A new year, a new list

The trove of digitized Civil War-era documents continues to grow. It’s amazing what’s out there. Just the other day I found the diary of a preacher from Exeter, N.H. This will be the source of a future blogpost or two. It’s not strong on narrative, but its “Life goes on” quality is special, as the preacher’s faithfulness in chronicling the world around him.

During the last month I began dipping into my own journals for content, including the recent non-Civil War posts on Dave Van Ronk and Amiri Baraka.

Here are the 10 posts written in the last two months that have generated the most hits. And below that are the top 25 all-time.

1. A gift from the heart

2. As its centenary nears, the Easter Rising provokes debate

3. When past meets present

4. On the platform with Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg

5. For some, the battle of Olustee rages on

6. Christmas!

7. Beaufort, S.C., July 15, 1862

8. (tie) He was a friend of mine
   
           Are all wars really the same?

            

           Remembering Lincoln

The top 25 all-time range in hits from 533 to 145. The numbers in parentheses are last month’s rankings:

1. Urgent! Telegram from Gettysburg (1)

2. Farewell, my teacher (2)

3. Exeter’s Civil War general (3)

4. A Gettysburg journal (5)

5. Did Abraham Lincoln really free the slaves? (6)

6. The soldier’s story behind the love story, Part I (4)

7. Unpacking the new ‘Gettysburg’ (9)

8. The Civil War: ‘It was not my fault,’ Buchanan insists (7)

9. Faces of Fort Wagner, Olustee and Andersonville (8)

10. A Gettysburg veteran who knew the battlefield by heart (–)

11. A gift from the heart (–)

12. Backstage with Billy Collins (10)

13. (tie) History’s touch (16)

             Gallery: Faces of the Fighting Fifth (part one) (11)

15. Kennedy gave FDR too much credit, shortchanged Ike (12t)

16. Harnessing the power of the telling detail (12t)

17. My friend Chester (14)

18. The soldier’s story behind the love story, Part II  (15)

19. July 2, 1863, Rose’s Woods, Gettysburg (17)

20. Gallery: Old soldiers (2), a New England brigade (20)

21. (tie) How did Lincoln Republicans morph into Obama Democrats? (18)

              A riddle wrapped up in an enigma (19)

23. (tie) A gruesome death (22)

             One school’s proud Civil War heritage (23t)

25. ‘Curses to Old Abe’ (23t)