Nov. 11, 2009 - Entry 7: How Did I Miss These?

Nov. 11, 2009:

In my frustration at tying together my primary sources with the larger context from secondary sources, etc., I decided to go back to the History Engine and search again for additional sources that other students had used. This was a last-ditch effort on my part, but I figured I had nothing to lose.

What a delightful surprise to find that someone had done an episode on Berdan's Sharpshooters and had posted "Berdan's United States Sharpshooters in the Army of the Potomac, 1861-1865" by Charles Augustus Stevens as one of his/her sources. According to the Arlington National Cemetery Web site, Stevens was a First Lieutenant, Company G, in Berdan's Sharpshooters. (I was a little surprised that Stevens' tombstone didn't say 3rd Division, 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters instead.) Anyway, his book gives some good firsthand information about this regiment, and about Chaplain Barber's skills with a target rifle.

I also found some comments related to railroads in McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, and insights into Union feelings about blacks in Manning's What This Cruel War Was Over.