Early Spring 2015

Volume 5, No. 1

COVER: General Ulyses S. Grant at his Cold Harbor, Virginia, headquarters, June 1864. See story page 60. Photograph: Library of Congress

Civil War Quarterly

Stalemate at Seven Pines

By David Norris

On the last day of May 1862, heavy gunfire rumbled and thundered in the distance beyond the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. Read more

Civil War Quarterly

Mark Twain Joins the Marion Rangers

By Roy Morris, Jr.

Twenty-five-year-old Mississippi River pilot Samuel Clemens (not yet known by his famous pen name, Mark Twain) was in his home port of New Orleans in late January 1861 when word reached the city that Louisiana had seceded from the Union. Read more

Civil War Quarterly

The Last Long Ride: Wilson’s Selma Raid

By Arnold Blumberg

As reveille sounded through the Union encampments on the south bank of the Tennessee River between Eastport, Mississippi, and Chickasaw, Alabama, on March 22, 1865, sleepy Federal troopers roused themselves, built fires, and cooked breakfast. Read more

Civil War Quarterly

Siege of Port Hudson: Last Bastion on the Mississippi

By Pedro Garcia

Not long after Union Flag Officer David Farragut of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron received the surrender of New Orleans on April 29, 1862, he began pondering his next move. Read more

Civil War Quarterly

James Andrews vs. William Fuller in the Great Locomotive Chase

By Don Hollway

By early April 1862, the Civil War was already closing in on the South, but the trains still ran on time. Read more

Civil War Quarterly

The Murder of Bull Nelson

By Stuart W. Sanders

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

Civil War Quarterly

A Confederate Intelligence Coup Won the Siege of Charleston Harbor

By Stephen C. Ruder

The Union bid to capture Charleston, South Carolina, in April 1863 was set in motion seven months earlier, in the autumn of 1862. Read more

Civil War Quarterly

End Game at Appomattox

By Mike Phifer

Lieutenant Colonel Horace Porter, personal aide to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, maneuvered his mount past ammunition wagons, ambulances, stragglers, and prisoners jamming the muddy roads leading back to headquarters from Five Forks, Virginia, on the evening of April 1, 1865. Read more

Civil War Quarterly

Swan Song for the CSS Shenandoah

By Mark Simmons

The River Mersey was fog shrouded on the morning of November 6, 1865, and the city of Liverpool was scarcely visible from the deck of the CSS Shenandoah. Read more

Early Spring 2015

From Around the Network

Frederick the Great’s Recipe for Success

Operation Downfall would have been the most costly military effort in U.S. history.

Red Buttons Errata

“Do You Recognize My Voice?”: The Question That Ended Operation Valkyrie