
Blog


Published: 8/2/23
Small But Important Riots (2023)
By the author’s own admission, Small but Important Riots has been a lifetime commitment. “Nearly thirty years of continuing research into the events that transpired in and around the Loudoun Valley...
Published: 7/26/23
Colonel Hans Christian Heg (2023)
Tens of thousands of foreign-born and first- or second-generation immigrants served in the U.S. Army during the Civil War. Historians have focused extensively on large immigrant groups, like the Germans...
Published: 7/25/23
The Five Best Books on the Civil War in the Shenandoah Valley
Library of Congress “Sheridan’s Final Charge at Winchester” by Thure de Thulstrup For the past two decades I have been fortunate to live in the place I research and write...
Published: 7/19/23
The Grammar of Civil War (2022)
Will Fowler, currently professor of Latin American studies at the University of St. Andrews, is a highly accomplished scholar of nineteenth century Mexico. His Santa Anna of Mexico offers a revisionist...
Published: 7/11/23
Without Concealment, Without Compromise (2023)
One might suppose there is nothing new to learn about the Civil War era. Jill L. Newmark’s splendid new monograph, Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil...
Published: 7/10/23
Changing Times—And Names—at U.S. Military Bases
As an employee of the U.S. Army and the Department of Defense, I must support the official policies of these organizations, so what I write below represents my own personal...
Published: 7/5/23
Cherokee Civil Warrior (2023)
W. Dale Weeks makes clear that his biography of the long-serving Cherokee chief John Ross does not focus on Ross’s involvement in the Civil War, despite its title. For Weeks,...
Published: 6/30/23
Extra Voices: Trench Life
Library of Congress In the Voices section of our Summer 2023 issue we highlighted quotes by Union and Confederate soldiers about life in the trenches. Unfortunately, we didn’t have room...
Published: 6/28/23
Continental Reckoning (2023)
How does the birth of the American West relate to the Civil War era? Elliott West’s newest comprehensive history, Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion, attempts...
Published: 6/23/23
The Top Five Civil War Biographies
Library of Congress It may seem a cliche to preface my Top Five articles with the disclaimer that the subject cannot possibly be done justice by so few recommendations. Then...
Published: 6/21/23
Through Blood and Fire (2023)
After being seriously wounded at Antietam, Major Charles Mills eventually returned to the Army of the Potomac as a staff officer and served during some of the bloodiest campaigns of...
Published: 6/14/23
Civil War Generals of Indiana (2022)
During the U.S. Civil War, some three million men provided their services to both the Union and Confederate armies. With massive armies being formed, there was a dire need for...
Published: 6/7/23
African Americans, Death, and the New Birth of Freedom (2022)
With this book, Ashley Towe makes an important contribution to African American history during the Civil War era. Towle reveals the ways in which death provided African Americans with a...
Published: 5/31/23
From Underground Railroad to Rebel Refuge (2022)
Josiah Henson, believed by many to be the inspiration for Uncle Tom in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was born into slavery in Charles County, Maryland, in 1789. He...
Published: 5/24/23
All Roads Led to Gettysburg (2022)
Nearly two decades after the release of his consequential Lee’s Real Plan at Gettysburg, Troy D. Harman, a renowned Gettysburg National Military Park ranger, has returned with another contemplative treatment...
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Published: 5/24/23
Elmer Ellsworth’s Civil War
On May 24, 1861, 24-year-old Elmer E. Ellsworth—colonel of the 11th New York Infantry—was shot and killed by the pro-secessionist proprietor of the Marshall House, an inn located in Alexandria,...
Published: 5/17/23
Delivered Under Fire (2023)
After the excitement of enlisting had faded, and the newness of soldiering had evolved into monotonous routine, the Civil War soldier often looked homeward to sustain his flagging morale. Writing...
Published: 5/9/23
Navigating Liberty (2022)
Published to great fanfare in 1964, Rehearsals for Reconstruction by Willie Lee Rose has long represented the standard for scholarly works dealing with complex and troubled process of wartime emancipation. As...