Blog
Published: 8/4/21
The Bonds of War (2021)
Recent years have witnessed a growth in the use of the unit history as a vehicle for exploring the Civil War soldier. Scholars such as Lesley J. Gordon, Susannah Ural,...
Published: 7/28/21
No Place for Glory (2021)
Robert J. Wynstra has established himself as one of the Gettysburg Campaign’s most capable modern scholars. His prize-winning At the Forefront of Lee’s Invasion: Retribution, Plunder, and Clashing Cultures on...
Published: 7/21/21
West of Slavery (2021)
As an historian of the Civil War’s westernmost reaches, I have been eagerly anticipating the publication of Kevin Waite’s West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire. Waite’s...
Published: 7/20/21
After Fort Wagner
National Park Service Lewis Douglass, 54th Massachusetts Infantry On July 20, 1863, 22-year-old Lewis Douglass, a member of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry—and son of famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass—wrote the following...
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Published: 7/18/21
The 54th Massachusetts at Fort Wagner
On July 18, 1863, Union troops commanded by Brigadier General Quincy Gillmore launched an attack on Fort Wagner, the Confederate bastion that protected Morris Island, located south of Charleston Harbor—part...
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: 7/14/21
Civil War Richmond (2021)
In the vast realm of Civil War studies, few individual cities have received the attention paid Richmond, Virginia. Scores of books—ranging from the memoirs of its contemporary residents to modern...
Published: 7/7/21
Faces of Union Soldiers at South Mountain & Harpers Ferry (2021)
Bell Irvin Wiley’s books, The Life of Johnny Reb and The Life of Billy Yank, written over seventy years ago, were milestones in Civil War historiography. Combing through thousands of sources, especially soldiers’...
Published: 6/30/21
A Mortal Blow to the Confederacy (2021)
When one thinks of the Civil War, they often think of the blood-soaked battlefields between Washington, D.C., and Richmond. This “Virginia-centric” mindset has dominated the historiographical landscape for much of...
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: 6/23/21
Abandoned Coastal Defenses of Alabama (2021)
In Abandoned Coastal Defenses of Alabama, Thomas Kenning provides a brief history of Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines, two island bastions off the coast of Mobile, Alabama. However, Kenning’s book is...
Published: 6/16/21
Civil War Supply and Strategy (2020)
Earl J. Hess is an exceptionally productive historian of the U.S. Civil War. Recently retired from Lincoln Memorial University, where he held the Stewart McClelland Chair in History, Hess has...
Published: 6/9/21
Embattled Capital (2021)
Since the sesquicentennial of “America’s defining event” nearly a decade ago, the Emerging Civil War Series has produced dozens of books on an ever-growing list of topics. These concise titles...
Published: 6/7/21
Extra Voices: Fear
In the Voices section of the Summer 2021 issue of The Civil War Monitor we highlighted quotes by Union and Confederate soldiers about fear. Unfortunately, we didn’t have room to...
Published: 6/2/21
Meade and Lee at Rappahannock Station (2021)
While a bewildering number of books have been published about the Gettysburg Campaign and a considerable amount of ink has been spilled on the Wilderness Campaign, the absence of scholarship...
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: 5/26/21
The Howling Storm (2020)
The Civil War was fought outside. This seems like an obvious fact, but it has an important, though often overlooked implication. Because the war was fought outside, humans were not...
Published: 5/24/21
The Death of Colonel Ellsworth
Library of Congress Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth On May 24, 1861, 24-year-old Elmer E. Ellsworth, colonel of 11th New York Infantry, led a group of his men from their camp...