50FISH Dev Team
Published: 9/20/21
Unceasing Fury at Chickamauga
Read Confederate soldier W.W. Heartsills' firsthand account of his participation in the Battle of Chickamauga.
Published: 9/13/21
Extra Voices: Nicknames
Read firsthand Union and Confederate soldiers' quotes about the nicknames they gave to comrades during the Civil War.
Published: 8/27/21
Voices From the Army of Northern Virginia, Part 2
IN CAMP AND BATTLE WITH THE WASHINGTON ARTILLERY OF NEW ORLEANS (1885) Confederate gunners fire at the enemy in a postwar illustration titled “The Artillery Duel.” Artillerists created an invaluable...
Published: 7/20/21
After Fort Wagner
Read 54th Massachusetts soldier Lewis Douglass' letter about the Battle of Fort Wagner which he wrote days after the the famed fight.
Published: 7/16/21
Bully Boys
“If you want to have a good time, join the cavalry!” Detailing the early war exploits of J.E.B. Stuart’s Confederate troops, this song immortalized the daring ride around George B....
Published: 6/28/21
Voices From the Army of Northern Virginia, Part 1
Library of Congress J.E.B. Stuart leads the Army of Northern Virginia’s cavalry on its ride around the Army of the Potomac in 1862. Between fall 2013 and summer 2016, I...
Published: 6/7/21
Extra Voices: Fear
Read firsthand Union and Confederate soldiers' quotes on the feelings of fear they experienced in battle.
Published: 5/28/21
The Books that Built Me
Library of Congress A Civil War soldier and his reading material Civil War enthusiasts understand that historians construct campaign and battle narratives from official reports, maps, letters, journals, newspaper articles...
Published: 5/24/21
The Death of Colonel Ellsworth
Read The New York Times' lengthy tribute to Elmer Ellsworth after the young Union colonel's death in 1861.
Published: 4/29/21
Essential Reading on the Coming of the Civil War
Library of Congress Fort Sumter under fire, April 1861 The literature on the coming of the Civil War is more than vast—it is overwhelming. Choosing just a handful of the...
Published: 4/19/21
Kissing and Kicking Ass
Private Amos Breneman of the 203rd Pennsylvania Infantry was, by his own estimation, an ass. Addressing a male friend back in Lancaster County, he wrote in April 1865, “I am...
Published: 4/16/21
War’s Early Days
Read South Carolina diarist Mary Boykin Chesnut's gripping account of the fall of Fort Sumter and its aftermath.
Published: 4/15/21
“The First Gun is Fired”
The story—and lyrics—of George Root's Apri 1861 song about Fort Sumter, "The First Gun is Fired: May God Protect the Right."
Published: 4/9/21
Word-Clouding Lee’s and Grant’s Farewell Addresses
View the words Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee used in the farewell addresses they delivered to their men as represented in a word cloud.
Published: 4/5/21
Extra Voices: Shirkers
Read firsthand Civil War soldier quotes on shirking in the Union and Confederate armies.
Published: 3/29/21
A Reconstruction Bookshelf
Library of Congress In this sketch by Alfred Waud, a federal official stands between armed groups of southern whites and African Americans during Reconstruction. It’s safe to say that while...
Published: 3/22/21
The Hands-On Historian
Jimell Greene Photography Bryan Cheeseboro at Fort Stevens, where his interest in the Civil War was born. It was February 2004, and Bryan Cheeseboro was hurtling toward Olustee, Florida, in...
Published: 2/26/21
Letters Home: Correspondence from Men at War
Frank Leslie’s illustrated Newspaper Union soldiers take a moment to write home on the hurricane deck of the U.S. transport North Star while on campaign in the Gulf of Mexico...