Terry Johnston
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Published: 11/25/24
Civil War Punishments
Discover the various methods used to discipline soldiers during the Civil War.
Published: 11/18/24
A Helping Hand
The Civil War saw many advances in devices to aid amputees, including the practical tool known as a “knork.”
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Published: 11/11/24
Civil War Veterans, Part 1
Over 3 million men served as soldiers or sailors during the Civil War; well over 2 million of them survived the ordeal to return home. As they adjusted to civilian...
Published: 11/4/24
Lincoln and Yosemite
In 1903, Theodore Roosevelt paid his first visit to the Yosemite Valley of California, with John Muir as his guide. For three days the president and the naturalist explored a...
Published: 10/28/24
Death of a Loyal Brother
In September 1861, Byron B. Wilson, 24, enlisted as a private in Company H of the newly forming 4th Vermont Infantry. Over the time of his service, Wilson wrote home...
Published: 10/21/24
To Dig or Not To Dig
What do the battlegrounds at Gettysburg, Kennesaw Mountain, and Murfreesboro have in common? From a tactical perspective, large portions of these fighting fields resisted digging, prohibiting entrenching as a defensive...
Published: 10/20/24
Eyewitness to Ball’s Bluff
On October 21, 1861, Union forces suffered a decisive and disheartening defeat at the Battle of Ball’s Bluff. What had begun as an intended raid against Confederates occupying the Virginia...
Published: 10/7/24
All About Us
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”...
Published: 10/1/24
Lincoln Prize Lecture 2024
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...
Published: 9/30/24
A Spy’s Demise
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’...
Published: 9/23/24
Extra Voices: Accidental Deaths
In the Voices section of our Fall 2024 issue we highlighted quotes by Union and Confederate soldiers about incidents of accidental deaths during the Civil War. Unfortunately, we didn’t have...
Published: 9/16/24
Decatur, Alabama: A Battlefield of the Imagination
By 9 a.m., Mother Nature has already dialed her setting to “Blast Furnace” outside the 1905 train depot in Decatur, launching pad for our visit to this northern Alabama town...
Published: 9/9/24
A Woman’s Devotion
In 1867, Sarah Brock’s Richmond During the War, a memoir of her experiences as a resident of the Confederate capital during the conflict, was published. The book documents Brock’s activities...
Published: 9/2/24
The Civil War’s Miracle Drugs
Medicine during the Civil War is often thought of as having been dangerous and backward. Surgeon General of the U.S. Army William A. Hammond, who served from 1861-1863, is supposed...
Published: 8/26/24
Extra Voices: Killing the Enemy
In the Voices section of our Summer 2024 issue we highlighted quotes by Union and Confederate soldiers that revealed their thoughts about killing the enemy. Unfortunately, we didn’t have room...
Published: 8/23/24
The Coffee Wagon
In 1863, Philadelphia pharmacist Jacob Dunton designed and built a coffee wagon he then donated to the United States Christian Commission (USCC), an organization whose volunteers (known as “delegates”) provided...
Published: 8/19/24
Rivers Running Red
What does the mighty Mississippi have in common with the Potomac and Stones rivers? According to those who carve monuments and write local histories, on at least one occasion, all...
Published: 8/16/24
Death of a Patriotic Lady
In 1865, the United States Sanitary Commission (USSC), an organization whose volunteer members had worked to support sick and wounded Union troops during the conflict, published a book titled Soldiers’...
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