Follow This Years Tour Live

The Library of the South Carolina State House

This week is our family's history tour, and this year we're in South Carolina studying Revolutionary and Civil War history. We are post photos from it regularly, to see them follow along on the Discering History blog, or @discerninghistory on Instagram. 

Chancellorsville 150th Reenactment

At the beginning of this month I went to the reenactment for the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Chancellorsville. I wasn't able to post right away because we left for the Baltic for two days later (stay tuned for posts on that soon.) But the video I took there is embeded above, and here are some pictures:

Soldiers line up for battle

Skirmishers in front of the Confederate line

Union battle line

Skirmishers

Yankee volley

The main line fires

Union cannon

Confederate courier

Jackson's flank attack

Union troops fire

Confederate charge

Southern volley

Confederate commanders

Union fall back 

Battle of Chancellorsville 150th

This week is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Chancellorsville. Chancellorsville was one of the most important battles of the entire Civil War. Stonewall Jackson launched one of the greatest attacks of the entire Civil War, routing an entire Union corps. But as he was preparing to launch a follow up attack to seal his victory, he was wounded by friendly fire. He died a few days later. Some say that this was the turning point of the Civil War.

But although the story normally ends with Jackson's fall, that was just the beginning of the battle. The armies continued to fight for several more days, and the Union still had a good chance for victory. But the hard fighting from the Confederates and the mistakes from the Union handed the Confederacy the victory, but at a terrible cost. It was the fourth bloodiest battle of the Civil War, and May 3rd was the second bloodiest day.

Make sure to follow my Civil War 150th Blog for "live" blogging of the battle throughout the week.

There will be a reenactment this weekend in Chancellorsville, Virginia. Thousands of reenactors will be there and it will certainly be an impressive sight. We hope to be there filming, so check back next week for pictures and videos from the event.

CSS Neuse Replica

On our Discerning History Youtube Channel, we just released a video on the CSS Neuse, were we visit the only full scale replica of a Confederate ironclad and see how Civil War naval technology changed warfare. Stayed tuned to this blog over the next few years

San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival 2013

I went to this year's San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival this past weekend for the showing of one of the episodes from our DVD series Discerning History: Causes of the Civil War. Here are some pictures taken along the way:

Confederate center

Doug Phillips opening the festival

Charlie Zahm and Tad Marks

The Wintons and Phillips

The Alamo

An African's View on the Slave Trade

Discerning History at the SAICFF!

Our episode on John Brown from Discerning History: Causes of the Civil War, has been selected as a semi-finalist at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival. The trailer for the festival is above, and you can see the link for our film here.

Fredericksburg 150th Reenactment Video

Here are two videos from the Fredericksburg reenactment last weekend! Read my posts on the history of the battle on my other blog.

Abraham Lincoln's Economics

Learn how today's economic problems go all the way back to the causes of the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln, who supported the economics of the Whig Party of high tariffs, corporate welfare and the national bank. Featuring Dr. Thomas DiLorenzo, economics professor and author of the Real Lincoln and other works.