Telling story of 'hard luck' Minn. regiment

A new book looks at a historical incident I've never read about. In November 1863, a group of soldiers from the Ninth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment heard the agonized pleas of a slave, a father whose wife and children were about to be sold off and separated, and set off to rescue the family — in defiance of orders. As a result, the liberators were charged with mutiny and starred in a case that caught national attention. • Article

Trust rolls out app for Second Manassas

The Civil War Trust, a battlefield preservation group, on Tuesday marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Second Manassas with the release of its latest free smartphone "battle app."

"Like its predecessors, which explore the battles of Bull Run, Cedar Creek, Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg and Malvern Hill, the new Second Manassas Battle App includes video segments from top historians, period and modern imagery, and detailed topographical maps, all of which help bring the battlefield to life," the Trust said in a statement.

Principal tour stops include Brawner’s Farm, the Unfinished Railroad position and Longstreet’s attack.

The apps are underwritten with grant funding from the Virginia Department of Transportation and created in partnership with NeoTreks, Inc. • Additional details

Crowds remember Second Manassas

Saturday, visitors sought out the fields around Manassas, searching for insight into the battle and marking its sesquicentennial. It was one of the South’s great victories. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army outmaneuvered and outfought the army of Union Gen. John Pope, opening the door for the Confederacy’s first major incursion into Union territory in the East. • Article | • Schedule

Submerged relics could have new home

Selma, Ala., has received a grant to study ways to protect weapons dumped into the Alabama River in the last days of the Civil War. Union troops burned the city and tossed into the war items produced at a Selma armament manufacturing plant. • Article

Lecture: 'Blue Coats Under the Big Sky'

After the Civil War, several Union generals went west to subdue and remove Indians, notably in the 1876-77 campaigns in Montana.

"Battles throughout the Northern Rockies and Northern Plains within those months were fateful for both United States expansion and the lives of thousands of American Indians," according to the Nez Perce National Historic Trail, which is co-sponsoring a program at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Missoula.

Tate Jones, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Museum of Military History (RMMMH) at Fort Missoula, will give the talk, entitled "Blue Coats Under the Big Sky." It is being held on the front lawn of the museum.

Subjects include George Armstrong Custer, Gettysburg veteran and Big Hole battle commander Col. John Gibbon (photo), Fort Missoula founder Capt. Charles Rawn, New England Civil War volunteer and later U.S. Army Commander in Chief General Nelson Miles, and Army of the Potomac field commander Gen. Oliver O. Howard.

After the Civil War, Howard headed the Freedman's Bureau for assistance to freed slaves and engaged in action against the “non-treaty” Nez Perce in 1877.

Jones told the Picket that the generals came out of the Civil War "determined there would be one central government" and an end to Western conflicts.

Howard, Jones said, had a somewhat humanitarian, but patriarchal view of the Native Americans. According to Jones, Gibbon was a competent workaday soldier, and "Custer got all the press but Miles did most of the work."

Miles played a major role in the Indian Wars and intercepted Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce in 1877. The campaign of scouring the West of Indians effectively ended with the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. Miles was not directly involved with that incident and criticized the commander.

Generals out West had much more local autonomy then under the Union command structure during the Civil War, said Jones. Soldiers from Fort Missoula participated in the 1877 campaign.

The national historic trail follows the 1,170 mile route of the 1877 war and flight of the Nez Perce.

• More details on the program