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Spring 2025
Vol. 15, No. 1
Before Ulysses S. Grant became the Union’s top soldier, he needed to find a way back into the Army. In our Spring 2025 issue, read how he went from working in his father’s leather goods store to leading the Union Army to victory. We also check out a new graphic novel that gives scholars a different way to learn about the Civil War, and explore how Harriet Tubman helped Union forces pull off one of the most daring raids of destruction and liberation on South Carolina plantations in 1863.
Features
Redrawing the Guerrilla War
A new graphic history of the guerrilla war in Missouri imagines a different way for scholars to broaden their reach.
The Liberators: Combahee River Raid of 1863
In June 1863, Harriet Tubman helped Union forces pull off a daring raid of destruction and liberation on plantations of the South Carolina Lowcountry.Salvo
Voices
Please Write!
First-person quotes from Union and Confederate soldiers about their deep desire to receive letters from home.
Preservation
Making Progress in Tennessee
How support from the Tennessee Sites Preservation Fund is crucial to preserving Civil War sites in the Volunteer State.
Faces of War
A Boy Soldier
The story of 15-year-old Jimmy Bateman's relentless pursuit to join the Union army in 1861.
Primer
Union and Confederate Small Arms
A look at a cross section of Union and Confederate small arms hints at their great variety over the Civil War years.
Cost of War
A Civil War Baseball
A look at a baseball used by soldiers of the 17th New York Veteran Volunteer Infantry that sold at auction for $41,825 in February 2014.
In Focus
Living with Winter
A close look at a seemingly ordinary photograph of a Union regiment's winter camp reveals interesting details.Columns
Observatory
The Imagined Emancipationist
Harry Turtledove's "The Guns of the South" cast Robert E. Lee as a victor whose allies turn out to be otherworldly
Crossroads
Failure at Fredericksburg
Union general William B. Franklin and the perils of indecision and delay at the Battle of FredericksburgBooks & Authors
The Five Best Books on William T. Sherman
Historian Bennett Parten offers his picks of the five best books ever written about Union general William T. Sherman.
Q&A with Brian Matthew Jordan
A brief, bookish Q&A with Civil War historian Brian Matthew JordanOdds & Ends
Editorial
First Steps to Greatness
Reflections on the Monitor's Spring 2025 cover story on Ulysses S. Grant
Dispatches
Spring 2025 | Dispatches
Letters to the editor published in the Spring 2025 issue