Discover a scathing 1864 Harrisburg, PA editor’s plea against Thanksgiving gluttony plus a funny Harper’s Weekly cartoon highlighting a Thanksgiving feast at the front lines. Read the full story.
Back in 2014, as a student at Hood College, I created my first historical documentary on the preservation battle at Monocacy National Battlefield, threatened by a massive trash incinerator. Though rough around the edges, this short film captures my journey into public history and the importance of protecting historic landscapes. Read the full story and watch the video.
On the eve of the 1864 election, thousands jammed Pittston, PA for a Union rally - bands, parades, a cannon, and a “perfect jam” on the streets. Cheers for Lincoln, a speaker's biting wit, and street violence with pistols and brick-bats flying. Read the full story.
On an October morning in 1864, six miners entered a Schuylkill County colliery and never returned. Despite a frantic rescue, all were lost—with grieving families left behind. This Civil War–era disaster reveals the peril that stalked Pennsylvania’s coal towns before safety laws and reforms followed. Read the full story.
On Election Night 1864, politics turned deadly in Tremont, PA. After Schuylkill County voters re-elected Congressman Myer Strouse, a band of Irish mineworkers—calling themselves the “Bloody 69th”—paraded through town. Hours later, 25-year-old George W. Thompson was beaten to death. No one was ever tried. This is the Coal Region’s volatile Civil War era—press bias, ethnic tension, and justice denied—told through one forgotten murder. Read the full story.
In September 1864, Schuylkill County’s Jacob Shade was killed at the Battle of Peebles Farm during the Siege of Petersburg. A 30-year-old laborer turned soldier, Shade left behind a widow and children—one of hundreds from the Coal Region who gave their lives for the Union during the Civil War. Read the full story.
In this 1864 photo, the USS Canonicus ironclad refuels with anthracite coal, the almost-smokeless fuel from Pennsylvania’s Coal Region that powered the Union blockade during the Civil War. Discover how this vital resource helped shape naval strategy and fueled dramatic changes across Northeastern Pennsylvania. Read the full story.
In July 1864, Union and Confederate troops clashed near Frederick, Maryland, at the Battle of Monocacy. In 2021, I recorded a series of videos at Monocacy National Battlefield highlighting the medical story of the battle in partnership with historians and park rangers for the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. Watch the videos and learn more of the story.
On the anniversary of Joseph Workman's death during the Civil War, I'm remembering the Wiconisco native who joined the 96th Pennsylvania in 1861. Wounded at South Mountain and captured at Spotsylvania, he succumbed to his wounds in Confederate-controlled Richmond. His weathered monument in Calvary United Methodist Cemetery is a reminder to remember the young man who died for his country. Read the full story.
Maurus Oestreich, a German immigrant turned Union soldier, endured unimaginable carnage at the “Bloody Angle.” Witness how the relentless violence of May 1864 left an indelible mark on the 96th Pennsylvania—and how Oestreich’s memories captured the true cost of war. Read the full story.