People
Published: 2/14/13
An 1863 Valentine
Letter from Alexander Hays to Annie Adams McFadden Hays, February 14, 1863 Union Mills, Va., February 14th, 1863. Dear Wife: It has this minute struck me that this is St....
Published: 11/26/12
“Not Since the Days of William the Conqueror” – Anti-War Democrats of Ohio in their Own Words
For me, one of the great joys of researching and writing about Civil War history is “reading other people’s mail.” Whether in archives, digitized sources online, or in books, reading...
Published: 11/11/12
Wither Liberia? Civil War Emancipation and Freedmen Resettlement in West Africa
On a late October morning in 1862 the U.S. Treasury department received a visit from Robert J. Walker. The former Mississippi senator was something of an enigma in war-torn Washington—an...
Published: 10/1/12
The Consequences of Damning the Torpedoes
Rear Adm. David Farragut famously “damned the torpedoes” when he closed off the port of Mobile as a haven for blockade runners. But the Union navy’s and army’s final push...
Published: 8/27/12
Bowdoin’s Other Civil War Sons
Discussions surrounding Bowdoin College and the Civil War invariably return to the famous Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of the 20th Maine and the acts of his regiment at Gettysburg on July...
Published: 8/17/12
Hercules of the Union
Happy Friday! Today’s Friday Funny is a celebration of Union General Winfield Scott—cast here as the mythical Hercules slaying a secessionist hydra. Aiding Scott in his epic battle is the...
Published: 8/6/12
John Sherman and the Would-Be Thirteenth Amendment of 1861
John Sherman was a rising Republican star. A prominent member of the U.S. House of Representatives, he was on the cusp of a long Senate career. Everyone knew the man...
Published: 7/30/12
Munson Monroe Buford’s Unfinished Civil War
In late March 1885, South Carolinian Munson Monroe Buford wrote to famed Confederate general and now prominent political figure Wade Hampton. Buford had served for the war’s duration in the...
Published: 6/8/12
Masterly Inactivity
Good afternoon! This Frank Leslie cartoon parodies the extended military standoff between Union General George B. McClellan’s Army of Potomac and Confederate General P.G.T Beauregard’s Army of the Shenandoah during...
Published: 6/1/12
Sinbad Lincoln and the Old Man of the Sea
Good Morning! Today’s Friday Funny is Frank Leslie’s “Sinbad Lincoln and the Old Man of the Sea.” A clear critique of Gideon Welles, the Union Secretary of the Navy, this...
Published: 5/27/12
Nathan Bedford Forrest, Reconstructed
Today, Nathan Bedford Forrest is more popular than ever among the fans of the Confederacy. No doubt because he’s come to represent unyielding defiance, whether in victory or defeat, in...
Published: 5/21/12
Lorena
One of the most popular Civil War songs was Lorena. Reverend Henry D. L. Webster first penned the lyrics in 1856 after his fiancé— Ella Blocksom—ended their engagement. However, in...
Published: 5/18/12
Why Don’t You Take It?
Good morning! Today’s Friday Funny is an 1861 Currier & Ives sketch commenting on the Union’s substantial advantage in terms war materiel. The above cartoon illustrates the might of the...
Published: 5/15/12
John Mackie: The Man and the Memory
One rarely thinks of the United States Marine Corps and the Civil War in the same thought. Given their small size and limited service, this is not really surprising. And...
Published: 5/14/12
Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night
The following Walt Whitman poem—“Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night”—reminds us of the tangible, human costs of war. Whitman often found the indiscriminate carnage and wholesale anonymity...
Published: 4/30/12
The Dying Confederate’s Last Words
The following poem from the Civil War Song Sheets collection highlights the sacrifice made by individual Civil War soldiers. It’s entitled, “The Dying Confederate’s Last Words.” Dear comrades on my...
Published: 4/27/12
Bowling with Beauregard
Good afternoon! Here’s a little Friday Funny to celebrate the end of the work week. Published in the April 26, 1862 edition of Harper’s Weekly, this Justin Howard cartoon celebrates...
Published: 4/15/12
Did a C.S.S. Alabama Veteran Die in the Titanic Disaster?
The December 1912 issue of The Confederate Veteran carries a list of eleven members of the Joe Johnston UCV Camp No. 94 of Mexia, Texas, who died between July 1911...