New project and the 300 club

A group of 4th New Hampshire veterans at a reunion at the Weirs on Lake Winnipesaukee

I have begun work on a string of blogposts from the diaries and letters of two Civil War soldiers with both wartime and postwar connections. It's an exciting project because by placing their diaries and letters in chronological order, I can let them tell the story of the first 15 months of the existence of my favorite regiment: the 5th New Hampshire Volunteers.

Meanwhile, I'll post when I can about a range of subjects. Recent posts about World War I have gained wide readership, including one on the list below -- What was Thomas Hardy like? -- based on the observations of two major figures from World War I.

In the past I periodically posted the 25 most popular posts on this blog on the basis of pageviews. This list is slightly different. There are now more than 300 posts, and the pageview count is approaching 80,000. So here are all the posts -- 40 of them -- with more than 300 pageviews. The No. 1 post has had 1,357 pageviews, and the numbers scale down from there.

Thanks so much for your continued readership,

1. Killing the Southerners with kindness (1)

2. The long American tradition of racist speech (2)

3. A Gettysburg veteran who knew the battlefield by heart (4)

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

5. Why couldn’t Franklin Pierce just keep his mouth shut? (5)

6. Urgent! Telegram from Gettysburg (3)

7. The rise and fall of James Willis Patterson (10)

8. One school’s proud Civil War heritage (9)

9. Farewell, my teacher (7)

10. Faces of Fort Wagner, Olustee and Andersonville (13)

11. The Civil War: ‘It was not my fault,’ Buchanan insisted (15)

12. Exeter’s Civil War general (8)

13. A Gettysburg journal (part 3) (10)

14. A Gettysburg photo album (16)

15. Elias Nason’s diary (1863): Bloody fields of conflict (25 tie) 

16. Unpacking the new ‘Gettysburg’ (11) 

17. The soldier’s story behind the love story, Part I (14)

18.  Gallery: Faces ofthe Fighting Fifth (part one) (19t) 

19. The Civil War created a boom for Yankee’s circus (21)

20 (tie). ‘The reputation of a regiment if always made bythe worst men in it’ (22t) 

20 (tie). Gallery: Old soldiers (2), a New England brigade (18)

22. A Confederate captain’s war diary, part 3 (25t)

23. What was Thomas Hardy like? (new to list)

24. A Gettysburg Journal, part 4 (22t) 

25. The soldier’s story behind the love story, Part II  (19) 

26. A nasty scrap with Cross’s brother (new to list)

27. Standing proudly before a fate unknown (21t)

28. A mother’s dying wish, a son’s destiny (new to list)

29. Together again: They rode with Cross at Gettysburg (25t)

30. How Napoleon B. Perkins lost his leg (new to list)

31. Elias Nason’s diary (1861): The war changed everything but life went on (new to list)

32. Gallery: What the rebels won at Gettysburg (25t)

33. Gallery: Faces of the Fighting Fifth, two (new to list)

34. A gift from the heart (24)

35. Captain Gordon’s war: ‘More fighting to bedone, and many lives will be lost’ (new to list)

36. From Fredericksburg to the Crater, Pvt. Don E. Scott thought God was by his side (new to list) 

37. Carleton at Gettysburg: ‘It would be a pleasure to linger here a while’ (new to list)

38. The monument is wholly like any other on the ground (new to list)

39. Richard Ager, storyteller (new to list)

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