Author Archives: Dick Stanley

About Dick Stanley

Retired Texas daily newspaperman

A Very Jewish Civil War

Up to now the only source for Jewish Confederate soldiers, besides considering surnames on rosters, has been attorney Simon Wolf’s 1895 The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier and Citizen, available here. Altogether about 10,000 names: 7,000 Union and the rest … Continue reading

Posted in H. Grady Howell Jr., Jess N. McLean | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Another Look At Barksdale

“Forty-two years old, Barksdale was one of the Confederacy’s most inspirational brigadiers, and his brigade of big, rangy, straight-shooting Mississippians was second to none. Barksdale was a political general, and couldn’t be asked to achieve anything tactically sophisticated, but as … Continue reading

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The ghost 13th at Nashville

The 13th’s battle flags certainly got around, at least one being captured at Knoxville in November 1863 and another possibly captured at Saylor’s Creek in 1865, though the latter is in dispute. There’s no dispute, however, about a 13th battle … Continue reading

Posted in The Battle Flags, The Fall of Richmond | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Reprise: Marching and Countermarching

Thursday, July 2, 1863, was clear and warm, according to Spartan Band diarist William H. Hill: “General Lee brought all of his forces up this morning in front of the enemy. Both parties skirmished all the morning.” Barksdale’s Brigade could … Continue reading

Posted in Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade, Battles: Gettysburg | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Private Edward P. Stanley

My great grandfather Edward P. Stanley in an iPhone camera copy of a tintype photo taken in the late 1850s-early 1860s. The image, as with all tintypes, is reversed. E.P. was a private in the Minutemen of Attala from the … Continue reading

Posted in Nimrod Newton Nash, The Bloody Thirteenth, The Minute Men of Attala | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Firing the 1861 Springfield

A Hungarian fellow who styles himself capandball on the Internet has a really thick accent but if you listen closely you can get the gist of his description of the 1861 Springfield percussion rifle-musket he’s firing here. The South imported … Continue reading

Posted in Armament, Battles: Maryland Heights, Gen. Lafayette McLaws | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Legacy of war

        This crutch belonged to Joseph W. Weatherly of the 13th Regiment’s Minutemen of Attala, a private from his 1861 enlistment, according to independent historian Grady Howell, to when one of his legs was amputated after the … Continue reading

Posted in Battles: Fredericksburg, H. Grady Howell Jr., Jess N. McLean, The Minute Men of Attala | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Kennon McElroy: Poet

Mayst purest pleasures ever be thine, A [something] holy, pure, chaste, divine, Richest of all treasures I’d wish thee given, Youth, beauty, happiness – a home in Heaven. So then-Captain, later Colonel, Kennon McElroy , of the 13th’s Lauderdale Zouaves, wrote in … Continue reading

Posted in Battles: Leesburg, The Lauderdale Zouaves | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment