Civil War

Civil War

Sharp Clash at North Anna

Dripping wet Union soldiers stepped out of the North Anna River’s Jericho Ford on May 22, 1864, setting foot in Hanover County, Virginia. Read more

Civil War

Long Odds At the Battle of Jonesborough

At the Battle of Jonsborough, Union General William T. Sherman hoped to destroy the Army of Tennessee and seize Atlanta, Georgia.  Read more

Civil War

Confederate Submarine H. L. Hunley

At the start of the American Civil War in April 1861, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that he planned to blockade the Confederacy by stationing warships in waters off its shores. Read more

Civil War

Grant’s Ordeal at the Battle of Shiloh

It was raining heavily, a deluge of almost Biblical proportions that hammered down on the exhausted men of the Union’s Army of the Tennessee. Read more

Civil War

Soldiers: Edward O.C. Ord

By Frank Jastrzembki

Five busts of his greatest lieutenants during the Civil War watch over the sarcophagus of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Read more

Civil War

Longstreet’s Hammer Blow at Manassas

In the rolling fields on the south side of the Warrenton Turnpike, the men of the 5th New York of Colonel Gouverneur K. Read more

Civil War

Rebel Blunder at the Battle of Bristoe Station

It took only moments for a golden opportunity to turn into a trap. Several days of pursuit in October 1863 through northern Virginia at last brought Lt. Read more

Civil War

Belle Boyd: Confederate Spy

Word spread like wildfire through Martinsburg in northeastern Virginia that the Yankees were on the move. On July 2, 1861  Maj. Read more

Civil War

Colonel Patrick Kelly at the Battle of Gettysburg

Colonel Patrick Kelly, who led the Irish Brigade into the Wheatfield on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, was born in Castle Hackett, County Galway, in 1821. Read more

Civil War

The 1862 Battle of Antietam: Casualties and Death Toll

During the September 17, 1862 Battle of Antietam, casualties piled almost too high to count. The culmination of the first invasion of the North during the American Civil War by General Robert E. Read more

Civil War

American Civil War Timeline: Piecemeal Operations

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln had no military experience and discarded most of Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott’s so-called Anaconda Plan, which critics deemed too conservative. Read more

Civil War

The American Civil War: Forging a National Identity

The American Civil War was the tragic culmination of divergent perspectives on the proper conduct of the government of the United States and socio-economic issues that had been frequently at the forefront of American political life for decades. Read more

Civil War

Francis Stebbins Bartow at First Manassas

During the Battle of First Manassas, Colonel Francis Stebbins Bartow was carrying the flag of the 7th Georgia Infantry when he fell leading a charge on Captain James Ricketts’ battery of Regular Army artillery. Read more

Civil War

Robert E. Lee: Confederate Icon

When the Civil War broke out, Robert E. Lee of Virginia was offered command of the Union army. Read more

Civil War

Ulysses S. Grant: Union War Hero

Born in Ohio in 1822, Ulysses S. Grant graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1843. Read more

Civil War

Comparing the Battle of Gettysburg to the Entire Civil War

The occasion was, for the North, inauspicious. In the Battle of First Manassas, the Federals were routed, humiliated, and almost utterly crushed. Read more

Civil War

John Bell Hood at the Battle of Gettysburg

Ward’s Union Brigade faced some of the most formidable troops in General Robert E. Lee’s army on the afternoon of July 2. Read more

Civil War

Lincoln vs. Frémont and His “Hasty Emancipation”

As the early days of the American Civil War were unfolding and the destiny of the republic was being contested on the battlefield, President Abraham Lincoln was engaged in a no less perilous type of battle. Read more

Civil War

Looking Back on the Vicksburg Campaign

When the sun set on the Confederacy, the stars began to rise and shine, none more brightly for Northerners than that of Abraham Lincoln, and for Southerners than those of Robert E. Read more

Civil War

The Post-Civil War Frontier American Army

In 1864-1865 the U.S. Army had some 1,045,000 men in uniform; within a year after Appomattox, the number stood at 57,000. Read more