Steinberg, who only dedicates four of his nine pages to the discussion of weather, has inspired a handful of scholars to begin addressing the topic in greater length. Three years following the publication of Down to Earth, noted military historian Robert K. Kirk released his book Civil War Weather in Virginia. Although Kirck argues that his work is “designed for reference purposes, not analytical ones,” Civil War Weather provides researchers with an important tool for future inquiries, while also demonstrating the various methods required to collect meteorological data from a diverse source base. Kirk derives much of his data from daily weather records kept by Georgetown minister C.B. Mackee, “who faithfully made readings in Georgetown, D.C. at 7 a.m., 2 …show more content…
Noe’s essay “Fateful Lightning: the Significance of Weather and Climate to Civil War History,” takes a similar approach as Steinberg by assessing weathers impact on various events throughout the course of the conflict. However, what sets Noe’s assessment apart from other accounts is his emphasis on the importance of climate during the Civil War. Noe argues that much of the extreme meterological conditions that occurred during the course of the war were actually a result of a climatic event known as El Nina-Southern Oscillation. Using climatology data from the National Climatic Data Series and the National Archives’ Records of the Smithsonian Meteorological Project, Noe attributes events such as the southern bread riots to El Nina, which created harsh frost, droughts, and flooding, all of which hindered the South’s agricultural output. Noe further argues that the climatic conditions caused by El Nina actually assisted Union military strategy. From 1861 to 1865, not a single hurricane struck the East coast. Without harsh oceanic storms, the Union was able to maintain naval blockades for extended durations, therefore stripping the Confederacy of even more