Peter A. Taylor's Home Page

Tag: Civil War

  • The Coffee Pot

    Before joining the army I really wasn’t much of a coffee drinker. My folks drank it by the gallon, my dad in particular a former Navy man. Of course my mother was addicted to it as well with and between the two of them they could go through two twelve cup pots a day without… →

  • The Telegraph in the US Civil War

    Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph made an interesting discovery in 1844. When he was trying to lay his first telegraph line from Washington DC to Baltimore Maryland he tried to lay the wire inside of a pipe. During the construction process it appears that they got some bad wire. Morse was… →

  • Unhorsing the “Wizard of the Saddle”

    This short story is based on an actual event at the end of the US Civil War involving the notorious “Wizard of the Saddle,” General Nathan Bedford Forrest,  and Sergeant Hugh Longstaff. It involved a small detachment of cavalry soldiers from the First Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry Regiment and a large detachment of General Forrest’s Cavalry… →

  • The Saga of Lieutenant Lancaster

    Sergeant Leonard L. Lancaster sat in his tent outside Memphis, Tennessee early in the morning of April 13th, 1865. He had just finished breakfast in the mess with his ‘pards’ when a rider roared into camp with fantastic news. Headquarters had just received a telegram from the War Department that General Grant had received the… →

  • The Saga of Lieutenant Lancaster – Part Two

    The Saga of Lieutenant Lancaster Part Two In our previous post we read about the terrible news that the men of the Second Wisconsin Veteran Volunteer Cavalry received in April of 1865. Rather than going home they were being forced to remain in the US Army. Since officers could resign their commissions without regards to… →

  • The Saga of Lieutenant Lancaster – Part Three

    Part Three The Saga of Lieutenant Lancaster In the previous post Leonard Lancaster had been tried before a court martial and convicted of mutiny against his commanding officer and had been condemned to death by a firing squad. He had refused to retract his statement calling for the resignation of Lieutenant Colonel Dale, the regimental… →

  • The Harrowing Adventure of Captain Charles Leib

    To My readers: this short story is based upon my book “The Most Hated Man in Clarksburg” I hope that you enjoy the story! By Peter Taylor It was April 1862, and it had been an exhausting week in Washington DC. Captain Charles Leib had been ordered to Washington City to appear before a congressional… →

  • The Most Hated Man in Clarksburg – Tour

    In conjunction with the Clarksburg History Museum, I have been asked to put together a tour of Clarksburg, West Virginia during the Civil War. The tour is based upon my historical novel “The Most Hated Man in Clarksburg” and showcases the city as it existed in May 1861 when Captain Charles Lieb first arrived in… →

  • The Mule Train, A Civil War Short Story

    While this is written as a short story it is based on actual events that happened during the Civil War in western Virginia. The story is taken from my book, “The Most Hated Man in Clarksburg” It was mid-June 1861 and Union Captain Charles Leib, the Assistant Quartermaster General from Clarksburg, Virginia was in Parkersburg,… →

  • A Horse of Many Colors

    In one of my early Blogs, I discussed some of the unpublished writing that I’ve done over the years. This is one of the interesting stories that came from the Regimental History of the Second Wisconsin Veteran Volunteer Cavalry, “Washburn’s Own”. I’ve rewritten the story as a piece of historical fiction for my readers. The… →

  • Happy 162 Birthday West Virginia

    On June 20, 1863, West Virginia became the 35th state in the Union. It is a state that was born out of the Civil War. It’s also the only state that separated itself from its parent-state, in our case the State of Virginia. West Virginia has a complicated history. Formerly, we were a part of… →

  • The Civil War in My Hometown

    My recent blogs have dealt with some Vietnam War stories from my first book in the Advisor series, “The Advisor; Kien Bing, South Vietnam 1969-1970”,  (available on Amazon.com). What I’ve tried to do is to expand upon what I’ve written in my novel about my time in Vietnam during my first assignment there. For someone… →

  • The Civil War Draft

    A presentation before the Stonewall Jackson Civil War Roundtable January 14, 2025 Unrest  As the decision to draft men unfolded in 1863, people rioted. When the government tried to institute the draft in New York City in July 1863, things quickly got out of hand. Government buildings were torched, and rioters fought in the streets against… →