Summer 2026

COVER: General Patrick Cleburne leads a Confederate charge on Union works at the Battle of Franklin where he was killed during the attack. Painting © Don Troiani.

The Confederate high tide at Gettysburg broke at the low stone wall known as “the Angle,” where Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York regiments beat back the heroic but doomed assault depicted in this epic painting by Peter F. Rothermel.

Civil War Quarterly

Longstreet’s Gettysburg Aftermath

By Roy Morris Jr.

Throughout history, many generals have paid a heavy price for being wrong. But few generals have ever paid a heavier price than Longstreet for being right. 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 Quarterly

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 Quarterly

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

Union troops assail the Confederate center at Champion’s Hill midway between the state capitol of Jackson, Mississippi, and the stronghold of Vicksburg. The action at Champion’s Hill proved to be the decisive action of the Vicksburg campaign.

Civil War Quarterly

Savage Encounter at Champion’s Hill

By Robert L. Durham

The barren summit of Champion’s Hill presented an ideal site for Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton’s Confederate army to deploy artillery batteries on the morning of May 16, 1863. Read more

Civil War Quarterly

The 5th U.S. Cavalry: “A Hard Duty” at Gaines Mill

By Donald McConnell & Gustav Person

The celebrated 2nd U.S. Cavalry, like its brother regiment the 1st U.S. Cavalry, was formally created by an act of Congress in March 1855. Read more

Civil War Quarterly

Battle of Antietam: Clash in the Cornfield

By Michael E. Haskew

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

Fanciful engraving of Jackson’s death shows him inside a tent, rather than a small house, near Guiney Station.

Civil War Quarterly, Soldiers

How Did Stonewall Jackson Actually Die?

By J.D. Haines

Following his greatest victory, at the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863, Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas J. Read more

Civil War Quarterly

Swirling Cavalry Fight at Trevilian Station

By Arnold Blumberg

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

First Maine Cavalry shown skirmishing with Spencer carbines at an unnamed battle in drawing by Alfred Waud.

Civil War Quarterly, Weapons

The Spencer Carbine

By Kelly Bell

Confederate soldiers bitterly called it “that damned Yankee carbine they load on Sunday, and then fire all week.” Read more

Civil War Quarterly

Clash at Bald Hill: Atlanta’s Bloodiest Day

By William E. Welsh

The guide shook uncontrollably when the gray-clad general pointed his pistol at him in the backwoods of central Georgia on the evening of July 21, 1864. Read more

Union soldiers hold the line in the woods behind Boatswain’s Creek at Gaines' Mill. When the Confederates punched through the Union line, Butterfield seized the colors of the 83rd Pennsylvania and waved them aloft to rally his troops.

Civil War Quarterly, Valor

Medal of Honor Recipient Daniel Butterfield

By William F. Floyd Jr.

The series of battles that constituted the Confederate offensive against the Union army on the eastern outskirts of Richmond, Virginia, in summer 1862 would thrust a number of Union officers into the limelight. Read more

This Currier & Ives lithograph depicts U.S. Navy Rear Admiral David D. Porter’s gunboat fleet on the Mississippi River, running the Rebel batteries at Vicksburg on April 16, 1863.

Civil War Quarterly

Pook’s Turtles: The Union’s City-Class Ironclads

By Donald J. Roberts II

With the opening of hostilities between the North and South, General Winfield Scott and President Lincoln devised the “Anaconda Plan.” Read more

Summer 2026

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Red Army Airborne Assault

Japan’s Underwater Aircraft Carriers

Michael G. Vickers’ ‘By All Means Available’