Historian Garry Adelman explains how the Union and Confederate armies organized and led their infantry, cavalry, and artillery units. This video is part of the Civil War Trust’s In4 video series, which presents short videos on basic Civil War topics.
via Army Organization.
Historian Kevin Levin discusses the legacy of the Civil War. This video is part of the Civil War Trust’s In4 video series, which presents short videos on basic Civil War topics. Watch video
Historian Garry Adelman describes the different types of Civil War cannons and ammunition, and explains how they were fired. This video is part of the Civil War Trust’s In4 video series, which presents short videos on basic Civil War topics. Watch video
Historian Garry Adelman explains why soldiers fought in “line of battle.” This video is part of the Civil War Trust’s In4 video series, which presents short videos on basic Civil War topics. Watch video!
This and many other stories arising about the Soldier who opened fire on Fort Hood Army Base are just more evidence of the epidemic this country is facing. We will see an increase of these type of incidences as well as a surge in suicides as our warriors begin their journey home from deployment if we don’t act on this immediately. (5 million within the next 3-5 years) There is a problem with the availability and type of care given to our veterans. We have to be a voice on this issue or these type of stories will be commonplace for us. Our defenders deserve better than that.
The soldier who went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, had a history of mental illness and had been taking medication for anxiety and depression, but Army leaders said Thursday that they had not considered him a potential threat. Continue reading
Historian Doug Ullman describes the day to day life of Civil War soldiers. This video is part of the Civil War Trust’s In4 video series, which presents short videos on basic Civil War topics. Watch video!
Just after 6 p.m. on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. is fatally shot while standing on the balcony outside his second-story room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The civil rights leader was in Memphis to support a sanitation workers’ strike and was on his way to dinner when a bullet struck him in the jaw and severed his spinal cord. King was pronounced dead after his arrival at a Memphis hospital. He was 39 years old. Continue reading
WASHINGTON — Volunteers in dark green hooded sweatshirts spread out across the National Mall on Thursday, planting 1,892 small American flags in the grass between the Washington Monument and the Capitol. Each flag represented a veteran who had committed suicide since Jan. 1, a figure that amounts to 22 deaths each day.
Civilians stood among the waving flags in solidarity with veterans like Michael Blazer, a former sergeant in the Army who had a friend commit suicide when he got back from Afghanistan.
“He shot himself in the same room as me and a friend of mine,” Mr. Blazer said. “I’ve been diagnosed with PTSD because of that, so a lot of these issues are what I’ve personally been dealing with. But above and beyond, I’m out here in memory of him.”
The event was part of an awareness campaign mounted by members of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, an advocacy group focused on issues affecting the nation’s newest veterans. They are in Washington this week as part of their leadership development program, Storm the Hill, and to support the introduction of legislation aimed at preventing suicides and providing more mental health resources for service members home from combat.
Event organizers said that the issues were a top priority for veterans and their families, and that they wanted to make them a priority for Congress, too.
Senator John Walsh, Democrat of Montana and the first Iraq war veteran to serve in the Senate, introduced the Suicide Prevention for America’s Veterans Act on Thursday. For Mr. Walsh, the issue is personal: A sergeant who served under him when he commanded an infantry battalion in Iraq in 2004 and 2005 committed suicide after returning home.
“We’ve waited too long to take on this action,” he said. Then, mentioning the 22 veterans who take their lives every day, he added, “That’s an epidemic that we cannot allow to continue.”
When service members leave the military, they can get five years of no-questions-asked care from Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and facilities. One of the bill’s main goals is to extend that window to 15 years.
“For instance, in Vietnam, a lot of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder didn’t show up anywhere until between seven and 12 years later,” said Kate O’Gorman, the political director at the veterans’ advocacy group. “We really want to make sure that care is available when someone is ready to seek it.”
The bill also calls for the military to set up a review process for troops who are discharged for behavior that could have been caused by mental health issues. Measures to help the Veterans Affairs agency recruit more psychiatrists are also included.
“It establishes student loan repayment for psychiatrists,” Ms. O’Gorman said. “When the private sector and even the Department of Defense are able to offer good student loan repayment programs and the V.A. is not, that can make it difficult for them to recruit.”
The striking display of red, white and blue caught the eye of almost everyone leaving a Metro station on the Mall on Thursday. One man wearing a hat with “Vietnam Veteran” stitched on the front took pictures. Others stopped to ask what was going on.
Roger Engetschwiler and his daughter, Katja, were visiting from Switzerland. They were headed to the Holocaust Memorial Museum and then the Lincoln Memorial when they paused to find out about the flags.
“We knew the subject when they told us that there’s a lot of suicide going on with veterans,” he said. “But I didn’t know the numbers were that high. That’s really scary.”
via Using Flags to Focus on Veteran Suicides – NYTimes.com.
Historian Sam Smith explains the terms “skirmish” and “battle,” and how these engagements made up campaigns. This video is part of the Civil War Trust’s In4 video series, which presents short videos on basic Civil War topics.
Maiden on the Midway 
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