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Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2009 9:33 pm Posts: 316 Location: Old Northwest (Michigan)
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Fellow Sharpshooters, Dan Wambaugh referred me to the Emerging Civil War website after he published a short article in the May 2018 blog. Since then, I’ve enjoyed returning to the site to read contributions by other authors. I’ve discovered a series of articles written by Robert Wilson, whose great grandfather was George Augustus Marden, who enlisted in the 2nd USSS, then was transferred to serve on the staff of Col. Hiram Berdan. To make it easier for the reader, I’ve arranged the articles in a chronological order from when Marden arrives at Camp of Instruction outside Washington DC, to his last letters following the Gettysburg campaign. Author Wilson provides an excellent historical overview of the events that his ancestor and the Sharpshooters experienced, then adds George’s personal perspective and opinions on the situation. Here is the Emerging Civil War introduction to the author: Robert (Rob) Wilson, M.Ed., lives in Western Massachusetts and works as a part-time consultant for the National Park Service at the Springfield Armory National Historic Site in Springfield, MA. He recently retired from a 20 year career at the Veterans Education Project (VEP), a non-profit group that trains military veteran volunteers from WWII through to Afghanistan and Iraq.
Currently Rob is in the process of reading, transcribing and writing about his great grandfather’s unpublished Civil War correspondence. His ancestor, George Augustus Marden, volunteered for the 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters Regiment, served from late 1861 to late 1864 in the Army of the Potomac, and wrote home about seminal events of the war such as the Peninsula Campaign, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.Deliver Me From Anymore Southern Winters. Posted on January 31, 2017. The 22-year old soldier— who is my great grandfather— mailed home 288 pages of correspondence from Washington before he was transferred to the Sharp Shooters 1st Regiment in late March for the Peninsula Campaign. His letters, including the one written January 10, are not entirely stories of winter cold, disease, suffering and death. They also are packed with amusing descriptions of Army routine, camp life, visits to the city, and encounters with a host of memorable people (including First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln)https://emergingcivilwar.com/2017/01/31 ... n-winters/Christmas Arrives in January at a Washington D.C. Camp of Instruction Posted on January 11, 2018Combing through my great grandfather’s Civil War letters for a holiday season story, I learned how, in 1861 he celebrated Christmas in January. The letters home— which were saved by his parents, back in Mont Vernon, N.H.— have been passed down to me through my family.https://emergingcivilwar.com/2018/01/11 ... struction/Survival at Sea: A Terrifying Voyage to the Peninsula. Posted on March 30, 2018.https://emergingcivilwar.com/2018/03/30 ... peninsula/Trial by Fire for the U.S. Sharpshooters at Yorktown, Part 1. Posted on June 26, 2018.https://emergingcivilwar.com/2018/06/26 ... wn-part-1/Trial by Fire for the U.S. Sharpshooters at Yorktown, Part 2. Posted on June 27, 2018https://emergingcivilwar.com/2018/06/27 ... wn-part-2/Malvern Hill: A Victory With The Look And Feel Of Defeat. Posted on July 1, 2017. https://emergingcivilwar.com/2017/07/01 ... of-defeat/The Yankee Soldier and the Belles of “Secession Proclivities” Posted on February 14, 2018. Although Marden’s interest in female companionship was palpable in his writing, I found no evidence of a Sharpsburg romance. Yet the letters do not disappoint. They offer up an engaging story of a lonely Union soldier, far away from his native New Hampshire, attempting a normal social life while camped in a region set on the Virginia border that, he wrote, was “well tinctured with Secession.” https://emergingcivilwar.com/2018/02/14 ... clivities/Chancellorsville Battle of Chancellorsville written by my great grandfather, George A. Marden. At the time, he was a 24-year-old lieutenant and a recently-appointed Acting Assistant Adjutant General for the U.S. Sharpshooters Brigade (U.S.S.S.), 3d Division of Third Corps. Marden provides a ripping-good narrative of the sharpshooters in action at Catharine Furnace. His second account, about escorting prisoners taken that afternoon to a supposedly-secure federal position on the turnpike, evolves into a survival storyA Yankee’s Tale of Two Encounters with Stonewall’s Foot Cavalry at Chancellorsville (Part 1). Posted on August 1, 2018https://emergingcivilwar.com/2018/08/01 ... le-part-1/A Yankee’s Tale of Two Encounters with Stonewall’s Foot Cavalry at Chancellorsville (Part 2). Posted on August 2, 2018https://emergingcivilwar.com/2016/07/29 ... -drummers/Gettysburg Part 1: A Sharpshooter’s Postscript to Gettysburg https://emergingcivilwar.com/2016/07/05 ... ettysburg/Part 2: A Sharpshooter’s Postscript to Gettysburg, Part Two: No Rest for the Weary. Posted on July 5, 2016https://emergingcivilwar.com/2016/07/05 ... the-weary/ Part 3: A Sharpshooter’s Postscript to Gettysburg Part 3: Two Armies March to Very Different Drummers. Posted on July 29, 2016https://emergingcivilwar.com/2016/07/29 ... -drummers/A Sharpshooter’s Postscript to Gettysburg Part 4: The Muddy March to Williamsport with Fighting at Monterey Pass and Hagerstown. Posted on August 1, 2016[/i]https://emergingcivilwar.com/2016/08/01 ... agerstown/Part 5: A Sharpshooter’s Postscript to Gettysburg, Part 5: Imboden’s Train of Misery Transports the Confederate Wounded South. Posted on August 2, 2016https://emergingcivilwar.com/2016/08/02 ... ded-south/Part 6 : A Sharpshooter’s Postscript to Gettysburg, Part 6: “The Wagoners’ Fight” – A Battle To Hold Williamsport”. Posted on August 4, 2016https://emergingcivilwar.com/2016/08/04 ... liamsport/Enjoy the articles, I certainly did. Bill Skillman Michigan Companies Berdan Sharpshooters Survivors Association
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