Blogs

On June 3, 1865—only a few weeks after the end of the Civil War—Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper ran the following article about the former Confederate-run prison in Richmond called Castle Thunder ... with a focus on one of its most infamous guards, which it profiled in the sketch below: 

In "Mississippi Bishop William Henry Elder and the Civil War," Ryan Starrett has produced an excellent, if limited local history...

Clint Crowe's "Caught in the Maelstrom" shows that the Indian Territory is a fertile field for future research....

In "Imperfect Union," Steve Inskeep focuses his attention on telling an enticing story...

A look at how historians are engaging scholars, enthusiasts, and the public on social media platforms.

In the Voices section of our Spring 2020 issue we highlighted quotes by Union and Confederate soldiers about the excitement that often accompanied payday in camp. Unfortunately, we didn't have room to include all that we found. Below are those that didn't make the cut.

In "The Last Battleground," Philip Gerard tries to bring the reader along on his journey...to learn about some of the lives touched by the Civil War in North Carolina.

As the war raged on, civilians in New York city still made time to think of the latest fashions...

Donald L. Miller's "Vicksburg: Grant's Campaign That Broke the Confederacy" is marked by impeccable prose anchored by a staggering amount of archival research and an impressive grasp of relevant historiography line every page.

Fergus M. Bordewich's "Congress at War" is engagingly written and will be welcomed by a popular audience as well as scholars.

A look, through images, at Confederate president Jefferson Davis ...

Before he fled Richmond at war's end, Jefferson Davis left an interesting gift for the son of a family friend.

In "Rebel Guerrillas," Paul Williams studies three of the Confederate Army's most prominent irregular warriors.

A review of Elizabeth R. Varon's "Armies of Deliverance," the Lincoln Prize–winning work that largely presents the war from the viewpoint of contemporaries experiencing the conflict as it unfolded before them.

As Joseph McKenna shows in "British Blockade Runners in the American Civil War, the Union attempt to blockade over 3,500 miles of Confederate coastline was an immense undertaking that spread the U.S. Navy thinly.

Radical Republicans have always been the most colorful of the party’s factions to chronicle, as evidenced in LeeAnna Keith's "When It Was Grand" ...

A look at life in a Union field hospital during the Siege of Port Hudson in mid-1863.

"Civil War Monuments and the Militarization of America" by Thomas J. Brown is one of the most comprehensive explorations on Civil War monuments to date.

Understanding the mythic event at Appomattox that represents the end of the Confederacy.