First Person Civil War Podcast

At the Siege of Vicksburg, 1SG Marshall and the 83rd Ohio participated in two separate assaults upon the Confederate works and conducted siege operations that culminated in the 4 July 1863 surrender of the city.

Sources used for this episode:

Marshall, Thomas B. History of the Eighty-Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, The Greyhound Regiment. Cincinnati: The Eighty-Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry Association, 1912. https...

Captured at the Battle of Wyse Fork, 8 Mar 1865, PVT Ernul was transported to Point Lookout Maryland and stayed there until paroled in June 1865.

Sources used for this episode:

Ernul, J. B. Life of a Confederate Soldier in a Federal Prison. Vanceboro, 1914. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nc01.ark%3A%2F13960%2Ft4pk1qn30&seq=3.

Ainsworth, Fred C. and Kirkley, Joseph W. The War of the Rebellion: ...

At the Battle of Fredericksburg, 11 December 1862, 2LT John G.B. Adams and the 19th Massachusetts, alongside the 7th Michigan, conduct the first opposed river crossing and urban warfare of the Civil War. On 13 December, 2LT John G.B. Adams earned the Medal of Honor during the assault on Marye’s Heights.

Sources used for this episode:

Adams, John G.B. Reminiscences of the Nineteenth Massachusetts Regiment. Boston: ...

At the Battle of Brice’s Cross Roads, PVT John Milton Hubbard and the 7th Tennessee Cavalry, as part of MG Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Cavalry Corps, advanced against a numerically superior Union force on 10 June 1864.

Union Cavalry held the cross roads before the Confederates arrived and during that morning dismounted cavalry squared off against each other. Armed with Colt Navy Revolvers, PVT Hubbard and the 7th Tennessee Ca...

At the Battle of Shiloh, on the morning of 6 April 1862, CPL Leader Stillwell and the 61st Illinois heard the first shots of the battle off to their right and managed to form alongside their brigade and the 6th Division before a brigade of Alabamans and Louisianan's emerged from the woodline and engage them just south of their camp.

The Illinoisans engaged the advancing Confederates, but were eventually pushed out of ...

At the Battle of Cedar Creek, the morning of 19 October 1864, Corporal Preston L. Ledford and the 14th North Carolina participated in a surprise attack upon the Army of West Virginia, also known as the VIII Corps. Thanks to a dense fog, the Confederate Army of the Valley surprised the Union Soldiers in their camp. COL Rutherford B. Hayes, commander the Second Division VIII Corps, and future 19th President of the United States, mana...

At the Third Battle of Petersburg, 2 April 1865, 1LT William Hewitt and the 12th West Virginia were tasked with assaulting Fort Gregg, immediately following The Army of the Potomac's VI Corps assault and breakthrough against Confederate positions around Hatcher's Run.

The first assault upon Fort Gregg was unsuccessful, and 1LT Hewitt and the 12th West Virginia were tasked with supporting the second attempt to cap...

At the Battle of Galveston, 1 January 1863, LT Robert M. Franklin and the Texas Sailors, Artillerymen, Cavalrymen and Infantrymen aboard the Cottonclad C.S. Bayou City, with three other ships participated in a combined attack on Union Forces by both land and sea upon Galveston Texas. LT Franklin and his fellow Texans strapped bales of cotton to the C.S. Bayou City and the C.S. Neptune for added protection as they faced the numerica...

Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women in 1868, decided to become a Nurse in late 1862 and was assigned to the Union Hospital, a converted Hotel, which was in the Georgetown Neighborhood of Washington D.C. "Nurse Periwinkle," as she called herself, arrived at the "Hurly-burly House," the nickname of the Union Hospital, just three days before 40 wagons carrying wounded men from the Battle of Fredericksburg, 11...

At the Battle of Second Manassas, or Second Bull Run, PVT Edward A. Moore and the 1st Rockbridge Artillery, as part of the Stonewall Brigade, engage the soon to be named Iron Brigade on the evening of 28 August 1862 at the Brawner Farm. The 1st Rockbridge then duels Battery B of the 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery as BG George G. Meade's Brigade of Pennsylvania Reserves advances upon the same location on 29 August. On 30 Augu...

At the Siege of Fort Wagner, 2LT Frederick Tomlinson Peet and a Battalion of Marines arrive at Morris Island after two assaults by the Union Army failed to take Fort Wagner. As Army Engineers begin digging Sap trenches, 2LT Peet and the Marines prepare for an amphibious assault to take Fort Wagner, but is eventually called off. The Marines join the Union Army in digging five total Sap trenches, and the Army brings in 300 pound, 200...

At the Battle of Perryville, 1LT Michael H. Fitch of the 21st Wisconsin and PVT Sam Watkins of the 1st Tennessee follow their regiments into the fighting on the northern end of the battlefield. Both regiments directly engage each other in a Cornfield, where the 1st Tennessee, along with other Confederate Regiments, successfully route the 21st Wisconsin. 1LT Fitch and the 21st Wisconsin successfully rally and become the anchor for o...

At the Battle of Franklin, 30 November 1864, Private Edward Young McMorries and the 1st Alabama Infantry, on the eastern side of the Confederate Army of Tennessee, advanced upon the Union Army of the Ohio's defensive lines. After successfully carrying the first line of defenses, the Confederate Army reorganized and charged the second line. Here, PVT McMorries and the 1st Alabama become caught in an intense cross fire of musket...

At the Battle of New Market Heights, CPT McMurray and the 6th U.S.C.T. assaulted Confederate positions on the morning on 29 September 1864. Their advance was through 50 yards of a recently cut forest and proved extremely difficult to navigate. Two Black soldiers: First Sergeant Alexander Kelly, and Sergeant Major Thomas R. Hawkins, and one white officer: 1st Lieutenant Nathan H. Edgerton rallied the men by taking up the regimental ...

At the Battle of Antietam, 17 September 1862, SGT J.J. McDaniel and the 7th South Carolina arrive on the battlefield at a run. They, alongside the 2nd, 3rd, and 8th South Carolina Regiments advance toward the West Woods and the Dunker Church. After pushing Union Infantry back, SGT McDaniel and the 7th South Carolina find themselves on a small hill south east of the Dunker Church and surrounded by Union Artillery on three sides.

Sour...

At the Battle of Chancellorsville, Corporal Daniel Crotty, a Color Bearer for the 3rd Michigan in the III Corps Army of the Potomac, recounts the advance of his regiment to the Catherine Furnace on 2 May 1863, the midnight assault on Confederate lines, their retreat to the Chancellorsville House, and their continued retreat until they arrive in their final positions by noon of 3 May.

Crotty, Daniel G. Four Years Campaignin...

On 28 and 29 December 1862, COL Hall and the 26th Louisiana fought against General Shermans Army at the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou in Mississippi, approximately 10 miles north of Vicksburg. The 26th Louisiana held a heavily entrenched line on 28 December against a two brigade attack and fought off the assault on 29 December in the center of the Confederate line. It is after this assault and while on detail that COL Hall had to threa...

Sources used for this episode:

Phisterer, Frederick. The Regular Brigade of the Fourteenth Army Corps, The Army of the Cumberland, in the Battle of Stone River, or Murfreesboro, Tennessee, From December 31st 1862, the January 3rd, 1863. 1883. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044011857356&seq=9.

Scott, Ltc. Robert N., Lazelle, Ltc. Henry M. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Rec...