1st Michigan Infantry Company B

10/25/2026

Young Private Charles H. Gove’s arm was wounded at Chancellorsville. Despite appearance, he was still able to use the arm quite well to his own account. Mr. Gove’s treatment and recovery was collected by the Army Medical Museum during the Civil War and is preserved today by our friends at the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

Private Charles H. Gove, Co. I 145th New York, aged eighteen, was wounded at Chancellorsville, Virginia, May 3rd, 1863, by a minie ball, which entered the anterior aspect of the right forearm above the middle and made its exit through the olecranon. He fell into the hands of the enemy and remained a prisoner for thirteen days. On May 8th the elbow-joint was resected by a Confederate surgeon, and after the operation an angular splint and cold water dressings was applied. On June 14th the patient was sent to Washington and admitted to Mount Pleasant Hospital, and one week afterwards he was transferred to the Satterlee Hospital at Philadelphia. Some sloughing of the parts ensued afterwards, but by August 31st the wound had almost entirely healed, leaving the joint anchylosed and the arm semi-flexed. The patient was discharged from service November 21st, 1863, and pensioned. On February 3rd, 1873, Mr. Gove visited the Army Medical Museum. He was in excellent general health and had good use of the hand and some use of the forearm.

10/25/2026

in 1864, the northernmost land action of the Civil War took place in Vermont. Twenty-one Confederate soldiers who had escaped capture by the Union Army and had been taking refuge in Canada, planned a raid on the three banks in St. Albans, as part of a larger plan to raise money for the Confederacy and lure Union troops north to defend the Canadian border. The robbery of the first bank was successful, with the raiders taking cash from the vault and from patrons who had come to make deposits. The men forced their prisoners to swear allegiance to the Confederacy before locking them in the bank. A Union officer, Captain George Conger, of the 1st Vermont Infantry Regiment, who was home on leave, gathered a group of townspeople to fight back. Encountering this unexpected resistance, the raiders retreated, attempting to set fire to the town as they went. The Confederates were able to escape to Canada with $88,000 U.S. dollars. They were eventually arrested by the Canadian government, but because Canada was a neutral nation and the raiders had been acting as Confederate soldiers, they were not allowed to be extradited to the United States. The money, however, was returned to the St. Albans bank.

Image: Confederate raiders rob the bank at St. Albans (St. Albans Historical Society and Museum)

10/25/2026

YOUR EVENING IMAGE FIX.—
A young federal soldier poses in front of his tent, holding his bugle. Hanging in a tree behind him is a paper lantern bearing the likeness and name of Lt. Gen. U.S. Grant.

Carte de visite by Rockwood & Co. of New York, N.Y.

10/25/2026

in 1861 Union troops scouting the area around Leesburg, Virginia, mistook a line of trees for a Confederate encampment, unintentionally starting the Battle of Ball’s Bluff. Federal commander General Charles Stone, seeing an opportunity for a surprise attack, sent several companies across the Potomac. The soldiers soon realized they had mistaken trees for tents, but by that time, the Confederates were aware of their presence and attacked. General Stone, who stayed on the opposite side of the river, ordered Col. Edward Baker (a U.S. Senator) across the river to take charge. By the time Baker arrived, Union troops were fully engaged in a disorganized fight with the rebels. Baker was soon mortally wounded, and the federals fled down the bluff to try to re-cross the river. Confederates firing down on them sunk all of their boats, and the Union soldiers attempting to swim were either shot or drowned. Others stranded on the shore were forced to surrender. Baker is to date the only sitting U.S. Congressman killed in combat.

Image: Death of Colonel Edward D. Baker At The Battle of Balls Bluff, Virginia 1861 (Artist F. O. C. Darley)

10/25/2026

While I know people then and now run the gamut between wanting to be on the front lines or as far from War as possible, I think a strong argument could be made for being in the commissary department! Y’all?

Summer 1864, near City Point, Va. Full plate linked in the first comment

10/23/2026

10/23/2026

My first full animated battle map is now available on YouTube! It is the entire Battle of Gettysburg.

Check it out and I’d greatly appreciate a subscription while you are there!

Link:

Gettysburg Animated Battle Map
https://youtu.be/a2lBO2S5Ync

10/23/2026

If I was the roughly 5’ 6”, 120 pound horse artillery Capt. James Robertson (at left), I’d be be pleased to have the jolly huge dude at right backing me up! Full plate and info linked in the first comment

10/23/2026

In 1865 Union General Uysses S. Grant’s Military Secretary, Lt. Col. Ely Parker, pictured here, helped draft documents for Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. Parker, born with the Native American name Hasanoanda and later known as Donehogawa, was a Seneca Indian leader who had joined the Union Army in 1863 as an engineer. General Grant, an acquaintance of Parker, appointed him to his staff in 1864. When Lee arrived to sign the documents, he reportedly said to Parker, “I’m glad to see one real American here,” to which Parker responded, “We are all Americans, sir.” In 1871, President Grant appointed Parker as the first Native American Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

Photo Credit: National Archives