▲ 39 r/VintageRadios
Suffice it to say I did not expect the horn to be that large.
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u/No-You-9897 — 4 days ago
▲ 74 r/Libraries
West Point Library, ca. 1874
Albumen print, approx 8”x10,” 1874-1879. Shows the old Cadet Library at the United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y. (built 1841, demolished 1961).
This was included in the album of a cavalry instructor at USMA in the 1870s. A veritable Where’s Waldo of elite 19th century institutional memory and material culture (in the best way). And that terrestrial globe!
u/No-You-9897 — 2 months ago
▲ 78 r/Libraryporn
West Point Library, ca. 1874
Albumen print, approx 8”x10,” 1874-1879. Shows the old Cadet Library at the United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y. (built 1841, demolished 1961).
This was included in the album of a cavalry instructor at USMA in the 1870s. A veritable Where’s Waldo of elite 19th century institutional memory and material culture (in the best way). And cthat terrestrial globe!
u/No-You-9897 — 2 months ago
▲ 13 r/CIVILWAR
Extra Billy Smith: Rebel Governor of Virginia
Reward broadside for the arrest of Virginia governor “Extra” Billy Smith, Macon, Ga., May 8, 1865. He surrendered in Richmond the next day.
Incidentally, the next day also saw the capture of Jefferson Davis by Wilson’s troopers in Irwin County, Georgia (his reward was $100k). The signatory here, E.B. Beaumont, received Jefferson Davis at Macon on his arrival as a prisoner.
Fun fact: “Extra Billy” got his name from his various schemes and business dealings before the war. He operated a mail line and would add additional routes off the main path, charging the government for extra fees. Congress launched an investigation into the matter, which went public and earned him the nickname that stuck with him through his five terms in Congress, two terms as Governor of Virginia, and his time as a major general in the confederate army.
He was also the oldest general in the Confederate field command.
u/No-You-9897 — 2 months ago
▲ 20 r/CIVILWAR
Sheridan “Texas and Hell” Quote, as repeated in 1866 letter from Gen. J.H. Wilson to aide
“I am anxious to know how you…are getting along in that land which Sheridan so aptly describes by saying if he owned Texas and hell, he’d sell Texas and live in the other place.” Gen. J.H. Wilson to his former ADC/AAG, Eugene B. Beaumont, 1866.
Came upon this while processing an archive— a contemporary account of Sheridan’s famous/infamous quote, which had made its first appearance just five months earlier in a Selma, AL newspaper.
Beaumont was stationed at the time in San Antonio with his young family.
u/No-You-9897 — 2 months ago
▲ 445 r/CIVILWAR
Picked up my auction win yesterday! Regulation U.S. infantry field drum by Charles E. Town, Bath, Maine, 1862-1863
u/No-You-9897 — 2 months ago
▲ 3 r/AskAcademia
First history journal article: meaningful argument, or just interesting archival material?
I’m working on my first journal article on John Sedgwick’s personal staff during the Civil War, using a previously unpublished private manuscript collection preserved by his longest-serving aide-de-camp. The material includes correspondence that appears to fill a gap in Sedgwick’s surviving record after Antietam, along with staff papers, family correspondence, photographs, and memorial material.
My argument is that Sedgwick’s personal staff functioned as more than an administrative military unit: it also operated through personal relationships, domestic ties, and obligations not just between commander and aide, but among the staff and their families as well. I want to position it as a place where the social-history vocabulary of the soldier and the institutional vocabulary of the army’s senior leadership meet.
I’m trying to figure out whether this sounds like the kind of argument historians would see as a meaningful contribution to Civil War military/social history, or whether I’m overinterpreting what is ultimately just an interesting archival case. I want to contribute to an existing scholarly conversation, not simply present a source discovery. Candid feedback appreciated!
u/No-You-9897 — 3 months ago