Blog
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,...
Published: 2/17/12
Voice from the Past: “It Pleased Me Much More Than One Of Those Sentimental Things”
Our Valentine-themed series is coming to a close. We hope you have enjoyed reading some of these love letters from February 1862. Have a great weekend! Camp Porter, Virginia, Tuesday,...
Published: 2/16/12
Voice from the Past: “Ask Us to Marry Him”
Alexandria, February, 1863. I must tell you about a little excursion we made on the 14th. Dr. S. gave us leave (Mrs. B. and me) to go down to Mt....
Published: 2/16/12
After the Battle
Our celebration of the Sesquicentennial of the Battle of Fort Donelson concludes with this Harper’s Weekly image. Seeking for the Wounded, by Torch-Light, After the Battle Image Credit: Harper’s Weekly,...
Published: 2/15/12
Virginia at War, 1865
The fifth and final volume of Virginia at War is the best of the series. This treatment of 1865 in the Old Dominion is crisply edited; focused mostly on a single...
Published: 2/15/12
Freedwomen and the Freedmen’s Bureau (2010)
“If women-whippers and negro shooters go unpunished in this section of the United States, it will be many years before the removal of the curse of military rule as it...
Published: 2/15/12
Voice from the Past: “My Valentine to the Best Woman in the World”
Union Mills, Va., February 14th, 1863. Dear Wife: It has this minute struck me that this is St. Valentine’s day and this will be my valentine to ‘the best woman...
Published: 2/15/12
Voice from the Past: “Absolute Naval Supremacy”
We continue our Fort Donelson sesquicentennial celebration with the following diary entry by William Howard Russell, December, 1861: On my return to New York, at the end of February, the...