Tuesday, November 8, 1864

John Phillips (1760-1865)
  • Sturbridge, MA
  • Baptist deacon
  • Democrat
  • Voting for Washington and Lincoln (1864) and in every election in between except for 1860, when he was too sick to vote
  • F.W. Emmons wrote Lincoln about the episode on November 9, 1864
  • Phillips rode two miles with son Edward (age 79) to vote at town hall
  • AL responded on November 21, 1864 expressing his gratitude
  • Phillips image was featured in Harper’s, December 10, 1864 with short article

 

 

The Meaning of Sherman’s March(es)

“We don’t want your negroes or your horses, or your houses or your Lands, or any thing you have, but we do want and will have a just obedience to the Law of the United States.” (Quoted in Varon, p. 358)

Map

Discussion Question

  • Historian Mark Neely argues below that Sherman’s marches in 1864 and 1865 did not truly constitute “total war” in the modern sense.  If that’s true, then what was unprecedented about Sherman’s military campaigns in Georgia and the Carolinas?