Civil War

Civil War

The Disastrous Red River Campaign

Nathaniel Banks was a political creature, and with his country in the throes of civil war, he now held the politically obtained rank of major general in the Union Army. Read more

Civil War

Melee on St. Patrick’s Day: The Battle of Kelly’s Ford

“Fighting Joe” Hooker was fighting mad when he summoned his chief of cavalry, Brig. Gen. George Stoneman, to his headquarters at Falmouth, Virginia, on February 26, 1863. Read more

Civil War

Fort Fisher: Last Bastion of the Confederacy

The prospect of running the Federal blockade at Wilmington was easy in the beginning. North Carolina’s principal seaport was blockaded by a single warship, USS Daylight, and no one took the threat seriously. Read more

Civil War

Grierson’s Raid: Wrecking the Railroad With the Butternut Guerrillas

Union Colonel Benjamin Grierson stuck his left foot into the stirrup and swung up into the saddle. Orders were quickly given, and soon a column of 1,700 blue-jacketed troopers of Grierson’s 1st Brigade, along with a battery of artillery, trampled southeast from La Grange, Tennessee, in the early dawn of April 17, 1863. Read more

Civil War

Grant Takes D.C.

On March 8, 1864, a rainy Tuesday, President and Mrs. Lincoln held a reception at the White House in Washington. Read more

Civil War

The Battle of Stones River: Into the Cauldron

For the weary troops of the Army of the Cumberland, there was precious little sleep to be had in the farm fields and cedar thickets northwest of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Read more

Civil War

Misbegotten Attack at Bristoe Station

In late July 1863, after the conclusion of the Gettysburg campaign, the Union Army of the Potomac, under Maj. Read more

Civil War

Southerner vs. Southerner: Union Supporters Below the Mason-Dixon Line

The Confederate States of America fought two wars, one against the armed forces of the United States and one against fellow Southerners who joined either the Union Army or pro-Union guerrilla groups. Read more

Civil War

Swirling Cavalry Fight at Trevilian Station

Despite costing the Union Army 55,000 men in five weeks of hard marching and grueling combat, Lt. Gen. Read more

Civil War

The 1st and 2nd Cavalry Regiments: Jefferson Davis’s Pet Project

Under a bright, high sun in a pale blue Midwestern sky, six companies of the United States Cavalry’s 1st Regiment rode into a grassy valley bordering the south fork of the Solomon River in northwestern Kansas on the afternoon of July 29, 1857. Read more

Civil War

Battle of Antietam: Clash in the Cornfield

The White House was a somber place in the summer of 1862. The Civil War was in the midst of its second costly year, and the Union armies had yet to win a significant victory in the eastern theater. Read more

Civil War

Morgan’s Ohio Raid

“It was a sad, sorrowful day,” recalled Confederate Major James McCreary, “and more tears of grief rolled over my weather beaten cheeks on this mournful occasion than have before for years.” Read more

Civil War

Brawl at Brawner’s Farm: Jackson’s Bloody Stalemate at Second Manassas

The ground around Manassas, Virginia, was not auspicious for Union Army forces in the first two years of the Civil War. Read more

Civil War

The Murder of Bull Nelson

Few Civil War officers, in either army, were as polarizing as Union Maj. Gen. William “Bull” Nelson. Read more

Civil War

Battle of the Hemp Bales

Brigadier General James S. Rains’s Confederate cavalry rode confidently toward the prosperous little town of Lexington, Missouri. Dressed in Missouri homespun, Rains’s men hardly looked the part of a flying military column, but most of the hard-riding horsemen had known only victory during their short service. Read more

Civil War

4th U.S. Regulars at Gettysburg

When the Civil War erupted in April 1861, the 10 companies of the 4th U.S. Read more

Civil War

The Days of Shoddy: Worst Manufacturers of the Civil War

“For sugar the government often got sand; for coffee, rye; for leather, something no better than brown paper; for sound horses and mules, spavined beasts and dying donkeys; and for serviceable muskets and pistols, the experimental failures of sanguine inventors, or the refuse of shops and foreign armories.” Read more

Civil War

A Fierce Glory: The Battle of Antietam

By Christopher Miskimon

In the late afternoon of September 17, 1862 the 7th Maine Regiment received new orders. The Battle of Antietam had raged throughout the day. Read more

Civil War

The South’s Famous Orphan Brigade

On April 15, 1861, three days after the bombardment of Fort Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 volunteer troops. Read more

Civil War

Chasing Jefferson Davis

When the end came, on April 2, 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis was sitting in his customary pew at St. Read more