Blog
Published: 10/27/21
Matchless Organization (2021)
In Matchless Organization, Guy R. Hasegawa offers a clear, detailed, and thorough history of the Confederacy’s military medical organization. The book is largely procedural, walking the reader through the organization of...
Published: 10/25/21
The Best Civil War Novels
Library of Congress No event in American history has inspired more imaginative writing than the Civil War. Authors have made the struggle the subject of thousands of rhymes, songs, poems,...
Published: 10/20/21
Lincoln’s Mentors (2021)
Americans, it seems, never tire of reading about Abraham Lincoln. Michael J. Gerhardt adds to the library of books about the sixteenth president with this impressive study of the men...
Published: 10/18/21
Suits of Shoddy
Founded in 1818, Brooks Brothers of New York is the oldest clothing retailer in America. Even today, the name alone conjures images of fine silk neckties and Italian wool sportscoats—quality,...
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Published: 10/15/21
The Mountain Campaigns in Georgia
Published in 1890, The Mountain Campaigns in Georgia—a slim volume devoted to telling the story of the battles fought in the war’s western theater along the Western & Atlantic Railroad—boasted a...
Published: 10/13/21
William Barksdale, CSA (2021)
William Barksdale’s life is often reduced to a single episode—namely, the charge his brigade made at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863. This tendency leaves most of Barksdale’s life unexamined. As...
Published: 10/6/21
Buying & Selling Civil War Memory in Gilded Age America (2021)
In the two decades since the publication of David W. Blight’s Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, scholarship on the meaning and legacy of our nation’s fratricidal...
Published: 9/29/21
The Boy Generals (2021)
The June 24, 1865, issue of Harper’s Weekly carried a full-page engraving featuring Union generals Philip H. Sheridan, George Crook, James Forsyth, George Custer, and Wesley Merritt. The print, derived from...
Published: 9/27/21
The Five Best Books on Civil War Guerrillas
Library of Congress Two guerrillas stop a civilian rider to rob him in this sketch from a December 1864 issue of Harper’s Weekly. “This Mr. Wales is a cold-blooded killer....
Published: 9/24/21
Mr. Gridley and His Sack of Flour
In the January 21, 1865, issue of Harper’s Weekly, the editors published a small story about a man from Nevada who had lost an election for city office—but gained national...
Published: 9/22/21
Surviving Southampton (2021)
The name that is associated with any given event usually reveals how we remember it. In the case of “Nat Turner’s Rebellion,” the focus on the revolt’s “leader” is clear....
Published: 9/20/21
Unceasing Fury at Chickamauga
Fourteen hundred and 91 days in the Confederate Army (1953) W.W. Heartsill as he appeared after the Civil War The Battle of Chickamauga, fought on September 18–20, 1863, pitted William...
Published: 9/15/21
Lincoln and Citizenship (2021)
Two days after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Abraham Lincoln delivered the last speech of his life. Responding to Louisiana’s plans for a new state constitution, Lincoln expressed his support for...
Published: 9/13/21
Extra Voices: Nicknames
Library of Congress Roosters prepare for battle in a Union army camp. In the Voices section of the Fall 2021 issue of The Civil War Monitor we highlighted quotes by...
Published: 9/8/21
A Fire in the Wilderness (2021)
The two-day battle fought in the Wilderness of Spotsylvania on May 5 and 6, 1864, opened the Overland Campaign and the famous confrontation between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E....
Published: 9/1/21
A Holy Baptism of Fire & Blood (2021)
Historians of the U.S. Civil War have long recognized the power and centrality of religion during the nation’s defining struggle. James P. Byrd has entered the conversation with the goal...
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: 8/25/21
Unlike Anything That Ever Floated (2021)
From the very first shots of the Civil War, it was apparent that control of maritime access to the self-proclaimed Confederate States would play a crucial role in the conflict’s...