Blog
Published: 3/7/12
Colonization After Emancipation (2011)
Abraham Lincoln’s persistent interest in colonizing freed blacks out of the United States to solve the thorny problem of what to do with a distrusted black minority within American society...
Published: 3/7/12
New Jersey Butterfly Boys in the Civil War (2011)
In New Jersey Butterfly Boys, Peter T. Lubrecht tells the story of the Third New Jersey Cavalry, a regiment that saw action during the latter half of the Civil War....
Published: 3/6/12
The Girl Soldiers of Nancy Harts Militia
Good morning! Today’s Women’s History Month themed post honors Nancy Harts militia—an oft-ignored group of brave women from LaGrange, Georgia. Formed early in the war, Nancy Harts militia was actually...
Published: 3/5/12
A Poetic Tribute to Civil War Women
Good Morning! Our Women’s History Month celebration continues with Mary E. Nealy’s 1864 poem written for the Indiana State Sanitary Fair: And our noble women, the soldier cries, As he...
Published: 3/2/12
“One Side of the War is Theirs” – The U.S. Sanitary Commission
Founded on June 18, 1861 via federal legislation, the United States Sanitary Commission (USSC) was a private relief agency that supported sick and wounded soldiers of the U.S. Army during...
Published: 3/1/12
Honoring Civil War Women for Women’s History Month
Today marks the first day of Women’s History Month. To celebrate, The Front Line will have a month-long series of women’s history posts including images, quotes, writings, and biographies. We...
Published: 2/29/12
Gettysburg’s Forgotten Cavalry Actions (2011)
This is the kind of book that academic historians ridicule, general Civil War readers find too narrow, and Gettysburg junkies embrace. Gettysburg’s Forgotten Cavalry Actions is a revised edition of cavalry...
Published: 2/28/12
Weird Essay Winner
This winning entry was submitted by Mr. Frank Grzyb of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, to The Civil War Monitor’s “Weirding the War Essay Contest”—an event held in honor of Weirding the War:...
Published: 2/28/12
Mustered Out…The U.S. Colored Troops
“Mustered Out,” Little Rock, Arkansas, April 20, 1865 by Alfred R. Waud. Image Credit: Harper’s Weekly, May 19, 1866 courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Published: 2/28/12
Mustering Out Continued…General Orders No. 1
COMRADES: The hour is at hand when we must separate forever, and nothing can take from us the pride we feel, when we look upon the history of the ‘First...
Published: 2/27/12
Recruiting Black Soldiers – The Fight for Equal Rights
After President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, the Union army began recruiting African American soldiers. The first authorized black regiments came from Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Tennessee. While initially...
Published: 2/24/12
A Request from the 36 U.S. Colored Regiment
Our Black History Month celebration contines with this letter written by the 36th U.S. Colored Regiment to the commissioner of the Freedman’s Bureau. Stationed near Petersburg, VA at the time,...
Published: 2/23/12
Black Soldiers and the Bloody Battle of Milliken’s Bend
Part of the Vicksburg Campaign, the Battle at Milliken’s Bend occured on June 7, 1863 and included hand-to-hand combat between Confederate troops and a newly formed “African Brigade.” The following...
Published: 2/22/12
Children and Youth During the Civil War Era (2012)
Despite the explosion of social history since the 1970s, few historians of children or the Civil War have addressed the topic of children and childhood during the Civil War. The...
Published: 2/21/12
American Oracle (2011)
David Blight’s Race and Reunion (2001) established him as one of the foremost scholars of Civil War memory. In that volume, Blight argued that in the decades after the Civil War,...
Published: 2/21/12
Quarters for African American Soldiers
Our Black History Month Celebration continues with this Harper’s Weekly depiction of “Negro Quarters, Army of the James.” Image Credit: Harper’s Weekly, February 25, 1865.
Published: 2/20/12
Rest in Peace Willie Lincoln
“My poor boy, he was too good for this earth. God has called him home. I know that he is much better off in heaven, but then we loved him...
Published: 2/20/12
Special Field Orders No. 15
Our Black History Month celebration continues with General Willaim Tecumseh Sherman’s Special Field Orders No. 15. Issued January 16, 1865, Sherman’s orders confiscated approximately 400,000 acres of Confederate coastal property,...