Regular followers of this site will have undoubtedly noticed my complete absence since the middle of April. I stepped away for a few months in order to focus on the nine month sesquicentennial of the Siege of Petersburg. The next nine months will be busy here at the Siege of Petersburg Online. Look for the following:
- Almost daily “150 Years Ago at Petersburg” posts containing key events. At the bottom of each post, you can see every post at this site pertaining in some way to that day.
- The transcribed letters of Theodore Lyman, aide-de-camp to Army of the Potomac commander George Gordon Meade, taken from the now public domain book Meade’s Headquarters, 1863-1865; Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox and written by Lyman to his wife.
- Army of Northern Virginia commander Robert E. Lee’s letters and dispatches published and annotated in 1915 by upcoming historian Douglas Southall Freeman, after the Official Records had already been printed. These letters and dispatches were selected by Freeman to fill in gaps in the Official Records.
- Short mentions of each battle, skirmish and raid along with reading suggestions for each where available.
- Various other diary entries, letters, and newspaper articles will appear periodically and will be highlighted to reflect incidents occurring 150 years to the day later.
Look for the first post, an introduction to the Freeman edited Lee letters and dispatches, to appear here later today. I’m excited to be able to share these events with both old and new readers who may perhaps have a heightened interest level during this nine month time frame. My goal is to get as many other people interested in this neglected, overlooked, and misunderstood campaign, the largest and longest campaign by far of the entire Civil War.