Lieutenant Nathan Huntley Edgerton, Sgt. Maj. Thomas R. Hawkins, and Sergeant Alexander Kelly of the 6th Regiment U.S. Colored Troops carry forward the regiment's colors as it presses its attack at Chaffin's Farm in a painting titled "Three Medals of Honor" by artist Don Troiani.

Civil War

Warfare History Network is your best source for military history online. This is where we bring you our coverage on all aspects of the American Civil War—from the first shots fired at Fort Sumter to Antietam to the surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox. In addition to substantial military coverage, we also examine the political climate of the 1860s and how the war influenced civilian life in the North and South. A trove of Civil War photos, maps, and color illustrations complement our written contributions from a team of established writers, including William Welsh, Pedro Garcia, and acclaimed author-historian Roy Morris Jr.

Union soldiers of Colonel John Wilder’s Mounted Infantry Brigade armed with Spencer repeating rifles delay Confederate attempts to cross at Alexander’s Bridge over Chickamauga Creek at midday on September 18, 1863. The rebels suffered heavy casualties but eventually overpowered the defenders by sheer force of numbers.

Civil War

“A Terrible Cyclone”

By Lawrence Weber

On Saturday, September 26, 1863, six days after the Battle of Chickamauga, Lt. Gen. James Longstreet wrote Confederate Secretary of War James A. Read more

Veteran Union troops take up a strong position in a ditch as Confederates stream down a hillside on the Thomas Farm in an effort to uncover river crossings for the rest of Lt. Gen. Jubal Early’s Confederate army at the Battle of Monocacy.

Civil War

A Murderous Fire of Musketry

By William E. Welsh

Major General John Brown Gordon guided his horse past fields where stalks of waist-high corn glistened in the sun. Read more

Civil War

Blood on the Fallow Fields

By William F. Floyd, Jr.

Everyone in Washington, D.C., knew the reason Maj. Gen. Ulysses Grant was in town. He had a hard time moving around without people applauding him everywhere he went. Read more

Brig. Gen. Wade Hampton deftly fends off saber blows by Union troopers as he finds himself surrounded on the final day at Gettysburg in a painting by Don Troiani.

Civil War

Confederate Brig. Gen. Wade Hampton III

By William F. Floyd Jr.

On the morning of July 3, 1863, Confederate Brig. Gen. Wade Hampton III led the troopers of his brigade south along the York Road. Read more

Colonel J.E.B. Stuart’s 1st Virginia Cavalry troopers galloping at full speed crash into the flank of the New York Fire Zouaves as the battle turns in the Confederate favor in a painting by Don Troiani.

Civil War

Bloody Repulse at Bull Run

By Joshua Shepherd

After just one month of training, the men of the 27th New York Infantry nervously sensed they would be in the middle of a real fight within minutes. Read more

Sailors aboard the USS Miami watch as the Rebel ironclad CSS Albemarle attacks the USS Southfield in a painting by Tom Freeman.

Civil War

The Plan to Destroy the Albemarle

By David A. Norris

Lieutenant William B. Cushing’s Union Navy steam launch chugged up the dark Roanoke River late in 1864. Read more

The Gettysburg cyclorama shows a badly wounded Alonzo Cushing commanding one of his guns in The Angle.

Civil War

Union Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing

By William E. Welsh

One of the smoothbore cannons in Captain Merritt B. Miller’s Third Company of the Washington Artillery deployed west of Emmitsburg Road just south of the town of Gettysburg fired a single round at 1:07 p.m. Read more

A Federal battery fords a tributary of the Rappahannock on the day of battle. At the outset of the campaign, Jackson hoped to defeat the newly established Federal Army of Virginia one corps at a time.

Civil War

Bloody Collision at Cedar Mountain

By David A. Norris

In the shadow of Cedar Mountain on the southern outskirts of Culpeper, Virginia, Major General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson deployed the troops at the head of his column of march against a reinforced Union corps on August 9, 1862. Read more

Civil War

Forrest’s Finest Hour

By Mike Phifer

Confederate Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s fighting blood was up. It was mid-morning on June 10, 1864, and the Tennessean cavalry commander had just hurried Colonel Hylan Lyon’s brigade of Kentuckians from along the muddy Baldwyn road toward Brice’s Crossroads in northern Mississippi. Read more

Civil War

Death at the Crossroads

By Mike Phifer

An unrelenting rain soaked the gray-clad troops of Maj. Gen. George Pickett’s reinforced division of Confederate soldiers on the morning of March 30, 1865. Read more

Civil War

We Will Hold It or die Here!

By David A. Norris

Amid the fog of powder smoke in the north-Georgia forest, the frayed remnants of the Union’s Army of the Cumberland faced determined Confederate troops who sensed an impending victory. Read more

Georgians of Lawton's Brigade drive off the Pennsylvania Reserves during the Union assault on the Confederate right wing.

Civil War

Rebel Blunder at Fredericksburg

By David A. Norris

Brig. Gen. George Gordon Meade’s division spent three hours bombarded by Confederate guns on December 13, 1862. Read more

Officers of the 10th Maine Regiment photographed a few days after the battle at the location where the regiment made its stand. Jackson’s old division held the ground behind them in the distance.

Civil War

A Confederate Private’s Eyewitness Account of the Battle of Cedar Mountain

It is a given that troops who are successful in battle are those that have confidence in themselves and in their commanders, and this was the case with the Confederate soldiers serving under Maj. Read more