Articles
Published: 3/15/12
How I tried and failed to escape the Civil War
My interest in the Civil War should have been a wonderful accident of birth and geography. I was born, raised, studied, and worked around key sites in that event’s...
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Published: 12/1/11
Hard Times Are Common Now
Ulysses S. Grant's determination to push the Confederates from East Tennessee during the winter of 1863-1864 resulted in a sharp—and largely forgotten—fight on the frozen ground outside the small town of Dandridge.
Published: 12/1/11
Winter 2011 | Dispatches
Readers write in to praise the premiere issue of The Civil War Monitor, highlighting its depth of scholarship, beautiful production, and balanced perspective.
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Published: 12/1/11
Custer and the End of Innocence
George Armstrong Custer rose from captain to brigadier general during the Civil War only to become synonymous with catastrophic failure after his death at the Little Bighorn. What happened?
Published: 12/1/11
Civilians and the Boundaries of War
The deep entanglement of southern civilians in the Civil War made it difficult to keep the fighting solely between the two armies.
Published: 12/1/11
General Earl Van Dorn
Confederate General Earl Van Dorn was shot dead at his desk in 1863, widely assumed to be the victim of an outraged husband. The truth is more complicated.
Published: 12/1/11
By the Numbers: Civil War Mortality Reconsidered
A study by historian J. David Hacker revises the long-accepted Civil War death toll upward from 620,000 to 750,000 male deaths.
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Published: 12/1/11
Getting to Know: Civil War Canteens
A sampling of the many types of canteens Civil War soldiers used to carry water and other beverages during the war.
Published: 12/1/11
Black Men in Blue
Personal accounts of African Americans who served in the Union army from 1863 to 1865—roughly 200,000 strong—tell some of the most transformative stories of the Civil War.
Published: 12/1/11
Winterizing Houses, Civil War-Style
An 1863 advertisement for Browne's Metallic Weather Strips, styled as a military proclamation, warned of an invasion of loyal northerners' homes.
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Published: 12/1/11
Faded Glory
As the rest of America moved on, the struggles of Union veterans became an uncomfortable reminder of the enduring costs of war.
Published: 12/1/11
Thanks…and a Contest
Editor Terry Johnston thanks readers for their enthusiastic response to the premier issue of The Civil War Monitor.
Published: 10/25/11
Respect My Heritage; You Can Stick Yours
Several news stories appeared in the media recently updating recent developments in a neighborhood dispute in South Carolina that’s been brewing for about year now. The brief recap is that...
Published: 10/13/11
Bolting On the Civil War Navy
Several months back, my friend Matthew Eng, coordinator at the Hampton Roads Navy Museum, asked me why the naval aspects of the Civil War tend to stand off from the...
Published: 9/29/11
A War of Words
There’s a lot that remains unsettled about the Civil War: “Manassas” or “Bull Run”? “Civil War” or “War Between the States”? Forget the big questions about what the war was...
Published: 9/27/11
Texas SCV Calls for a New Strategy
Recently Mark Vogl, Lieutenant Commander of the Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, called for a shift strategy in that organization’s approach to “heritage defense,” away from throwing...
Published: 9/21/11
We Cannot Know Their Minds
Undoubtedly one of the reasons for the tremendous, abiding interest Americans have with the Civil War is that a great many of us have a personal connection to it. We...
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Published: 9/1/11
“Babylon Is Fallen.”
How the northern press reported—with shock and awe—on Sherman’s March to the Sea in 1864.
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