ACWS

24/05/2026

Our next event! Saturday 23rd - Monday 25th May 2026, Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings, Stoke Heath, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, B60 4JR.
Come along & say hello 👋








www.acws.co.uk 🇬🇧🇺🇸

19/05/2026

Bugler Charles Wellington Reed of the 9th Mass. Light Artillery wrote in his diary on May 19, 1864, about actions around Spotsylvania. In doing so he made mention of the fighting at Harris Farm, where CVBT holds preserved battlefield land.

“In position on the skirmish line two lines of battle to our rear sixth and part of 2nd corps with reinforcements massing on left 10 quiet tried the parrots on a group of the enemy, good shots just before dark Ewel (reb) assaulted our right with great vigor but were repulsed hansomly the first Mass heavy artilery behaving finely and receiving the congratulations of Gen. Meade for their brave conduct it being their first experience under fire the sharpshooters amused themselves by firing on us amusing to us as them”

To help us save and interpret more land like at Harris Farm, please consider becoming a CVBT member: https://bit.ly/3Yi3zFm


www.https://www.cvbt.org

18/05/2026

On May 18, 1864, the Army of the Potomac made another attempt to assault the Confederate line at Spotsylvania. Much of the attack crossed the same ground as the fighting on May 12 and involved the same Corps. Due to the Army of Northern Virginia’s new heavily fortified line and significant artillery support, the attack failed.

Among the Sixth Corps soldiers who fell in the assault was Capt. Henry Warren of the 7th Maine Infantry. Three days later, Lt. Col. Thomas Hyde of the 7th wrote to J. P. Shaw attempting to provide some information about Capt. Henry Warren’s death. Hyde opened the letter in a matter-of-fact manner by explaining, “None of the officers saw Capt. Warren fall. The men say that he was ‘blown all to pieces’ by a ten pound shell. . . . His body was left on the field as were all those that fell and it is very doubtful that it was ever buried.”

Hyde then turned a bit more sympathetic in tone, noting, “This is terrible intelligence to communicate, but let me add that never a braver, better man than Henry Warren drew sword in our cause. Already suffering from a wound in the arm, much more severe than had caused many to seek the hospital, he would not leave his Colors, but fell in the most exposed post of danger. His gallantry had been especially conspicuous in the battles of the Wilderness [and Spotsylvania]—everyone rewarded it.” Hyde closed by offering “deep sympathy for yourself and all his family.”

Image of Capt. Warren courtesy of Digital Maine Repository.

https://www.cvbt.org

17/05/2026

162 years ago, the Overland Campaign was about to enter its third week. From early May to mid-June 1864, the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia fought a series of brutal and bloody battles between Fredericksburg and Petersburg, Virginia. General Ulysses S. Grant sought to outmaneuver and defeat General Robert E. Lee's army and capture the Confederate capital of Richmond. Lee hoped to land a severe defeat on the Federal forces, inflict heavy casualties, and force Grant to abandon his campaign.

What began on May 5-6 with the Battle of the Wilderness would grind on through the battles of Spotsylvania Court House, the North Anna River and Cold Harbor, and ultimately 9 1/2 months of trench warfare outside of Richmond and Petersburg. The nearly continuous campaign produced unprecedented casualties, changed the very nature of warfare itself, and would only end with the defeat of Lee's army at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.


Image: Map of the Overland Campaign in Virginia, May-June 1864. Shows Federal forces in blue and Confederate forces in red. Also visible are cities, rivers and yellow flashes indicating the location of major battles (National Park Service).

16/05/2026

162 Years Ago Today... The Battle of New Market

As part of his spring offensive against Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army, Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant ordered Gen. Franz Sigel to advance through the Shenandoah Valley along the Valley Pike and destroy the railroad and canal network at Lynchburg.

On May 15, at New Market, Sigel was met by a hastily assembled Confederate force under Gen. John C. Breckinridge. Seizing the initiative, Breckinridge attacked Sigel’s larger force, driving it from the town and back toward the northern hills. Repeated Federal infantry and cavalry assaults failed to break the Confederate line.

16/05/2026

Just transcribed a good letter by Thomas C. Lancaster, a major supplier of salt pork to the Confederacy early in the Civil War. He wrote the letter to his brother-in-law Theodore Gannaway from his home in Goodson—a town in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia that straddled the Virginia-Tennessee border. His letter not only speaks of the difficulty in acquiring salt—a precious commodity necessary for food preservation, but of the large contract held with the government to supply salt pork to the troops. He also informs us of the tensions between secessionists in southwest Virginia and the Unionists of East Tennessee resulting in shootouts between civilian and militia bands along the Holston river.

To read his letter, go to: https://sparedshared23.com/2026/05/15/1861-thomas-c-lancaster-to-theodore-c-gannaway/

09/05/2026

, May 9, 1862, Major General David Hunter issued General Orders Number 11 declaring the enslaved population of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina to be free. After issuing the orders, Hunter started enlisting black soldiers from South Carolina into the army - beginning the story of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers. The 1st South Carolina Volunteers would not be an officially recognized as a regiment until the summer of 1862 when Congress passed the 2nd Confiscation Act and President Lincoln granted permission for the recruitment of Black soldiers.

Learn more on Reconstruction Era National Historical Park's website at: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/the-1st-south-carolina-volunteers.htm

IMAGE: Library of Congress

09/05/2026