Free Republic

Julius Franklin Howell (January 17, 1846 - June 19, 1948) joined the Confederate Army when he was 16. After surviving a few battles, he eventually found himself in a Union prison camp at Point Lookout, Maryland. In 1947, at the age of 101, Howell made this recording at the Library of Congress. Audio has been restored for clarity.

Recording made in 1947 when he was 101 years old as an oral history of the American Civil War, (or the War Between the States, as it is known in South). This man joined the 24th Virginia Calvary in 1862 at the age of 16 and and half. He was eventually taken prisoner in the Spring of 1965 at what must have been the Battle of Hillsman's House since her refers to Gen. Ewell's surrender. He was held at Point Lookout, Maryland until the end of the war. He is quite emphatic that the South didn't fight for "the preservation...

President Trump donated the first few months of his White House salary to Antietam National Battlefield, the national park in Maryland that preserves the hallowed ground of the bloodiest day of the Civil War, the government said Wednesday. Mr. Trump’s first quarter salary of $78,333 was matched by an anonymous donor who gave another $22,000, bringing the gift to $100,000, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said. The donation will restore an historic house on the battlefield, and will help replace fencing.

MORE than anything else, the battlefield at Antietam, site of the bloodiest day in the nation's wartime history, is a monument to the American private soldier who stands in the rear rank on parade but in the front rank on attack. Here, on Sept. 16, 1862, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, commanding the Union's Army of the Potomac, stood in a grassy field atop a hill overlooking the shallow valley of Antietam Creek and watched Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia move into position on the opposite ridge. Then the Union general went back to his headquarters in...

Beginning early on the morning of this day in 1862, Confederate and Union troops in the Civil War clash near Maryland's Antietam Creek in the bloodiest one-day battle in American history. The Battle of Antietam marked the culmination of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the Northern states. Guiding his Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River in early September 1862, the great general daringly divided his men, sending half of them, under the command of General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, to capture the Union garrison at Harper's Ferry. President Abraham Lincoln put Major General George B. McClellan...

On this morning 150 years ago, Union and Confederate troops clashed at the crossroads town of Sharpsburg, Maryland. The Battle of Antietam remains the bloodiest single day in American history. The battle left 23,000 men killed or wounded in the fields, woods and dirt roads, and it changed the course of the Civil War. It is called simply the Cornfield, and it was here, in the first light of dawn that Union troops — more than a thousand — crept toward the Confederate lines. The stalks were at head level and shielded their movements. Cannon fire opened the battle with...

Long after the guns fell silent at Antietam, the earth yielded up gruesome reminders of the bloodiest day of the American Civil War: bodies, bones, buttons and entire severed limbs — one of which is now the focus of intense study at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. A Sharpsburg-area farmer is said to have found the human forearm while plowing a field two weeks after the 1862 battle. Officials at the museum in Frederick, Md., are trying to learn more about the limb in hopes of verifying that it's a relic of the Battle of Antietam and exhibiting...

<p>SHARPSBURG, Md. -- An unknown Civil War soldier began his journey home to New York state Tuesday, nearly a year after a visitor to the Antietam National Battlefield spotted his remains in a cornfield that saw the fiercest fighting of the war.</p>

SHARPSBURG - Antietam National Battlefield is one of the 10 most endangered battlefields in the United States, according to a list released Wednesday by the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT). The battlefield is "threatened with a 120-foot-tall cellular tower that would be visible from all of the battlefield's most famous vantage points," according to a CWPT press release. Monocacy National Battlefield near Frederick, Md., also is on the list, which also includes sites in several states from Virginia to Oklahoma. National Park Service officials were notified in December 2007 of a proposal to erect a stealth cell tower south of...

This Day In History | Civil War September 18 1862 McClellan Lets Lee Retreat from Antietam Confederate General Robert E. Lee's army pulls away from Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and heads back to Virginia. The day before, Lee's force had engaged in the biggest one-day battle of the Civil War against the army of General George B. McClellan. The armies struggled to a standstill, but the magnitude of losses forced Lee to abandon his invasion of Maryland. The significance of the battle was not Lee's withdrawal, but McClellan's lack of pursuit. When Lee settled into a defensive line above...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

PUT CHILDREN together in a room long enough, and eventually there’s going to be a fight. Not necessarily a fist fight, mind you. Maybe just a spat. And the argument doesn’t even have to be about anything important. But if one kid looks at another the wrong way, that’s all it takes. "Daddy! He’s looking at me!" " Well, his arm is touching my leg!" At some point, the resident adult will sigh, and say: "Come on, kids. If you’re going to fight, find something to fight about." It’s a faithful standby when the kids start to ying-yang back and...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

  HARPERS FERRY TO ANTIETAMTHE BLOODIEST DAYS IN AMERICA'S HISTORYSeptember 15-18 1862 The beginning of the end... The end of the dream.. The beginning of the beginning.. No matter from which side we reflect on these historic moments in our past, no one can deny the place this tragedy played in the shaping of our noble future! The Battle of Antietam, known in the South as the Battle of Sharpsburg, was fought on Wednesday, September 17, 1862 near Antietam, Maryland, and was the first major battle of the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil.The BATTLE OF ANTIETAM...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission:The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free...

<p>When the Battle of Antietam started, eighth-grade students from Wilson Middle School in Chowchilla were scattered along the rope line, all angling for an unobstructed view of the carnage.</p> <p>For those within earshot, history teacher Mike Martin was offering a running commentary.</p>

Little Round Top is expected to remain open through July 5, the National Park Service said recently. The rehabilitation project, when it starts, will take about 18 months to complete. The site will close to the public when work begins. Meanwhile, crews continue to make repairs at Devils Den, which remains closed to the public.

General Robert E. Lee accepts the fact that his Army of Northern Virginia has suffered a major defeat by General George G. Meade and the Army of the Potomac. He orders his army to retreat out of Pennsylvania back into Virginia. On a happier note, also on this day, General U.S Grant accepts the surrender of the city of Vicksburg and of General John C. Pemberton's 29,500 man army. This is the second Confederate Army that has surrendered to General Grant. President Lincoln would make the statement that "the father of waters now flows unvexed to the sea."