Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Susannah J. Ural
Before Juneteenth
Listen1.0x 0:0018:44 In a quiet corner of a library at Mississippi State University, you’ll find a slim red volume that tells the story of what may be America’s first Juneteenth. It took place in New Orleans in the summer of 1864 to celebrate the day of liberation for the enslaved people living in the 13 Louisiana parishes exempted from President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, issued the previous January.
The best military history books about the Civil War and the soldiers who fought
Home American Civil War books Lesley's list Who am I? I have been reading, researching, writing, and teaching Civil War military history for nearly thirty years. I first became interested in soldiers and their experiences as a teen, and went on to earn a PhD in American History at the University of Georgia. I’ve always been fascinated by the anti-hero, and the ways in which everyday people coped (or failed to cope) with this violent conflict.
Texas Tough: The Rough and Ready William “Howdy” Martin
Texas Brigade soldiers give Brig. Gen. John B. Hood a rousing cheer during the march to Sharpsburg in the fall of 1862. Even after the bloodlettings of that year and 1863, the leadership of that storied brigade kept their worn men ready to fight late into the war. Troiaini, Don (B.1949)/Bridgeman Images Susannah J. Ural February 2021 William “Howdy” Martinexemplified the officers who keptrough hewn soldiersready to fight On paper, there is little to differentiate William H.
The War In Their Words: Memoirs of a Scout Who Spied for Sherman
By Susannah J. Ural October 2019 • Civil War Times Union Sgt. George W. Quimby donned a Confederate uniform to gather intelligence during the March to the Sea IN THE FINAL EIGHT MONTHS of the Civil War, Union soldier George W. Quimby rode through the countryside of Georgia as well as North and South Carolina, spying and scouting in advance of Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s Army of the Tennessee.
Teaching the American Civil War Through the Experiences of Civil War Veterans
South elevation (front) of Beauvoir as it appeared in 1936. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Studying the experiences of Civil War veterans and their families helps students understand the complex forces that shaped late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century America.
'The Sights Fairly Sicken Me': Diary of an Andersonville Survivor
By Susannah J. Ural 2/21/2017 • Civil War Times Magazine Nearly 150 years ago, in September 1864, George A. Hitchcock looked up from his pocket diary, staring glassy-eyed through a hot Georgia rain. “Signs of scurvy have appeared in my mouth around the gums of my diseased teeth,” he wrote. “The gums swell up and turn dark purple.
'I Hope You Will Come Home'
Contest for the “Father of Waters”: This wartime painting depicts Union Admiral David Farragut’s ships attacking forts protecting New Orleans in 1862. The 9th Connecticut, led by Colonel Thomas Cahill, was sent to the Deep South to help initial Union land-based efforts to capture the Mississippi River and divide the Confederacy.
Ural on URLs: Harper’s Weekly
In 1995 retired businessman John Adler hired indexers to digitize and organize his rare complete set of Harper’s Weekly, dating from 1857 to 1916. While the entire run of the periodical is restricted to those who have purchased access to Adler’s database, he has made a significant portion of it available free online at harpweek.com. This influential publication began in New York City in the middle of the turbulent 19th century.
The War In Their Words: I Do Not Think of Peace
E lodie Todd, a native Kentuckian, was stunned when Confederate officer Nathaniel Dawson proposed marriage just before his company left his native Selma, Alabama. She was 12 years his junior and worried her family would never approve of the engagement, considering she barely knew Dawson. But Todd accepted, and over the next year, April 1861 through April 1862, the couple wrote more than 200,000 words to each other.
ACW Book Review: Becoming American Under Fire | HistoryNet
Becoming American Under Fire: Irish Americans, African Americans, and the Politics of Citizenship During the Civil War Era, Christian Samito’s Becoming American Under Fire is a superb study of the expansion of citizenship during the Civil War era. He proves that through active defense of the Union, the Irish and African Americans in the North gained the skills and confidence to demand their place in the American social and political arenas.
Ural on URLs: After Slavery | HistoryNet
Convinced that the era of Reconstruction (1865-1877) was a “great missed opportunity” in American history, an international team of scholars in 2006 created the Web site afterslavery.com as a venue for further study on the subject. In the three years since, the site has become a valuable central meeting place for scholars, teachers and the general public to learn more about the end of slavery and how African Americans and whites responded to the changes brought about by emancipation.
Ural on URLs: The Becker Collection | HistoryNet
The inspiration behind “The Becker Collection” Web site is Sheila Gallagher, but the collection itself exists because of her great-great-grandfather Joseph Becker, who worked for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper during the war. Becker sketched battles, camp life and more. After the war, Becker continued his work for Leslie’s in the West, eventually becoming the paper’s art director.
Ural on URLs: Iowa Digital Library | HistoryNet
Iowa Digital Library’s “Civil War Diaries and Letters” (CWDL) site is part of the larger special collections department of the University of Iowa libraries. CWDL offers scanned images of correspondence, diaries, photos and other artifacts from the archive’s holdings. These pertain to a wide variety of topics, including military operations, medicine and home front experiences, focusing primarily on the Western and Trans-Mississippi West theaters.
