Top Posts of 2023

2023 was a year of firsts, my favorite being leading a battlefield tour at Perryville, Kentucky with the Western Theater in the Civil War's Symposium on the Field. The topic of the tour was walking the ground where General William R. Terrill's brigade fought in the opening moments of the battle culminating with a deep dive into the fight for Parsons' Battery on Bald Knob. I'm looking forward to presenting another tour this upcoming October as well as working up some tours of Stones River to support the upcoming book releases. Special thanks to Darryl Smith for the invite and to my fellow tour guides Taylor Bishop, Derrick Lindow, and Stuart Sanders for putting together such a great event.  

Let’s take a moment to review 2023 on Dan Masters’ Civil War Chronicles. Busy, busy, busy with book projects this year which “cut” my productivity on the blog from 208 posts last year down to 114 this year, or basically one every three days. With two books now on the ramp to come out in 2024 (Hell by the Acre with Savas Beatie and Echoes of Battle Volume 2 with Columbian Arsenal Press with a third to be announced) I would anticipate this trend to continue in the future. But as the blog is approaching 800 posts, there is certainly a lot of great stuff to look back on, and to look forward to.

     The blog’s focus remains centered on telling the story of the common soldier in the Civil War, North and South, with a growing appreciation for material culture as shown by the popularity of posts relating to weaponry. The blog’s content tends to lean more towards western theater, but some of the most popular posts this year featured eastern theater content, particularly posts concerning Gettysburg.

     The aim in 2024 is to keep on trucking along; the research process never stops and as I am still thoroughly enjoying the hunt (if drifting more into WWI research for a few future book projects) I will continue to share these discoveries with all of you. The process of research and study is a treasured part of my day and I thank all of you for enjoying it along with me.  

 To help ring in 2024, let’s revisit the top 20 posts of 2023:


1: Dedicating Gettysburg National Cemetery            

2: The Boy Yankee in Butternut: Edward Savage's Adventure with Morgan's Troopers          

3: Straw Already Threshed: Sherman on Shiloh         

4: Federal Arms in the Stones River Campaign          

5: Thirty-Three Holes in the Colors: The 24th Ohio at Stones River 

6: Federal Arms in the Chickamauga Campaign        

7: Our Gallant Boys Bleaching in the Sun: A Buckeye Returns to Chickamauga                 

8: The River of Death with the 75th Indiana              

9: One of Sherman’s Gophers on the March to Chattanooga

10: Storming Vicksburg: Earning a Medal of Honor in the Forlorn Hope       

Another highlight of the year was the annual Seminar in the Woods at Chickamauga hosted by Jim Ogden and Dave Powell. I had five ancestors who fought at Chickamauga and visited all of the monuments dedicated to their regiments including the 89th Ohio where my great-great-great grandfather Joseph H. Carter of Co. H fought on Horseshoe Ridge on September 20, 1863. 

I had a bit of a moment while visiting the 37th Indiana monument at Chickamauga. My closest Civil War ancestor, my great-great grandpa James P. Brown, served with the regiment for four years and was present on this ground during the battle. As I wrote at the time, "It is a moving experience to stand on the same ground as he did on the afternoon of September 19, 1863. Today it is quiet with the Carolina Chickadees, Northern Cardinals, and the occasional Blue Jay adding their songs to the soft rustling of the leaves in the forest. It is a peaceful place today. When Grandpa Brown arrived here that long ago Saturday afternoon, the roar of battle dwarfed anything he'd ever heard before. Smoke filled the woods and the air sung not with the songs of birds, but with the zip of bullets and thunderous crash of artillery. What a powerful place this sacred ground is." Little did I know that eight months later, after a quarter century of searching, I would finally find a photograph of Grandpa Brown as shown below. 

Private James P. Brown, Co. D, 37th Indiana Volunteer Infantry with his beloved wife Harriett in an image dating from about 1890. He served four years with the 37th and upon returning home to Indiana promptly married Harriett and set off to find his fortune in the cornfields of Iowa. But his health was wrecked by his years in the army and after trying to make a go of it in Iowa and Nebraska for a number of years, he returned home to Osgood, Indiana where my great-grandmother was born in 1879. James lived until 1912 and is buried at Sharpsville, Indiana. 
     

11: I Don’t Thirst for More Fight: An Iron Brigade Sergeant Remembers Gainesville and Second Bull Run

12: How Wilder’s Brigade Got Their Lightning       

13: Sunbrowned and War-Worn Stalwarts: A Character Study of Western Federals                

14: I Could not Ride Without Stepping on the Bodies: A Hoosier Colonel at Shiloh              

15: Arming the Buckeyes Part 2: Longarms of Ohio's Infantry Regiments

16: Civil War Roadtrip of a Lifetime                         

17: Ready for Breakfast or a Fight: The 8th Missouri and the Fight for Tunnel Hill                

18: A Brotherhood of Khaki and Blue                     

19: Revisiting Snodgrass Hill: Memories of a 21st Ohio Officer

20: Firm as an Iron Pillar: A Hoosier Describes the Battle of Franklin                               

In September 2023, Savas Beatie hosted an author's meetup in Gettysburg where I had the chance to not only tour Antietam and Gettysburg with some of the sharpest minds in the business, but finally had a chance to meet my publisher Ted Savas. A great event, a lot of fun, and looking forward to rolling out Hell by the Acre later this summer. 


Personal Choice as Favorite Story of the Year:

A Brevet Hoss: Molly the Cow and the Grand Review               


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