Kurz & Allison Part IV: Late 1862

Surprisingly, Louis Kurz skipped battles from the summer of 1862, even though this period included the ascent of Robert E. Lee as head of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Perhaps as a former Union soldier living in a Northern city, Kurz felt no special need or pressure to present such moments as the Second Battle of Bull Run. This part of the series covers the battles of late 1862.

Battle of Antietam

After scoring a series of victories over the summer, Lee attempted an invasion of the North in hopes of riding his momentum to a decisive victory. However his army was severely understrength and once the Union Army under General George McClellan marched in force against him, he found himself desperately holding off waves of Federal attacks near Antietam Creek (outside Sharpsburg, Maryland) on September 17. The battle was tactically indecisive, but saw the end of his first northern invasion. It is bloodiest single day of combat in American history. Many also credit it with strengthening Lincoln’s political hand so that he could deliver the Emancipation Proclamation.

John Matteson's A Worse Place Than Hell (book review)

 

Matteson, John. A Worse Place Than Hell: How the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg Changed a Nation. W.W. Norton & Company, February 9, 2021.

For this book, English professor John Matteson, who has won a Pulitzer Prize, delves into history by examining the lives of five people who endured the misery of the Battle of Fredericksburg. Through his career is in English, Matteson is well versed in 19^th Century American literature and thus already had good historical context going into his research for this book. In fact three of his five chosen characters are familiar to literature enthusiasts. There is the great American poet Walt Whitman. There is Little Women author Louisa May Alcott. Both served as nurses at the battle, Alcott in an official capacity and Whiteman in an unofficial one. Chaplain Arthur Fuller was the brother of Margaret Fuller, journalist and women’s rights advocate as well as the subject of Matteson’s Pulitzer-winning biography. The most familiar names is Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., an officer in the 20^th Massachusetts and future Supreme Court Justice. Finally, to represent the Confederate side, Matteson looks at John Pelham, the commander of Jeb Stuart’s horse artillery. Matteson delves into the intimate personal lives of these five figures, each who experienced a critical moment at the Battle of Fredericksburg.