April 2011 Archives

Civil War Quarterly, Editorial

Words To Bayonets, Bayonets to Bombs: How the Civil War Escalated

By Roy Morris Jr.

“Every war will astonish you,” American general Dwight D. Eisenhower said after World War II. As the leader of the Allied forces that successfully landed on D-Day and marched into Berlin 11 months later, Eisenhower obviously knew what he was talking about. Read more

Civil War Quarterly

Wilson’s Creek: Bull Run of the West

By Joshua van Dereck

At the beginning of 1861, Missouri was in turmoil. A slave state since its inception in 1820, Missouri had grown increasingly tied to urban industry. Read more

Captain David Farragut’s flagship, the Hartford, is attacked by a Confederate fire raft as the Union fleet makes its run past Forts Jackson and St. Philip on April 24, 1862. The Hartford caught fire, but prompt action by the ship’s crew saved her from destruction.

Civil War Quarterly

Conquering the Queen City

By Pedro Garcia

The victory at Manassas on July 21, 1861, had made the Rebels overconfident bordering on lethargic. As one observer noted, “It created a paralysis of enterprise that was more damaging than disaster was for the North.” Read more

Civil War Quarterly

The Decline of Stephen Douglas and the American Whig Party

By Roy Morris Jr.

It was unseasonably warm in Charleston when the Democratic National Convention opened for business at noon on April 23, 1860. Read more

Civil War Quarterly

Firing on Fort Sumter: the Start of Civil War

By Al Hemingway

Shortly after midnight on the morning of April 12, 1861, four men in a rowboat made their way across the pitch-black harbor at Charleston, South Carolina, toward Fort Sumter, an unfinished and architecturally insignificant masonry fort three miles out from the city where the harbor meets the Atlantic Ocean. Read more

Civil War Quarterly

First Manassas: The Battle of Bull Run

By Earl Echelberry

On March 4, 1861, with war clouds threatening the land, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated the 16th president of the United States. Read more

Civil War Quarterly

Photo Essay: Camping With the Union Army of the Potomac

by Kevin Hymel

The first camps assembled by the Union Army of the Potomac were tent cities, thrown together hastily as new regiments arrived from the free states. Read more

Civil War Quarterly

Battle of Belmont: Ulysses S. Grant’s First Battle

By Donald J. Roberts II

When the Civil War started in 1861, there were only two officers in the Union Army who had commanded a force in battle larger than a brigade. Read more

This 1862 lithograph shows Liverpool shipbuilding. The longest unmasted hull may be what eventually became the CSS Alabama.

Civil War Quarterly, Intelligence

Civil War Spies: James D. Bulloch

By Jim Haviland

Although Confederate commander James D. Bulloch had a well-rounded naval background, he also proved skillful as a secret agent. Read more

Panic-stricken Union troops stumble down the steep eastern slope of Ball’s Bluff and plunge into the surging Potomac River at the climax of the battle. There were too few boats to evacuate the wounded—much less the fleeing.

Civil War Quarterly

Long Shadows at Ball’s Bluff

By Cowan Brew

For all his great political skills, Abraham Lincoln was a man who made few close personal friends. He was both too private and too ambitious to court a large number of intimate acquaintances. Read more

April 2011

From Around the Network

Fallschirmjagers: The German Paratrooper Corps

Why Destroy When You Can Rebuild in a Game That Takes on All the Immense Post-war Cleanup Tasks?

Roads to Bastogne

Famous Navy Ships: The USS Pueblo & the “Pueblo Incident”