Civil War

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

Daring Union Naval Raid

By David A. Norris

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

Civil War

Union General John Pope: Cracking Island No. 10

With its whistle blaring, the Confederate gunboat Grampus steamed into Madrid Bend, where Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas come together on the Mississippi River. Read more

Civil War

Johnston Goes After Ulysses S. Grant at Shiloh

By the end of the winter campaign of 1861-1862, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had shattered the Confederate defenses in northwest Tennessee with a combined land and water attack on Forts Henry and Donelson, forcing General Albert Sidney Johnston to abandon his bastion at Nashville and retreat southward. 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