All About Us
The Front Line
It has become fashionable among some historians and public commentators to stop using many basic terms associated with the Civil War era. Examples include substituting “enslavers” for “slaveowners,” “enslaved persons”…
A New Look at America’s Greatest Conflict
Current Issue
Robert E. Lee's Unwritten History
Vol. 14, No. 3
Grant and Sherman did it. Hood and Longstreet and Johnston too. So why didn’t the Confederacy’s greatest general write a memoir of the war?
Recent Posts
The 1864 Project Trailer
The Front Line
We’re excited to announce that the Monitor’s first-ever podcast series is launching later this month. The 1864 Project is a 7-part series that focuses on a vitally important year during…
Our Ancient Faith (2024)
Book Reviews
Allen Guelzo’s “Our Ancient Faith” is at once thought-provoking, learned, and eminently readable.
Lincoln Prize Lecture 2024
The Front Line
Last year The American Civil War Museum (ACWM) presented its inaugural Lincoln Prize Lecture. The annual program takes place again this year on October 17, 2024, at their Tredegar site…
A Spy’s Demise
The Front Line
In 1865, the United States Sanitary Commission, a private relief agency that supported sick and wounded soldiers during the Civil War, published a volume of Union soldiers’ writings titled Soldiers’…
Lincoln’s Lost Colony (2023)
Book Reviews
“Lincoln’s Lost Colony” is a tragic yet fascinating chapter of Civil War history.
Featured Posts
The Civil War’s Epidemics
Civil War Medicine
It’s well-known that the Civil War was the United States’ deadliest conflict. Between 750,000 and 1 million Americans died, shockingly high figures that still drive interest in the conflict more…
McClellan’s Culture of Command
Featured
George B. McClellan profoundly affected the course of the Civil War. His inexplicable retreat following a major victory at Malvern Hill in July 1862 undoubtedly lengthened the conflict and, to…
A Hospital Steward’s Story
Featured
During the Siege of Port Hudson in 1863—part of the Union military’s attempt to seize control of the Mississippi River—James Kendall Hosmer, a soldier in the 52nd Massachusetts Infantry,…
The Best Civil War Books of 2023
Featured
The Books & Authors section of our Winter 2023 issue contains our annual roundup of the year’s best Civil War titles. As usual, we’ve enlisted a handful of Civil War…
The Books That Built Me: John Hennessy
Featured
The contruction of my historiographical self began on a rainy afternoon in fifth grade. There was no chance for outdoor romping, or venturing through the deluge to a friend’s house…
Voices From the Army of Northern Virginia, Part 8
Featured
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University Soldiers of the Texas Brigade Putting this series together has been enjoyable but also frustrating. None of the retrospective literature created by soldiers in the…