The Front Line
Our communal blog featuring the latest in Civil War news, research, analysis, and events from a network of historians
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: 9/17/12
The Battle For Freedom: Antietam and the Emancipation Proclamation
Abraham Lincoln spent the late summer of 1862 waiting. Worrying and waiting. He was worrying about the war, which was not going well. And he was waiting for a victory...
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: 8/24/12
Fathering Recruitment
Titled, “A Good Way for Fathers of Families to Aid Recruiting,” this July 1862 Harper’s Weekly cartoon is a playful take on Union recruitment efforts. (Yet, it is much more...
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: 7/23/12
Fantasizing Lee as a Civil Rights Pioneer
Over at Civil War Talk, there was a discussion recently about a story about Robert E. Lee, and an incident that allegedly occurred soon after the end of the...
Published: 6/29/12
Dark Artillery
Happy Friday! Today’s Civil War cartoon is a Frank Leslie drawing entitled “Dark Artillery” or “How to make the contrabands useful.” Published in 1861, the cartoon is a commentary on...
Published: 6/26/12
The Intrepid
This week marks the sesquicentennial of the Seven Days’ Campaign. As such, we thought we would bring you this image of the Intrepid—one of the Union Army Balloon Corps’ aerial...
Published: 6/22/12
The Railsplitter
Today, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter officially hits movies. As such, we thought it fitting to pay tribute to the original Railsplitter—as opposed to the axe wielding vampire killer. The Railsplitter...
Published: 6/22/12
The New Orleans Plum
Happy Friday! This week’s Friday Funny is an 1862 cartoon entitled, “The New Orleans Plum.” A contemporary take on the famous Mother Goose tale, “Little Jack Horner,” this illustration casts...
Published: 6/18/12
The Cumberland
Good morning! Today we bring you an 1862 poem by Herman Melville entitled, “The Cumberland.” Written in March of 1862, Melville lyrivally referenced the fateful sinking of the USS Cumberland...
Published: 6/15/12
Not Up To Time
Good afternoon! Today’s Friday Funny is an 1862 piece from the London weekly magazine, Punch. Entitled, “”Not up to Time;” Or, Intereference would be very Welcome,” the cartoon highlights the...
Published: 6/11/12
Elegy for the Native Guards
In honor of Natasha Trethewey being named the next poet laureate, we thought we would share with you one of her Civil War inspired poems. Now that the salt of...
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: 5/31/12
Form follows Function: Changing Audiences Bring Changes to Interpretations
Most visitors to Spotsylvania Court House enter the battlefield via the suggested tour route off Brock Road. At the turn onto Grant Drive, several public displays—interpretive and memorial—greet the visitor....