Blog
Published: 3/21/22
Extra Voices: Mother Bickerdyke
Read the poignant quotes about Mother Bickerdyke that illustrate her role as a revolutionary nurse in the Civil War.
Published: 3/16/22
Ends of War (2021)
A "beautifully written and engaging" examination of the Civil War's immediate aftermath.
Published: 3/9/22
The Horse at Gettysburg (2021)
A "detailed and enlightening" book about the role horses played at the epic 1863 battle.
Published: 3/2/22
Contesting Commemoration (2021)
A detailed review of Jack Noe's "Contesting Commemoration," a look at how Americans experienced the country's Centennial in 1876.
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)
An "absolutely marvelous book" about a controversial period in American history
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....
Published: 1/26/22
Untouched by the Conflict (2019)
More than two million young men left their civilian lives, donned blue woolen uniforms, shouldered arms, and served in the Union army during the Civil War. Many Dickinson College alumni...
Published: 1/19/22
Teacher, Preacher, Soldier, Spy (2021)
Born along the middle border in Franklin County, Ohio, in 1831 and dying on the “closing” Colorado frontier in 1891, John R. Kelso lived what can only be described as...
Published: 1/18/22
Essential Reading on the Peninsula Campaign
anne s.k. brown military collection George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac on the move during the Peninsula Campaign In the spring and early summer of 1862, Union general George B....
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Published: 1/14/22
The Emancipation Proclamation
Discover the significance of the Emancipation Proclamation in the fight for freedom during the Civil War, as told through historical artwork.
Published: 1/13/22
Word-clouding the Emancipation Proclamation
Discover the significant terms in the Emancipation Proclamation through our word cloud, highlighting Lincoln's powerful message.
Published: 1/12/22
The Cacophony of Politics (2021)
When Roy Franklin Nichols penned the final chapters of his formidable classic, The Disruption of American Democracy, he wrote that “the Democratic party seemed in desperate straits. The war which...
Published: 1/5/22
Rites of Retaliation (2021)
By the fall of 1862, Jefferson Davis believed he had found a way to control the Union Army. That summer General John Pope had led an army into Virginia, issuing...
Published: 1/4/22
Seeing the Elephant
Union soldier Francis M. Ingram “did not enjoy the 6 of April as well as I hav enjoyed some Sundays.”[2] On the banks of the Tennessee River, the “Rebel tide...
Published: 12/29/21
Stephen A. Swails (2021)
A short but satisfying biography of a trailblazing soldier in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry
Published: 12/28/21
Benjamin F. Butler and Military Emancipation
National Archives Major General Benjamin F. Butler What if? This is the eternal question that so often confounds students of Civil War military history, and leads to groundless flights of...