Blog
Published: 7/18/12
Refugitta of Richmond (2011)
Constance Cary Harrison’s accounts of Civil War Richmond have supplied many a historian with an insider’s view of life in the Confederate capital. Drew Gilpin Faust’s Mothers of Invention: Women...
Published: 7/11/12
The Lincoln Assassination (2010)
Abraham Lincoln’s assassination on Good Friday in 1865 shocked the nation, elevated the fallen President to martyrdom, immediately inspired mythmakers, and intrigued historians for years. Contributors to The Lincoln Assassination:...
Published: 7/11/12
Giant in the Shadows (2012)
Abraham Lincoln’s only surviving son has long been a hard fellow to like. For one thing, he was much more like his presumptuous mother than his endearingly modest and sublimely...
Published: 7/2/12
War Upon the Land (2012)
Lisa Brady could have opened her book with a relevant might-have-been story. Fort Pickens in Pensacola nearly trumped Fort Sumter as the birthplace of the Civil War. Washington simultaneously dispatched...
Published: 6/29/12
Dark Artillery
Happy Friday! Today’s Civil War cartoon is a Frank Leslie drawing entitled “Dark Artillery” or “How to make the contrabands useful.” Published in 1861, the cartoon is a commentary on...
Published: 6/27/12
John Brown Still Lives! (2011)
The catalysts, conduct, context, and consequences of the Civil War era continue to resonate through American intellectual and popular life. Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, and to a lesser extent,...
Published: 6/26/12
The Intrepid
This week marks the sesquicentennial of the Seven Days’ Campaign. As such, we thought we would bring you this image of the Intrepid—one of the Union Army Balloon Corps’ aerial...
Published: 6/22/12
The Railsplitter
Today, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter officially hits movies. As such, we thought it fitting to pay tribute to the original Railsplitter—as opposed to the axe wielding vampire killer. The Railsplitter...
Published: 6/22/12
The New Orleans Plum
Happy Friday! This week’s Friday Funny is an 1862 cartoon entitled, “The New Orleans Plum.” A contemporary take on the famous Mother Goose tale, “Little Jack Horner,” this illustration casts...
Published: 6/20/12
The Revolution of 1861 (2012)
Perhaps the oldest and most out of favor interpretation of the American Civil War was formulated by Karl Marx who saw it as only one aspect of an international revolution...
Published: 6/20/12
Marching With Sherman (2012)
By now most accounts of Sherman’s war-altering campaigns across Georgia and then up through the Carolinas follow the same well-trod paths. Many books, like Noah Andre Trudeau’s Southern Storm, give...
Published: 6/18/12
The Cumberland
Good morning! Today we bring you an 1862 poem by Herman Melville entitled, “The Cumberland.” Written in March of 1862, Melville lyrivally referenced the fateful sinking of the USS Cumberland...
Published: 6/15/12
Not Up To Time
Good afternoon! Today’s Friday Funny is an 1862 piece from the London weekly magazine, Punch. Entitled, “”Not up to Time;” Or, Intereference would be very Welcome,” the cartoon highlights the...
Published: 6/13/12
Routes of War (2012)
Some changes in historical interpretation are driven by uncovering new sources. Others come as a consequence of new methods or new analytical interests. Still others derive more simply, from scholars...
Published: 6/11/12
Elegy for the Native Guards
In honor of Natasha Trethewey being named the next poet laureate, we thought we would share with you one of her Civil War inspired poems. Now that the salt of...
Published: 6/8/12
Masterly Inactivity
Good afternoon! This Frank Leslie cartoon parodies the extended military standoff between Union General George B. McClellan’s Army of Potomac and Confederate General P.G.T Beauregard’s Army of the Shenandoah during...
Published: 6/6/12
Views from the Dark Side of American History (2011)
And there it was. The question I knew she would eventually ask, this undergraduate who writes for her campus newspaper. “So why did you become interested in the Civil War?”...
Published: 6/6/12
Battle Hymns (2012)
In Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War, Christian McWhirter analyzes the role music played in dividing the nation in 1860-1861, in sustaining civilian and...