Summer 2024

Features

Boy Soldiers
One in 10 Union soldiers was underage when they enlisted. Their presence disrupted families, created chaos—and helped win the war.
By Frances M. Clarke and Rebecca Jo Plant

The Fate of Charleston
The rapid rise and precipitous fall of the birthplace of secession
By Glenn W. LaFantasie

Haven & Horror
When it opened in 1866, the National Homestead at Gettysburg—established to care for the orphaned children of soldiers who died in the Civil War—was a national success story of promise and goodwill. A decade later, it closed amid allegations of abuse and financial misdeeds.
By Mark H. Dunkelman

Departments

Editorial: The Teenagers’ War

Salvo: Facts, Figures & Items of Interest

Voices: Killing the Enemy
Faces of War: A Captured Weapon Freed
Travels: Three Days in Richmond
Preservation: Schooling Kids in Wartime History
Cost of War: One Lucky Soldier Spared
In Focus: Thaddeus Lowe’s Balloon Inflation Wagons

Columns:

Fighting Words: “Scalawag,” by Tracy L. Barnett

Observatory: Plotting Journey to Shiloh, by Matthew Christopher Hulbert

Books & Authors:

Essential Reading on Chancellorsville
By John Hennessy

Q&A
With Erik Larson

Parting Shot: Front Face!