Articles
Published: 5/28/25
Q&A with Cecily Zander
A Q&A with historian Cecily Zander touches on what she's reading, her favorite books, and what kind of reader she is.
Published: 5/28/25
The Five Best Books on Jefferson Davis
What are the best books about Confederate president Jefferson Davis? We asked two experts for their picks.
Published: 3/10/25
A “Texan Ranger”
A deeper look at an illustration published in the July 6, 1861, issue of Harper's Weekly.
Published: 3/18/25
Q&A with Brian Matthew Jordan
A brief, bookish Q&A with Civil War historian Brian Matthew Jordan
Published: 6/21/22
The Five Best Books on Lincoln and His Commanders
Abraham Lincoln was not a military man, yet in March 1861 he became commander in chief of forces that would soon face the task of suppressing an 11-state rebellion. Other...
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Published: 3/18/25
The Liberators: Combahee River Raid of 1863
In June 1863, Harriet Tubman helped Union forces pull off a daring raid of destruction and liberation on plantations of the South Carolina Lowcountry.
Published: 3/18/25
The Five Best Books on William T. Sherman
Historian Bennett Parten offers his picks of the five best books ever written about Union general William T. Sherman.
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Published: 3/14/25
Redrawing the Guerrilla War
A new graphic history of the guerrilla war in Missouri imagines a different way for scholars to broaden their reach.
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Published: 3/14/25
The Making of a General
Before he became the Union's top soldier, Mexican War veteran turned store clerk Ulysses S. Grant needed to find a way back into the army.
Published: 3/18/25
Failure at Fredericksburg
Union general William B. Franklin and the perils of indecision and delay at the Battle of Fredericksburg
Published: 3/18/25
The Imagined Emancipationist
Harry Turtledove's "The Guns of the South" cast Robert E. Lee as a victor whose allies turn out to be otherworldly
Published: 3/18/25
Living with Winter
A close look at a seemingly ordinary photograph of a Union regiment's winter camp reveals interesting details.
Published: 3/18/25
A Civil War Baseball
A look at a baseball used by soldiers of the 17th New York Veteran Volunteer Infantry that sold at auction for $41,825 in February 2014.
Published: 8/31/22
The Five Best Books on the Civil War in the (Far) West
On the first day of my American West in History and Film class, I ask students to explain where the historical West of their imaginations is located, when it existed,...
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Published: 3/18/25
Union and Confederate Small Arms
A look at a cross section of Union and Confederate small arms hints at their great variety over the Civil War years.
Published: 3/18/25
A Boy Soldier
The story of 15-year-old Jimmy Bateman's relentless pursuit to join the Union army in 1861.
Published: 3/18/25
Making Progress in Tennessee
How support from the Tennessee Sites Preservation Fund is crucial to preserving Civil War sites in the Volunteer State.
Published: 3/18/25
Please Write!
First-person quotes from Union and Confederate soldiers about their deep desire to receive letters from home.