Blog
Published: 4/28/22
The Books That Built Me: Brian Matthew Jordan
SHAWNA SHERRELL Brian Matthew Jordan I suppose you could say that I started researching my recently published book, Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War, when I was...
Published: 4/20/22
First Fallen (2021)
In this work, Meg Groeling explores Elmer Ellsworth, the first Union Civil War hero. Most historians know Ellsworth for the end of his life, when he was shot and killed...
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Published: 4/14/22
Assassination Artifacts
“That is the last speech he will ever make.” So remarked John Wilkes Booth on April 11, 1865, after listening to President Abraham Lincoln deliver remarks outside the White House....
Published: 4/13/22
Our Comfort in Dying (2021)
The Reverend Robert Lewis Dabney had already made a name for himself in Christian circles when the Civil War broke out. The war’s onset found him a Presbyterian pastor and...
Published: 4/6/22
A House Built By Slaves (2022)
For many years, historians have debated the answer to the question, “who freed the slaves?” One camp, headed by James M. McPherson, argued for the centrality of President Abraham Lincoln...
Published: 4/5/22
To Address You as My Friend (2021)
Abraham Lincoln’s relationship with African Americans has long held a particular fascination for historians—and understandably so, given his status as the author of the Emancipation Proclamation. Most focus their attention...
Published: 4/4/22
Braxton Bragg at McLemore’s Cove
Library of Congress General Braxton Bragg The art of command remains an elusive and complex concept for historians of the Civil War, and debates about command decisions and methods hold...
Published: 3/30/22
Elusive Utopia (2018)
Racism continues to grip the United States, and many Americans are asking, “why?” The answer requires historical context that traces the nation’s long lineage of racial inequality and examines how...
Published: 3/29/22
Voices From the Army of Northern Virginia, Part 3
A Life of Gen. Robert E. Lee (1876) General Robert E. Lee rides among his troops during the Battle of Gettysburg. Several European journalists and military officers wrote about their...
Published: 3/23/22
Civil War Witnesses and Their Books (2021)
Civil War Witnesses collects eight, carefully crafted and extensively researched essays that deliver on the promises set forth in the subtitle. According to the editors, the works under consideration were “written...
Published: 3/21/22
Extra Voices: Mother Bickerdyke
USAHEC Mother Bickerdyke tends to a wounded soldier in the field. In the Voices section of the Spring 2022 issue of The Civil War Monitor we highlighted quotes by and...
Published: 3/16/22
Ends of War (2021)
Caroline E. Janney carefully states that Ends of War “neither examines nor excuses the motivations or purposes of Confederates as soldiers.” Instead, “it explores the war’s ending as a pivotal...
Published: 3/9/22
The Horse at Gettysburg (2021)
An estimated 80,000 horses and mules accompanied the opposing armies to Gettysburg. The Union and Confederate forces relied upon them to pull miles of supply wagons and hundreds of cannon,...
Published: 3/2/22
Contesting Commemoration (2021)
In 1876, about one in five Americans attended the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, which celebrated the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with an event similar to a world fair....
Published: 2/28/22
The Five Best Books on Civil War Memory
Library of Congress Union and Confederate veterans shake hands at the reunion to mark the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. In his 1948 novel Intruder in the Dust,...
Published: 2/15/22
Bulldozed and Betrayed (2021)
The election of 1876 generated enormous controversy. Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, despite losing the popular vote, won the presidency by one electoral vote over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. Hayes’s victory...
Published: 2/9/22
My Work Among the Freedmen (2021)
History seems all too seldom interested in basically “good” people, and historians often emphasize ambiguity, complexity, or irony in describing historical actors or crafting biographies. The editors of My Work...
Published: 2/2/22
Rebel Salvation (2021)
Reconstruction is often depicted as a political and policy battle between “Presidential Reconstruction,” led by President Andrew Johnson and “Congressional Reconstruction,” advocated by Radical Republicans in the United States Congress....