Civil War Blog

The historical blog I decided to follow was not one belonging to a singular author. As a matter of fact this website had nine writers allowed to create posts on the topic of (American) Civil War History. I followed, but, a couple of the authors and their posts. All of which seemed to hold valuable educations in history and a unique writing skill that removed of all bias you could possibly point your finger at. Mr. Walter Coffey was the individual who I've read most from. His inserts in the blog are all focused on what was occurring during the war exactly 150 years earlier. Each entry focused on a weekly timeline/basis and told the reader exactly what was happening on this week by week basis. I began my readings from the date Dec. 24, 1862 and ended with Jan. 13, 1863. Over the course of the reading I learned of numerous historical battles not typically highlighted in your common AP history book or what not. Mr. Coffey expressed these battles, skirmishes, confrontations, quotes, and more very fairly. Even just acknowledging a "skirmish in Tennessee" is better than having it left out of history altogether. Furthermore, it was very interesting to see how the civil war progressed day by day rather than major battle upon major battle. I feel it is very important that historians acknowledge that which leads to great confrontations. Don't simply claim that General Burnside was a poor commander and not defend the argument. Discuss the battles he lost, talk about how he offered to resign, and how other commanders of the period complained about his follies. Lastly, throughout the blog there weren't just weekly segments about the civil war, but there were also secondary and primary sources relating to specific instances. There were sources on the Dakota war hangings and more. There was also a very interesting argumentative piece on the "Lost Cause." The blogs authors received a submission from a reader/historian arguing reasons as to why the debate on "myths" about the civil war must end. It is a controversial topic, still to day, and that is the very reason it was included in the blog. Of course, the argument is well elaborated and thought out, however there are many other stances historians could take to argue that the entire civil war occurred because of slavery. Anyway, the blog was a great find and highly enjoyable. Here is the URL:

http://civilwarhistory.wordpress.com/