LCWRT Spring Field Trip: Stop at Hoover's Gap

The LCWRT Spring Field Trip included a bonus stop at Hoover's Gap on our way to explore the early phases of the Atlanta Campaign. This small site in Tennessee contains Beech Grove Confederate Cemetery, artillery pieces, and handy explanatory information, as well as a plaque for 18th Indiana Battery and a monument to Stewart's Division. Getting to see the ground at this crucial point of the Tullahoma campaign where Wilder's Lightning Brigade earned their name was a real treat.

photos courtesy of LCWRT member Karl Stelly

Sneak Preveiw: A German Hurrah! Civil War Letters of Friedrich Bertsch & Wilhelm Stängel, 9th Ohio Infantry

Long time LCWRT Member and Webmaster Joseph R. Reinhart' s latest book, A German Hurrah! Civil War Letters of Friedrich Bertsch and Wilhelm Stängel, 9th Ohio Infantry, can now be pre-ordered through Kent State Press.

From Kent State University Press:"Bertsch’s and Stängel’s letters from the battlefront were published in German American newspapers and are historically significant for several reasons: they are among the very rare collections of letters from soldiers in a German regiment; they fill a significant void of letters from Union fighting men describing the events in the rugged mountains and valleys of western Virginia during the North’s first campaign and subsequent service in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama; they provide a useful account of how the two German Americans viewed the war, American officers and enlisted men, other immigrant soldiers, and the enemy; they shed light on the ethnic dimensions of the war, especially ethnic identity, pride, and solidarity; and they reflect the overarching political climate in which the war was fought. Additionally, these contemporary letters are superior to accounts written years or decades after the events occurred.

A German Hurrah! makes Bertsch’s and Stängel’s letters available in English for the first time. It is a valuable addition to Civil War studies and will be welcomed by those interested in ethnicity and immigration.

Joseph R. Reinhart’s recent books include Two Germans in the Civil War: The Diary of John Daeuble and the Letters of Gottfried Rentschler, Sixth Kentucky Volunteer Infantry; A History of the 6th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry U.S: The Boys Who Feared No Noise, and August Willich’s Gallant Dutchmen: Civil War Letters from the 32nd Indiana Infantry (The Kent State University Press, 2006)."

To pre-order, click Here