Blog
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)
Review of a welcome new environmental history of the Civil War.
Published: 5/24/21
The Death of Colonel Ellsworth
Read The New York Times' lengthy tribute to Elmer Ellsworth after the young Union colonel's death in 1861.
Published: 5/19/21
Imagining Wild Bill (2020)
A "well-written and accessible study of historical memory."
Published: 5/12/21
Christian Citizens (2020)
An important work about the intersection of religion, race, gender, and 19th-century southern politics.
Published: 5/5/21
Whisperwood (2020)
Review of a novel about the valor and courage of a soldier struggling to survive.
Published: 4/29/21
Essential Reading on the Coming of the Civil War
Library of Congress Fort Sumter under fire, April 1861 The literature on the coming of the Civil War is more than vast—it is overwhelming. Choosing just a handful of the...
Published: 4/28/21
The Assault on Fort Blakeley (2021)
Review of a new history of one of Alabama's main coastal defenses.
Published: 4/21/21
The Last Slave Ships (2020)
A fascinating study of the demise of the illegal trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Published: 4/19/21
Kissing and Kicking Ass
Private Amos Breneman of the 203rd Pennsylvania Infantry was, by his own estimation, an ass. Addressing a male friend back in Lancaster County, he wrote in April 1865, “I am...
Published: 4/16/21
War’s Early Days
Read South Carolina diarist Mary Boykin Chesnut's gripping account of the fall of Fort Sumter and its aftermath.
Published: 4/15/21
“The First Gun is Fired”
The story—and lyrics—of George Root's Apri 1861 song about Fort Sumter, "The First Gun is Fired: May God Protect the Right."
Published: 4/14/21
What Though the Field Be Lost (2021)
A collection of poems that are "cerebral" and "dense with literary and historical allusions."
Published: 4/9/21
Word-Clouding Lee’s and Grant’s Farewell Addresses
View the words Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee used in the farewell addresses they delivered to their men as represented in a word cloud.
Published: 4/7/21
Incidents in the Life of Cecilia Lawton (2021)
An insightful look at the mindset of white southerners in the wake of the Civil War.
Published: 4/5/21
Extra Voices: Shirkers
Read firsthand Civil War soldier quotes on shirking in the Union and Confederate armies.
Published: 3/31/21
First Chaplain of the Confederacy (2020)
A reminder of the nuanced role Catholics played in the Confederate and Reconstruction South.
Published: 3/29/21
A Reconstruction Bookshelf
Library of Congress In this sketch by Alfred Waud, a federal official stands between armed groups of southern whites and African Americans during Reconstruction. It’s safe to say that while...