If there is any place on God’s fair earth where wickedness ’stalketh abroad in daylight’ it is in the army.” a Confederate soldier, in a letter to his family
General William Tecumseh Sherman’s declaration that “war is all hell” was never more true than when applied to the Civil War. A long, [...]

It’s hard to imagine a time before television news and radio news, not to mention news on the Internet, but during the Civil War, citizens had to rely on two major sources of news - word of mouth and newspapers.
Although word of mouth was the most expedient source of news about [...]

Early submarines and submarine warfare were very risky operations. Many early submarines were plagued with problems and it took about 100 years from launch of the first military submarine - the Turtle in 1775 - until the first successful military mission - by the Hunley on [...]

The second Battle of Franklin Tennessee in late November of 1864 took its toll on the citizens of Franklin. Many had offered their homes as hospitals for the wounded, while others had assisted with the burial of the dead. Few, however, made the sacrifices that the McGavock family of Carnton Plantation [...]

When Civil War historian and preservationist Robert Hicks released his book The Widow of the South in 2005, he fictionalized the story of Carrie McGavock, who turned acres of her family’s home, Carnton Plantation, into a cemetery for the Confederate dead after the second Battle of Franklin, Tennessee. A best-seller, [...]

After his election to the presidency, Abraham Lincoln made appointments to his cabinet that perplexed not only his advisors but the entire nation. Of the Republicans he appointed, he chose men who openly disagreed with his policies, who’d supported his opponent, and even a couple who’d run against him for the [...]

It is impossible to overstate the importance of cotton to the South during the antebellum period, or its contribution to the chain of events that resulted in the Civil War. As the major export of the South - perhaps the United States - cotton economically supported the South. As a crop [...]

The use of “colored troops” during the Civil War was a controversial practice that was debated by both the Union Army and the Confederate Army. Although African-American soldiers existed in the Confederate Army, they were few and far between, but in the Union Army, African-Americans accounted for ten percent of the [...]

Next to Longstreet and Jackson, I consider A.P. Hill the best commander with me. He fights his troops well and takes good care of them. Robert E. Lee
While Confederate General A.P Hill was a household name during the Civil War, he is little known nowadays, despite the fact that he was [...]

Although they are not widely known, the vivandieres and cantinieres who traveled with regiments during the Civil War were women who, despite the constrictions of Victorian society, chose to serve alongside men during wartime in a role that American women thus far had not played. A part of their regiment, these [...]