The Front Line
Our communal blog featuring the latest in Civil War news, research, analysis, and events from a network of historians
Published: 7/15/13
The Pursuit
On July 7 Major General George Gordon Meade left Gettysburg and traveled to Frederick, Maryland. He found the streets crowded with people eager to get a glimpse of him. The...
Published: 7/8/13
The Day Holt Collier Killed Hogzilla
Holt Collier (c. 1845-1936) was a Mississippi slave who went off to the Civil War as a servant to his master, Howell Hinds, and Hinds’ son Tom. Although he was...
Published: 7/1/13
The Battle in Public: Newspaper Reports from Gettysburg
Undoubtedly, over the next few days newspapers and blogs will provide enthralling details about the Battle of Gettysburg on the 150th anniversaries of each of its three days. In our...
Published: 6/24/13
Oh Lord, Where Art Thou? Civil War Guards, Prisoners, and Punishments
A prison register was a seemingly strange place to write the Our Father. Nonetheless, one guard from the 128th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, charged with guarding Johnson’s Island Prison, scribbled the...
Published: 6/10/13
A New Battle for Brandy Station
On June 8, 1863, Major General J.E.B. Stuart reviewed his cavalry division on the farm of Unionist John Minor Botts in Culpeper County, Virginia. It was a rare, memorable pageant...
Published: 6/3/13
Friends Across the Color Line
David Cornwell, formerly an infantryman in the 8th Illinois Infantry and a veteran of Shiloh, was serving with Battery D, 1st Illinois Artillery, in the summer of 1862. Stationed not...
Published: 5/27/13
Captain Kit Dalton on Guerrilla Memory, Civility, and the Rules of War
In spring 1880, more than a decade after his famous—or perhaps infamous, locale depending—“March to the Sea,” Union General William Tecumseh Sherman observed of a large gathering in Columbus, Ohio,...
Published: 5/20/13
Grant and the Forgotten Court of Inquiry
During the siege of Vicksburg, General U. S. Grant had to deal with racial problems, but those problems were always a lower priority than his main goal—the capture of Vicksburg....
Published: 5/13/13
“The Most Fatal of All Acute Diseases:” Pneumonia and the Death of Stonewall Jackson
Library of Congress As night fell and a full moon rose in the sky, Lieutenant General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson was becoming increasingly impatient. Although he had just orchestrated one...
Published: 5/6/13
An Excerpt from Chancellorsville’s Forgotten Front
It’s easy to miss what remains of the Salem Church battlefield, and if not for the stone statues that stand sentinel next to the roadway, you might not know there’s...
Published: 4/30/13
A Civil War Era Royal Wedding
Much like the Anglophiles of today, Civil War-era Americans were fascinated by the British royal family. Rather than obsessing over William, Kate, and Harry, nineteenth century Americans celebrated the marriage...
Published: 4/30/13
Civil War Desserts
Confederate Apple Pie Without The Apples Ingredients: 1 ¾ cups of water 2 cups of sugar 2 tablespoons cream of tarter 2 tablespoons lemon juice Grated zest of one lemon...
Published: 4/29/13
“The Grandest Charity in the Country:” The Missouri Home For Confederate Veterans
In the decades immediately following the Civil War, Missourians expressed concern for the plight of their aging and ill Confederate veterans. In response, the Ex-Confederate Association of Missouri formed in...
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: 1/22/13
2012 | The Year in Review
Another year has come and gone and The Civil War Monitor editorial staff is thankful for a very productive 2012. As we begin to make plans for another exciting year,...
Published: 1/16/13
How We Need to Learn to Stop Worrying and Love “Lincoln” and “Django Unchained”
Alright . . . historians, history buffs, and anyone who cares about history—take a deep breath and repeat after me: “It’s OK to love Lincoln and Django Unchained.” Why? Because they’re excellent—and I...
Published: 11/26/12
“Not Since the Days of William the Conquerer” – 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...