Blog

Published 7/10/2023

Changing Times—And Names—at U.S. Military Bases

By: Christian B. Keller Category: Commentary

The events of the last several years and the current trends in public attitudes—however they may be construed and from whatever source they may emanate—have created a different world than that which most of us grew up in. Regardless of how we may personally feel about these changes in society, they are not likely to cease and, coupled with astounding advances in technology, will continue to...

Published 11/4/2021

Gettysburg Photo Mystery Solved?

By: Patrick Brennan Category: Commentary

With the help of an Artificial Intelligence-based, computerized color identifier and cutting-edge software that created a 3D rendering of McPherson Ridge in 1868, a group of Civil War detectives have pinpointed the camera location of aniconic, and previously unidentified, Gettysburg battle image. Patrick Brennan, a longtime editorial advisor for The Civil War Monitor, has been working on a book...

Published 9/8/2017

Robert E. Lee, Confederate Memorials, and the Burden of the Past

By: Glenn W. LaFantasie Category: Commentary

On August 13, a statue of Robert E. Lee took center stage in the struggle over the meaning and legacy of the Civil War. That day a "Unite the Right" rally of self-proclaimed white supremacists, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members, anti-Semites, and neo-Confederates protested the city’s decision to remove an equestrian statue of Lee from a public park. The rally erupted in violence, killing one...

Published 10/8/2015

Embattled Banner: A Conversation with Tony Horwitz

By: The Civil War Monitor Category: Commentary

To help make sense of the recent developments regarding the Confederate battle flag, we sat down with Tony Horwitz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Confederates in the Attic. His insightful 1998 book details his yearlong travels through...

Published 6/1/2015

Trial of a Confederate Terrorist

By: John Grady Category: Commentary

The trial of John Yates Beall, accused of attempting to derail a passenger train in Buffalo, NY, stands in a class alongside the trials of the Lincoln assassination conspirators, with ramifications that echo today in the cases of those men held at Guantanamo.

Published 11/3/2014

Yankee Runaways

By: Dan Crofts Category: Commentary

On November 3, 1864 Major Charles P. Mattocks and two comrades slipped away from a Confederate prison camp outside Columbia, South Carolina, hoping to cross three hundred miles of mountains and hostile terrain to reach Union lines in East Tennessee.

Published 10/13/2014

The Death of Roger B. Taney

By: Jonathan W. White Category: Commentary

The death of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, a name almost as indelibly tied to the Dred Scott decision as Scott's own, was met with various reactions both North and South when it happened 150 years ago on October 12, 1864.

Published 7/21/2014

Terry's Texas Rangers

By: Kate Dawson Category: Commentary

Terry's Texas Rangers went into the Civil War with a reputation they had not earned, but left it with one that lingers to this day.

Published 6/30/2014

Inside the Photographer's Studio

By: Jonathan W. White and Hailey House Category: Commentary

Historians and students of Civil War photography get only rare glimpses inside the photographer's studio, but a few trial transcripts from the National Archives reveal more than what the camera caught.

Published 6/9/2014

Hunter Davidson and the "Squib"

By: John Grady Category: Commentary

As a graduate of and former instructor at the US Naval Academy, Confederate Lieutenant Hunter Davidson understood the Union Navy, as well as how submersible vessels and spar torpedoes could be used to exploit its weaknesses.

Published 3/24/2014

The Death of Jim Jackson and the Oxymoron of "Postbellum" Missouri, 1865-1866

By: Matthew C. Hulbert Category: Commentary

In June 1865, Jim Jackson - one of Missouri's more notorious Confederate guerrilla commanders - made haste for the Illinois line...

Published 3/17/2014

Reconsidering the "Myth" of the Black Union Soldier

By: Kevin Levine Category: Commentary

When Confederates massacre black soldiers the latter are engaged in a desperate fight for freedom. But our popular understanding of the Civil War leaves little room to understand the story when the roles are reversed.

Published 2/10/2014

The Civil War on the Great Lakes

By: John Grady Category: Commentary

After the losses at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, the Confederacy considered a risky plan to fortify their officer corps by raiding a prison on the shores of Lake Erie and freeing the 2000 men held there.

Published 12/2/2013

"Destructionist and Capturer"

By: John Grady Category: Commentary

The Union authorities who dismissed W.T. Glassell from the U.S. Navy after 15 years of service hardly suspected that they would be fighting against him soon enough.

Published 9/30/2013

The Civil War's French Accent

By: John Grady Category: Commentary

In the face of a tightening blockade and difficulties with England, the Confederate Navy sought new rams from shipyards in nearby France.

Published 8/19/2013

Of Eyes and Teeth: The Trial of George Maddox, the Raid on Lawrence, and the Bloodstained Verdict of the Guerrilla War

By: Joseph M. Beilein, Jr Category: Commentary

In 1867, George Maddox--a guerrilla who had ridden with Quantrill--stood trial for the murder of John Zane Evans during the infamous raid on Lawrence four years earlier.

Published 8/12/2013

Williamsburg Battlefield Trust, Embattled

By: Glenn Brasher Category: Commentary

Virginia's "Historic Triangle" is best known as a setting for the American Revolution. But during the Civil War's Peninsula Campaign the area saw many slaves play an active role in bringing about their liberation and aiding the Union Army.

Published 7/15/2013

The Pursuit

By: Tom Huntington Category: Commentary

Three days after Gettysburg, the people of Frederick, Maryland greeted George Gordon Meade "like a lion," while President Lincoln and General-in-Cheif Henry Halleck felt him cautious and slow.