Virginia Vignettes

Throughout U.S. involvement in WWI, President Woodrow Wilson worked to guarantee that the war would be fought for some purpose other than territorial gain. In January 1917 he gave a speech titled “Peace Without Victory” that outlined peace terms, proposing the two sides negotiate as equals rather than as victor and vanquished. In January 1918 [...]

During the Civil War, Woodrow Wilson’s father’s church in Augusta, Georgia, was used as a field hospital and a holding area for Union prisoners of war. Wilson saw firsthand the destruction of war, and it shaped his view of war for the rest of his life. During his first term as US President, Wilson insisted [...]

During his tenure as president of Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson built a national reputation as a progressive reformer, hiring the first Jewish and Catholic faculty members.  As Governor of New Jersey, he pushed numerous progressive reforms through the state legislature, including the institution of workers’ compensation and the regulation of state utilities and large businesses. [...]

Although he was sometimes caricatured as a northern academic, Woodrow Wilson, (1856-1924) twenty-eighth president of the United States (1913–1921), was born in Staunton, Virginia, and considered himself to be southern. As such, he was the first southerner elected president since Zachary Taylor in 1848, and brought to the office a progressive zeal for reform, both [...]

Weather considerations influenced strategic planning in the Civil War. Army commands requested weather predictions and some data were collected using the telegraphs, though the resulting forecasts were not very accurate. Perhaps most significant, armies usually did not campaign in the winter months, with a few notable exceptions, and instead established more permanent camps from about [...]

Weather was influential in shaping events during the American Civil War (1861–1865). For instance, concerns about weather helped determine overall strategy as well as tactics on the battlefield. Generals looked to the skies to decide when to begin spring campaigns, cursed at flooded rivers for impeding progress, and pushed their men to endure the extremes [...]

Winfield Scott was a hero of the Mexican War (1846–1848), the last Whig Party candidate for U.S. president, and commanding general of the United States Army at the start of the American Civil War (1861–1865). Known as “Old Fuss and Feathers” for his equal love of discipline and pomp, Scott by 1861 had served in [...]

J. E. B. Stuart, popularly known by his nickname “Jeb,” was the chief of cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Stuart participated in the capture of John Brown at Harpers Ferry in 1859, and earned confederate hero status in 1862 when he led 1,200 troopers in a famous [...]

Richmond, Virginia, was the capital of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861–1865). It also served as the capital of Virginia, although when the city was about to fall to Union armies in April 1865, the governor and General Assembly moved their offices to Lynchburg for five days. Besides being the [...]

The Battle of the Crater was the result of an unusual attempt, on the part of Union forces, to break through the Confederate defenses just south of the critical railroad hub of Petersburg, Virginia, during the American Civil War (1861–1865). For several weeks, Pennsylvania miners in Union general Ambrose E. Burnside‘s Ninth Corps worked at [...]