Ural on URLs: House Divided Project | HistoryNet
The House Divided Project builds on the experience of Dickinson College’s graduates to interpret the war era. Dickinson boasts a president, a chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and others among its 19th-century alumni who played roles in both the Union and Confederacy. Readers who prefer to start the day with a historic newspaper will love the site’s opening page. After clicking “Enter,” a series of images appear, linked to biographical sketches of “Dickinsonians” born on that day.
The War on the Net: The North Carolina Digital Collections
“The North Carolina Digital Collections” website offers an example of just how rich and varied digital repositories can be. The collection includes over 90,000 manuscripts, photographs, and state government publications related to the history of North Carolina that are housed in the State Archives or the State Library.
Ural on URLs: Footnote | HistoryNet
In January 1997, the digital history archive Footnote.com launched online with 5 million documents. Today its collections, which focus on U.S. history, exceed 66 million items, with more added each day. Readers of Civil War Times may be familiar with this digital resource, but a surprising number of historians and general history enthusiasts remain unaware of the site.
Ural on URLs: NPS Forging a More Perfect Union | HistoryNet
In recognition of the 150th anniversary of America’s defining crisis, the U.S. National Park Service has created the website “The American Civil War: Forging a More Perfect Union.” Here visitors can find a wealth of information, some of it already familiar to Civil War Times readers, such as the Civil War Soldier and Sailor Database and “Camp Life: Civil War Collections from Gettysburg National Military Park.” Other sections offer insightful introductions to the broad themes of the age,...
The War On The Net: civilwardc.org
Civil War Washington ranks among the best resources available online for U.S. Civil War scholars, writers, and teachers. Despite its narrow geographic focus, the site’s collaborative nature results in a digital collection that touches on literature, journalism, medicine, labor, military affairs, politics, geography, digital humanities, genealogy, science, and of course history.
The Ken Burns Effect
Finally, in 1993, the historical team of Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson lashed out at the stagnation that had overtaken their field, fuming that the metanarrative served to “preserve historical writing about the Great War in its ridiculously protracted adolescence.” Aided by an emerging school of young historians, their work acted like an alarm clock, jostling the field of World War I history out of its slumber.
Ural on URLs: Louisiana State University | HistoryNet
In 1993 David Madden, novelist and professor of English at Louisiana State University, founded the U.S. Civil War Center (USCWC) to offer visitors an interdisciplinary approach to America’s defining conflict. The center’s Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction highlights its roots, but the history-dominated reviews at “Civil War Book Review” and the superb online exhibits underscore those interdisciplinary contributions.
Ural on URLs: The Historical Marker Database | HistoryNet
We’ve all done it. We’ll be driving along a rural road or zipping down a highway when we spot a historical marker off to the side. We find ourselves swerving dangerously onto the shoulder, catching just enough words on the marker to secure our interest and then contemplating an illegal U-turn to learn more about this unknown but undoubtedly juicy nugget of Civil War history. Suffering the complaints of our passengers, we generally return to the site and delight in the rewards of our discovery.
Ural on URLs: Furman University | HistoryNet
As we mark the 150th anniversary of secession, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on the factors that led to the Union’s collapse. One site offers a wonderful opportunity to do this: “The Secession Era Editorials Project,” hosted by Furman University. The creation of Furman professor T.
The Winter That Made The Texas Brigade | HistoryNet
Green volunteers were transformed into one of the South’s elite fighting forces in a frigid camp along the Potomac. The fall of 1861 found Charles Schadt far from his home in Galveston, Texas. He and his brother, William, were serving with the 1st Texas Infantry near Manassas, Virginia, an area teeming with Confederate volunteers.
Ural on URLs: Manassas | HistoryNet
While South Carolinians can claim the shots that launched the Civil War, the first major clash of armies occurred near the small Virginia town of Manassas Junction. The men who crossed Sudley Springs Ford and defended Henry Hill were largely inexperienced volunteers, many of whom, at least on the Federal side, were at the end of their 90-day terms of enlistment.
Ural on the URLs: Richmond’s Digital Scholarship | HistoryNet
The website “Hidden Patters of the Civil War” raises the bar for scholarly historical sites. Hosted by the University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab, it was created by Robert K. Nelson, Scott Nesbit, Nathaniel Ayers, Nathan Altice and Edward L. Ayers. Hidden Patterns pushes beyond the standard practice of placing a wealth of material online with editorial commentary.
Fighting ‘Too Fast’: The Texas Brigade paid a high price at Sharpsburg for its fighting prowess | HistoryNet
Hard Chargers: The 1st Texas surges into the Cornfield at the Battle of Antietam in Don Troiani’s painting “Lone Star.” The regiment made it to the northern edge of the Cornfield before a blistering Union crossfire devastated its ranks and forced the men to fall back. Military historian and Civil War Times advisory board member Susannah J.
Ural on URLs: Gilder Lehrman Institute | HistoryNet
My latest book project brought me to “The Civil War Era” subsite of “The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History,” and for that I am eternally grateful. This site features some of the nation’s best historians, each explaining complex concepts in an engaging, brief format: George Rable discussing religion in the Civil War, for instance, or Harold Holzer opining on Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper Union Address. You can also explore links to related documents from the era and find helpful lesson plans.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Susannah J.
Contact Susannah J., search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack