Civil War Monitor

Photo Essays

• Civil War EnvelopesRead More
  Date Posted: 3/12/2013

  For many Civil War soldiers, mail call was the highlight of the day. Handwritten letters from home served as a valuable lifeline to loved ones, maintaining morale and alleviating boredom. While the movements of the armies often disrupted delivery times, the U.S. postal service remained relatively effective—often allowing troops to send letters marked "Soldier's Letter" for free ...

• "Life Studies of the Great Army"Read More
  Date Posted: 4/5/2012

  At the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibit of 1876, Edwin Forbes, renowned for his work during the Civil War as a "special artist" for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, displayed a collection of copper etchings based on his wartime illustrations of the Army of the Potomac. Forbes had spent the immediate postwar years completing the drawings and transferring them to copper plates. The...

• The War BeginsRead More
  Date Posted: 8/3/2011

  In a nineteenth-century world free from blogs, social networking sites, television, and cell phones, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper thrived. Part picture, part story, Leslie's publications combined visually stimulating engravings with journalistic articles to create one of the most popular illustrated newspapers of the 1860s. Leslie's Illustrated invited its audience not just to read, but...