Blog
Published: 2/6/12
Voice from the Past: “We Had Held Out for Over Two”
The following is Captain Jesse Taylor’s recollection of the Confederate defense of Fort Henry on February 6, 1862. …Arriving at the fort, I was convinced by a glance at its...
Published: 2/2/12
Voice from the Past: Rallying with the Hearts of Lions
The following letter is from Samuel Cabble, a private in the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Infantry, to his wife. Cabble was a slave before he joined the army at twenty-one years of...
Published: 2/2/12
Preparing to See the Elephant
Preparing the Negro Soldiers to Use the Minie Rifle Image Credit: Harper’s Weekly, March 14, 1863.
Published: 2/1/12
The Business of Civil War (2010)
At its core, Mark R. Wilson’s volume on military mobilization during the Civil War is the story of Union procurement principles, policies, and practices. Few observers anticipated that the war...
Published: 2/1/12
Honoring African American Veterans for Black History Month
Happy Black History Month! Today—and throughout the month of February, we honor those African Americans who fought in the Civil War. Image Credit: “A Negro Regiment in Action,” Harper’s Weekly,...
Published: 1/30/12
The Launching of a Legend…the USS Monitor
Naval Historical Center’s Online Library of Selected Images 150 years ago today, the Union Navy launched the USS Monitor—its first ironclad—from the Continental Iron Works, at Greenpoint in Long Island,...
Published: 1/30/12
Inboard the USS Monitor
Naval Historical Center’s Online Library of Selected Images The above image is the USS Monitor‘s general plan featuring an inboard profile of the ironclad. First published in in 1862, the...
Published: 1/26/12
The Mighty Mississippi
General View of the Mississipii River from Cairo, Illinois to the mouth of the river. Image Credit: Harper’s Weekly, January 11, 1862.
Published: 1/25/12
The Battle of the Crater: A Novel (2011)
In recent months, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has sprinkled the campaign trail with promotional events for the books he published last year, including the Civil War novel The Battle...
Published: 1/24/12
What Robert E. Lee Didn’t Do After Appomattox
Actually, he didn’t do a lot of things. For starters, he didn’t lead a guerilla army against Federal invaders/occupiers—even though more than a few people suggested that he take that...
Published: 1/23/12
Prisoners from the Front
Before Winslow Homer became a famed sea-scape painter, he was a Civil War correspondent and illustrator for Harpers Weekly. The above paiting, entitled “Prisoners from the Front,” (1866) was featured...
Published: 1/19/12
Voice from the Past: “A Terrible Struggle if it Comes to War.”
“They do not know what they say. If it comes to a conflict of arms, the war will last at least four years. Northern politicians will not appreciate the determination...
Published: 1/18/12
Remixing the Civil War (2011)
Who could have anticipated that, by the early years of the 21st century, America’s bloodiest military conflict might be re-imagined in the form of a photograph of nine smiling Lincoln...
Published: 1/17/12
The Feminine Art of Inspiring Male Courage
Civil War illustrator Frank Leslie often parodied the evasion of the Enrollment Act of 1863. The image above encouraged women to make men feel obligated to go and fight via...
Published: 1/16/12
Remembering Race and Reunion: Ten Years Later
There are four copies of David W. Blight’s magisterial Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory on the bookshelves lining my study, each replete with eager (and sometimes skeptical)...
Published: 1/12/12
Looking Back…Just Fifty Years
As we enter the second year of the Civil War Sesquicentennial, there is some comparison back fifty years to the centennial—be that just for nostalgia or for analysis. Allow me...
Published: 1/11/12
The Enemy Within (2011)
Corruption in government and business remains a remarkably neglected aspect of the study of war. The unstated assumption behind this relative unconcern regards these impacts as collateral damage unworthy of...
Published: 1/11/12
Confederate Invention (2011)
Students of the American Civil War continue to make something out of very little. Almost all of the records of the Confederate States Patent Office burned with the evacuation of...