The hit parade and scenes from the war

Print of New Hampshire's coastal port, where the 2nd New Hampshire mustered in 1861.  

Part two of Henry Hamilton’s story is coming soon, but first . . .

March was a record month for traffic on the Our War blog, with more than 3,200 hits. The total has surpassed 31,000. Thank you.

To illustrate this post I thought I’d put up a few recent New Hampshire items that have appeared on eBay. 

And, as I did last month, I’ll start by recommending a few posts that I like which are not on the most popular lists.

Sleepers

‘Oh this pen cannot describe my feelings’: A mother laments that her only son has gone off to war. 

‘The whole face of nature smiled at harvest time’: The 14th New Hampshire in battle at Winchester.

Remembering Lincoln: The thoughts of a New Hampshire U.S. senator who knew him well.

‘It would be a pleasure to linger here’: A New Hampshire reporter writes from Gettysburg.

Captain Gordon’s war: From the letters of a 2nd New Hampshire officer.

From Fredericksburg to war’s end: A pious private’s life at the front. 

A Confederate captain at Gettysburg: An articulate rebel tells the other side of the story

Making the Civil War relevant: A teacher’s thoughts about the Civil War and young people. 

Ambrotype of an unidentified 7th New Hampshire soldier. 

Busiest posts since Feb. 15

Recent posts about the circus impresario Yankee Robinson and Col. Edward E. Cross’s ride to Gettysburg shot quickly to the top in readership of posts from the last two months.

1. The Civil War created a boom for Yankee’s circus

2. Together again: They rode with Cross to Gettysburg

3. ‘Straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel’

4. Human stories bring history home

5. More space for diverse voices

6. When a major pummels a private (part three)

7. Private Andrews’s long road home

8. A sudden change of plans

9. My best war story

10. Let us ‘crush the eggs of rebellion’

Leaf of a 1982 book purporting to show uniforms of original 7th New Hampshire Volunteers 

All-time Top 25

“A Gettysburg veteran who knew the battlefield by heart,” the story of Charles Hale’s postwar work as a guide at the battlefield, continues to climb on the list. Two relatively early posts have also moved into the rankings. Hits on the top 25 posts range from 174 to 548. The number in parentheses is last month’s ranking.

1. Urgent! Telegram from Gettysburg (1)

2. Farewell, my teacher (2)

3. Exeter’s Civil War general (3)

4. A Gettysburg journal (4)

5. A Gettysburg veteran who knew the battlefield by heart (6)

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

7. The soldier’s story behind the love story, Part I (7)

8. Unpacking the new ‘Gettysburg’ (8)

9. Faces of Fort Wagner, Olustee and Andersonville (10)

10. The Civil War: ‘It was not my fault,’ Buchanan insists (9)

11. One school’s proud Civil War heritage (12)

12. A gift from the heart (11)

13. Killing the Southerners with kindness (17)

14. Gallery: Faces of the Fighting Fifth (part one) (13)

15. Backstage with Billy Collins (14)

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

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

18. History’s touch (16)

19. Harnessing the power of the telling detail (17)

20. Gallery: Old soldiers (2), a New England brigade (21)

21. My friend Chester (20)

22. July 2, 1863, Rose’s Woods, Gettysburg (22)

23. A souvenir from Harpers Ferry (new to list)

24. As its centenary nears, the Easter Rising provokes debate (new to list)

25. A riddle wrapped up in an enigma (23)