Blog
Published: 5/11/12
The “Light Guard”
Good Morning! Today’s Friday Funny is an 1861 Harper’s Weekly cartoon. Entitled “Costume Suggested for the Brave Stay-at-Home Light Guard,” this sketch mockingly questions the masculinity of Union men who...
Published: 5/9/12
A Secret Society History of the Civil War (2011)
When historians of the Civil War think about wartime “secret societies,” various fundamental questions commonly emerge: Who were these people? How numerous were they? What did they believe? What was...
Published: 5/5/12
…And They’re Off..
In honor of the Kentucky Derby, we bring you this image of Civil War era horse racing (courtesy of Frank Leslie). While not a Stakes Race, this image is from...
Published: 5/4/12
The Blockade on the “Connecticut Plan”
Good Morning! To celebrate the end of another long work week, we bring you a “Friday Funny.” Today’s Civil War era cartoon is an 1862 Currier & Ives sketch entitled,...
Published: 5/2/12
CONFEDERATE OUTLAW (2011)
Scholarly interest in Civil War guerrillas has burgeoned over the past decade and, with the sesquicentennial in full swing, more guerrilla-related titles will likely roll off the presses in the...
Published: 5/2/12
John Bell Hood (2010)
The Civil War destroyed John Bell Hood’s life. After spending several years on the Texas frontier as a rising young officer in the pre-war U. S. Cavalry, the Kentuckian made...
Published: 5/1/12
Revising, Refreshing, Evolving Battlefield Interpretation
As a youngster, I visited Shiloh National Military Park on a number of occasions. Given my fondness for artillery, it should be no surprise that the “Ruggles Battery” tour stop...
Published: 4/30/12
The Dying Confederate’s Last Words
The following poem from the Civil War Song Sheets collection highlights the sacrifice made by individual Civil War soldiers. It’s entitled, “The Dying Confederate’s Last Words.” Dear comrades on my...
Published: 4/27/12
Bowling with Beauregard
Good afternoon! Here’s a little Friday Funny to celebrate the end of the work week. Published in the April 26, 1862 edition of Harper’s Weekly, this Justin Howard cartoon celebrates...
Published: 4/26/12
Was Confederate Conscription an Instrument of Social Justice?
Last week brought the sesquicentennial of the first Confederate Conscription Act. The draft would later become a particularly divisive element in the Confederacy (as it also became in the North),...
Published: 4/26/12
Introducing “Iron Men Afloat” – A New Series on the Civil War Navy
Good morning! I am sure many of you noticed that yesterday we posted a two-part series on the fall of New Orleans (April 25th, 1862). Part 1: “The Men and...
Published: 4/25/12
The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader (2010)
The great mnemonic power of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy has been in its ability to uphold almost all of the original tenets of its long-standing mythologies (the war...
Published: 4/25/12
Slavery’s Ghost (2011)
A brief but thought-provoking collection of essays that brings together lectures delivered at the University of Sussex’s Marcus Cunliffe Centre for the Study of the American South, Slavery’s Ghost is framed...
Published: 4/25/12
The Surrender of New Orleans Part 1: The Men and The Skirmish
Today marks the sesquicentennial of the fall of New Orleans (April 25, 1862). As such, The Civil War Monitor is commemorating this event with a two-part series on the surrender....
Published: 4/25/12
The Surrender of New Orleans Part 2: The Machines and Technology
As you know, today—April 25th—marks the 150th anniversary of the fall of New Orleans. Part 2 of our tribute to the surrender of the Crescent City is located on the...
Published: 4/18/12
The Abolitionist Imagination (2012)
This call and response volume grew from the Alexis de Tocqueville Lectures on American Politics at Harvard. Andrew Delblanco provoked and the other authors responded. Delbanco, a literary historian, holds...
Published: 4/18/12
Albert Taylor Bledsoe (2011)
Terry Barnhart’s intriguing biography of Albert Taylor Bledsoe reveals that Bledsoe, like the Old South he cherished, was a paradox. Long recognized as one of the most respected—and most unrepentant—southern...
Published: 4/15/12
Did a C.S.S. Alabama Veteran Die in the Titanic Disaster?
The December 1912 issue of The Confederate Veteran carries a list of eleven members of the Joe Johnston UCV Camp No. 94 of Mexia, Texas, who died between July 1911...