Got a War of 1861 question

[Alpo]

Shiloh. Wiki says it is also called Pittsburg Landing.

 

Is this just two different names, or is it "they called it THAT, while we called it THIS?" (Like they insist it was Bull Run, while we KNOW it was Manassas.)

 

And if it was a "us and them", who called it which?

[Subdeacon Joe]

Yep.  In general the North called things by natural features, the South by town names.

Bull Run/Manassas.
Antietam/Sharpsburg

Pea Ridge/Elkhorn Tavern

among the better known.

[Joke 'um]

Pittsburg Landing:  the place on the Tennessee(?) River where the Union troops got off the boats and camped while preparing to attack into Mississippi.

Shiloh:  the name of a small church located at or near Pittsburg Landing.

 

[Utah Bob #35998]

In north Florida, in 1864, there was a battle between the Federals moving west from occupied Jacksonville toward Tallahassee. It took place near a small village named Olustee Station. Olustee is from the Creek Indian name for black water. 

just north of the town is a lake called Ocean Pond. 

In February of 64 the blue and gray went toe to toe in one of the bloodiest battles of the war. The Union had a casualty rate of nearly 35% while the South sustained about 18%. The famous 54th Massachusetts Colored Troops fought in the battle. The southerners prevailed and Tallahassee remained free from Union occupation.

The battle was called Olustee by the south and Ocean Pond by the north. Today it is Olustee State Historic Park.

[Utah Bob #35998]

This is from an article written by Gen. D.H. Hill after the war.

Quote

So many battlefields of the Civil War bear double names that we cannot believe the duplication has been accidental. It is the unusual which impresses. The troops of the North came mainly from cities, towns, and villages, and were, therefore, impressed by some natural object near the scene of the conflict and named the battle from it. The soldiers from the South were chiefly from the country and were, therefore, impressed by some artificial object near the field of action. In one section the naming has been after the handiwork of God; in the other section it has been after the handiwork of man. Thus, the first passage of arms is called the battle of Bull Run at the North,---the name of a little stream. At the South it takes the name of Manassas, from a railroad station. The second battle on the same ground is called the Second Bull Run by the North, and the Second Manassas by the South. Stone's defeat is the battle of Ball's Bluff With the Federals, and the battle of Leesburg with the Confederates. The battle called by General Grant, Pittsburg Landing, a natural object, was named Shiloh, after a church, by his antagonist. Rosecrans called his first great fight with Bragg, the battle of Stone River, while Bragg named it after Murfreesboro, a village. So McClellan's battle of the Chickahominy,  a little river, was with Lee the battle of Cold Harbor, a tavern. The Federals speak of the battle of Pea Ridge, of the Ozark range of mountains, and the Confederates call it after Elk Horn, a country inn. The Union soldiers called the bloody battle three days after South Mountain from the little stream, Antietam, and the Southern troops named it after the village of Sharpsburg. Many instances might be given of this double naming by the opposing forces. According to the same law of the unusual, the war-songs of a people have generally been written s. The bards who followed the banners of the feudal lords, sang of their exploits, and stimulated them and their retainers to deeds of high emprise, wore no armor and carried no swords. So, too, the impassioned orators, who roused our ancestors in 1776 with the thrilling cry, "Liberty or Death," never once put themselves in the way of a death by lead or steel, by musket-ball or bayonet stab. The noisy speakers of 1861, who fired the Northern heart and who fired the Southern heart, never did any other kind of firing.

 

[MizPete]

We knew where we were, since battles were fought on our soil - thus the place names.   First Manassas is also known as The Great Skedaddle.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Does the raid at St Albans have a place in southern lore?

[MizPete]

I must plead ignorance (you can take that as a "no").

[Wapaloosie73]

The victors write the history books.

[Alpo]

On 4/27/2019 at 10:40 PM, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

Does the raid at St Albans have a place in southern lore?

I'd never heard of it. Looked it up.

 

Appears to me a buncha deserters came down to New England from Canada to rob a bank, claiming to be soldiers on a mission.

 

Funny how they could get orders, in Canada, from Tennessee or Virginia.

 

Seems like I read that Bill Anderson and William Quantrill ALSO robbed banks. "For the cause."